The Project Gutenberg EBook of Pamela Giraud, by Honore de Balzac

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Title: Pamela Giraud

Author: Honore de Balzac

Release Date: May, 2005 [EBook #8079]
Posting Date: July 24, 2009

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PAMELA GIRAUD ***

Produced by John Bickers and Dagny

PAMELA GIRAUD

A PLAY IN FIVE ACTS

by Honore de Balzac

Presented for the First Time at Paris at the Theatre de la Gaite,
September 26, 1843

PERSONS OF THE PLAY

General de Verby
Dupre, a lawyer
Rousseau, a wealthy merchant
Jules Rousseau, his son
Joseph Binet
Giraud, a porter
Chief of Special Police
Antoine, servant to the Rousseaus

Pamela Giraud
Madame du Brocard, a widow; aunt of Jules Rousseau
Madame Rousseau
Madame Giraud
Justine, chambermaid to Madame Rousseau

Sheriff
Magistrate
Police Officers
Gendarmes

SCENE: Paris

TIME: During the Napoleonic plots under Louis XVIII. (1815-1824)

PAMELA GIRAUD

ACT I

SCENE FIRST

(Setting is an attic and workshop of an artificial flower-maker. It is
poorly lighted by means of a candle placed on the work-table. The
ceiling slopes abruptly at the back allowing space to conceal a man.
On the right is a door, on the left a fireplace. Pamela is discovered
at work, and Joseph Binet is seated near her.)

Pamela, Joseph Binet and later Jules Rousseau.

Pamela
Monsieur Joseph Binet!

Joseph
Mademoiselle Pamela Giraud!

Pamela
I plainly see that you wish me to hate you.

Joseph
The idea! What? And this is the beginning of our love--Hate me!

Pamela
Oh, come! Let us talk sensibly.

Joseph
You do not wish, then, that I should express how much I love you?

Pamela
Ah! I may as well tell you plainly, since you compel me to do so, that
I do not wish to become the wife of an upholsterer's apprentice.

Joseph
Is it necessary to become an emperor, or something like that, in order
to marry a flower-maker?

Pamela
No. But it is necessary to be loved, and