stratagems.
MASCARILLE: [ ASIDE:] O ho, this master stale for once shows fortitude. Ha! No doubt corruption tasked will make him more a rook. The devious ain’ t amateurs, they ply their art with craft; yet dilettantes may flounder inspirations yet conceived. [ TO CLUTTERBUCK:] Stratagems? My, my; sure, sir; what will the master plot? If I may be so undaunted I will admit a succoring of putting buried skills to sprout— a ray of knavery! Please speak your mind( but with a voice for secrecy).
CLUTTERBUCK: Just now I have repaid my note to Scapin, the town usurer. My mortgage is now thus insured and I am free to revel in retired tedium. A life of whist and tepid meals, a fireplace for merry thrills, a frigid wife to keep me still while I daydream from window sills— a potted plant thirsting for mirth. Nay! I will have rousing jests and follies of concupiscence, wanton duels of star-crossed deeds and travels to revive my pith. I lust for funds to break my chains of narrative complacency. Whoever has authored my life, I now demand a wild rewrite. I will biography myself from a footnote to epopee.
MASCARILLE: [ ASIDE:] No wonder this man feigns his pulse. And pity on the Madam, who