Act V: Scene II
DAMIS.What! father, can the scoundrel threaten you,Forget the many benefits received,And in his base abominable prideMake of your very favours arms against you?
ORGON.Too true, my son. It tortures me to think on't.
DAMIS.Let me alone, I'll chop his ears off for him.We must deal roundly with his insolence;'Tis I must free you from him at a blow;'Tis I, to set things right, must strike him down.
CLEANTE.Spoke like a true young man. Now just calm down,And moderate your towering tantrums, will you?We live in such an age, with such a king,That violence can not advance our cause.
Words in this poem
- roundly adv.
- In a round form or manner.
- insolence n.
- The quality of being unusual or novel. [F. insolence, L. insolentia. See Insolent.]
- spoke n.
- The radius or ray of a wheel; one of the small bars which are inserted in the hub, or nave, and which serve to support the rim or felly. [OE. spoke, spake, AS, spaca; akin to D. speek, LG. speke, OHG. speihha, G. speiche. sq. root170. Cf. Spike a nail.]
- towering a.
- Very high; elevated; rising aloft; as, a towering height.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Act V: Scene II 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 V: Scene II, in Tartuffe; Or, The Hypocrite (1908), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #2027, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/moliere-tartuffe/act-v-scene-ii.html, id L26947.
Form and metre
Act V: Scene II is 17 lines in 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%).
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.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 -A--A damis · youA · received · pride · youA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| DAMIS. | 2 | ·· |
| What! father, can the scoundrel threaten you, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| Forget the many benefits received, | 10 | ˘/·/˘/˘˘˘/ |
| And in his base abominable pride | 10 | ····˘/˘˘˘· |
| Make of your very favours arms against you? | 11 | ···/˘/˘···· |
| ORGON. | 2 | ·· |
| Too true, my son. It tortures me to think on't. | 11 | ·····/˘···· |
| DAMIS. | 2 | ·· |
| Let me alone, I'll chop his ears off for him. | 11 | ··˘/······· |
| We must deal roundly with his insolence; | 10 | ···/˘··/˘˘ |
| 'Tis I must free you from him at a blow; | 10 | ·········· |
| 'Tis I, to set things right, must strike him down. | 10 | ·········· |
| CLEANTE. | 1 | · |
| Spoke like a true young man. Now just calm down, | 10 | ·········· |
| And moderate your towering tantrums, will you? | 10 | ·/˘·/˘/˘·· |
| We live in such an age, with such a king, | 10 | ·········· |
| That violence can not advance our cause. | 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.