DORANTE: He says, Madame, that he finds you the most beautiful
woman in the world.
DORIMENE: He does me a great favor.
MONSIEUR JOURDAIN: Madame, it is you who does the favors, and . .
.
DORANTE: Let's consider eating.
LACKEY: Everything is ready, sir.
DORANTE: Come then let us sit at the table. And bring on the
musicians.
(Six cooks, who have prepared the feast, dance together and make
the third interlude; after which, they carry in a table covered
with many dishes.)
ACT FOUR
SCENE I (Dorimene, Monsieur Jourdain, Dorante, two Male Musicians,
a Female Musician, Lackeys)
DORIMENE: Why, Dorante, that is really a magnificent repast!
MONSIEUR JOURDAIN: You jest, Madame; I wish it were worthy of being
offered to you. (All sit at the table).
DORANTE: Monsieur Jourdain is right, Madame, to speak so, and he
obliges me by making you so welcome. I agree with him that the
repast is not worthy of you. Since it was I who ordered it, and
since I do not have the accomplishments of our friends in this
matter, you do not have here a very sophisticated meal, and you
will find some incongruities in the combinations and some
barbarities of taste. If Damis, our friend, had been involved,
everything would have been according to the rules; everything would
have been elegant and appropriate, and he would not have failed to
impress upon you the significance of all the dishes of the repast,
and to make you see his expertise when it comes to good food; he
would have told you about hearth-baked bread, with its golden brown
crust, crunching tenderly between the teeth; of a smooth,
full-bodied wine, fortified with a piquancy not too strong, of a
loin of mutton improved with parsley, of a cut of specially-raised
veal as long as this, white and delicate, and which is like an
almond paste between the teeth, of partridges complimented by a
surprisingly flavorful sauce, and, for his masterpiece, a soup
accompanied by a fat young turkey surrounded by pigeons and crowned
with white onions mixed with chicory.
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