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    The Prude
    The Prude
    The Prude
    Ebook111 pages1 hour

    The Prude

    By . Voltaire

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    About this ebook

    François-Marie Arouet wrote under the nom de plume of Voltaire, and produced works in almost every literary form, including plays, poems, novels, essays, and historical and scientific works. "This comedy is partly imitated from an English piece, called the Plain Dealer. It does not suit very well for the French stage; the manners are too rough and bold, though much less so than in the original. The English seem to take too much liberty, and the French too little."-Voltaire
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWilder Publications, Inc.
    Release dateJun 10, 2015
    ISBN9781627557566
    The Prude
    Author

    . Voltaire

    Imprisoned in the Bastille at the age of twenty-three for a criminal libel against the Regent of France, François-Marie Arouet was freed in 1718 with a new name, Voltaire, and the completed manuscript of his first play, Oedipe, which became a huge hit on the Paris stage in the same year. For the rest of his long and dangerously eventful life, this cadaverous genius shone with uninterrupted brilliance as one of the most famous men in the world. Revered, and occasionally reviled, in the royal courts of Europe, his literary outpourings and fearless campaigning against the medieval injustices of church and state in the midst of the ‘Enlightenment’ did much to trigger the French Revolution and to formulate the present notions of democracy. But above all, Voltaire was an observer of the human condition, and his masterpiece Candide stands out as an astonishing testament to his unequalled insight into the way we were and probably always will be.

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      Book preview

      The Prude - . Voltaire

      The Prude

      Voltaire

      Translation by William F. Fleming

      Wilder Publications, Inc.

      Copyright © 2014

      All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.

      Manufactured in the United States of America

      10   9   8   7   6   5   4   3   2   1

      ISBN 978-1-62755-756-6

      CONTENTS

      Dramatis Personæ

      Act I

      Act II

      Act III

      Act IV

      Act V

      The Prude

      Contents

      Dramatis Personæ

      Act I

      Act II

      Act III

      Act IV

      Act V

      Dramatis Personæ

      Mme. de Dorfise, a Widow.

      Mme. de Burlet, her Cousin.

      Collette, Chambermaid to Dorfise.

      Blandford, Captain of a Ship.

      Darmin, his Friend.

      Bartolin, a Cashier.

      Mondor, a Coxcomb.

      Adine, Niece to Darmin, and disguised like a young Turk.

      This comedy is partly imitated from an English piece, called the Plain Dealer. It does not suit very well for the French stage; the manners are too rough and bold, though much less so than in the original. The English seem to take too much liberty, and the French too little.

      ACT I.

      SCENE I.

      Marseilles.Darmin, Adine.

      Adine: [Dressed like a Turk.] O my dear uncle, what a cruel voyage! what dangers have we run! and then my dress and appearance, too: still must I conceal under this turban my sex, my name, and the secret of my foolish heart.

      Darmin: At last we are returned safe: in good truth, niece, I pity you; but, your father dying consul in Greece, both of us left, as we were after his death, without money or friends; your youth, beauty and accomplishments but so many dangerous advantages; and, to crown all our misfortunes, that wicked pasha desperately in love with you; what was to be done? you were obliged to disguise yourself, and make your escape as soon as possible.

      Adine: Alas! I have yet other dangers to encounter.

      Darmin: Dear girl, be composed, nor blush at what can’t be prevented; embarking with me in such a hurry, and forced to disguise yourself in that manner, you could not with any decency resume your sex on board a ship before a hundred sailors, who were more to be feared than your old debauched pasha; but happily for us, everything has turned out well, and we are safely arrived at Marseilles, out of the reach of amorous pashas, near your friends and relatives, amongst Frenchmen, and good sort of people.

      Adine: Blandford is certainly an honest man: but how dearly will his virtues cost me! that I should be forced to return with him!

      Darmin: Your deceased father designed you for him: he had set his heart on that match when you were but a child.

      Adine: There he was deceived.

      Darmin: Blandford, my dear, when he is better acquainted with you, will do justice to your charms: he can never be long attached to a prude, who makes it her perpetual study to deceive and impose upon him.

      Adine: They say she is handsome: he is constant in his nature, and will always love her.

      Darmin: Constant! who is so, in love, child?

      Adine: I am afraid of Dorfise.

      Darmin: She has too much intrigue about her: her prudery, they say, has a little too much gallantry in it: her heart is false, and her tongue scandalous; never fear her, my girl, deceit can last only for a time.

      Adine: Ay, but that time may be long, very long: the thought makes me miserable: Dorfise deceives him, and Dorfise has found the way to please.

      Darmin: But, after all, niece, has Blandford really got so far into your heart?

      Adine: He has, indeed; ever since that day, when the two Algerine vessels attacked us with such violence: O how I trembled for him! I think verily I was as much frightened for him as for you; I wished to be a man, indeed, that I might have defended him: don’t you remember, uncle, it was Blandford alone who saved us when our ship was on fire? good heaven! how I admired his courage, and his virtues! they are deeply engraved in my heart, and never to be effaced.

      Darmin: A grateful heart cannot but be prejudiced in favor of such distinguished virtue. I don’t so much wonder at your choice: fine eyes, a noble demeanor, a good shape, and scarce thirty years of age, these are great recommendations to his—virtue: but then his strange humor and austerity can surely never be agreeable to you.

      Adine: Why not? I am naturally serious myself, and perhaps in him may be fond even of my own faults.

      Darmin: He hates the world.

      Adine: They say he has reason.

      Darmin: His temper is too easy and complying, he relies too much on others, and is too generous; and then his moroseness makes his freedom disagreeable.

      Adine: The greatest fault he has, in my opinion, is his passion for Dorfise.

      Darmin: That’s too true; why, then, won’t you endeavor to open his eyes, disabuse him, and shine in your true character?

      Adine: How is it possible to shine in any character till we are able to please? alas! from the first day he took us both

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