Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme is a comedy-ballet, in five acts in prose. Classic satire, one of the best by France's greatest comedic playwright, pokes fun at the sham and hypocrisy of 17th-century French society. A wealthy tradesman, Monsieur Jourdain, yearns to become a gentleman in order to win the hand of a marchioness, disregarding the inconvenient fact that he is already married, but only succeeds in making a fool of himself.