MIMI. (to RUDOLPH)
Oh! now I see that this unhappy maiden
Adores your friend Marcel madly!

RUD.  She once was Marcel’s love;
She wantonly forsook her fate,
And rarer game she thought to capture!

MIMI.  The love that’s born of passion ends in grief;
That poor, unhappy girl! 
She moves me to tears!

RUD.  Who can revive a love that’s dead?

MAR.  Hold me back! hold me back!

COL.  Who knows what will happen now? 
Goodness me! ’tis most unpleasant! 
Anyhow, it is for me! 
She is pretty, I don’t doubt it;
Yet I would rather have
My pipe and a page of Homer!

SCH.  See the braggart in a moment will give in;
The snare for some is pleasant,
For the biter and the bit.

(to COLLINE)

If such a pretty damsel
Should but make eyes at you,
You’d forget your mouldy classics,
And run to fetch her shoe.

MUS.  Ah!  Marcel you are vanquished! 
And though your heart is breaking,
You’d never let us know, (feigning great regret)
(I must try to get rid of the old boy.)
Oh! dear!

ALC.  What now?

MUS.  How it pains me! how it pains me!

ALC.  Let’s see!

MUS.  My foot! 
Break it, tear it,
I can’t bear it,
Do, I implore you!

ALC. (bending down to untie her shoe) Gently, gently!

MUS.  Close by there is a boot-shop; hasten! quickly! 
He may have boots to please me.

ALC.  What imprudence!

MUS.  Ah! the torture! 
How these horrid tight shoes squeeze me! 
I’ll take it off!  So let it lie!

ALC.  What will people say? 
What imprudence!

SCH. and COL. 
Now the fun becomes stupendous
In truth, ’tis better than a play!

MUS.  Hasten, hasten!  Bring another pair!  Go!

ALC.  What imprudence! 
Nothing short of scandal! 
Musetta, shame!

(Hides her shoe under his coat, which he hastily buttons up; hurries off the stage.)

MAR. (greatly agitated)
Ah! golden youth! you are not dead, not dead for me,
For love revives again in me;
If at my door you came to greet me,
My heart would straight go out to meet thee!

(MUSETTA and MARCEL embrace with much fervor.)

MUS.  Marcel!

MAR.  Enchantress!

SCH.  This is the final tableau! (A waiter brings in the bill.)

RUD., COL. and SCH.  The bill!

SCH.  What a bother!

COL.  Who bade him bring it?

SCH.  Let’s see.

(Drums heard in the distance)

RUD. and COL.  Out with your coppers!

SCH.  Out with your coppers,
Colline, Rudolph, and you, Marcel.

MAR.  We’ve not a rap!

SCH.  I say!

RUD.  I’ve thirty sous, no more.

MAR., SCH. and COL.  I say! no more than that?