Maintenant, monde, regarde-moi:
Ceci, c'est un bouffon; et ceci, c'est un roi.
At this triumphant moment he hears the voice of the king, singing as he walks away from the dwelling of Maguelonne.
TRIBOULET.
Mais qui donc m'a-t-il mis à sa place, le traître!
He cuts open the sack; and a flash of lightning very melodramatically enables him to recognise his daughter, who revives, to die in his arms.
This is beyond doubt what may be called "a tragic situation;" and I confess it does seem very hard-hearted to laugh at it: but the pas that divides the sublime from the ridiculous is not distinctly seen, and there is something vulgar and ludicrous, both in the position and language of the parties, which quite destroys the pathetic effect.
It must be remembered that she is dressed in the "habit d'homme" of which her father says so poetically—
Je l'ai d'avance exprès fait faire.
Observe, too, that she is still in the sack; the stage directions being, "Le bas du corps, qui est resté vêtu, est caché dans le sac."
BLANCHE.