Comedy plays; France -- Social life and customs -- 17th century -- Drama; French drama; Middle class -- France -- Drama
MONSIEUR JOURDAIN: You sent me some silk hose so small that I had
all the difficulty in the world putting them on, and already there
are two broken stitches.
MASTER TAILOR: They get bigger, too much so.
MONSIEUR JOURDAIN: Yes, if I always break the stitches. You also
had made for me a pair of shoes that pinch furiously.
MASTER TAILOR: Not at all, sir.
MONSIEUR JOURDAIN: How, not at all!
MASTER TAILOR: No, they don't pinch you at all.
MONSIEUR JOURDAIN: I tell you, they pinch me.
MASTER TAILOR: You imagine that.
MONSIEUR JOURDAIN: I imagine it because I feel it. That's a good
reason for you!
MASTER TAILOR: Wait, here is the finest court-suit, and the best
matched. It's a masterpiece to have invented a serious suit that is
not black. And I give six attempts to the best tailors to equal
it.
MONSIEUR JOURDAIN: What's this? You've put the flowers upside
down.
MASTER TAILOR: You didn't tell me you wanted them right side up.
MONSIEUR JOURDAIN: Did I have to tell you that?
MASTER TAILOR: Yes, surely. All the people of quality wear them
this way.
MONSIEUR JOURDAIN: The people of quality wear the flowers upside
down?
MASTER TAILOR: Yes, Sir.
MONSIEUR JOURDAIN: Oh! It's alright then.
MASTER TAILOR: If you like, I'll put them right side up.
MONSIEUR JOURDAIN: No, no.
MASTER TAILOR: You have only to say so.
MONSIEUR JOURDAIN: No, I tell you. You've made it very well. Do you
think the suit is going to look good on me?
MASTER TAILOR: What a question! I defy a painter with his brush to
do anything that would fit you better. I have a worker in my place
who is the greatest genius in the world at mounting a rhinegrave,
and another who is the hero of the age at assembling a doublet.
MONSIEUR JOURDAIN: The perruque and the plumes: are they correct?
MASTER TAILOR: Everything's good.
MONSIEUR JOURDAIN: (Looking at the tailor's suit) Ah! Ah! Monsieur
Tailor, here's the material from the last suit you made for me. I
know it well.
MASTER TAILOR: You see, the material seemed so fine that I wanted a
suit made of it for myself.
MONSIEUR JOURDAIN: Yes, but you should not have cut it out of
mine.
MASTER TAILOR: Do you want to put on your suit?
MONSIEUR JOURDAIN: Yes, give it to me.
MASTER TAILOR: Wait. That's not the way it's done. I have brought
men to dress you in a cadence; these kinds of suits are put on with
ceremony. Hey there! Come in, you! Put this suit on the gentleman
the way you do with people of quality.
(Four APPRENTICE TAILORS enter, two of them pull off Monsieur
Jourdain's breeches made for his morning exercises, and two others
pull off his waistcoat; then they put on his new suit; Monsieur
Jourdain promenades among them and shows them his suit for their
approval. All this to the cadence of instrumental music.)
APPRENTICE TAILOR: My dear gentleman, please to give the
apprentices a small tip.
MONSIEUR JOURDAIN: What did you call me?
APPRENTICE TAILOR: My dear gentleman.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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