TARTUFFE from “Tartuffe”

Age: 35–55

The antagonist, a charlatan who preys on Orgon and his family. Tartuffe has faked holy poverty and religious fervor to attract Orgon’s admiration and succeeded so well that Tartuffe now lives in luxury in Orgon’s house. Tartuffe keeps up his public image with extreme acts of penance and ostentatious charity. In private, he gorges on food and wine and leers at the women in Orgon’s household.

TARTUFFE 

With your celestial charms before his eyes,

A man has not the power to be wise.

I know such words sound strangely, coming from me,

But I’m no angel, nor was meant to be,

And if you blame my passion, you must needs

Reproach as well the charms on which it feeds.

Your loveliness I had no sooner seen

Than you became my soul’s unrivaled queen;

Before your seraph glance, divinely sweet,

My heart’s defenses crumbled in defeat,

And nothing fasting, prayer, or tears might do

Could stay my spirit from adoring you.

My eyes, my sighs have told you in the past

What now my lips make bold to say at last,

And if, in your great goodness, you will deign

To look upon your slave, and ease his pain,—

If, in compassion for my soul’s distress,

You’ll stoop to comfort my unworthiness,

I’ll raise to you, in thanks for that sweet manna,

An endless hymn, an infinite hosanna.

With me, of course, there need be no anxiety,

No fear of scandal or of notoriety.

These young court gallants, whom all the ladies fancy,

Are vain in speech, in action rash and chancy;

When they succeed in love, the world soon knows it;

No favor’s granted them but they disclose it

And by the looseness of their tongues profane 

The very altar where their hearts have lain.

Men of my sort, however, love discreetly,

And one may trust our reticence completely.

My keen concern for my good name ensures

The absolute security of yours;

In short, I offer you, my dear

Elmire, Love without scandal, pleasure without fear.