tartuffery


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tar·tuffe

also tar·tufe  (tär-to͝of′, -to͞of′)
n.
A hypocrite, especially one who affects religious piety.
[After the protagonist of Tartuffe, , a play by Molière.]
tar·tuf′fe·ry n.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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tartuffery

noun
A show or expression of feelings or beliefs one does not actually hold or possess:
hypocrisy, pharisaism, phoniness, sanctimoniousness, sanctimony, two-facedness.
The American Heritage® Roget's Thesaurus. Copyright © 2013, 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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TS omits this reference to the Raja's pious tartuffery. The words of the religious hypocrite Tartuffe assure Elvire, the object of his lecherous advances, that Heaven is open to special deals or 'accommodations of its laws when circumstances seem to make it attractive.
The Green Goddess: A Play in Four Acts by William Archer
It seems true that our motives cannot be known to us, and Nietzsche (1966) said 'Every people has its own Tartuffery and calls it virtue.--What is best in us we do not know--we cannot know' (p 185).
Ressentiment: the air we breathe and the way we breathe
But if, like Naaman in the House of Rimmon, Churchill conformed without believing, it is not evident that Chamberlain and Baldwin--or even David Cameron--can be similarly absolved on grounds of politic Tartuffery.
Disraeli's ghost

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