Ho, Osip! (Osip enters.) Tell the servant to come. (To the Governor and Dobchinsky.) Please be seated. (To Dobchinsky.) Please take a seat, I beg of you. (GOVERNOR: Don't trouble. We can stand.) But, please, please be seated. I now see perfectly how open-hearted and generous you are. I confess I thought you had come to put me in-- (To Dobchinsky.) Do take a chair. The Governor and Dobchinsky sit down. Bobchinsky looks in at the door and listens. GOVERNOR (aside). I must be bolder. He wants us to pretend he is incognito. Very well, we will talk nonsense, too. We'll pretend we haven't the least idea who he is. (Aloud.) I was going about in the performance of my duty with Piotr Ivanovich Dobchinsky here--he's a landed proprietor here--and we came to the inn to see whether the guests are properly accommodated--because I'm not like other governors, who don't care about anything. No, apart from my duty, out of pure Christian philanthropy, I wish every mortal to be decently treated. And as if to reward me for my pains, chance has afforded me this pleasant acquaintance.

Ivan Aleksandrovich Khlestakov Monologue from The Inspector-General

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