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.