Aucun plaisir dans le monde ne vaut celui de faire son devoir d'honnête homme et de bon père

“Aucun plaisir dans le monde ne vaut celui de faire son devoir d'honnête homme et de bon père” is the concluding ethical principle of the play. Spoken by Arlequin at the moment when property, love, law, gratitude, and fatherhood are brought into a single decision, the expression defines happiness not as possession or triumph but as the inward satisfaction of acting honorably and protecting one's child.

Meaning and Dramatic Placement

The maxim appears at the very end, after Nérine announces that everything has been settled and weeps with joy. Arlequin first explains that he can no longer give Cléante to Nérine according to his earlier plans; instead, he will double the dowry intended for her and keep her in the household as the family's good friend. He then turns to Nisida and Cléante, whose marriage is now possible, and warns them that their happiness should remain connected to the duty that made it possible.

The expression therefore functions as more than a parental blessing. It interprets the entire resolution. The lovers' union is not presented as a victory won by desire alone: it follows an act of restitution, a recognition of obligation, and a father's effort to prevent his daughter from being left without means. Arlequin's final statement gives these actions their moral vocabulary.

Honesty Against Legal Possession

The maxim is prepared by the discovery that Cléante is the son of the comte de Valcourt, Arlequin's benefactor. Cléante identifies his father and says that he possesses proof. He also explains that his father's marriage had never been declared and argues that, under the law, he has no claim to the fortune. That legal uncertainty would allow Arlequin to retain the property, yet Arlequin refuses to treat legal possession as the whole measure of justice.

Arlequin presents the matter as a conflict between what the law permits and what his heart recognizes. He cannot accept being rich while the son of his benefactor is poor, so he resolves to return everything. His honesty is thus active and costly: it requires him to relinquish wealth that has shaped the family's circumstances. The maxim names the value of that surrender, locating moral worth in the refusal to profit from another person's misfortune.

Fatherhood as Responsibility and Sacrifice

Arlequin's honesty does not erase his concern for Nisida. When he reveals that the family was rich in the morning but will become poor, he immediately asks Cléante to ensure that his daughter has enough to live on, declaring that he would die of grief if she were left in indigence. His duty as a father operates alongside his duty to restore the fortune; one responsibility does not cancel the other.

Nisida herself intensifies this paternal dimension. Seeking to protect her father's old age, she offers to overcome and sacrifice her passion, asks to be separated from Cléante, and even agrees to marry the marquis d'Yrville. Arlequin rejects that proposed marriage, says that he will try to cure her of her love, and leaves open the possibility of stopping the remedies if they cause too much pain. His conduct shows that paternal authority is tempered by care rather than reduced to command.

Love Reordered Through Moral Action

Cléante's response completes the maxim's logic. Once Arlequin offers to return the fortune and asks that Nisida be provided for, Cléante accepts his inheritance, but only in order to place it at Nisida's feet. He praises Arlequin as a worthy and virtuous man who is willing to strip himself of his possessions rather than see Cléante unhappy, and he insists that refusing him Nisida would leave him unhappy for life.

The lovers' happiness consequently depends on a chain of ethical recognitions. Cléante's love has led him to disguise himself as Arlequin's secretary and enter the household; Nérine has protected that love by bringing him into the house and presenting him in disguise. Yet the ending does not reward concealment as such. It transforms the situation through confession, identification, restitution, and consent. Love becomes legitimate when it is joined to honesty and when the father's responsibility is acknowledged rather than bypassed.

Relation to the Play's Moral World

The expression gathers together several recurring pressures: poverty against wealth, affection against social calculation, written law against moral ownership, and obedience against the claims of the heart. Nérine's principle that one should yield to the heart whenever it is stronger than reason helps bring Cléante toward disclosure, but the final maxim supplies a different standard for the completed resolution. Passion initiates the action; honest duty makes its lasting happiness possible.

Its final position also gives the phrase the force of a verdict. Arlequin's return of the fortune, his request for security for Nisida, his acceptance of the lovers, and his provision for Nérine all become parts of one conception of the good life. The play ends by asserting that wealth is acceptable only when it is held justly, love is fulfilling only when it respects others, and fatherhood reaches its highest form when authority is used for another's welfare. The greatest pleasure is therefore not the possession of fortune or the satisfaction of desire, but the knowledge that one has acted as an honest man and a good father.