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