Le Bourgeois gentilhomme

Doubtless he had judged that this Bourgeois who wanted to be as grand as the nobles was an insult to him.

However, his advisers and friends of Molière, close to the King, argued that Molière was harshly yet pleasantly mocking Monsieur Jourdain, and the king applauded at the conclusion of the second performance: he had understood that he could thus get the laughers on his side.

Nevertheless, Louis XIV clearly perceived the underlying criticism of these "People of Quality" who do not possess every quality, the mark of a certain feeling of revolt beginning to dawn in this lavish century, which would lead, a century later, to the Revolution.