Bohème — Act II
ACT II
"...
Gustave Colline, the great philosopher; Marcel, the great painter; Rudolph, the great poet, and Schaunard, the great musician --as they were wont to style them selves--regularly frequented the Cafe Momus, where, being inseparable, they were nicknamed 'The Four Musketeers.'
"Indeed, they always went about together, played together, dined together, often without paying the bill, yet always with a beautiful harmony worthy of the Conservatoire Orchestra.
"Mademoiselle Musetta was a pretty girl of twenty.
"Very coquettish, rather ambitious, but without any pretensions to spelling.
"Oh!
those delightful suppers in the Quartier Latin!
"A perpetual alternative between a blue brougham and an omnibus;
between the Rue Breda and the Quartier Latin.
"...
Well!
what of that?
From time to time I feel the need of breathing the atmosphere of such a life as this.
My madcap existence is like a song; each of my love-episodes forms a verse of it, but Marcel is its refrain!"
ACT II IN THE LATIN QUARTER
CHRISTMAS EVE
A conflux of streets; where they meet, a square, flanked by shops of all sorts; on one side the Café Momus.
Aloof from the crowd, RUDOLPH and MIMI; COLLINE is near a rag-shop, SCHAUNARD stands outside a tinker's, buying a pipe and a horn, MARCEL is being hustled hither and thither.
A vast, motley crowd; soldiers, serving maids, boys, girls, children, students, work girls, gendarmes, etc. It is evening.
The shops are decked with tiny lamps; a huge lantern lights up the entrance to the Café Momus.
The café is so crowded that some of the customers are obliged to seat themselves outside.
HAWKERS.
(outside their shops) Come, buy my oranges!
Hot roasted chestnuts!
Trinkets and crosses!
Fine hardbake!
Excellent toffee!
Flowers for the ladies!
Try our candy!
Cream for the babies!
Fat larks and ortolans!
Look at them!
Fine salmon!
Look at our chestnuts!
Who'll buy my carrots?
THE CROWD.
CITIZENS.
What a racket!
WOMEN.
What uproar!
STUDENTS and WORK GIRLS.
Hold fast to me; come along!
A MOTHER.
(calling her children) Lisa!
Emma!
CITIZENS.
Ho!
make way there!
THE MOTHER.
Emma, don't you hear me?
STUDENTS and WORK GIRLS.
Rue Mazarin's the nearest.
WOMEN.
Let's get away, I'm choking!
CITIZENS.
See!
the café is near!
(At the Café) CITIZENS.
Come here, waiter!
Come along!
Come along!
Come here!
To me!
Some beer!
A glass!
Vanilla!
Come along!
Come along!
Some beer!
Some coffee!
Hurry up!
SCH.
(_blowing the horn_) D!
D!
D!
what a dreadful D!
(_Haggling with the tinker.
_) What's the price of the lot?
COL.
(_to the clothes dealer, who has been mending a jacket for him_) It's rather shabby, but sound and not expensive.
(_He pays, and then carefully consigns the books to the various pockets of his long coat.
_) (_MARCEL alone in the midst of the crowd, with a parcel under his arm, making eyes at the girls who jostle against him in the crowd.
_) MAR.
I feel somehow as if I fain must shout: Ho!
laughing lassies, will you play at love?
Let's play together, let's play the game of buy and sell: Who'll give a penny for my guileless heart?
(_Pushing through the crowd, _RUDOLPH_ and _MIMI_, arm in arm, approach a bonnet shop.
_) RUD.
Let's go!
MIMI.
To buy the bonnet?
RUD.
Hold tightly to my arm, love!
(_They enter the bonnet shop.
_) (SCHAUNARD _strolls about in front of the Café Momus, waiting for his friends, and, armed with his huge pipe and hunting horn, he watches the crowd curiously.
_) SCH.
Surging onward--eager, breathless-- Moves the madding crowd, As they frolic ever In their wild, insane endeavor.
COL.
(_comes up, waving an old book in triumph_) Such a rare copy!
well-nigh unique, A grammar of Runic!
SCH.
(_who arrives at that moment behind_ COLLINE, _compassionately_) Honest fellow!
MAR.
(_arriving at the Café Momus, and finding_ SCHAUNARD _and_ COLLINE)
To supper!
SCH.
and COL. Ho!
Rudolph!
MAR.
He's gone to buy a bonnet.
(MARCEL, SCHAUNARD _and_ COLLINE _try to find an empty table outside the café, but there is only one, which is occupied by townsfolk.
At these latter the three friends glare furiously, and then enter the café.
The crowd disperses among the adjacent streets.
The shops are crowded and the square becomes densely thronged with buyers who come and go.
In the café there is much animation.
_ RUDOLPH _and_ MIMI _come out of the shop.
_) RUD.
(_to_ MIMI) Come along!
my friends are waiting.
MIMI.
Do you think this rose-trimmed bonnet suits me?
RUD.
The color suits your dark complexion.
MIMI.
(_looking into the window of a bonnet shop_) O what a pretty necklace!
RUD.
I have an aunt a millionaire.
If the good God wills to take her, Then shall you have a necklace far more fine.
(_suddenly seeing_ MIMI _look round suspiciously_) What is it?
MIMI.
Are you jealous?
RUD.
The man in love is always jealous, darling.
MIMI.
Are you then in love?
RUD.
(_squeezing her arm in his_) Yes, so much in love!
Are you?
MIMI.
Yes, deeply.
(_Enter from the café,_ COLLINE, SCHAUNARD _and_ MARCEL _carrying a table.
A waiter follows with chairs.
The townsfolks seated near seem vexed at the noise which the three friends are making, for they soon get up and walk away.
_) COL.
The vulgar herd I hate, just as I did Horace.
SCH.
And I, when I am eating, I can't stand being crowded.
MAR.
(to the waiter) Smartly!
SCH.
For many!
MAR.
We want a supper of the choicest!
(_MIMI and RUDOLPH joining their friends_.
) RUD.
(_accompanied by MIMI_) Two places.
COL.
Let's have supper.
RUD.
So we have come.
(_introducing Mimi_) This is Mimi, The merry flower girl;
And now she's come to join us.
Our party is completed-- For I shall play the poet, While she's the muse incarnate.
Forth from my brain flow songs of passion, As, at her touch the pretty buds blow;
As in the soul awaketh beautiful love!
MAR.
(_ironically_) My word, what high falutin'!
COL.
_Digna est intrari.
_ SCH.
_Ingrediat si necessit.
_ COL.
I'll grant only an _accessit_!
(RUDOLPH _makes_ MIMI _sit down.
All being seated, the waiter returns with the menu_.
) COL.
(_with an air of great importance_) Some sausage!
PAR.
(_faintly in the distance_) Who'll buy some pretty toys from Parpignol?
(_Boys and girls running out from the shops and adjoining streets.
_) BOYS and GIRLS.
Parpignol!
Parpignol!
(_Enter PARPIGNOL from the Rue Dauphin, pushing a barrow festooned with foliage, flowers and paper lanterns.
_) PAR.
(_crying_) Who'll buy some pretty toys from Parpignol?
CHILDREN, (_crowding and jumping round the barrow_) Parpignol!
Parpignol!
With his pretty barrow bright with flowers!
(_admiring the toys_) I want the horn!
and I the horse!
Get away, they are mine!
I want the gun!
and I the whip!
No, the drum shall be mine!
(_At the cries of the children, the mothers try, but without success, to lead them away from PARPIGNOL, scolding loudly_.
) MOTHERS.
Ah!
wait a bit, you dirty little rascals.
What can it be that sets you all a-gaping?
Get home to your beds, get home, lazy rascals, Or you shall all have a tidy beating.
(_The children refuse to go.
One of them cries for Parpignol'S toys and his mother pulls his ear.
The mothers, relenting, buy some.
Parpignol moves down the street, followed by the children, pretending to play on their toy instruments_.
) PAR.
(_in the distance_) Who'll buy some pretty toys of Parpignol!
(_The waiter presents the menu, which the four friends carefully scrutinize in turn.
_) SCH.
Bring some venison.
MAR.
I'll have turkey.
RUD.
(_in an undertone to MIMI_) Mimi, what would you like?
MIMI.
Some custard!
SCH.
And some Rhenish!
COL.
Bring some claret, too!
SCH.
And some lobster, only shell it!
The best you've got--for a lady!
MAR.
(_disconcerted at the sight of MUSETTA; to the waiter_) And I'll have a phial of poison!
(_throwing himself on a chair_) SCH.
, COL.
and RUD.
(_turning on hearing MARCEL'S exclamation_) Oh!
Musetta!
(_the friends look pityingly at MARCEL, who turns pale_) (_The shopwomen are going away, but stop to watch the fair stranger, and are astonished to recognize in her MUSETTA; they whisper among themselves, pointing at her.
_) Look!
'tis Musetta!
She!
Musetta!
'Tis she!
Yes!
Yes!
'Tis Musetta!
Oh!
what swagger!
My!
she's gorgeous.
(_entering their shops_) STUDENTS and WORK GIRLS (_crossing the stage_) Only look!
why, there she is!
Some old stammering dotard's with her, too!
Yes, 'tis she!
Tis she!
Musetta!
(_Enter from the corner of the Rue Mazarin an extremely pretty coquettish-looking young lady.
She is followed by a pompous old gentleman, who is both fussy and over-dressed.
_) ALCINDORO DE MITONNEAUX.
(_joining _MUSETTA_, out of breath_) Just like a valet I must run here and there.
No, no, not for me!
I can stand it no more.
(MUSETTA_ without noticing_ ALCINDORO_, takes a vacant seat, outside the café.
_) How now?
Outside?
Here?
MUS.
(_without noticing his protests, he fearing to remain outside in the cold_) Sit down, Lulu!
ALC.
(_in great irritation, sits down, and turns up his coat collar_) Such a term of fond endearment Pray do not apply to me!
MUS.
Now, don't be Blue Beard, pray!
(_A waiter approaches briskly, to prepare the table and begins to serve.
_SCHAUNARD_ and _COLLINE_ furtively watch _MUSETTA_.
_MARCEL_
feigns the greatest indifference.
_RUDOLPH_ devotes all his attention to _MIMI_.
_) SCH.
(_at the sight of the old gentleman with his decorations_) He's had a pretty good dose, I reckon.
COL.
(_scrutinizing _ALCINDORO) The naughty, naughty elder!
MAR.
(_contemptuously_) With his good young Susanna.
MIMI.
(_to _RUDOLPH) And her clothes are smart, too!
RUD.
The angels can't afford them.
(_A piquet of the National Guard passes across the square; some shop-keepers go home; at the corner of the street the chestnut-seller does a thriving trade; the old clothes dealer fills her barrel with clothes, and goes away with it over her shoulder.
_) MUS.
(_disconcerted at not being noticed by her friends_) Marcel can see me, But he won't look, the villain!
And Schaunard!
They provoke me past bearing!
Ah!
could I but beat them!
If I could, I would scratch!
But I only have to back me This old pelican!
No matter!
(_calls the waiter who has gone away_) Hi!
waiter, here!
(_the waiter hurriedly approaches_) See, this plate has a horrid smell of onions!
(_dashes the plate on the ground; the waiter picks up the pieces_) ALC.
Don't, Musetta!
do be quiet!
MUS.
(_irritated, still watching MARCEL_) He won't look round!
Now I could beat him!
