Scene VIII
Arden, Homeware
ARDEN: Adieu! she said. With her that word is final.
HOMEWARE: Strange! how young people blowing words like cloudsOn winds, now fair, now foul, and as they pleaseShould still attach the Fates to them.
ARDEN: She’s woundedWounded to the quick!
HOMEWARE: The quicker our success: for shortOf that, these dames, who feel for everything,Feel nothing.
ARDEN: Your intention has been kind,Dear sir, but you have ruined me.
HOMEWARE: Good-night. (Going.)
ARDEN: Yet she said, we are lost, in her surprise.
HOMEWARE: Good morning. (Returning.)
ARDEN: I suppose that I am bound(If I could see for what I should be glad!)To thank you, sir.
HOMEWARE: Look hard but give no thanks.I found my girl descending on the roadOf breakneck coquetry, and barred her way.Either she leaps the bar, or she must back.That means she marries you, or says good-bye.(Going again.)
ARDEN: Now she’s among them. (Looking at window.)
HOMEWARE: Now she sees her mind.
ARDEN: It is my destiny she now decides!
HOMEWARE: There’s now suspense on earth and round the spheres.
ARDEN: She’s mine now: mine! or I am doomed to go.
HOMEWARE: The marriage ring, or the portmanteau now!
ARDEN: Laugh as you like, air! I am not ashamed To love and own it.
HOMEWARE: So the symptoms show.Rightly, young man, and proving a good breed.To further it’s a duty to mankindAnd I have lent my push, But recollect:Old Ilion was not conquered in a day.(He enters house.)
ARDEN: Ten years! If I may win her at the end!
CURTAIN
Etext Editor’s Bookmarks:
A great oration may be a sedativeA male devotee is within an inch of a miracleAbove Nature, I tell him, or, we shall be very much belowAs in all great oratory! The key of it is the pathosBack from the altar to discover that she has chained herselfCupid clipped of wing is a destructive parasiteExcess of a merit is a capital offence in moralityHis idea of marriage is, the taking of the woman into custodyI am a discordant instrument I do not readily vibrateI like him, I like him, of course, but I want to breatheI who respect the state of marriage by refusingLove and war have been compared—Both require strategyPeace, I do pray, for the husband-haunted wifePeriod of his life a man becomes too voraciously constantPitiful conceit in menRejoicing they have in their common agreementSelf-worship, which is often self-distrustSuspects all young men and most young womenTheir idol pitched before them on the floorWere I chained, For liberty I would sell libertyWoman descending from her ideal to the gross reality of manYour devotion craves an enormous exchange
Miscellaneous Prose
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