Such-a-one wrote a couplet of six lines
yesterday evening to Miss Such-a-one, to which she returned him an
answer this morning at eight o'clock; such an author is engaged on such
a subject; this writer is busy with the third volume of his novel; that
one is putting his works to press. Those things procure you
consideration in every society, and if people are ignorant of them, I
would not give one pinch of snuff for all the wit they may have.
CAT. Indeed, I think it the height of ridicule for any one who possesses
the slightest claim to be called clever not to know even the smallest
couplet that is made every day; as for me, I should be very much ashamed
if any one should ask me my opinion about something new, and I had not
seen it.
MASC. It is really a shame not to know from the very first all that is
going on; but do not give yourself any farther trouble, I will establish
an academy of wits at your house, and I give you my word that not a
single line of poetry shall be written in Paris, but what you shall be
able to say by heart before anybody else. As for me, such as you see me,
I amuse myself in that way when I am in the humour, and you may find
handed about in the fashionable assemblies
[Footnote: In the original French the word is _ruelle_, which means
literally "a small street," "a lane," hence any narrow passage, hence
the narrow opening between the wall and the bed.
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