lodge one's foe._

PHIL. _Luxuriously_ and _magnificently_.

TRISS. Drive forth that foe, whate'er men say, From out your
chamber, decked so gay, Where, ingrate vile, with murderous knife,
Bold she assails your lovely life.

BEL. Ah! gently. Allow me to breathe, I beseech you.

ARM.Give us time to admire, I beg.

PHIL. One feels, at hearing these verses, an indescribable
something which goes through one's inmost soul, and makes one feel
quite faint.

ARM. Drive forth that foe, whate'er men say, From out your chamber,
decked so gay--

How prettily _chamber, decked so gay_, is said here! And with what
wit the metaphor is introduced!

PHIL. Drive forth that foe, whate'er men say.

Ah! in what an admirable taste that _whate'er men say _is! To my
mind, the passage is invaluable.

ARM. My heart is also in love with _whate'er men say_.

BEL. I am of your opinion: _whate'er men say_ is a happy
expression.

ARM. I wish I had written it.

BEL. It is worth a whole poem.

PHIL. But do you, like me, thoroughly understand the wit of it?

ARM. _and_ BEL. Oh! Oh!

PHIL. Drive forth that foe, whate'er men say. Although another
should take the fever's part, pay no attention; laugh at the
gossips.

Drive forth that foe, whate'er men say,
Whate'er men say, whate'er men say.

This _whate'er men say_, says a great deal more than it seems. I do not
know if every one is like me, but I discover in it a hundred meanings.

BEL. It is true that it says more than its size seems to imply.

PHIL. (_to_ TRISSOTIN). But when you wrote this charming _whate'er
men say_, did you yourself understand all its energy? Did you
realize all that it tells us? And did you then think that you were
writing something so witty?

TRISS. Ah! ah!

ARM. I have likewise the _ingrate_ in my head,--this ungrateful,
unjust, uncivil fever that ill-treats people who entertain her.

PHIL. In short, both the stanzas are admirable. Let us come quickly
to the triplets, I pray.

ARM. Ah! once more, _whate'er men say_, I beg.

TRISS. Drive forth that foe, whate'er men say,--

PHIL., ARM., _and_ BEL. _Whate'er men say!_

TRISS. From out your chamber, decked so gay,--

PHIL., ARM., _and_ BEL. _Chamber decked so gay!_

TRISS. Wher