Racine: Phaedra

274
MOLIERE
as to belie one's own feelings; and if I had been unfort-
unate enough to have done such a thing, 1 would, out of
sheer grief, go at once and hang myself.
Philinte. I really do not see that this is a case of hanging,
and I most humbly beg you will allow me to mitigate a
little the severity of your sentence, so that I need not go
and hang myself for this matter, if you please.
Alceste. How unseemly this jesting of yours!
Philinte. But, seriously, what would you have me do?
Alceste. I would have you be sincere; and, like a man of
honor, never speak a word that does not come from the
heart.
Philinte. When a man comes joyfully to embrace you, it is
but right to pay him back in his own coin, respond, as
well as you can, to his ardor, and return him offer for offer
and promise for promise.
Alceste. No, I cannot endure this contemptible custom af-
fected by most of you men of fashion, and there is nothing
I hate so much as the grimaces of all those great protestation-mongers,
those obsequious dealers of unmeaning
embraces, those obliging utterers of empty words, who
vie with each other in civilities, and treat in the same manner
the honorable man and the vain fool. What advantage
do you find in being the object of the endearments
of a man who makes vows to you of friendship, faith,
zeal, esteem, tenderness : who crushes you with promises
who bestows on you a brilliant encomium ; when he rushes
to do the same to the first snob he meets? No, no one
who respects himself would care for esteem so debased
and even that which we most prize has little value if it
includes the whole human race. Friendship should be
based on esteem, but to esteem everybody is to esteem
nobody. Since you yield to these vices of the age, 'sdeath
I will have nothing to do with you. I utterly reject the con-
descending affability which makes no distinctions of merit.
I wish to be loved for myself; and, to cut the matter
short, the friend of all mankind is no friend of mine.
Philinte. But while we are in the world, we must pay a few
outward civilities which custom demands.
Alceste. No, I tell you; we should pitilessly condemn this