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    The Bourgeois Gentleman
    The Bourgeois Gentleman
    The Bourgeois Gentleman
    Ebook107 pages1 hour

    The Bourgeois Gentleman

    By Molière

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    About this ebook

    The play takes place at Mr. Jourdain's house in Paris. Jourdain is a middle-aged 'bourgeois' whose father grew rich as a cloth merchant. The foolish Jourdain now has one aim in life, which is to rise above this middle-class background and be accepted as an aristocrat. To this end, he orders splendid new clothes and is very happy when the tailor's boy mockingly addresses him as 'my Lord'.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherInteractive Media
    Release dateJul 17, 2016
    ISBN9781911495468
    The Bourgeois Gentleman
    Author

    Molière

    Molière was a French playwright, actor, and poet. Widely regarded as one of the greatest writers in the French language and universal literature, his extant works include comedies, farces, tragicomedies, comédie-ballets, and more.

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    4/5

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    • 5/5
      Read this play a very long time ago, and the LOL's were plentiful and robust. Thank you goodreads, for causing me to stumble across this gem once again, and for reminding me that I wanted to sample other works by this clever author.

    Book preview

    The Bourgeois Gentleman - Molière

    Molière

    Molière

    The Bourgeois Gentleman

    New Edition

    URBAN ROMANTICS

    LONDON ∙ NEW YORK ∙ TORONTO ∙ SAO PAULO ∙ MOSCOW

    PARIS ∙ MADRID ∙ BERLIN ∙ ROME ∙ MEXICO CITY ∙ MUMBAI ∙ SEOUL ∙ DOHA

    TOKYO ∙ SYDNEY ∙ CAPE TOWN ∙ AUCKLAND ∙ BEIJING

    New Edition

    Published by Urban Romantics

    www.urban-romantics.com

    sales@urban-romantics.com

    This Edition

    First published in 2016

    Copyright © 2016 Urban Romantics

    All Rights Reserved.

    ISBN: 9781911495468

    Contents

    THE CAST

    ACT ONE

    ACT TWO

    ACT THREE

    ACT FOUR

    ACT FIVE

    THE CAST

    Monsieur Jourdain, bourgeois.

    Madame Jourdain, his wife.

    Lucile, their daughter.

    Nicole, maid.

    Cléonte, suitor of Lucile.

    Covielle, Cléonte’s valet.

    Dorante, Count, suitor of Dorimène.

    Dorimène, Marchioness.

    Music Master.

    Pupil of the Music Master.

    Dancing Master.

    Fencing Master.

    Master of Philosophy.

    Tailor.

    Tailor’s apprentice.

    Two lackeys.

    Many male and female musicians, instrumentalists, dancers, cooks, tailor’s apprentices, and others necessary for the interludes.

    The scene is Monsieur Jourdain’s house in Paris.

    ACT ONE

    SCENE I (Music Master, Dancing Master, Musicians, and Dancers)

    (The play opens with a great assembly of instruments, and in the middle of the stage is a pupil of the Music Master seated at a table composing a melody which Monsieur Jourdain has ordered for a serenade.)

    MUSIC MASTER: (To Musicians) Come, come into this room, sit there and wait until he comes.

    DANCING MASTER: (To dancers) And you too, on this side.

    MUSIC MASTER: (To Pupil) Is it done?

    PUPIL: Yes.

    MUSIC MASTER: Let’s see. . . This is good.

    DANCING MASTER: Is it something new?

    MUSIC MASTER: Yes, it’s a melody for a serenade that I set him to composing here, while waiting for our man to awake.

    DANCING MASTER: May I see it?

    MUSIC MASTER: You’ll hear it, with the dialogue, when he comes. He won’t be long.

    DANCING MASTER: Our work, yours and mine, is not trivial at present.

    MUSIC MASTER: This is true. We’ve found here such a man as we both need. This is a nice source of income for us -- this Monsieur Jourdain, with the visions of nobility and gallantry that he has gotten into his head. You and I should hope that everyone resembled him.

    DANCING MASTER: Not entirely; I could wish that he understood better the things that we give him.

    MUSIC MASTER: It’s true that he understands them poorly, but he pays well, and that’s what our art needs now more than anything else.

    DANCING MASTER: As for me, I admit, I feed a little on glory. Applause touches me; and I hold that, in all the fine arts, it is painful to produce for dolts, to endure the barbarous opinions of a fool about my choreography. It is a pleasure, don’t tell me otherwise, to work for people who can appreciate the fine points of an art, who know how to give a sweet reception to the beauties of a work and, by pleasurable approbations, gratify us for our labor. Yes, the most agreeable recompense we can receive for the things we do is to see them recognized and flattered by an applause that honors us. There is nothing, in my opinion, that pays us better for all our fatigue; and it is an exquisite delight to receive the praises of the well-informed.

    MUSIC MASTER: I agree, and I enjoy them as you do. There is surely nothing more agreeable than the applause you speak of; but that incense does not provide a living. Pure praises do not provide a comfortable existence; it is necessary to add something solid, and the best way to praise is to praise with cash-in-hand. He’s a man, it’s true, whose insight is very slight, who talks nonsense about everything and applauds only for the wrong reasons but his money makes up for his judgments. He has discernment in his purse. His praises are in cash, and this ignorant bourgeois is worth more to us, as you see, than the educated nobleman who introduced us here.

    DANCING MASTER: There is some truth in what you say; but I find that you lean a little too heavily on money; and material interest is something so base that a man of good taste should never show an attachment to it.

    MUSIC MASTER: You are ready enough to receive the money our man gives you.

    DANCING MASTER: Assuredly; but I don’t place all my happiness in it, and I could wish that together with his fortune he had some good taste in things.

    MUSIC MASTER: I could wish it too, that’s what both of us are working for as much as we can. But, in any case, he gives us the means to make ourselves known in the world; and he will pay others if they will praise him.

    DANCING MASTER: Here he comes.

    SCENE II (Monsieur Jourdain, Two Lackeys, Music Master, Dancing Master, Pupil, Musicians, and Dancers)

    MONSIEUR JOURDAIN: Well gentlemen? What’s this? Are you going to show me your little skit?

    DANCING MASTER: How? What little skit?

    MONSIEUR JOURDAIN: Well, the. . . What-do-you-call it? Your prologue or dialogue of songs and dances.

    DANCING MASTER: Ha, ha!

    MUSIC MASTER: You find us ready for you.

    MONSIEUR JOURDAIN: I kept you waiting a little, but it’s because I’m having myself dressed today like the people of quality, and my tailor sent me some silk stockings that I thought I would never get on.

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