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The Bourgeois Gentleman

Molière

13,076 ratings
The Bourgeois Gentleman | Molière

The Bourgeois Gentleman

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The Bourgeois Gentleman of the title is a middle-class social climber, assured that by learning all the arts of a true and noble gentleman, he shall truly become one. This enables Moliere to satire both the pretentious middle class and the snobbish aristocracy all at one time. Originally presented in 1670 before the court of Louis the 14th with music by Jean-Baptiste Lully, it was more recently re-choreographed by George Balanchine to music by Strauss. This will be a purely spoken version of the original.
in time with your philosophy. Come, make a little peace among these people. 

PHILOSOPHY MASTER: What's happening? What's the matter, gentlemen. 

MONSIEUR JOURDAIN: They have got into a rage over the superiority of their professions to the point of injurious words and of wanting to come to blows. 

PHILOSOPHY MASTER: What! Gentlemen, must you act this way? Haven't you read the learned treatise that Seneca composed on anger? Is there anything more base and more shameful than this passion, which turns a man into a savage beast? And shouldn't reason be the mistress of all our activities? 

DANCING MASTER: Well! Sir, he has just abused both of us by, despising the dance, which I practice, and music, which is his profession. 

PHILOSOPHY MASTER: A wise man is above all the insults that can be spoken to him; and the grand reply one should make to such outrages is moderation and patience. 

FENCING MASTER: They both had the audacity of trying to compare their professions with mine. 

PHILOSOPHY MASTER: Should that disturb you? Men should not dispute amongst themselves about vainglory and rank; that which perfectly distinguishes one from the other is wisdom and virtue. 

DANCING MASTER: I insist to him that dance is a science to which one cannot do enough honor. 

MUSIC MASTER: And I, that music is something that all the ages have revered. 

FENCING MASTER: And I insist to them that the science of fencing is the finest and the most necessary of all sciences. 

PHILOSOPHY MASTER: And where then will philosophy be? I find you all very impertinent to speak with this arrogance in front of me, and impudently to give the name of science to things that one should not even honor with the name of art, and that cannot be classified except under the name of miserable gladiator, singer, and buffoon! 

FENCING MASTER: Get out, you dog of a philosopher! 

MUSIC MAST

Fabian 03/19/2021
Ok, so I did not read this in French and therefore am afraid that a bunch of the wit got lost in translation. There is enough however (despite the full-on mastery of a language in this whimsical play) that is universal here to still feel relevant. It's so impressively relevant in fact, some 400 year
Anne 01/09/2020
The best thing about this book was that we read it aloud as a class while I was studying in a castle in the Czech Republic.

It was a rainy day during the Five-Petaled Rose Festival and we were all in Renaissance costume, seated around the table in the study centre, each reading out a role. There wer

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