Chapter: SCENE V    ORGON, ELMIRE, DAMIS, TARTUFFE


  DAMIS
  Father, we've news to welcome your arrival,
  That's altogether novel, and surprising.
  You are well paid for your caressing care,
  And this fine gentleman rewards your love
  Most handsomely, with zeal that seeks no less
  Than your dishonour, as has now been proven.
  I've just surprised him making to your wife
  The shameful offer of a guilty love.
  She, somewhat over gentle and discreet,
  Insisted that the thing should be concealed;
  But I will not condone such shamelessness,
  Nor so far wrong you as to keep it secret.

  ELMIRE
  Yes, I believe a wife should never trouble
  Her husband's peace of mind with such vain gossip;
  A woman's honour does not hang on telling;
  It is enough if she defend herself;
  Or so I think; Damis, you'd not have spoken,
  If you would but have heeded my advice.




SCENE VI    ORGON, DAMIS, TARTUFFE


  ORGON
  Just Heaven! Can what I hear be credited?

  TARTUFFE
  Yes, brother, I am wicked, I am guilty,
  A miserable sinner, steeped in evil,
  The greatest criminal that ever lived.
  Each moment of my life is stained with soilures;
  And all is but a mass of crime and filth;
  Heaven, for my punishment, I see it plainly,
  Would mortify me now. Whatever wrong
  They find to charge me with, I'll not deny it
  But guard against the pride of self-defence.
  Believe their stories, arm your wrath against me,
  And drive me like a villain from your house;
  I cannot have so great a share of shame
  But what I have deserved a greater still.

  ORGON (to his son)
  You miscreant, can you dare, with such a falsehood,
  To try to stain the whiteness of his virtue?

  DAMIS
  What! The feigned meekness of this hypocrite
  Makes you discredit ...

  ORGON
  Silence, cursed plague!

  TARTUFFE
  Ah! Let him speak; you chide him wrongfully;
  You'd do far better to believe his tales.
  Why favour me so much in such a matter?
  How can you know of what I'm capable?
  And should you trust my outward semblance, brother,
  Or judge therefrom that I'm the better man?
  No, no; you let appearances deceive you;
  I'm anything but what I'm thought to be,
  Alas! and though all men believe me godly,
  The simple truth is, I'm a worthless creature.

  (To Damis)
  Yes, my dear son, say on, and call me traitor,
  Abandoned scoundrel, thief, and murderer;
  Heap on me names yet more detestable,
  And I shall not gainsay you; I've deserved them;
  I'll bear this ignominy on my knees,
  To expiate in shame the crimes I've done.

  ORGON (to Tartuffe)
  Ah, brother, 'tis too much!

  (To his son)
  You'll not relent,
  You blackguard?

  DAMIS
  What! His talk can so deceive you ...

  ORGON
  Silence, you scoundrel!

  (To Tartuffe)
  Brother, rise, I beg you.

  (To his son)
  Infamous villain!

  DAMIS
  Can he ...

  ORGON
  Silence!

  DAMIS
  What ...

  ORGON
  Another word, I'll break your every bone.

  TARTUFFE
  Brother, in God's name, don't be angry with him!
  I'd rather bear myself the bitterest torture
  Than have him get a scratch on my account.

  ORGON (to his son)
  Ungrateful monster!

  TARTUFFE
  Stop. Upon my knees
  I beg you pardon him ...

  ORGON (throwing himself on his knees too, and embracing Tartuffe)
  Alas! How can you?

  (To his son)
  Villain! Behold his goodness!

  DAMIS
  So ...

  ORGON
  Be still.

  DAMIS
  What! I ...

  ORGON
  Be still, I say. I know your motives
  For this attack. You hate him, all of you;
  Wife, children, servants, all let loose upon him,
  You have recourse to every shameful trick
  To drive this godly man out of my house;
  The more you strive to rid yourselves of him,
  The more I'll strive to make him stay with me;
  I'll have him straightway married to my daughter,
  Just to confound the pride of all of you.

  DAMIS
  What! Will you force her to accept his hand?

  ORGON
  Yes, and this very evening, to enrage you,
  Young rascal! Ah! I'll brave you all, and show you
  That I'm the master, and must be obeyed.
  Now, down upon your knees this instant, rogue,
  And take back what you said, and ask his pardon.

  DAMIS
  Who? I? Ask pardon of that cheating scoundrel ... ?

  ORGON
  Do you resist, you beggar, and insult him?
  A cudgel, here! a cudgel!

  (To Tartuffe)
  Don't restrain me.

  (To his son)
  Off with you! Leave my house this instant, sirrah,
  And never dare set foot in it again.

  DAMIS
  Yes, I will leave your house, but ...

  ORGON
  Leave it quickly.
  You reprobate, I disinherit you,
  And give you, too, my curse into the bargain.




SCENE VII    ORGON, TARTUFFE


  ORGON
  What! So insult a saintly man of God!

  TARTUFFE
  Heaven, forgive him all the pain he gives me! [4]

  [Footnote 4: Some modern editions have adopted the reading, preserved
  by tradition as that of the earliest stage version: Heaven, forgive
  him even as I forgive him! Voltaire gives still another reading:
  Heaven, forgive me even as I forgive him! Whichever was the original
  version, it appears in none of the early editions, and Moliere
  probably felt forced to change it on account of its too close
  resemblance to the Biblical phrase.]

  (To Orgon)
  Could you but know with what distress I see
  Them try to vilify me to my brother!

  ORGON
  Ah!

  TARTUFFE
  The mere thought of such ingratitude
  Makes my soul suffer torture, bitterly ...
  My horror at it ... Ah! my heart's so full
  I cannot speak ... I think I'll die of it.

  ORGON (in tears, running to the door through which he drove away his
  son)
  Scoundrel! I wish I'd never let you go,
  But slain you on the spot with my own hand.

  (To Tartuffe)
  Brother, compose yourself, and don't be angry.

  TARTUFFE
  Nay, brother, let us end these painful quarrels.
  I see what troublous times I bring upon you,
  And think 'tis needful that I leave this house.

  ORGON
  What! You can't mean it?

  TARTUFFE
  Yes, they hate me here,
  And try, I find, to make you doubt my faith.

  ORGON
  What of it? Do you find I listen to them?

  TARTUFFE
  No doubt they won't stop there. These same reports
  You now reject, may some day win a hearing.

  ORGON
  No, brother, never.

  TARTUFFE
  Ah! my friend, a woman
  May easily mislead her husband's mind.

  ORGON
  No, no.

  TARTUFFE
  So let me quickly go away
  And thus remove all cause for such attacks.

  ORGON
  No, you shall stay; my life depends upon it.

  TARTUFFE
  Then I must mortify myself. And yet,
  If you should wish ...

  ORGON
  No, never!

  TARTUFFE
  Very well, then;
  No more of that. But I shall rule my conduct
  To fit the case. Honour is delicate,
  And friendship binds me to forestall suspicion,
  Prevent all scandal, and avoid your wife.

  ORGON
  No, you shall haunt her, just to spite them all.
  'Tis my delight to set them in a rage;
  You shall be seen together at all hours
  And what is more, the better to defy them,
  I'll have no other heir but you; and straightway
  I'll go and make a deed of gift to you,
  Drawn in due form, of all my property.
  A good true friend, my son-in-law to be,
  Is more to me than son, and wife, and kindred.
  You will accept my offer, will you not?

  TARTUFFE
  Heaven's will be done in everything!

  ORGON
  Poor man!
  We'll go make haste to draw the deed aright,
  And then let envy burst itself with spite!

 Orgon arrives at the opportune moment and Damis tries to reveal that Tartuffe has been trying to seduce Elmire and is thus filled with treachery. He explains that Elmire was not going to reveal the offense because of her gentility, and Elmire responds that she sees no need of ruining her husband's peace of mind when her own sense of honor does not demand it. Then she leaves. Orgon turns in wonder to Tartuffe, who exclaims in the most religious language that he is wicked, depraved, and deserving of being driven from the house. He would not defend himself against any charge Orgon or Damis wish to level against him. Immediately, Orgon turns on Damis and reproaches him for trying to impugn a good man's name. Tartuffe suggests that Orgon should believe Damis' story because while the world takes him to be a good man, he feels that he is the most worthless and the most sinful man in this world. He kneels down and tells Orgon to heap upon him all of the abuse in the world. Orgon, instead, turns against his son, calling him a villain and an ingrate. Tartuffe, on bended knees, implores that Orgon be gentle with Damis and not harm him. The more Tartuffe begs for tolerance for Damis, the more Orgon turns against his son. Damis refuses to ask pardon of Tartuffe and immediately Orgon disinherits him and throws him out of the house. Alone with Orgon, Tartuffe offers to leave the house, but Orgon will not hear of it. Instead, he is determined to make his family jealous and to vex them by making Tartuffe his heir and son-in-law. As they leave to draw up the proper documents, Orgon reasserts his belief that Tartuffe is worth more than his wife, his children, or his relatives.

