"I’ll try—The Lover’s jealousy and the Husband’s shame shall not deter me—Your trick, most noble Count, is common place—A thousand blundering Boobies have had art enough to filch a Wife from the side of her sleeping, simple, unsuspecting Spouse, and if he complained, to redress his injuries with a cudgel—But to turn the tables on this Poacher, make him pay for a delicious morsel he shall never taste, infect him with fears for his own honor, to—"
Figaro says this to Susan in the first act, preparing to dupe the count. He remarks that, while many men have slept with other men's wives, he will not let the Count get away with it so easily, and will instead "make him pay for a delicious morsel he shall never taste."
"We must endeavour to work upon Susan by fear and shame, for the more obstinately she refuses the amorous offers of the count, the more effectually she will serve our purpose; disappointment and revenge will lead him to support my cause, and as he is sovereign Judge in his own Lordship, his power may make Figaro’s promise of marriage to me valid."
Marcelina says this to Bartholo in the first act. She is intent on marrying Figaro, and sees the count's interest in Susan—Figaro's betrothed—as a way to help achieve this goal. The more that Susan resists the count, Marcelina suggests, the more he will want her, and the more likely he will be to prevent her marriage to Figaro, leaving Figaro single and available for Marcelina to scoop up.
"What a pretty little Villain it is! I declare I am jealous: see if he is not handsomer than I am! Turn about—There—What’s here?—The riband!—So, so, so! Now all is out! I’m glad of it—I told my young Gentleman I would let you know his thievish tricks, Madam."
In Act 2, Susan and the countess dress Hannibal up in Susan's clothing, intending to send him in her place to meet the count that evening. When he is dressed up, Susan comments on how pretty he is, playfully suggesting that she is jealous of his good looks.
"Of a Lobster on your left Arm."
Before Figaro can even show the mark on his arm, Marcelina seems to know exactly what it is. In this moment, she realizes that she is his long-lost mother, from whom he was kidnapped by gypsies many years earlier.
"Yesterday, without a Relation in the World I could claim, to-day, behold me restored to my Parents—True it is, they are neither so rich nor so right honorable, so belaced nor betitled as my imagination had painted them—But that’s all one, they are mine"
At the beginning of Act 4, Figaro revels in the fact that he has been reunited with his parents. He says that they are neither as rich nor as honorable as his fantasies led him to imagine, but none of that matters because he has found his family.
"Here’s a sweet Daughter!—A delightful Bride!—And will be a most virtuous Wife!—A false—Deceitful—I’m happy, however, I have found her out—I will detect, expose, and abandon her!"
Figaro becomes very angry after he sees that Susan has given the count a letter. He believes that she is being unfaithful to him, even though the truth is that she is helping the countess with a prank. In this moment, overtaken with jealousy, he becomes intent on ruining both Susan and the count, exposing and humiliating them.
"Why, what a Destiny is mine—Am I for ever doom’d to be the foot-ball of Fortune?—Son of I knew not who, stol’n I knew not how, and brought up to I knew not what, lying and thieving excepted, I had the sense, tho’ young, to despise a life so base, and fled such infernal Tutors. My Genius, tho’ cramp’d, could not be totally subdued, and I spent what little time and money I could spare in Books and Study. Alas! it was but time and money thrown away. Desolate in the world, unfriended, unprotected, my poor stock of knowledge not being whip’d into me by the masculine hic hæc hoc hand of a School-master, I could not get Bread, much less Preserment.—Disheartened by the failure of all my projects, I yet had the audacity to attempt a Comedy, but as I had the still greater audacity to attack the favorite Vice of the favorite Mistress, of the favorite Footman of the favorite Minister, I could not get it licensed."
In the garden in Act 5, Figaro delivers a lengthy soliloquy about his misfortune. Here, he discusses the fact that fortune never seems to go in his direction. He details his fraught upbringing and the fact that he had hoped for great things, but has been discouraged time and time again.
"’Tis in vain to say no:—Since thou art going to be the Representative of the Countess, I am determined to give thee one kiss for thyself, and a hundred for thy beauteous Lady."
Hannibal sees the countess in the garden and thinks she is Susan. He goes to kiss her, proclaiming that he loves nothing more than to kiss. This line humorously shows the ways that Hannibal is a particularly lustful adolescent boy.
"Were you in my place, you would exclaim, No! No! No! But I grant it without a single Stipulation."
After revealing her true identity at the end of the play and humiliating the count, the countess discusses the fact that were the count in her shoes, he would be much less forgiving than she is. In this moment, she is exposing the double standard imposed upon her.
"Our Errors past, and all our Follies done, Oh! That ’twere possible you might be won To pardon Faults, and Misdemeanors smother, With the same ease we pardon One-another! So should we rest, To-night, devoid of Sorrow, And hope to meet you, joyously, To-morrow."
This is the final line of the play, uttered by Susan, who says that everything is resolved and that the characters will hope to meet the audience again, joyously, in the future.
