The Red and the Black. Стендаль
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like living with me, you can go back to the seminary after a short time. And, I can promise you the best parish in the district, because I supply firewood to the Archbishop and several of the leading citizens who need it for their factories, so....
Julien
I get the parish, because you supply the firewood? (he laughs)
Fouqué
Exactly. You’re too proud. It’s honest labor.
Julien
You’re right. I am too proud. I don’t want to be a merchant.
Fouqué
As a merchant, I’ll be able to buy and sell you in five years.
Julien
That’s true. But a tutor, a priest, has a certain position.
Fouqué
Shit. That may have been true fifty years ago, but not today. Money counts today.
Julien
Not at the highest levels.
Fouqué
Who’s talking about the highest levels?
Julien (serious)
I am.
Fouqué
You want to join the aristocracy?
Julien
With all my heart and soul.
Fouqué (whistles)
I always knew you were ambitious. But, that’s exactly why you shouldn’t be a priest.
Julien
On the contrary, that’s exactly why I should become a priest. There are only two roads for a poor man in France. They are the Army and the Clergy. I have chosen the Clergy because since Napoleon, it is clear that the most one can hope for from the Army is to be a General.
Fouqué
The most one can hope to be.... This beats all.
Julien
As you said, I am ambitious. I’ve never told anyone of my dreams before. I forbid you ever to repeat it.
Fouqué
Who would believe me? Still, a few years with me. You could build a nest egg....
Julien
Why should I throw away a half dozen years of my life? I’d be twenty- eight by then, and at that age Napoleon had already performed his greatest deeds. Who knows, if after obscurely heaping up money selling timber, my soul wouldn’t be as coarse as the merchandise.
Fouqué
Napoleon again. If you feel degraded to be a timber merchant, I’ll say no more.
Julien
I don’t mean it that way. But, surely you can see it’s not the timber from which heroes are made.
Fouqué
I suppose so.
Julien
It’s not a choice between vice and virtue, but between a prosperous, though mediocre, future and a glorious dream. Perhaps I have no real strength of character or I wouldn’t doubt my capacity to work for you for a while and re-emerge as a hero.
Fouqué
Napoleon...heroes...aristocracy? What next? And yet, you put up with Reynal’s insults.
Julien
What if I took possession of his wife right under his nose?
Fouqué
And now, a Don Juan!
Julien
I owe it to myself to become her lover.
Fouqué
Think of the risk.
Julien
One must dare. Besides, if I do make a name for myself, and someone jeers at me for having been a tutor, I can say that love drove me to it.
Fouqué
But, what makes you think you’ll succeed with her. She’s got a reputation for being pretty stuck up.
Julien
Oh, of success, there’s no doubt. (nonchalantly) I’ll have to tell her I love her.
Fouqué
But, for an inexperienced gauche person like you, to love a great lady.
Julien
I may be inexperienced and crude, but at least I won’t be weak.
Fouqué
Julien....
Julien
Yes, and lacking in character, too. I’d have made a bad soldier for Napoleon. But a little intrigue with the lady of the house will keep me amused for a while. I must tell her I lover her at once.
(He leaves, leaving Fouqué stunned.)
CURTAIN
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