Scriptaoke
LoginRegister

The Would-Be Gentleman

by Molière from 1670

About

Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (1670) is Molière's great comedy of class aspiration: Monsieur Jourdain, a wealthy cloth merchant, discovers that he has been speaking prose all his life and throws himself into acquiring the manners, accomplishments, and social connections of nobility. The play's celebrated set piece — Jourdain learning that 'Nicole' is two syllables — has the logic of a comedy skit elevated to poetic form. Written as a comédie-ballet for Louis XIV's court, it combines Molière's sharpest social satire with spectacular theatrical entertainment. The play's central joke — that bourgeois pretension is simply aristocratic condescension applied downward — is inexhaustible.

Translated from the original French.

ComedyFarceBaroqueAbsurdFarcicalWittyen

The Would-Be Gentleman

Characters
1
Words
17.9k
Scenes
34
Duration
~2 hr 14 min

Characters

#CharacterPlayerLines
1
Reader
—
1,059

34 sections

17.9k words
#TitleWords
1
Act ONE Scene I (Music Master, Dancing Master, Musicians, and Dancers)
6254:41
2
Act ONE Scene II (Monsieur Jourdain, Two Lackeys, Music Master, Dancing
1.4k10:47
3
Act TWO Scene I (Monsieur Jourdain, Music Master, Dancing Master, Lackeys)
4783:35
4
Act TWO Scene II (Fencing Master, Music Master, Dancing Master, Monsier
5203:54
5
Act TWO Scene III (Philosophy Master, Music Master, Dancing Master, Fencing
4763:34
6
Act TWO Scene IV (Philosophy Master, Monsieur Jourdain)
1.6k12:05
7
Act TWO Scene V (Master Tailor, Apprentice Tailor carrying suit, Monsieur
7195:24
8
Act THREE Scene I (Monsieur Jourdain and his two Lackeys)
600:27
9
Act THREE Scene II (Nicole, Monsieur Jourdain, two Lackeys)
4073:03
10
Act THREE Scene III (Madame Jourdain, Monsieur Jourdain, Nicole, Lackeys)
1.4k10:33
11
Act THREE Scene IV (Count Dorante, Monsieur Jourdain, Madame Jourdain,
8156:07
12
Act THREE Scene V (Dorante, Madame Jourdain, Nicole)
1711:17
13
Act THREE Scene VI (Monsieur Jourdain, Madame Jourdain, Dorante, Nicole)
6404:48
14
Act THREE Scene VII (Madame Jourdain, Nicole)
1941:27
15
Act THREE Scene VIII (Cleonte, Covielle, Nicole)
1361:01
16
Act THREE Scene IX (Cleonte, Covielle)
8596:27
17
Act THREE Scene X (Cleonte, Lucile, Covielle, Nicole)
8036:01
18
Act THREE Scene XI (Madame Jourdain, Cleonte, Lucile, Covielle, Nicole)
590:27
19
Act THREE Scene XII (Monsieur Jourdain, Madame Jourdain, Cleonte, Lucile,
7845:53
20
Act THREE Scene XIII (Cleonte, Covielle)
2351:46
Act THREE Scene XIV (Monsieur Jourdain, Lackey) MONSIEUR JOURDAIN
21
Act THREE Scene XIV (Monsieur Jourdain, Lackey) MONSIEUR JOURDAIN: What the
880:40
22
Act THREE Scene XV (Dorimene, Dorante, Lackey)
3993:00
23
Act THREE Scene XVI (Monsieur Jourdain, Dorimene, Dorante, Lackey)
4173:08
24
Act FOUR Scene I (Dorimene, Monsieur Jourdain, Dorante, two Male Musicians,
7765:49
25
Act FOUR Scene II (Madame Jourdain, Monsieur Jourdain, Dorimene, Dorante,
4463:21
26
Act FOUR Scene III (Covielle, disguised; Monsieur Jourdain, Lackey)
8936:42
27
Act FOUR Scene IV (Cleonte, as a Turk, with three Pages carrying his outer
1591:12
28
Act FOUR Scene V (Dorante, Covielle)
2291:43
29
Act FIVE Scene I (Madame Jourdaine, Monsieur Jourdain)
3122:20
30
Act FIVE Scene II (Dorante, Dorimene)
2481:52
31
Act FIVE Scene III (Monsieur Jourdain, Dorante, Dorimene)
2561:55
32
Act FIVE Scene IV (Cleonte, Covielle, Monsieur Jourdain, etc.)
2081:34
33
Act FIVE Scene V (Lucile, Monsieur Jourdain, Dorante, Dorimene, etc.)
2121:35
34
Act FIVE Scene VI (Madame Jourdain, Monsieur Jourdain, Cleonte, etc.)
7965:58

More scripts

The Talking Beasts: A Book of Fable Wisdom
Kate Douglas Wiggin
The Yellow Fairy Book
Andrew Lang (ed.)
Three Hundred Aesop's Fables
Aesop
The Two Noble Kinsmen
William Shakespeare
Kullervo
Aleksis Kivi
Faust: Der Tragödie erster Teil
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Three Wonder Plays
Gregory, Lady, 1852-1932
The Story of Burnt Njal
(anon.)