Madame Bovary - Penn State University

Madame Bovarypurposes that which is meant for pharmaceutical! It is as if one And the children began howling as if they already had frightfulpains in their entrails.were to carve a fowl with a scalpel; as if a magistrate—”“Now be calm,” said Madame Homais.“Or poison a patient!” continued the druggist. “Do youAnd Athalie, pulling at his coat, cried “Papa! papa!” want to see me in the prisoner’s dock with criminals, in a“No, let me alone,” went on the druggist “let me alone, court of justice? To see me dragged to the scaffold? Don’t youhang it! My word! One might as well set up for a grocer. know what care I take in managing things, although I am soThat’s it! go it! respect nothing! break, smash, let loose the thoroughly used to it? Often I am horrified myself when Ileeches, burn the mallow-paste, pickle the gherkins in the think of my responsibility; for the Government persecuteswindow jars, tear up the bandages!”us, and the absurd legislation that rules us is a veritable“I thought you had—”said Emma.Damocles’ sword over our heads.”“Presently! Do you know to what you exposed yourself? Emma no longer dreamed of asking what they wanted herDidn’t you see anything in the corner, on the left, on the third for, and the druggist went on in breathless phrases—shelf? Speak, answer, articulate something.”“That is your return for all the kindness we have shown“I—don’t—know,” stammered the young fellow. you! That is how you recompense me for the really paternal“Ah! you don’t know! Well, then, I do know! You saw a care that I lavish on you! For without me where would youbottle of blue glass, sealed with yellow wax, that contains a be? What would you be doing? Who provides you with food,white powder, on which I have even written ‘Dangerous!’ education, clothes, and all the means of figuring one day withAnd do you know what is in it? Arsenic! And you go and honour in the ranks of society? But you must pull hard at thetouch it! You take a pan that was next to it!”oar if you’re to do that, and get, as, people say, callosities“Next to it!” cried Madame Hoinais, clasping her hands. upon your hands. Fabricando fit faber, age quod agis.*“Arsenic! You might have poisoned us all.”* The worker lives by working, do what he will.212