Signora Fantastici (A Dramatic Proverb)

by Madame de Staël

MADAME DE KRIEGSCHENMAHL:
And what's done there?

LICIDAS:
They're putting on a play there.

MADAME DE KRIEGSCHENMAHL:
Ah! My God! That's ruinous. A young man of 24 acting in a play.

MR. DE KRIEGSCHENMAHL: It's fine for a woman to act in a play; but a man must make war, always war.

LICIDAS:
But father—when we are at peace?

MR. DE KRIEGSCHENMAHL:
That makes no difference.

MADAME DE KRIEGSCHENMAHL:
I would be very upset if you were making war. That's much too rough
for my darling son. But act in a play! Truly, that makes me shudder!
Never would my mother or my grand-mother have imagined such a thing.

LICIDAS: If you were to see Signora Fantastici she would please you. She's so animated, so lively! She recites verses, she sings. Her daughter does the same thing. And as for me, I already know the responses; they've taught me to declaim the way they do.

MADAME DE KRIEGSCHENMAHL:
Ah, my God! He's ruined!

LICIDAS: I intend to follow Signora Fantastici. I intend to go to Italy with her.