Chapter: SCENE III

  MADAME PERNELLE, ORGON, ELMIRE, CLEANTE, MARIANE, DAMIS, DORINE


  MADAME PERNELLE
  What's this? I hear of fearful mysteries!

  ORGON
  Strange things indeed, for my own eyes to witness;
  You see how I'm requited for my kindness,
  I zealously receive a wretched beggar,
  I lodge him, entertain him like my brother,
  Load him with benefactions every day,
  Give him my daughter, give him all my fortune:
  And he meanwhile, the villain, rascal, wretch,
  Tries with black treason to suborn my wife,
  And not content with such a foul design,
  He dares to menace me with my own favours,
  And would make use of those advantages
  Which my too foolish kindness armed him with,
  To ruin me, to take my fortune from me,
  And leave me in the state I saved him from.

  DORINE
  Poor man!

  MADAME PERNELLE
  My son, I cannot possibly
  Believe he could intend so black a deed.

  ORGON
  What?

  MADAME PERNELLE
  Worthy men are still the sport of envy.

  ORGON
  Mother, what do you mean by such a speech?

  MADAME PERNELLE
  There are strange goings-on about your house,
  And everybody knows your people hate him.

  ORGON
  What's that to do with what I tell you now?

  MADAME PERNELLE
  I always said, my son, when you were little:
  That virtue here below is hated ever;
  The envious may die, but envy never.

  ORGON
  What's that fine speech to do with present facts?

  MADAME PERNELLE
  Be sure, they've forged a hundred silly lies ...

  ORGON
  I've told you once, I saw it all myself.

  MADAME PERNELLE
  For slanderers abound in calumnies ...

  ORGON
  Mother, you'd make me damn my soul. I tell you
  I saw with my own eyes his shamelessness.

  MADAME PERNELLE
  Their tongues for spitting venom never lack,
  There's nothing here below they'll not attack.

  ORGON
  Your speech has not a single grain of sense.
  I saw it, harkee, saw it, with these eyes
  I saw--d'ye know what saw means?--must I say it
  A hundred times, and din it in your ears?

  MADAME PERNELLE
  My dear, appearances are oft deceiving,
  And seeing shouldn't always be believing.

  ORGON
  I'll go mad.

  MADAME PERNELLE
  False suspicions may delude,
  And good to evil oft is misconstrued.

  ORGON
  Must I construe as Christian charity
  The wish to kiss my wife!

  MADAME PERNELLE
  You must, at least,
  Have just foundation for accusing people,
  And wait until you see a thing for sure.

  ORGON
  The devil! How could I see any surer?
  Should I have waited till, before my eyes,
  He ... No, you'll make me say things quite improper.

  MADAME PERNELLE
  In short, 'tis known too pure a zeal inflames him;
  And so, I cannot possibly conceive
  That he should try to do what's charged against him.

  ORGON
  If you were not my mother, I should say
  Such things! ... I know not what, I'm so enraged!

  DORINE (to Orgon)
  Fortune has paid you fair, to be so doubted;
  You flouted our report, now yours is flouted.

  CLEANTE
  We're wasting time here in the merest trifling,
  Which we should rather use in taking measures
  To guard ourselves against the scoundrel's threats.

  DAMIS
  You think his impudence could go far?

  ELMIRE
  For one, I can't believe it possible;
  Why, his ingratitude would be too patent.

  CLEANTE
  Don't trust to that; he'll find abundant warrant
  To give good colour to his acts against you;
  And for less cause than this, a strong cabal
  Can make one's life a labyrinth of troubles.
  I tell you once again: armed as he is
  You never should have pushed him quite so far.

  ORGON
  True; yet what could I do? The rascal's pride
  Made me lose all control of my resentment.

  CLEANTE
  I wish with all my heart that some pretence
  Of peace could be patched up between you two

  ELMIRE
  If I had known what weapons he was armed with,
  I never should have raised such an alarm,
  And my ...

  ORGON (to Dorine, seeing Mr. Loyal come in)
  Who's coming now? Go quick, find out.
  I'm in a fine state to receive a visit!

 Madame Pernelle, Mariane, Elmire, and Dorine show up. Madame Pernelle can't believe the stuff she's been hearing. Orgon gets his mom up to speed on what's happened. He tells her how Tartuffe duped him, took his stuff, and tried to seduce his wife. Madame Pernelle still can't believe what she's hearing and she tells Orgon as much. Orgon is flabbergasted - he doesn't know how she can't see Tartuffe for what he is after hearing all that. Orgon and his mother argue for a while; she insists that Tartuffe is good, and that he, Orgon, doesn't have enough proof of his guilt. This is what some people call "getting a taste of your own medicine." Finally, Cleante tells them to cut it out. Tartuffe, they have to remember, is planning to take control of Orgon's estate. Damis and Elmire don't think that Tartuffe has the guts to follow through, but Cleante isn't so sure. He, Orgon, and Elmire are talking things through when...

