Tartuffe. Your abuse cannot incense me; Heaven has taught me to suffer everything.

Cléante. Your moderation is great, I confess.

Damis. How impudently the villain sports with Heaven!

Tartuffe. All your outrages cannot move me in the least; and I think of nothing but my duty.

Mariane. You may glorify yourself very much upon this; and this task is very honorable for you to undertake.

Tartuffe. A task cannot but be glorious when it proceeds from the power that sends me hither.

Orgon. But do you remember, ungrateful wretch, that my charitable hand raised you from a miserable condition?

Tartuffe. Yes, I know what help I received from you; but the King’s interest is my first duty. The just obligation of this sacred duty stifles all gratitude of my heart; and to such a powerful consideration, I would sacrifice friend, wife, kindred, and myself with them.

Elmire. The impostor!

Dorine. How artfully he makes himself a lovely cloak of all that is sacred.

Cléante. But if this zeal which guides you, and upon which you plume yourself so much, be so perfect as you say, why has it not shown itself until Orgon caught you trying to seduce his wife; and why did you not think of denouncing him until his honour obliged him to drive you from his house? I do not say that the gift of all his property, which he has made over to you, ought to have turned you from your duty; but why, wishing to treat him as a criminal to-day, did you consent to take aught from him?

Tartuffe (to the Officer). Pray, Sir, deliver me from this clamour, and be good enough to execute your orders.

Officer. Yes, we have no doubt, delayed too long to discharge them; your words remind me of this just in time; and to execute them, follow me directly to the prison which is destined for your abode.

Tartuffe. Who? I, Sir?

Officer. Yes, you.

Tartuffe. Why to prison?

Officer. I have no account to give to you. (To Orgon.) Compose yourself, Sir, after so great an alarm. We live under a monarch, an enemy of fraud, a monarch whose eyes penetrate into the heart, and whom all the art of impostors cannot deceive. Blessed with great discernment, his lofty soul looks clearly at things; it is never betrayed by exaggeration, and his sound reason falls into no excess. He bestows lasting glory on men of worth; but he shows this zeal without blindness, and his love for sincerity does not close his heart to the horror which falsehood must inspire. Even this person could not hoodwink him, and he has guarded himself against more artful snares. He soon perceived, by his subtle penetration, all the vileness concealed in his inmost heart. In coming to accuse you, he has betrayed himself, and, by a just stroke of supreme justice, discovered himself to the King as a notorious rogue, against whom information had been laid under another name. His life is a long series of wicked actions, of which whole volumes might be written. Our monarch, in short, has detested his vile ingratitude and disloyalty towards you; has joined this affair to his other misdeeds, and has placed me under his orders, only to see his impertinence carried out to the end, and to make him by himself give you satisfaction for everything. Yes, he wishes me to strip the wretch of all your documents which he professes to possess, and to give them into your hands. By his sovereign power he annuls the obligations of the contract which gave him