you were little:
That virtue here below is hated ever;
The envious may die, but envy never.

ORGON
What's that fine speech to do with present facts?

MADAME PERNELLE
Be sure, they've forged a hundred silly lies ...

ORGON
I've told you once, I saw it all myself.

MADAME PERNELLE
For slanderers abound in calumnies ...

ORGON
Mother, you'd make me damn my soul. I tell you
I saw with my own eyes his shamelessness.

MADAME PERNELLE
Their tongues for spitting venom never lack,
There's nothing here below they'll not attack.

ORGON
Your speech has not a single grain of sense.
I saw it, harkee, saw it, with these eyes
I saw--d'ye know what saw means?--must I say it
A hundred times, and din it in your ears?

MADAME PERNELLE
My dear, appearances are oft deceiving,
And seeing shouldn't always be believing.

ORGON
I'll go mad.

MADAME PERNELLE
False suspicions may delude,
And good to evil oft is misconstrued.

ORGON
Must I construe as Christian charity
The wish to kiss my wife!

MADAME PERNELLE
You must, at least,
Have just foundation for accusing people,
And wait until you see a thing for sure.

ORGON
The devil! How could I see any surer?
Should I have waited till, before my eyes,
He ... No, you'll make me say things quite improper.

MADAME PERNELLE
In short, 'tis known too pure a zeal inflames him;
And so, I cannot possibly conceive
That he should try to do what's charged against him.

ORGON
If you were not my mother, I should say
Such things! ... I know not what, I'm so enraged!

DORINE (to Orgon)
Fortune has paid you fair, to be so doubted;
You flouted our report, now yours is flouted.

CLEANTE
We're wasting time here in the merest trifling,
Which we should rather use in taking measures
To guard ourselves against the scoundrel's threats.

DAMIS
You think his impudence could go far?

ELMIRE
For one, I can't believe it possible;
Why, his ingratitude would be too patent.

CLEANTE
Don't trust to that; he'll find abundant warrant
To give good colour to his acts against you;
And for less cause than this, a strong cabal
Can make one's life a labyrinth of troubles.
I tell you once again: armed as he is
You never should have pushed him quite so far.

ORGON
True; yet what could I do? The rascal's pride
Made me lose all control of my resentment.