Monday, March 31, 2008

'That makes no difference'

LICIDAS: They're putting on a play there.

MADAME DE KRIEGSCHENMAHL: Ah! My God! That's ruinous. A young man of 24 acting in a play.

MR. DE KRIEGSCHENMAHL: It's fine for a woman to act in a play; but a man must make war, always war.

LICIDAS: But father--when we are at peace?

MR. DE KRIEGSCHENMAHL: That makes no difference.

MADAME DE KRIEGSCHENMAHL: I would be very upset if you were making war. That's much too rough for my darling son. But act in a play! Truly, that makes me shudder! Never would my mother or my grand-mother have imagined such a thing.


From Madame de Staël's Signora Fantastici (Morlock translation).