Act 4 — Damaged Goods

[Les Avariés] Translated by John Pollock

Before the play begins the manager appears upon the stage and says:—

Ladies and gentlemen,

I beg leave to inform you, on behalf of the author and of the management, that the object of this play is a study of the disease of syphilis in its bearing on marriage.

It contains no scene to provoke scandal or arouse disgust, nor is there in it any obscene word; and it may be witnessed by everyone, unless we must believe that folly and ignorance are necessary conditions of female virtue.