Jar. Soh! What will you have done with 2 him that I caught stealing your plate in the pantry? fact; I caught him in the fact.

Hon. In the fact! If so, I really think that we should pay him his wages, and turn him off.6

Jar. He shall be turned off at Tyburn, the dog; we'll hang him, if it be only to frighten the rest of the family." Hon. No, Jarvis: it's enough that we have lost what he has stolen; let us not add to it the loss of a fellow-creature. Jar. Very fine; well, here was the footman just now, to complain of the butler; he says he does most work, and ought to have most wages.

Hon. That's but just; tho' perhaps here comes the butler 10 to complain of the footman.

Jar. Ay, it's the way with them all,11 from the scullion to the privy councillor. If they have a bad master they keep quarrelling with him;12 if they have a good master, they keep quarrelling with one another. 13

ANOTHER SCENE FROM "THE GOOD-NATURED

MAN."

MR. CROAKER, MRS. CROAKER, AND HONEYWOOD.

Mrs. Croak. Speak,1 Mr. Honeywood: is there anything more foolish 2 than my husband's fright upon the occasion ? 3

;

Hon. It would not become me to decide, madam 4 but doubtless, the greatness of his terrors now, will but invite them to renew their villany another time.5

Mrs. Croak. I told you, he'd be of my opinion.

Croak. How, sir! do you maintain that I should lie down under such an injury, and show, neither? by my tears or complaints, that I have something of the spirit of a man in me? 9

1 Dites.

8

2 See page 9, note. I might have added to the note here referred to, that the case is the same after aucun, personne, quelqu'un, and after numeral adjectives, as well as after quoi, &c., when an adjective or a participle follows.

3 en cette circonstance.

4 de décider cette question; or, simply, de me prononcer.

5 plus il aura peur en cette circonstance, plus ils se sentiront encouragés (or, enhardis) à l'avenir dans leur scélératesse ;-plus, repeated, corresponds to 'the more' repeated.

Je te disais bien; or, Quand je te disais. The latter phrase, which is colloquial, exclusively, is elliptical, for n'avais-je pas raison quand, &c.

7 subir (or, souffrir) tranquillement une pareille insulte (or, un pareil outrage), au lieu de mon

trer.

8 See page 20, note 11. Yet, the prepositions à, de, and en, are the

only ones that must always be repeated before each noun or pro

noun.

Elegance, conciseness, and other considerations, often allow a writer to dispense with the repetition of the other prepositions : here, the repetition of par would be too emphatic, it might imply 'by my tears, or, if not, then by my complaints.'

9

que je porte (or, que j'ai) un cœur d'homme; or, . un cœur d'homme et non un cœur de poule (familiar).-We also use, familiarly, the expression une poule mouillée, to designate a coward, or a weak, irresolute man; and we might well translate here, simply, by que je ne suis pas une poule mouillée.Un cœur d'homme means more particularly, and strictly speaking, 'a sensitive heart;' un cœur de lion applies exclusively to great courage, but this expression would obviously be here in bad keeping with the rest of the sentence, and would, besides, imply more than is implied in the English text.

E

3

Hon. Pardon me, sir. You ought to make the loudest complaints, if you desire redress.2 The surest way to have redress, is 4 to be earnest in the pursuit of it.5

6

Croak. Ay, whose opinion is he of7 now?

Mrs. Croak. But don't you think that laughing off our fears is the best way ? 8

9

Hon. What is the best, madam, few can say; but I'll maintain 10 it to be a very wise way.

Croak. But we are talking of the best. Surely the best way is to face the enemy in the field,11 and not wait till 12 he plunders us in our very bed-chamber.

13

Hon. Why, sir, as to the best, that-that's a very wise way too. 14

Mrs. Croak. But can anything be more absurd, than to double our distresses by our apprehensions, and put it in the power of every low fellow, that can scrawl ten words of wretched spelling, 15 to torment us?

Hon. Without doubt, nothing more absurd.

Croak. How! would it not be more absurd to despise the rattle till we are bit by the snake?

16

Hon. Without doubt, perfectly absurd.
Croak. Then you are of my opinion?
Ion. Entirely.

Mrs. Croak. And you reject mine?
Hon. Heavens forbid,1 madam.

No, sure no reasoning can be more just than yours. We ought certainly to despise malice if we cannot oppose 2 it, and not make the incendiary's pen as fatal to our repose as the highwayman's pistol.

Mrs. Croak. Oh! then you think I'm quite right?
Hon. Perfectly right.

Croak. A plague of plagues, we can't be both right. I ought to be sorry, or I ought to be glad. My hat must be on my head, or my hat must be off.5

Mrs. Croak. Certainly, in two opposite opinions, if one be perfectly reasonable, the other can't be perfectly right.

8

Hon. And why may not both be right, madam : Mr. Croaker in earnestly seeking redress, and you in waiting the event with good humour? Pray let me see the letter again. I have it. This letter requires twenty guineas to be left 10 at the bar of the Talbot Inn. If it be indeed an incendiary letter, what if you and I, sir, go

there;1 and, when the writer comes to be paid his expected booty, seize him.

4

Croak. My dear friend, it's the very thing; the very thing. While I walk by the door, you shall plant yourself in ambush near the bar; burst out upon 5 the miscreant like a masked battery; extort a confession at once, and so hang him up by surprise.6

Hon. Yes; but I would not choose to exercise too much severity. It is my maxim, sir, that crimes generally punish themselves.7

8

Croak. Well, but we may upbraid him a little, I suppose? [Ironically.]

Hon. Ay, but not punish him too rigidly.

Croak. Well, well,10 leave that to my own benevolence. 11

Hon. Well, I do: 12 but remember that universal benevolence is the first law of nature. 13 [Exeunt Honeywood and Mrs. Croaker.]

16

Croak. Yes; and my universal benevolence will hang the dog,14 if he had 15 necks as a hydra. [Exit.17]

as many

1 que dites-vous (or, que vous semble) d'aller, vous et moi, monsieur, au lieu indiqué.

2 et, quand l'auteur de cette lettre se présentera pour toucher (or, recevoir-se faire payer) la somme qu'il convoite. We always use the future, in French, not the present of the indicative, as in English, after quand, or lorsque (when), dès que, or, aussitôt que (as soon as), &c., when reference is made to a time to come; and we always use, likewise, in the same case, the compound of the future, where the English use the compound of the present.

3 c'est cela même, c'est on ne peut mieux.

4 Same remark as above, note 2. -'to walk,' here, se promener, which implies going about leisurely. by,' devant, in this sense. 5 Simply, tombez sur.

6 arrachez-lui un aveu tout

d'abord (or, sur-le-champ-à l'instant même sans désemparer), et, de cette façon, pendez-le avant qu'il ait le temps de se reconnaître (or, en un tour de main-fam.).

7

portent généralement (page 19, note 5) en eux-mêmes leur châtiment.

8 A la bonne heure. 9 Soit. 10 Bon, bon ! 11 Remettez-vous en (or, Rappor tez-vous en) là-dessus à ma bonté. 12 Eh bien, c'est entendu. 13 See page 2, note 13.

14 vous pendra ce gredin-là; vous, thus used here, is a familiar and expressive way of saying simply pendra. See the LA FONTAINE, page 32, note 9, page 39, note 4, and others.

15 quand même il aurait; or, 16 têtes.

eût-il.

17 Exeunt H. and Mrs. C.,' H. et Made. C. sortent ;-Exit,' Il sort.