Part 12 (2/2)

A cudgel, here! a cudgel!

(To Tartuffe) Don't restrain me.

(To his son) Off with you! Leave my house this instant, sirrah, And never dare set foot in it again.

DAMIS Yes, I will leave your house, but ...

ORGON Leave it quickly.

You reprobate, I disinherit you, And give you, too, my curse into the bargain.

SCENE VII

ORGON, TARTUFFE

ORGON What! So insult a saintly man of G.o.d!

TARTUFFE Heaven, forgive him all the pain he gives me! [4]

[Footnote 4: Some modern editions have adopted the reading, preserved by tradition as that of the earliest stage version: Heaven, forgive him even as I forgive him! Voltaire gives still another reading: Heaven, forgive me even as I forgive him! Whichever was the original version, it appears in none of the early editions, and Moliere probably felt forced to change it on account of its too close resemblance to the Biblical phrase.]

(To Orgon) Could you but know with what distress I see Them try to vilify me to my brother!

ORGON Ah!

TARTUFFE The mere thought of such ingrat.i.tude Makes my soul suffer torture, bitterly ...

My horror at it ... Ah! my heart's so full I cannot speak ... I think I'll die of it.

ORGON (in tears, running to the door through which he drove away his son) Scoundrel! I wish I'd never let you go, But slain you on the spot with my own hand.

(To Tartuffe) Brother, compose yourself, and don't be angry.

TARTUFFE Nay, brother, let us end these painful quarrels.

I see what troublous times I bring upon you, And think 'tis needful that I leave this house.

ORGON What! You can't mean it?

TARTUFFE Yes, they hate me here, And try, I find, to make you doubt my faith.

ORGON What of it? Do you find I listen to them?

TARTUFFE No doubt they won't stop there. These same reports You now reject, may some day win a hearing.

ORGON No, brother, never.

TARTUFFE Ah! my friend, a woman May easily mislead her husband's mind.

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