PUCCINI
MANON LESCAUT
One bright summer evening towards the end of the eighteenth century, a merry group of students and idlers were gathered together in the courtyard of an inn at Amiens, near the Paris Gate; and as they there awaited the arrival of the diligence, they passed the time pleasantly in joking, drinking, singing snatches of gay songs and flirting with the pretty work-girls who were just returning from their daily labours, and who were glad enough to join in the merriment of the lively youths, whose favours they very willingly accepted.
One of these students, however, held aloof from the others; for the work-girls' loud jollity had no attraction for his sensitive, poetic nature, and, in spite of being rallied by his companions for his indifference to the girlish charms around him, he stood apart, wrapped in his own dreamy thoughts.
This fastidious youth was the Chevalier des Grieux, a young man of high birth and good breeding, who was also possessed of a fine, passionate nature and the true artistic temperament which could only be satisfied with the highest in beauty, and art, and love; and though his giddy companions, in their raillery, now declared his gloomy looks portended that he must be a victim to the darts of Cupid, his heart had never yet been touched.
Presently the diligence entered the courtyard, and amongst the passengers who alighted was a beautiful young girl, who was accompanied by her brother and an elderly fop, whose elegantly rich attire and lordly airs proclaimed him to be a person of wealth and importance.
The young girl was Manon Lescaut, a maiden of exquisite loveliness, who, in spite of her extreme youth and beauty, was even now being conducted by her brother to a convent, the life of a nun being the fate destined for her by her parents, who feared that the snares of the world might prove too much for one so fair, whom they believed could only be kept safe from temptation by taking the veil.
Manon, however, had a rich, passionate nature that craved for light, warmth, beauty and all the joys of a happy, full life; and she was sad at the thought that the cup of pleasure which she so ardently desired to drain was to be snatched from her lips ere she had scarce tasted of it.
Her brother, also, felt that it was a mistake to deprive so fair and radiant a young life of the joy that should certainly be its due; and he had already determined to disobey the instructions he had received and to prevent the incarceration of his young sister's charms. His motive, however, was far from being disinterested, since his nature was a depraved one; and in order to gratify his desire for low pleasures and his mercenary, avaricious instincts, he determined to use his sister's beauty as a decoy for securing wealth for them both.