Elmire Monologue from Tartuffe

From Tartuffe by Molière

female · defiant · 1:00 min

When a love-sick man makes a foolish mistake Must we take up arms as if honor's at stake? And should we always respond to small slips With fire in our eyes and abuse on our lips? For myself, I laugh at these signs of lust; It doesn't please me at all to grow nonplussed. I seek wisdom tempered with charity, And I'm not one of those prudes whose asperity Is such that they fight for virtue tooth and nail, And scratch a man's eyes out for being male. Heaven preserve me from that kind of virtue! I am an honest wife, but not a shrew, And I believe that a calm, icy glance Is quite enough to rebuff an advance.

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