Act V: Scene VIII
CLEANTE.Brother, hold!--and don'tDescend to such indignities, I beg you.Leave the poor wretch to his unhappy fate,And let remorse oppress him, but not you.Hope rather that his heart may now returnTo virtue, hate his vice, reform his ways,And win the pardon of our glorious prince;While you must straightway go, and on your kneesRepay with thanks his noble generous kindness.
ORGON.Well said! We'll go, and at his feet kneel down,With joy to thank him for his goodness shown;And this first duty done, with honours due,We'll then attend upon another, too.With wedded happiness reward Valere,And crown a lover noble and sincere.
Words in this poem
- glorious a.
- Exhibiting attributes, qualities, or acts that are worthy of or receive glory; noble; praiseworthy; excellent; splendid; illustrious; inspiring admiration; as, glorious deeds. [OF. glorios, glorious, F. glorieux, fr. L. gloriosus. See Glory, n.]
- straightway adv.
- Immediately; without loss of time; without delay.
- generous a.
- Of honorable birth or origin; highborn. [F. généreux, fr. L. generous of noble birth, noble, excellent, magnanimous, fr. genus birth, race: cf. It. generoso. See 2d Gender.]
- kneel v. i.
- To bend the knee; to fall or rest on the knees; -- sometimes with down. [OE. knelen, cneolien; akin to D. knielen, Dan. knæle. See Knee.]
- thank n.
- A expression of gratitude; an acknowledgment expressive of a sense of favor or kindness received; obligation, claim, or desert, or gratitude; -- now generally used in the plural. [AS. Þanc, Þonc, thanks, favor, thought; akin to OS. thank favor, pleasure, thanks, D. & G. dank thanks, Icel. Þ\'94kk, Dan. tak, Sw. tack, Goth. Þagks thanks; -]
- wedded a.
- Joined in wedlock; married.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Act V: Scene VIII 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 VIII, in Tartuffe; Or, The Hypocrite (1908), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #2027, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/moliere-tartuffe/act-v-scene-viii.html, id L26953.
Form and metre
Act V: Scene VIII is 17 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
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 AAB-B----- cleanteA · don'tA · youB · fate · youB · return · ways · prince · knees · kindness
- 2 ---AA-- orgon · down · shown · dueA · tooA · valere · sincere
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 |
|---|---|---|
| CLEANTE. | 1 | · |
| Brother, hold!--and don't | 5 | /˘··· |
| Descend to such indignities, I beg you. | 10 | ˘/··˘/˘··· |
| Leave the poor wretch to his unhappy fate, | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| And let remorse oppress him, but not you. | 10 | ··˘/˘/···· |
| Hope rather that his heart may now return | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| To virtue, hate his vice, reform his ways, | 10 | ·/˘···˘/·· |
| And win the pardon of our glorious prince; | 10 | ···/˘·//˘· |
| While you must straightway go, and on your knees | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Repay with thanks his noble generous kindness. | 11 | ˘/···/˘/˘/˘ |
| ORGON. | 2 | ·· |
| Well said! We'll go, and at his feet kneel down, | 10 | ·········· |
| With joy to thank him for his goodness shown; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And this first duty done, with honours due, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| We'll then attend upon another, too. | 10 | ··˘/··˘/˘· |
| With wedded happiness reward Valere, | 10 | ·/˘/˘˘˘/·· |
| And crown a lover noble and sincere. | 10 | ···/˘/˘·˘/ |
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