really think if you took it into your heads to try to make me cry Long live Comedy, I would cry Down with Molière! You may think whatever you like: there's no law against stupidity, but then there's no law against those who still have a little common sense. I like the Queen, and I am not afraid to say so.
A Student. Of course: they both have the Comte d'Artois for a lover!
Two Workingmen. What a lie!—She can certainly talk!
Desmoulins. Citizens, we cannot ask a queen to speak against royalty. Here is the true queen! The others are make-believe royalty, whose only function is to bear dauphins. Once the little one is born, they have nothing else to do. They live at our expense, and they are costly luxuries. It would be best to send this Austrian fowl back to her coop, from which she was brought at great cost—as if we lacked women in France to bear children! But the queens of the theater! Ah, they are intended to give happiness to the people. Every hour of their life is devoted to our service. Every bit of them is devoted to our pleasure; they belong to us, they are our national property. By Venus of the Beautiful Cheeks, let us defend her, and all shout: Long live the Queen, the true Queen, La Contat! [Laughter and applause.]
The Crowd. Long live Queen Contat!
La Contat. Thank you. [To Desmoulins.] Give me your arm; you're nicer than the others.—Have you feasted your eyes enough? Very well, then
