ARGANTE, SCAPIN.

SCA
(aside). Here he is, turning it over in his mind.

ARG
(thinking himself alone). Such behaviour and such lack of consideration! To entangle himself in an engagement like that! Ah! rash youth.

SCA
Your servant, Sir.

ARG
Good morning, Scapin.

SCA
You are thinking of your son's conduct.

ARG
Yes, I acknowledge that it grieves me deeply.

SCA
Ah! Sir, life is full of troubles; and we should always be prepared for them. I was told, a long time ago, the saying of an ancient philosopher which I have never forgotten.

ARG
What was it?
SCA
That if the father of a family has been away from home for ever so short a time, he ought to dwell upon all the sad news that may greet him on his return. He ought to fancy his house burnt down, his money stolen, his wife dead, his son married, his daughter ruined; and be very thankful for whatever falls short of all this. In my small way of philosophy, I have ever taken this lesson to heart; and I never come home but I expect to have to bear with the anger of my masters, their scoldings, insults, kicks, blows, and horse-whipping. And I always thank my destiny for whatever I do not receive.

ARG
That's all very well; but this rash marriage is more than I can put up with, and it forces me to break off the match I had intended for my son. I have come from my solicitor's to see if we can cancel it.

SCA
Well, Sir, if you will take my advice, you will look to some other way of settling this business. You know what a law-suit means in this country, and you'll find yourself in the midst of a strange bush of thorns.

ARG
I am fully aware that you are quite right; but what else can I do?

SCA
I think I have found something that will answer much better. The sorrow that I felt for you made me rummage in my head to find some means of getting you out of trouble; for I cannot bear to see kind fathers a prey to grief without feeling sad about it, and, besides, I have at all times had the greatest regard for you.

ARG
I am much obliged to you.

SCA
Then you must know that I went to the brother of the young girl whom your son has married. He is one of those fire-eaters, one of those men all sword-thrusts, who speak of nothing but fighting, and who think no more of killing a man than of swallowing a glass of wine. I got him to speak of this marriage; I showed him how easy it would be to have it broken off, because of the violence used towards your son. I spoke to him of your prerogatives as father, and of the weight which your rights, your money, and your friends would have with justice. I managed him so that at last he lent a ready ear to the propositions I made to him of arranging the matter amicably for a sum of money. In short, he will give his consent to the marriage being cancelled, provided you pay him well.

ARG
And how much did he ask?

SCA
Oh! at first things utterly out of the question.
ARG
But what?

SCA
Things utterly extravagant.

ARG
But what?

SCA
He spoke of no less than five or six hundred pistoles.

ARG
Five or six hundred agues to choke him withal. Does he think me a fool?

SCA
Just what I told him. I laughed his proposal to scorn, and made him understand that you were not a man to be duped in that fashion, and of whom anyone can ask five or six hundred pistoles! However, after much talking, this is what we decided upon. "The time is now come," he said, "when I must go and rejoin the army. I am buying my equipments, and the want of money I am in forces me to listen to what you propose. I must have a horse, and I cannot obtain one at all fit for the service under sixty pistoles."

ARG
Well, yes; I am willing to give sixty pistoles.

SCA
He must have the harness and pistols, and that will cost very nearly twenty pistoles more.

ARG
Twenty and sixty make eighty.
SCA
Exactly.

ARG
It's a great deal; still, I consent to that.

SCA
He must also have a horse for his servant, which, we may expect, will cost at least thirty pistoles.

ARG
How, the deuce! Let him go to Jericho. He shall have nothing at all.

SCA
Sir!

ARG
No; he's an insolent fellow.

SCA
Would you have his servant walk?

ARG
Let him get along as he pleases, and the master too.

SCA
Now, Sir, really don't go and hesitate for so little. Don't have recourse to law, I beg of you, but rather give all that is asked of you, and save yourself from the clutches of justice.

ARG
Well, well! I will bring myself to give these thirty pistoles also.

SCA
"I must also have," he said, "a mule to carry...."

ARG
Let him go to the devil with his mule! This is asking too much. We will go before the judges.

SCA
I beg of you, Sir!

ARG
No, I will not give in.

SCA
Sir, only one small mule.

ARG
No; not even an ass.

SCA
Consider....

ARG
No, I tell you; I prefer going to law.

SCA
Ah! Sir, what are you talking about, and what a resolution you are going to take. Just cast a glance on the ins and outs of justice, look at the number of appeals, of stages of jurisdiction; how many embarrassing procedures; how many ravening wolves through whose claws you will have to pass; serjeants, solicitors, counsel, registrars, substitutes, recorders, judges and their clerks. There is not one of these who, for the merest trifle, couldn't knock over the best case in the world. A serjeant will issue false writs without your knowing anything of it. Your solicitor will act in concert with your adversary, and sell you for ready money. Your counsel, bribed in the same way, will be nowhere to be found when your case comes on, or else will bring forward arguments which are the merest shooting in the air, and will never come to the point. The registrar will issue writs and decrees against you for contumacy. The recorder's clerk will make away with some of your papers, or the instructing officer himself will not say what he has seen, and when, by dint of the wariest possible precautions, you have escaped all these traps, you will be amazed that your judges have been set against you either by bigots or by the women they love. Ah! Sir, save yourself from such a hell, if you can. 'Tis damnation in this world to have to go to law; and the mere thought of a lawsuit is quite enough to drive me to the other end of the world.

ARG
How much does he want for the mule?

SCA
For the mule, for his horse and that of his servant, for the harness and pistols, and to pay a little something he owes at the hotel, he asks altogether two hundred pistoles, Sir.

ARG
Two hundred pistoles?

SCA
Yes.

ARG
(walking about angrily). No, no; we will go to law.

SCA
Recollect what you are doing.

ARG
I shall go to law.

SCA
Don't go and expose yourself to....

ARG
I will go to law.

SCA
But to go to law you need money. You must have money for the summons, you must have money for the rolls, for prosecution, attorney's introduction, solicitor's advice, evidence, and his days in court. You must have money for the consultations and pleadings of the counsel, for the right of withdrawing the briefs, and for engrossed copies of the documents. You must have money for the reports of the substitutes, for the court fees {1} at the conclusion, for registrar's enrolment, drawing up of deeds, sentences, decrees, rolls, signings, and clerks' despatches; letting alone all the presents you will have to make. Give this money to the man, and there you are well out of the whole thing.

{1} Épices, "spices," in ancient times, equalled sweetmeats, and were given to the judge by the side which gained the suit, as a mark of gratitude. These épices had long been changed into a compulsory payment of money when Molière wrote. In Racine's Plaideurs, act ii. scene vii., Petit Jean takes literally the demand of the judge for épices, and fetches the pepper-box to satisfy him.

ARG
Two hundred pistoles!

SCA
Yes, and you will save by it. I have made a small calculation in my head of all that justice costs, and I find that by giving two hundred pistoles to your man you will have a large margin left—say, at least a hundred and fifty pistoles—without taking into consideration the cares, troubles, and anxieties, which you will spare yourself. For were it only to avoid being before everybody the butt of some facetious counsel, I had rather give three hundred pistoles than go to law. {Footnote: What would Molière have said if he had been living now!}

ARG
I don't care for that, and I challenge all the lawyers to say anything against me.

SCA
You will do as you please, but in your place I would avoid a lawsuit.

ARG
I will never give two hundred pistoles.

SCA
Ah! here is our man.