Racine: Phaedra

THE MISANTHROPE 281
ment, I come, by way of beginning this happy bond of
friendship, to read you a sonnet which I have lately com-
posed and to ask you if I should do well to publish it.
Alceste. Sir, I am ill qualified to decide on such a matter;
pray excuse me.
Oronte. Why?
Alceste. I have the weakness of being a little too sincere about
those things.
Oronte. Sincerity is what I ask of you ; and I should have
reason to complain if, when I come to you in order to hear
the plain truth, you frustrate my purpose by concealing
anything from me.
Alceste. If it is thus you look upon it, sir, I consent.
Oronte. Sonnet. It is a sonnet. . . . Hope. . . . It is
a lady who had given some encouragement to my love.
Hope. . . . These are not those long, pompous verses
but soft, tender, languishing little lines. [At every one
of these interruptions he looks at Alceste.
Alceste. We shall see.
Oronte. Hope. ... I do not know whether the style will
seem clear and easy to you, and whether you will be sat-
isfied with my choice of words.
Alceste. We shall see, sir.
Oronte. Besides, you must know that I was only a quarter
of an hour composing it.
Alceste. Come, sir,
Oronte [reads].—
time has nothing to do with the matter.
Hope, it is true, can ease our pain*
And rock awhile our hapless mind.
But, Phyllis, what a sorry gain
When nothing pleasant walks behind.
Puilinte. I think this beginning charming!
Alcbste [aside to Philinte]. What! you dare to find that
charming?
Oronte. Your complaisance was great indeed.
But better 'twere to clip its scope,
And not to such expense proceed,
If you could give me—only hope.
Philinte. Ah ! in what charming terms those things are said!
• The sonnet is thought to have been written by Benserade.