XII

i. M. Jourdain is the principal personage in a comedy of Molière entitled Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme. Our hero is a commoner vvho has grown rich in trade. He could be happy, and he would be, if he were content with his condition, and if the désire to be noble had not entered his head. This désire almost made him lose his reason. He says that he would give tvvo fingers of his hand to hâve been born a count or a marquis. If you had been born a count, my friend, would you be happier than you are now? If M. Jourdain becomes a count, will he be happier? If he had been born a count, would he hâve been perfectly happy? However that may be (quoiqu'il en soit), he makes every effort to enter into relations with noblemen (gentilshommes), and he wishes to imitate them in everything. Like them he takes a music master, a dancing master, a fencing master, and at last a master of philosophy. But the quondam merchant is so ignorant that he does not even know that for talking there is only prose and verse. Surely he will not study the decp problems of the human intelligence with his learned master. The most elementary instruction is enough for him. So he learns to pronounce the vowels and the consonants, a study that fills him with joy and transports him with enthusiasm.