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.
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