“A continuous delight from beginning to end” (Richard Eberhart). Introduction by Richard Wilbur.
One of Molière’s most popular and frequently performed plays, Tartuffe has been skilfully translated into English in brilliant rhymed couplets by Richard Wilburg, who won a share of the Bollingen Translation Prize for his much-acclaimed translation of this satiric turn on religious hypocrisy.
The central character of the play is a rich bourgeois named Orgon, who in middle age has become a bigot and a prude. The title character, a wily opportunist and swindler, affects sanctity and gains complete ascendancy over Orgon, who not only attempts to turn over his fortune but offers his daughter in marriage to his "spiritual guide. It is only when Orgon witnesses Tartuffe's attemps to seduce his wife that he comes to his senses.
