The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane, Alain René le Sage [most read books .txt] 📗

six months. Men of rank are apt to be

whimsical; but for that fault, they would be too heavenly. Don

Ambrosio deserted me for a young coquette from Grenada, who had

just brought a pretty person to the Seville market, and knew how

to set off her wares to the best advantage. But I did not fret

after him more than four-and twenty hours, His place was supplied

by a young fellow of two-and-twenty, Don Lewis d’ Alcacer, with

whom few Spaniards could vie in point of face and figure.

 

You will ask me, doubtless, and it is natural to do so, why I

selected so green a sprig of nobility for my paramour, when my

own experience so strongly dissuaded from such a choice. But,

besides that Don Lewis had neither father nor mother, and was

already in possession of his fortune, you are to know that there

is no danger of disagreeable consequences attaching to any but

girls in a servile condition of life, or those unfortunate loose

fish who are game for every sportsman. Ladies of our profession

are privileged persons; we let off our charms like a rocket, and

are not answerable for the damage where they fall; so much the

worse for those families whose heirs we set in a blaze.

 

As for Alcacer and myself, we were so strongly attached to one

another, that I verily believe, love never yet did such execution

as when he took aim at us two. Our passion was of such a violent

nature, that we seemed to be under the influence of some spell.

Those who knew how well we were together, thought us the happiest

pair in the world; but we, who knew best, found ourselves the

most miserable. Though Don Lewis had as fine an outside as ever

fell to the lot of man, he was at the same time so jealous, that

there was no living for vexation at his unfounded surmises. It

was of no use, knowing his weakness and humouring it, to lay an

embargo on my looks, if ever a male creature peeped into harbour;

his suspicious temper, seldom at a loss for some crime to impute,

rendered my armed neutrality of no avail. Our most tender moments

had always a spice of wrangling. There was no standing the brunt

of it; patience could hold out no longer on either side, and we

quarrelled more peaceably than we had loved. Could you believe

that the last day of our being together was the happiest? both

equally wearied out by the perpetual recurrence of unpleasant

circumstances, we gave a loose to our transports when we embraced

for the last time. We were like two wretched captives, breathing

the fresh air of liberty after all the horrors of our prison-house.

 

Since that adventure, I have worn a breastplate against the

little archer. No more amorous nonsense for me, at least to a

troublesome excess! It is quite out of our line, to sigh and

complain like Arcadian shepherdesses. Those should never give way

to a passion in private, who hold it up to ridicule before the

public.

 

While these events were passing in my domestic establishment,

Fame had not hung her trumpet breathless on the willows; she

spread it about universally that I was an inimitable actress.

That celestial tattler, though bankrupt times out of number,

still contrives to revive her credit; the comedians of Grenada

therefore wrote to offer me an engagement in their company; and

by way of evidence that the proposal was not to be scorned, they

sent me a statement of their daily receipts and disbursements,

with their terms, which seemed to be advantageous. That being the

case, I closed, though grieved in my heart to part with Phenicia

and Dorothea, whom I loved as well as woman is capable of loving

woman. I left the first laudably employed in melting the plate of

a little haggling goldsmith, whose vanity so far got the better

of his avarice that he must needs have a theatrical heroine for

his mistress. I forgot to tell you that on my translation to the

stage, from mere whim, I changed the name of Laura to that of

Estella; and it was under the latter name that I took this

engagement at Grenada.

 

My first appearance was no less successful here than at Seville;

and I soon felt myself wafted along by the sighs of my admirers.

But resolving not to favour any except on honourable terms, I

kept a guard of modesty in my intercourse with them, which threw

dust in their eyes. Nevertheless, not to be the dupe of virtues

which pay very indifferently, and were not exactly at home in

their new mansion, I was balancing whether or not to take up with

a young fellow of mean extraction, who had a place under

government, and assumed the style of a gentleman in virtue of his

office, with a good table and handsome equipage, when I saw the

Marquis de Marialva for the first time. This Portuguese nobleman,

travelling over Spain from mere curiosity, stopped at Grenada as

he passed through it. He came to the play. I did not perform that

evening. His examination of the actresses was very particular,

and he found one to his liking. Their acquaintance commenced on

the very next day; and the definitive treaty was very nearly

concluded when I appeared upon the stage. What with some personal

graces, and no little affectation in setting them off, the

weathercock veered about all on a sudden; my Portuguese was mine

and mine only till death do us part. Yet, since the truth must be

told, I knew perfectly that my sister of the sock and buskin had

entrapped this nobleman, and spared no pains to chouse her out of

her prize; to my success you are yourself a witness. She bears me

no small grudge on that account; but the thing could not be

avoided. She ought to reflect that it is the way of all female

flesh; that the dearest friends play off the same trick upon one

another, and put a good face upon it into the bargain.

 

CH. VIII. — The reception of Gil Blas among the players at

Grenada; and another old acquaintance picked up in the green-room.

 

JUST as Laura was finishing her story, there came in an old

actress who lived in her neighbourhood, and was come to take her

to the theatre as she passed by. This venerable tutelary of the

stage was admirably fitted to play some superannuated strumpet

among the heathen goddesses in a pantomime. My sister was not

remiss in introducing her brother to that stale old harridan,

whereupon a profusion of compliments were bandied about on both

sides.

 

I left them together, telling the steward’s relict that I would

join her again at the playhouse, as soon as I had sent my baggage

to the Marquis de Marialva’s, to whose residence she directed me.

First I went to the room I had hired, whence, after having

settled with my landlady, I repaired with a porter who carried my

luggage to a large ready-furnished house, where my new master was

quartered. At the door I met his steward, who asked me if I was

not the lady Estella’s brother. I answered in the affirmative.

Then you are welcome, Signor cavalier, replied he. The Marquis de

Marialva, whose steward I have the honour to be, has commissioned

me to receive you properly. There is a room got ready for you; I

will shew you the way to it, if you please, that you may be quite

at home. He took me up to the top of the house, and thrust me

into so small a room, that a very narrow bed, a chest of drawers,

and two chairs completely filled it. This was my apartment. You

will not have much spare room, said my conductor, but as a set-off, I promise you that you shall be superbly lodged at Lisbon. I

locked up my portmanteau in the wardrobe and put the key in my

pocket, asking at the same time what was the hour of supper. The

answer was, that his lordship seldom supped at home, but allowed

each servant a monthly sum for board wages. I put several other

questions, and learnt that the Marquis’s people were a happy set

of idle fellows. After a conversation short and sweet, I left the

steward to go and look for Laura, reflecting much to my own

satisfaction on the happy omens I drew from the opening of my new

situation.

 

As soon as I got to the playhouse door, and mentioned my name as

Estella’s brother, there was free admission at once. You might

have observed the forwardness of the guards to make way for me,

just as if I had been one of the most considerable noblemen in

Grenada. All the supernumeraries, door-keepers, and receivers of

checks whom I encountered in my progress, made me their very best

bows. But what I should like best to give the reader an idea of,

is the serious reception which the merry vagrants gave me in the

green-room, where I found the whole dramatis persona ready

dressed, and on the point of drawing up the curtain. The actors

and actresses, to whom Laura introduced me, fell upon me without

mercy. The men were quite troublesome with their greetings; and

the women, not to be outdone, laid their plastered faces

alongside of mine, till they covered it with a villanous compound

of red and white. No one choosing to be the last in making me

welcome, they all paid their compliments in a breath. AEolus

himself, answering from all the points of the compass at once,

would not have been a match for them: but my sister was; for the

loan of her tongue was always at the service of a friend, and she

brought me completely out of debt.

 

But I did not get clear off with the squeezes of the principal

performers. The civilities of the scene-painters, the band, the

prompter, the candle-snuffer, and the call-boy were to be endured

with patience; all the understrappers in the theatre came to see

me run the gauntlet. One would have supposed one’s self in a

foundling hospital, and that they had none of them ever known

what sort of animals brothers and sisters were.

 

In the mean time the play began. Some gentlemen who were behind

the scenes, then ran to get seats in the front of the house; for

my part, feeling myself quite at home, I continued in

conversation with those of the actors who were waiting to go on.

Among the number there was one whom they called Melchior. The

name struck me. I looked hard at the person who answered to it,

and thought I had seen him somewhere. At last I recollected that

it was Melchior Zapata, a poor strolling player, who has been

described in the first volume of this true history, as soaking

his crusts in the pure element.

 

I immediately took him aside, and said: I am much mistaken if you

are not that Signor Melchior with whom I had the honour of

breakfasting one day by the margin of a clear fountain, between

Valladolid and Segovia. I was with a journeyman barber. We had

some provisions with us which we clubbed with yours, and all

three partook of a little rural feast, to which wit and anecdote

gave additional relish. Zapata bethought him for a minute or two,

and then answered: You tell me of a circumstance which often

since came across my mind. I had then just been trying my fortune

at Madrid, and was returning to Zamora. I recollect perfectly

that my affairs were a little out at elbows. I recollect it too,

replied I, by the token of