the duels, the vaunts, the ribaldries are little more than playground tiffs. But when they finally reach an age to settle down and act mature, then they’ re wearied-out old men wooing us with coughs and moans. Then they recognize virtue and treat the fair sex gallantly with their broken teeth, bald pates and crumpled backs with seizing aches. Oh, Mascarille, when will you learn to be a man instead of boy? Please don’ t wait until you’ re gray and hobbling come wedding day.
ACT IV— OUTSIDE THE ESTATE OF CLUTTERBUCK, NIGHTFALL.
SCENE I— CLUTTERBUCK DISGUISED AS SGANARELLE [ OUTSIDE THE MAID’ S WINDOW ].
CLUTTERBUCK( DISGUISED AS SGANARELLE): I want to be a connoisseur of ribaldry and roguery. I aspire to be a scholar of waggery and waywardness. Yes! I’ ll be a professor of infamy and decadence! Thus I take on the raiment of Sganarelle, that paragon of learnèd vice and lechery! Let him foil my robbery, have him exploit my fractious wife, I’ ll one-up him in this wild plot and have the maid as escapade. And if she tattles contumeliously the spleen will fall on him, not me. Ah, here I go, with cloak of dark into her window, for a lark. [ CLIMBS INTO MAID’ S WINDOW.}