Signora Fantastici (A Dramatic Proverb)

by Madame de Staël

MADAME DE KRIEGSCHENMAHL:
Stupidities! What do you mean? My son, who's never left my home and
who's decided never to leave us, while Rodolphe spends his life, will
I dare say it? in the guard room. Yes, I blush when I think of it.

MR. DE KRIEGSCHENMAHL:
And where would you have him be?

MADAME DE KRIEGSCHENMAHL:
Around his mother, sir. Around his mother.

MR. DE KRIEGSCHENMAHL:
Do you imagine so? But here's Licidas.—What's wrong with him today?

MADAME DE KRIEGSCHENMAHL: His hair is all undone. He staggers as he walks. My God! Could some misfortune have happened to him?

MR. DE KRIEGSCHENMAHL:
This son, so modest, so timid: would he be drunk somewhere?

LICIDAS: (entering, reciting from the role of Hippolytus)
Friends, what say you?
You who've known my heart since my birth.
Can you ask me the sentiments of a heart so proud, so disdainful?

MADAME DE KRIEGSCHENMAHL: What's happened to you my son? How bold your looks are. You make me lower my eyes.

MR. DE KRIEGSCHENMAHL:
My son. Have you lost your good senses?

LICIDAS: Mother, Father, pardon. But you don't know how beautiful the part is that I was just rehearsing; you don't know the Signora Fantastici and her charming daughter Zepherina. How I pity you!