(Master Tailor, Apprentice Tailor carrying suit, Monsieur Jourdain, Lackeys) MONSIEUR JOURDAIN Ah! You're here! I was getting into a rage against you.
MASTER TAILOR I could not come sooner, and I put twenty men to work on your suit.
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.
MONSIEUR JOURDAIN My dear gentleman! That's what it is to dress like people of quality! Go all your life dressed like a bourgeois and they'll never call you "My dear gentleman." Here, take this for the "My dear gentleman."
APPRENTICE TAILOR My Lord, we are very much obliged to you.
MONSIEUR JOURDAIN "My Lord!" Oh! Oh! "My Lord!" Wait, my friend. "My Lord" deserves something, and it's not a little word, this "My Lord." Take this. That's what "My Lord" gives you.
APPRENTICE TAILOR My Lord, we will drink to the health of Your Grace.
MONSIEUR JOURDAIN "Your Grace!" Oh! Oh! Oh! Wait, don't go. To me, "Your Grace!" My faith, if he goes as far as "Highness," he will have all my purse. Wait. That's for "My Grace."
APPRENTICE TAILOR My Lord, we thank you very humbly for your liberality.
MONSIEUR JOURDAIN He did well, I was going to give him everything.
(The four Apprentice Tailors celebrate with a dance, which comprises the Second Interlude.)