Act I: Scene III
ELMIRE (to Cleante)You're very lucky to have missed the speechShe gave us at the door. I see my husbandIs home again. He hasn't seen me yet,So I'll go up and wait till he comes in.
CLEANTE.And I, to save time, will await him here;I'll merely say good-morning, and be gone.
Words in this poem
- await v. t.
- To watch for; to look out for. [OF. awaitier, agaitier; (L. ad) + waitier, gaitier to watch, F. guetter. See Wait.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Act I: Scene III is in the public domain. This text is taken from Tartuffe; Or, The Hypocrite, Project Gutenberg ebook #2027, the Curtis Hidden Page translation; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Molière, Act I: Scene III, in Tartuffe; Or, The Hypocrite (1908), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #2027, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/moliere-tartuffe/act-i-scene-iii.html, id L26923.
Form and metre
Act I: Scene III is 8 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| ELMIRE (to Cleante) | 4 | ···· |
| You're very lucky to have missed the speech | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| She gave us at the door. I see my husband | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| Is home again. He hasn't seen me yet, | 10 | ··˘/·/˘··· |
| So I'll go up and wait till he comes in. | 10 | ·········· |
| CLEANTE. | 1 | · |
| And I, to save time, will await him here; | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| I'll merely say good-morning, and be gone. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.