Racine: Phaedra

THE MISANTHROPE 315
and men are made thus! It is to such actions that glory
leads them ! This is the good faith, virtuous zeal, justice,
and honor we find among them ! No, it is too much to endure
all the sorrows their malice can devise against us; I
will escape out of this wood, out of this cut-throat place
and since men behave like wolves to each other, the traitors
shall never have me among them so long as I am alive.
Philinte. I still think that you are rather hasty in your decision,
and the harm is not so great as you make out. What
your adversary dares to impute to you has not been credited
sufficiently for you to be arrested. His false report is fall-
ing of itself ; and it is an action which well may turn against
him.
Alceste. Turn against him ! He
does not fear the odium at-
tached to such practices ; he has a license to be an open vil-
lain, and far from injuring his position, the event will only
put him to-morrow on a more solid footing than ever.
Philinte. Anyhow, it 13 evident that little attention has been
paid to the report his malice spread against you ;
you have
nothing to fear on that head, and as for your lawsuit, of
which you have a right to complain, it will be easy for you
to appeal against the judgment.
Alceste. No, I will abide by it. However great the injury
that such a verdict may do me, I will take good care it is not
reversed. We see too plainly how right is abused, and I
wish it to go down to posterity as a most striking sign of
the times, and as an unmistakable proof of the wickedness
of the men of our days. It is true that it may cost me some
twenty thousand francs ; but for twenty thousand francs I
shall have the right to protest against the iniquity of man-
kind, and to nourish for it an undying hatred.
Philinte, But in short . . .
Alceste. But in short, your trouble is thrown away. What can
you say to me on that head? Will you have the boldness
to excuse before me the atrocious shame of all that is happening?
Philinte. No, I agree to all you please ; everything goes on by
intrigue and self-interest. It is cabal and cunning which
carry the day, and men should act differently. But is their
want of equity a sufficient reason for you to withdraw from