Languages & literature > Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane > Volume 4

1*0 THE ADVENTURES
“ terrupted your difcourfe : pray, refume it, or I'
“ will be gone.” “ Theft gentlemen (laid Fabricio);.
“ were talking of the Iphigenia of Euripides. The i.
“ batchelor Melchior de Villegas, who is a critic of, i.
“ the firft order, was aiking of Signioc Don Jacinto -.
“ de Romarata, what was the moft interefting cir-, ^
M cumflance of that tragedy ?” “ Yes, (faid Don Ja- ~
“ ciuto) and I anfwered, that it was the danger of ,i
“ Iphigenia.” “ And I (faid the batchelor) replied i,
“ (and I am ready to demonftrate my aflertionj, | j
w that the danger is not the moft intercfting part of ^
u- the fubjetft.” “ What is, then ?” (cried the old
licentiate Gabriel de Leon.) “ ’Tis the wind (faid 1
“ the batchelor ”)
The whole company burft out into laughing at
this repartee, which 1 could not believe ftrious ; I
thought that Melchior pronounced it with a view of |
enlivening the converfation; but I did not know I
this virtuofo, who was a man that did not at all un-Tj
derftand raillery. “ Laugh as much as you. pleaft, 1
** gentlemen ; (replied he dryly) I maintain that the
** wind alone ought to intereft, furprife, and move
“ the fpeiftator: figure to yourftlves a numerous
“ army aftembled to go and.befiege Troy : conceive !
** all the impatience of the-chiefs and foldiers to eie* |
“ cute that enterprise, that they may fpeedily re-
“ turn into Greece, where they have left what is i
“ moft dear to them, their wives, children, and
** houfthold-goods : in the mean time, a curftd con- |
“ trary wind detains thorn at Aulis, ftems to nail j
“ them to the port, and if it does not change, they
“ cannot go and befiege the city of Priam : it is the
M wind, therefore, which conftitutes the raoft inte-
“ refting point of that tragedy. I fliare with the |