Chapter: ACT III     SCENE I

  DAMIS, DORINE


  DAMIS
  May lightning strike me dead this very instant,
  May I be everywhere proclaimed a scoundrel,
  If any reverence or power shall stop me,
  And if I don't do straightway something desperate!

  DORINE
  I beg you, moderate this towering passion;
  Your father did but merely mention it.
  Not all things that are talked of turn to facts;
  The road is long, sometimes, from plans to acts.

  DAMIS
  No, I must end this paltry fellow's plots,
  And he shall hear from me a truth or two.

  DORINE
  So ho! Go slow now. Just you leave the fellow--
  Your father too--in your step-mother's hands.
  She has some influence with this Tartuffe,
  He makes a point of heeding all she says,
  And I suspect that he is fond of her.
  Would God 'twere true!--'Twould be the height of humour
  Now, she has sent for him, in your behalf,
  To sound him on this marriage, to find out
  What his ideas are, and to show him plainly
  What troubles he may cause, if he persists
  In giving countenance to this design.
  His man says, he's at prayers, I mustn't see him,
  But likewise says, he'll presently be down.
  So off with you, and let me wait for him.

  DAMIS
  I may be present at this interview.

  DORINE
  No, no! They must be left alone.

  DAMIS
  I won't
  So much as speak to him.

  DORINE
  Go on! We know you
  And your high tantrums. Just the way to spoil things!
  Be off.

  DAMIS
  No, I must see--I'll keep my temper.

  DORINE
  Out on you, what a plague! He's coming. Hide!

  (Damis goes and hides in the closet at the back of the stage.)

 Damis is ready to kick the crap out of Tartuffe. The servant tries to calm him down and redirect his energy into some more productive enterprise like, maybe, talking to Elmire. Elmire, it seems, has some "power" over Tartuffe - power, no doubt, of the feminine persuasion - and thus might be the key to catching the scoundrel. Dorine has also gotten word that Tartuffe is on his way downstairs. She tells Damis that she's going to intercept him. Damis insists on listening in on the conversation and manages to hide in a close just before...

