Racine: Phaedra

29a MOLIERE
Alceste. No, upon my soul, no! It is you who deserve the
blame ; your fawning smiles draw from her these slanderous
descriptions; her satirical turn of mind is con-
stantly encouraged by the criminal incense of your flattery.
She would find raillery less to her taste if she knew that
it is not approved of. Thus it is that flatterers are always
responsible for the vices spread among mankind.
Philinte. But why show such deep interest for those people?
You would be the first to condemn in them the defects we
find fault with.
Celimene. But must not our friend always show opposition?
You surely would not have him think like everybody else,
and must he not display everywhere the spirit of contra-
diction with which Heaven has blessed him ? What others
think never satisfies him ; he is always of the opposite
opinion, and he would fear to pass for a vulgar-minded
man if he were observed to agree with anyone. The privi-
lege of contradicting has such charms for him, that he
is often in arms against himself; and to hear his own
thoughts expressed by others, is sufficient to make him
oppose them.
Alceste. The laughers are on your side, madam; that is
everything, and you may freely indulge in your satirical
mood against me.
Philinte. But you know also that you always fire up against
anything that is said, and that through your avowed irri-
tability of disposition you cannot bear to hear people either
praised or blamed.
Alceste. 'Sdeath! It is because men are never in the right,
and that anger against them is always reasonable; for
in everything they prove themselves to be either unblush-
ing flatterers or rash censors.
Celimene. But . . .
Alceste. No, madam, no ; though I were to die for it, I must
speak out. You have amusements which I cannot tol-
erate, and it is wrong of everyone here to encourage in
you the
blame.
great tendency you have to the defects which I
Clitandre. As for myself, I do not know, but I openly declare
that hitherto I have believed this lady to be faultless.