ASC. No, no, Frosine. If you and your invaluable counsels do not guide
me amidst all these breakers, I abandon myself wholly to despair.
FROS. Do you know what I am thinking about? I must go and see the....
But here comes Eraste; he may interrupt us. We will talk this matter
over as we go along. Come, let us retire.
[Footnote: Frosine means by "the..." the woman who knows the secret of
all this intrigue, and who is supposed to be the mother of Ascanio. This
is explained later on in Act V., Scene 4]
SCENE II.--ERASTE, GROS-RENE.
ERAS. You have failed again?
GR.-RE. Never was an ambassador less listened to. No sooner had I told
her that you desired to have a moment's conversation with her, than,
drawing herself up, she answered haughtily, "Go, go, I value your master
just as much as I do you; tell him he may go about his business;" and
after this fine speech she turned her head away from me and walked off.
Marinette, too, imitating her mistress, said, with a disdainful sneer,
"Begone, you low fellow," and then left me; so that your fortune and mine
are very much alike.
[Footnote: In the original it is _beau valet de carreau_. Littre,
in his "Dictionaire de la langue francaise," says that this word which
means literally "knave of diamonds," was considered an insult, because in
the old packs of cards of the beginning of the seventeenth century, that
knave was called _valet de chasse_, hunting servant, a rather
menial situation; while the knave of spades, _valet de pique_, was
called, nobleman's servant; the knave of hearts, valet de coeur, valet
de cour, court servant; and the knave of clubs, _valet de trefle,
valet de pied_, foot servant.
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