Alceste Timeline and Summary

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• Things are not all right in Paris-land, and Alceste is in an argument with his BFF, Philinte, over the hypocrisy of humanity.
• Oh, and also, Alceste is in love with a less-than-reputable lady named Célimène. And he has a lawsuit against him. And Éliante is in love with Alceste, but Philinte is in love with her. Or at least, in like.
• So far, so good.
• Alceste meets Oronte and tells him that (1) he doesn't want to be friends, and (2) Oronte should stop writing poetry 'cause he's pretty bad at it.
• Oronte doesn't take this so well. Actually, he takes it so poorly that he gets the po-lice involved.
• Alceste tries to convince Célimène to choose either him or her friends.
• She tells him to stop being so silly.
• While Alceste is telling his love how she and her friends should stop gossiping about everyone, he gets hauled down to the courthouse to apologize to Oronte.
• Apparently people at court don't have great vocabularies, so Alceste is set free.
• On his way back to Célimène's, he ends up talking to Arsinoé, who announces that Célimène has been two-timing him.
• Emo-Alceste barges in on a little tête-à-tête that Philinte and Éliante are having and asks Éliante to go out with him.
• Éliante is a smart lady and can tell a rebound when it's right in front of her face, so she refuses and tells him to talk to Célimène.
• Alceste just can't stay mad at Célimène, so he nags her some more until he's called away again for his lawsuit.
• He loses, a surprise to no one, and heads back to Célimène's place to try one more time to get her to prove her love.
• At the same time, Clitandre and Acaste come and prove that she doesn't like Alceste or any of the other guys.
• Alceste apparently has drunk a really strong love potion, because he still thinks she is the best thing since sliced bread, which hadn't even been invented yet so you know he means it.
• Or at least he does until Célimène refuses to marry him and become a hermit. For some reason, that was the last straw.
• Alceste decides to run away from life amongst men. And women. You get the feeling he means especially women.