The Project Gutenberg EBook of Tartuffe, by Jean-Baptiste Poquelin Moliere

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Title: Tartuffe

Author: Jean-Baptiste Poquelin Moliere

Posting Date: October 26, 2008 [EBook #2027] Release Date: January, 2000

Language: English

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TARTUFFE ***

Produced by Dagny and John Vickers.

TARTUFFE OR THE HYPOCRITE

by

JEAN BAPTISTE POQUELIN MOLIERE

Translated By

Curtis Hidden Page

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

Jean Baptiste Poquelin, better known by his stage name of Moliere, stands without a rival at the head of French comedy. Born at Paris in January, 1622, where his father held a position in the royal household, he was educated at the Jesuit College de Clermont, and for some time studied law, which he soon abandoned for the stage. His life was spent in Paris and in the provinces, acting, directing performances, managing theaters, and writing plays. He had his share of applause from the king and from the public; but the satire in his comedies made him many enemies, and he was the object of the most venomous attacks and the most impossible slanders. Nor did he find much solace at home; for he married unfortunately, and the unhappiness that followed increased the bitterness that public hostility had brought into his life. On February 17, 1673, while acting in "La Malade Imaginaire," the last of his masterpieces, he was seized with illness and died a few hours later.

The first of the greater works of Moliere was "Les Precieuses Ridicules," produced in 1659. In this brilliant piece Moliere lifted French comedy to a new level and gave it a new purpose—the satirizing of contemporary manners and affectations by frank portrayal and criticism. In the great plays that followed, "The School for Husbands" and "The School for Wives," "The Misanthrope" and "The Hypocrite" (Tartuffe), "The Miser" and "The Hypochondriac," "The Learned Ladies," "The Doctor in Spite of Himself," "The Citizen Turned Gentleman," and many others, he exposed mercilessly one after another the vices and foibles of the day.

His characteristic qualities are nowhere better exhibited than in "Tartuffe." Compared with such characterization as Shakespeare's, Moliere's method of portraying life may seem to be lacking in complexity; but it is precisely the simplicity with which creations like Tartuffe embody the weakness or vice they represent that has given them their place as universally recognized types of human nature.

TARTUFFE

A COMEDY

CHARACTERS

  MADAME PERNELLE, mother of Orgon
  ORGON, husband of Elmire
  ELMIRE, wife of Orgon
  DAMIS, son of Orgon
  MARIANE, daughter of Orgon, in love with Valere
  CLEANTE, brother-in-law of Orgon
  TARTUFFE, a hypocrite
  DORINE, Mariane's maid
  M. LOYAL, a bailiff
  A Police Officer
  FLIPOTTE, Madame Pernelle's servant

The Scene is at Paris

ACT I

SCENE I

  MADAME PERNELLE and FLIPOTTE, her servant; ELMIRE, MARIANE, CLEANTE,
  DAMIS, DORINE

  MADAME PERNELLE
  Come, come, Flipotte, and let me get away.

  ELMIRE
  You hurry so, I hardly can attend you.

  MADAME PERNELLE
  Then don't, my daughter-in law. Stay where you are.
  I can dispense with your polite attentions.

  ELMIRE
  We're only paying what is due you, mother.
  Why must you go away in such a hurry?

  MADAME PERNELLE
  Because I can't endure your carryings-on,
  And no one takes the slightest pains to please me.
  I leave your house, I tell you, quite disgusted;
  You do the opposite of my instructions;
  You've no respect for anything; each one
  Must have his say; it's perfect pandemonium.

  DORINE
  If …

  MADAME PERNELLE
  You're a servant wench, my girl, and much
  Too full of gab, and too impertinent
  And free with your advice on all occasions.

  DAMIS
  But …

  MADAME PERNELLE
  You're a fool, my boy—f, o, o, l
  Just spells your name. Let grandma tell you that
  I've said a hundred times to my poor son,
  Your father, that you'd never come to good
  Or give him anything but plague and torment.

  MARIANE
  I think …

  MADAME PERNELLE
  O dearie me, his little sister!
  You're all demureness, butter wouldn't melt
  In your mouth, one would think to look at you.
  Still waters, though, they say … you know the proverb;
  And I don't like your doings on the sly.

  ELMIRE
  But, mother …

  MADAME PERNELLE
  Daughter, by your leave, your conduct
  In everything is altogether wrong;
  You ought to set a good example for 'em;
  Their dear departed mother did much better.
  You are extravagant; and it offends me,
  To see you always decked out like a princess.
  A woman who would please her husband's eyes
  Alone, wants no such wealth of fineries.

  CLEANTE
  But, madam, after all …

  MADAME PERNELLE
  Sir, as for you,
  The lady's brother, I esteem you highly,
  Love and respect you. But, sir, all the same,
  If I were in my son's, her husband's, place,
  I'd urgently entreat you not to come
  Within our doors. You preach a way of living
  That decent people cannot tolerate.
  I'm rather frank with you; but that's my way—
  I don't mince matters, when I mean a thing.

  DAMIS
  Mr. Tartuffe, your friend, is mighty lucky …

  MADAME PERNELLE
  He is a holy man, and must be heeded;
  I can't endure, with any show of patience,
  To hear a scatterbrains like you attack him.

  DAMIS
  What! Shall I let a bigot criticaster
  Come and usurp a tyrant's power here?
  And shall we never dare amuse ourselves
  Till this fine gentleman deigns to consent?

  DORINE
  If we must hark to him, and heed his maxims,
  There's not a thing we do but what's a crime;
  He censures everything, this zealous carper.

  MADAME PERNELLE
  And all he censures is well censured, too.
  He wants to guide you on the way to heaven;
  My son should train you all to love him well.

  DAMIS
  No, madam, look you, nothing—not my father
  Nor anything—can make me tolerate him.
  I should belie my