MASC. I will sing you the tune I made to it.
MASC. People of rank know everything without ever having learned anything.
MAD. His lordship is quite in the right, my dear.
MASC. Listen if you like the tune: _hem, hem, la, la._ The inclemency of the season has greatly injured the delicacy of my voice but no matter, it is in a free and easy way. (_He sings_). _Oh! Oh! quite without heed was I_, etc.
CAT. What a passion there breathes in this music. It is enough to make one die away with delight!
MASC. Do you not think that the air perfectly well expresses the sentiment, _stop thief, stop thief?_ And then as if some one cried out very loud, _stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop thief!_ Then all at once like a person out of breath, _Stop thief!_
MAD. This is to understand the perfection of things, the grand perfection, the perfection of perfections. I declare it is altogether a wonderful performance. I am quite enchanted with the air and the words.
CAT. I never yet met with anything so excellent.
MASC. All that I do comes naturally to me; it is without study.
MAD. Nature has treated you like a very fond mother; you are her darling child.
MASC. How do you pass away the time, ladies?
MAD. Until now we have lived in a terrible dearth of amusements.
MASC. I am at your service to attend you to the play, one of those days, if you will permit me. Indeed, a new comedy is to be acted which I should be very glad we might see together.
MASC. But I beg of you to applaud it well, when we shall be there; for I have promised to give a helping hand to the piece. The author called upon me this very morning to beg me so to do. It is the custom for authors to come and read their new plays to people of rank, that they may induce us to approve of them and give them a reputation. I leave you to imagine if, when we say anything, the pit dares contradict us. As for me, I am very punctual in these things, and when I have made a promise to a poet, I always cry out "Bravo" before the candles are lighted.
MAD. Do not say another word; Paris is an admirable place. A hundred things happen every day which people in the country, however clever they may be, have no idea of.
CAT. Since you have told us, we shall consider it our duty to cry up lustily every word that is said.