THE MISER
A monologue from the
play by Molière
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NOTE: This monologue is reprinted
from The Dramatic Works of Molière, Vol. III. Ed.
Charles Heron Wall. London: George Bell & Sons, 1891. |
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FROSINE: Who needs a dowry?! Why, this girl will bring
you more than twelve thousand francs a year! To begin with, she
has been nursed and brought up with the strictest notions of
frugality. She is a girl accustomed to live upon salad, milk,
cheese, and apples, and who consequently will require neither
a well served up table, nor any rich broth, nor your everlasting
peeled barley; none, in short, of all those delicacies that another
woman would want. This is no small matter, and may well amount
to three thousand francs yearly. Besides this, she only cares
for simplicity and neatness; she will have none of those splendid
dresses and rich jewels, none of that sumptuous furniture in
which girls like her indulge so extravagantly; and this item
is worth more than four thousand francs per annum. Lastly, she
has the deepest aversion to gambling; and this is not very common
nowadays among women. Why, I know of one in our neighborhood
who lost at least twenty thousand francs this year. But let us
reckon only a fourth of that sum. Five thousand francs a year
at play and four thousand in clothes and jewels make nine thousand;
and three thousand francs which we count for food, does it not
make you twelve thousand francs?
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