SCENE X.—ISABELLA, VALÈRE, LÉONOR, ARISTE, SGANARELLE, MAGISTRATE, NOTARY, LISETTE, ERGASTE.
ISA. Sister, I ask you generously to pardon me, if, by the freedom I have taken, I have brought some scandal upon your name. The urgent pressure of a great necessity, suggested to me, some time ago, this disgraceful stratagem. Your example condemns such an escapade; but fortune treated us differently. (To Sganarelle). As for you, sir, I will not excuse myself to you. I serve you much more than I wrong you. Heaven did not design us for one another. As I found I was unworthy of your love, and undeserving of a heart like yours, I vastly preferred to see myself in another's hands.
VAL. (To Sganarelle). For me, I esteem it my greatest glory and happiness to receive her, sir, from your hands.
AR. Brother, you must take this matter quietly. Your own conduct is the cause of this. I can see it is your unhappy lot that no one will pity you, though they know you have been made a fool of.
LIS. Upon my word, I am glad of this. This reward of his mistrust is a striking retribution.
LEO. I do not know whether the trick ought to be commended; but I am quite sure that I, at least, cannot blame it.
ERG. His star condemns him to be a cuckold; it is lucky for him he is only a retrospective one.
SGAN. (Recovering from the stupor into which he had been plunged). No, I cannot get the better of my astonishment. This faithlessness perplexes my understanding. I think that Satan in person could be no worse than such a jade! I could have sworn it was not in her. Unhappy he who trusts a woman after this! The best of them are always full of mischief; they were made to damn the whole world. I renounce the treacherous sex for ever, and give them to the devil with all my heart!
ERG. Well said.
AR. Let us all go to my house. Come, M. Valère, tomorrow we will try to appease his wrath.
LIS. (To the audience). As for you, if you know any churlish husbands, by all means send them to school with us.
[Footnote: This is the last time Molière directly addressed the audience at the end of one of his plays; in Sganarelle he did it for the first time.]