The World's Greatest Books [Volumes 1-15, 17-20]

Arnolphe: When I have more leisure I will tell you.

26

For the present, good-bye. I have advised you to bring about the marriage, despite all his murmuring.

Oronte: Yes; but if you have been told everything, have you not been told that you have in your house the girl in question, the daughter of the charming Angelique and of Seigneur Enrique by their secret union?

Chrysalde: By a secret marriage my sister had a daughter whose fate was hidden from all the family.

Oronte : And who was put out to nurse in the country by the father, under an assumed name, so that nothing might be discovered.

Chrysalde : About that time fate declared war against him, and forced him to leave his native land and to undergo a thousand different perils in distant lands beyond the seas, where his assiduity gained for him that which imposture and envy had robbed him of in his own country.

Oronte : Upon his return to France he immediately sought out the woman to whom he had confided the fate of his daughter. This country-woman frankly confessed that she had placed the child in your hands when she was four years old, and that she had done so because she was oppressed by extreme poverty.

Chrysalde: Full of joy and light of heart, he has brought the woman to this place; and you will soon see her here to clear up this mystery before the eyes of all. I can nearly imagine what you suffer. But fate in this matter is really kind to you. If you think it so great a happiness not to be a deceived husband, the best thing is not to marry.

Arnolphe {going off, overcome with rage) : Oh !

Oronte: Why does he rush off without saying anything ?

Horace : Ah! my father, chance has here brought about what your wisdom had premeditated. By the sweet ties of mutual love I had already engaged myself to this charming girl.

27

Enrique : As soon as I saw her I made no doubt who she was.

Chrysalde: Let us go into the house to unravel these mysteries; let us pay our friend his due for the care he has taken of Agnes, and return thanks to Heaven, which does everything for the best. [Exeunt.

Tartuffe

Persons in the Drama

Orgon

Elmire, his sc ond wife

Damis, Orgon's son (by his first wife)

Mariane, Orgon's daughter (by his first wife)

Valere, Mariane's lover

Dorine, Mariane's maid

Cleante, Orgon's brother-in-law

Tartuffe

Act I

Scene.—A room in Orgon's house at Paris. As Dorine is talking to Cleante, Orgon enters.

Orgon: How do you do, Cleante? How has everybody been getting on while I was away ?

Dorine: Madame Elmire has had a very bad headache.

Orgon : And Tartuffe ?

Dorine: He is wonderfully well. The great, fat.

"Tartuffe." produced in 1667, is acknowledged to be Moliere's masterpiece. In it, under the pretext of attacking religious hypocrisy, Moliere bitterly satirises the puritanical Jansenists and the worldly Jesuits. Had he not been strongly backed by Louis XIV., the great playwright would certainly have been persecuted, and probably put to death.

28

pious man ate two partridges and the best part of a leg of mutton for supper.

Orgon : The poor fellow!

Cleante : I can't understand what you see in the man.

Orgon : My dear brother, you ought really to become acquainted with him. You would be as charmed with him as I am. He would bring peace into your soul, and teach you to contemn all earthly things. He has detached my heart from all the vain illusions of this vale of tears. I could now see my wife and children die without the least grief.

Cleante : What kindly human feelings!

Orgon : If you had made the acquaintance of Tartufte in the same way as I did, you would have the same affection for him. Every day he came to church and knelt down close to me, and attracted the attention of the whole congregation by the ardour with which he prayed. Ah, if you had seen his sighs and his heavenly transports! Finding out how poor he was, I made him some gifts, but he always wished to return half of what I offered; and as I refused to take anything back, he used to share all that I gave him with the beggars at the church door. Ever since I brought him to live with me, all things have gone well. He is more jealous of my good name than I am myself, and he is now zealously trying to convert my wife to his own holy way of living.

Cleante: Have you gone clean mad? Can't you see that the fellow is an utter hypocrite ?

Orgon : I can see that you are an ungodly wretch! Unless you repent, my brother, and repent quickly, I shall have nothing more to do with you. You are a lost soul. {He strides out of the room, but Cleante holds him back.)

Cleante: One word, Orgon. I did not come to talk about Tartuffe, but about Valere. Why have you postponed the marriage between him and Mariane? You have given your word; are you now going to break it ?

29

Orgon (showing him out) : I can conduct my own affairs without your interference. My daughter has a soul to save, and Heaven has given me the means of saving it.

Cleante: But what shall I say to Valere? That you have gone back on your word?

Orgon (pushing his brother out of the room) : Say to

him whatever you please, but go. Mariane! Mariane!

[Cleante departs. Mariane enters.