Madame Pernelle. That there are strange goings-on in your house, and that we know but too well the hatred they bear him.

Orgon. What has this hatred to do with what I have told you?

Madame Pernelle. I have told you a hundred times, when a boy,

Orgon. But in what way does this bear upon to-day’s doings?

Madame Pernelle. They may have concocted a hundred idle stories against him.

Orgon. I have already told you that I have seen everything myself.

Madame Pernelle. The malice of slanderers is very great.

Orgon. You will make me swear, mother. I tell you that with my own eyes I have witnessed this daring crime.

Madame Pernelle. Evil tongues have always venom to scatter abroad, and nothing here below can guard against it.

Orgon. That is a very senseless remark. I have seen it, I say, seen with my own eyes, seen, what you call seen. Am I to din it a hundred times in your ears, and shout like four people?

Madame Pernelle. Goodness me! appearances most frequently deceive: you must not always judge by what you see.

Orgon. I am boiling with rage!

Madame Pernelle. Human nature is liable to false suspicions, and good is often construed into evil.

Orgon. I must construe the desire to embrace my wife into a charitable design!

Madame Pernelle. It is necessary to have good reasons for accusing people; and you ought to have waited until you were quite certain of the thing.

Orgon. How the deuce could I be more certain? Ought I to have waited, mother, until to my very eyes, he had … You will make me say some foolish thing.

Madame Pernelle. In short, his soul is too full of pure zeal; and I cannot at all conceive that he would have attempted the things laid to his charge.

Orgon. Go, my passion is so great that, if you were not my mother, I do not know what I might say to you.

Dorine (to Orgon). A just reward of things here below, Sir; you would not believe anyone, and now they will not believe you.

Cléante. We are wasting in mere trifling the time that should be employed in devising some measures. We must not remain inactive when a knave threatens.

Damis. What! would his effrontery go to that extent?

Elmire. As for me, I hardly think it possible, and his ingratitude here shows itself too plainly.