Ridicule Page #5

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What a good idea!

Didn't you think of it?

I hear you have

a hydrographic project.

To drain the Dombes swamps, Sire.

We'll discuss it.

Speak to my secretary.

Gentlemen.

The ''Ponceludon'' gun:

the butt is wider than the mouth.

What?

Your butt is wider than your mouth.

I demand satisfaction.

Forgive me.

I had to see you again.

I'm listening.

Whatever happens...

we'll stay friends.

Why does it matter?

You made the suit watertight?

Promise to be careful.

I was unaware of your decision.

Did you come running

when you heard?

To tell you I bedded the countess

to get to the king?

For your peasants' sake,

I'd have approved.

Your logic is impregnable.

From now on, I'll be true.

Why the instruments?

I'm attending a duel.

Ponceludon...

and Colonel de Chevernoy.

If you come to any harm,

I will die.

Flee.

Go to my house at St. Bauzile.

I'll join you.

Do it for your peasants,

if not for me.

You must live for them.

Have my bags packed.

Victor will drive you.

Come back only for the king.

Madame...

If I die,

send my hat and spurs to my mother.

Give the rest to the poor...

except my new suit,

an insult to their plight.

- I'm to drive you to St. Bauzile.

- I know, I know.

Don't worry. Go home.

Will the barb-tongued lover die,

a bullet in the head?

Where's the moral in that?

Maybe I was wrong

to seek fruit from a rotten tree.

The lover has no regrets.

I am thankful to have met you.

You expended some credit

on my behalf...

and my memory has no bitterness.

No apology has been tendered.

We shall now draw lots.

Mr. de Chevernoy shoots first.

We embraced without love

and will part...

without regret.

But I venture to believe...

our passion leaves room

for friendship.

Ponceludon has killed de Chevernoy.

Is he with you?

He left with Miss de Bellegarde.

He'll pay for it!

Who comes?

Visitors, Madame.

Baroness Boisjoli,

Baron Malenval and de Milletail.

Already?

They want to see me suffer.

Tell them I'm indisposed.

Indisposed?

- Could it be smallpox?

- No, Madame.

The honor of a lady jilted by an oaf.

An oaf dear to the king.

Soon we'll pay court to him.

The countess will be avenged.

At home, when a mad dog is loose,

we sound the alarm.

You've done it!

You broke the record!

It will start leaking. Come up!

I love you, Grgoire!

His Majesty

cannot meet in private with a man...

who killed one of his officers.

Not immediately, anyway.

A gentleman defends his honor.

You did your duty.

You're too good.

Versailles won't help you.

Your land needs you-- us.

Give up? After stooping so low?

We'll work the land

and make it healthy.

I'll see the king.

It's only a matter of time.

You're not one of them.

I'm still welcome at court.

You think not?

''Lovers of the fall,

come to the mystery ball.

Welcome to the clever-witted.

Dullards will not be admitted.''

We're invited.

And if a countess invites you to bed?

Tomorrow you're my partner!

It's the red beak.

The red beak.

May I borrow him?

Do you wear my colors...

in memory of my pleasure?

Trip him now!

Who is this nimble dancer?

I dub you...

''Marquis des Antipodes.''

An honor justly earned!

Like the Antipodeans...

he dances upside down.

Marquis des Antipodes. How clever!

Worthy of Voltaire!

- We'll find out who you are.

- The costume renter knows.

Don't bother.

Children will die tomorrow...

because you ridicule me today.

You envy Voltaire's wit.

He would have wept.

He was ridiculously compassionate.

Whose turn is next?

Who gets lashed with wit so sharp

his whole family reels?

You?

You, perhaps?

Unless you get the chance

to lash your neighbor first.

Monsieur!

Take off your mask!

We all want to know who coined

''Marquis des Antipodes.''

I'm going back to my swamps...

where I belong.

I'll build my canals and dikes.

I'll dig mud with my bare hands.

Wit was the very air we breathed!

Now the bloated rhetoric of Danton...

rules in place of wit.

You'll like it here.

On a clear day...

you can see France.

Mathilde and Grgoire stayed behind.

She's helping him drain the Landes.

Or is it the Dombes?

I can't remember.

May the turmoil spare them.

What skills do you have?

I can teach children French...

science, physics, physiology--

My hat! I've lost my hat!

Better your hat than your head.

Ah, humor!

It's wonderful.

I used to keep a list of witty remarks.

I filed them by category:

Repartees, Quips, Paradoxes--

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