Tartuffe Or the Hypocrite Part 2

(To Cleante) Just wait a bit, please, brother-in-law.

Let me allay my first anxiety By asking news about the family.

(To Dorine) Has everything gone well these last two days?

What's happening? And how is everybody?

DORINE Madam had fever, and a splitting headache Day before yesterday, all day and evening.

ORGON And how about Tartuffe?

DORINE Tartuffe? He's well; He's mighty well; stout, fat, fair, rosy-lipped.

ORGON Poor man!

DORINE At evening she had nausea And couldn't touch a single thing for supper, Her headache still was so severe.

ORGON And how About Tartuffe?

DORINE He supped alone, before her, And unctuously ate up two partridges, As well as half a leg o' mutton, deviled.

ORGON Poor man!

DORINE All night she couldn't get a wink Of sleep, the fever racked her so; and we Had to sit up with her till daylight.

ORGON How About Tartuffe?

DORINE Gently inclined to slumber, He left the table, went into his room, Got himself straight into a good warm bed, And slept quite undisturbed until next morning.

ORGON Poor man!

DORINE At last she let us all persuade her, And got up courage to be bled; and then She was relieved at once.

ORGON And how about Tartuffe?

DORINE He plucked up courage properly, Bravely entrenched his soul against all evils, And to replace the blood that she had lost, He drank at breakfast four huge draughts of wine.

ORGON Poor man!

DORINE So now they both are doing well; And I'll go straightway and inform my mistress How pleased you are at her recovery.

SCENE VI

ORGON, CLEANTE

CLEANTE Brother, she ridicules you to your face; And I, though I don't want to make you angry, Must tell you candidly that she's quite right.

Was such infatuation ever heard of?

And can a man to-day have charms to make you Forget all else, relieve his poverty, Give him a home, and then ... ?

ORGON Stop there, good brother, You do not know the man you're speaking of.

CLEANTE Since you will have it so, I do not know him; But after all, to tell what sort of man He is ...

ORGON Dear brother, you'd be charmed to know him; Your raptures over him would have no end.

He is a man ... who ... ah! ... in fact ...a man Whoever does his will, knows perfect peace, And counts the whole world else, as so much dung.

His converse has transformed me quite; he weans My heart from every friendship, teaches me To have no love for anything on earth; And I could see my brother, children, mother, And wife, all die, and never care--a snap.

CLEANTE Your feelings are humane, I must say, brother!

ORGON Ah! If you'd seen him, as I saw him first, You would have loved him just as much as I.

He came to church each day, with contrite mien, Kneeled, on both knees, right opposite my place, And drew the eyes of all the congregation, To watch the fervour of his prayers to heaven; With deep-drawn sighs and great e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.ns, He humbly kissed the earth at every moment; And when I left the church, he ran before me To give me holy water at the door.

I learned his poverty, and who he was, By questioning his servant, who is like him, And gave him gifts; but in his modesty He always wanted to return a part.

"It is too much," he'd say, "too much by half; I am not worthy of your pity." Then, When I refused to take it back, he'd go, Before my eyes, and give it to the poor.

At length heaven bade me take him to my home, And since that day, all seems to prosper here.

He censures everything, and for my sake He even takes great interest in my wife; He lets me know who ogles her, and seems Six times as jealous as I am myself.

You'd not believe how far his zeal can go: He calls himself a sinner just for trifles; The merest nothing is enough to shock him; So much so, that the other day I heard him Accuse himself for having, while at prayer, In too much anger caught and killed a flea.

CLEANTE Zounds, brother, you are mad, I think! Or else You're making sport of me, with such a speech.

What are you driving at with all this nonsense ... ?

ORGON Brother, your language smacks of atheism; And I suspect your soul's a little tainted Therewith. I've preached to you a score of times That you'll draw down some judgment on your head.

CLEANTE That is the usual strain of all your kind; They must have every one as blind as they.

They call you atheist if you have good eyes; And if you don't adore their vain grimaces, You've neither faith nor care for sacred things.

No, no; such talk can't frighten me; I know What I am saying; heaven sees my heart.

We're not the dupes of all your canting mummers; There are false heroes--and false devotees; And as true heroes never are the ones Who make much noise about their deeds of honour, Just so true devotees, whom we should follow, Are not the ones who make so much vain show.

What! Will you find no difference between Hypocrisy and genuine devoutness?

And will you treat them both alike, and pay The self-same honour both to masks and faces Set artifice beside sincerity, Confuse the semblance with reality, Esteem a phantom like a living person, And counterfeit as good as honest coin?

Men, for the most part, are strange creatures, truly!

You never find them keep the golden mean; The limits of good sense, too narrow for them, Must always be pa.s.sed by, in each direction; They often spoil the n.o.blest things, because They go too far, and push them to extremes.

I merely say this by the way, good brother.

ORGON You are the sole expounder of the doctrine; Wisdom shall die with you, no doubt, good brother, You are the only wise, the sole enlightened, The oracle, the Cato, of our age.

All men, compared to you, are downright fools.

CLEANTE I'm not the sole expounder of the doctrine, And wisdom shall not die with me, good brother.

But this I know, though it be all my knowledge, That there's a difference 'twixt false and true.

And as I find no kind of hero more To be admired than men of true religion, Nothing more n.o.ble or more beautiful Than is the holy zeal of true devoutness; Just so I think there's naught more odious Than whited sepulchres of outward unction, Those barefaced charlatans, those hireling zealots, Whose sacrilegious, treacherous pretence Deceives at will, and with impunity Makes mockery of all that men hold sacred; Men who, enslaved to selfish interests, Make trade and merchandise of G.o.dliness, And try to purchase influence and office With false eye-rollings and affected raptures; Those men, I say, who with uncommon zeal Seek their own fortunes on the road to heaven; Who, skilled in prayer, have always much to ask, And live at court to preach retirement; Who reconcile religion with their vices, Are quick to anger, vengeful, faithless, tricky, And, to destroy a man, will have the boldness To call their private grudge the cause of heaven; All the more dangerous, since in their anger They use against us weapons men revere, And since they make the world applaud their pa.s.sion, And seek to stab us with a sacred sword.

There are too many of this canting kind.

Still, the sincere are easy to distinguish; And many splendid patterns may be found, In our own time, before our very eyes Look at Ariston, Periandre, Oronte, Alcidamas, c.l.i.tandre, and Polydore; No one denies their claim to true religion; Yet they're no braggadocios of virtue, They do not make insufferable display, And their religion's human, tractable; They are not always judging all our actions, They'd think such judgment savoured of presumption; And, leaving pride of words to other men, 'Tis by their deeds alone they censure ours.

Evil appearances find little credit With them; they even incline to think the best Of others. No caballers, no intriguers, They mind the business of their own right living.

They don't attack a sinner tooth and nail, For sin's the only object of their hatred; Nor are they over-zealous to attempt Far more in heaven's behalf than heaven would have 'em.

That is my kind of man, that is true living, That is the pattern we should set ourselves.

Your fellow was not fashioned on this model; You're quite sincere in boasting of his zeal; But you're deceived, I think, by false pretences.

ORGON My dear good brother-in-law, have you quite done?

CLEANTE Yes.