VII. Theater, Parade And Extravagance.

     The principal diversion, elegant comedy.—Parades and
     extravagance.

To divert oneself is to turn aside from oneself, to break loose and to forget oneself; and to forget oneself fully one must be transported into another, put himself in the place of another, take his mask and play his part. Hence the liveliest of diversions is the comedy in which one is an actor. It is that of children who, as authors, actors and audience, improvise and perform small scenes. It is that of a people whose political régime excludes exacting manly tasks (soucis virile) and who sport with life just like children. At Venice, in the eighteenth century, the carnival lasts six months; in France, under another form, it lasts the entire year. Less familiar and less picturesque, more refined and more elegant, it abandons the public square where it lacks sunshine, to shut itself up in drawing-rooms where chandeliers are the most suitable for it. It has retained of the vast popular masquerade only a fragment, the opera ball, certainly very splendid and frequented by princes, princesses and the queen; but this fragment, brilliant as it is, does not suffice; consequently, in every chateau, in every mansion, at Paris and in the provinces, it sets up travesties on society and domestic comedies.—On welcoming a great personage, on celebrating the birthday of the master or mistress of the house, its guests or invited persons perform in an improvised operetta, in an ingenious, laudatory pastoral, sometimes dressed as gods, as Virtues, as mythological abstractions, as operatic Turks, Laplanders and Poles, similar to the figures then gracing the frontispieces of books, sometimes in the dress of peasants, pedagogues, peddlers, milkmaids and flower-girls like the fanciful villagers with which the current taste then fills the stage. They sing, they dance, and come forward in turn to recite petty verses composed for the occasion consisting of so many well-turned compliments.2268—At Chantilly "the young and charming Duchesse de Bourbon, attired as a voluptuous Naiad, guides the Comte du Nord, in a gilded gondola, across the grand canal to the island of Love;" the Prince de Conti, in his part, serves as pilot to the Grand Duchesse; other seigniors and ladies "each in allegorical guise," form the escort,2269 and on these limpid waters, in this new garden of Alcinous, the smiling and gallant retinue seems a fairy scene in Tasso.—At Vaudreuil, the ladies, advised that they are to be carried off to seraglios, attire themselves as vestals, while the high-priest welcomes them with pretty couplets into his temple in the park; meanwhile over three hundred Turks arrive who force the enclosure to the sound of music, and bear away the ladies in palanquins along the illuminated gardens. At the little Trianon, the park is arranged as a fair, and the ladies of the court are the saleswomen, "the queen keeping a café," while, here and there, are processions and theatricals; this festival costs, it is said, 100,000 livres, and a repetition of it is designed at Choisy attended with a larger outlay.

Alongside of these masquerades which stop at costume and require only an hour, there is a more important diversion, the private theatrical performance, which completely transforms the man, and which for six weeks, and even for three months, absorbs him entirely at rehearsals. Towards 1770,2270 "the rage for it is incredible; there is not an attorney in his cottage who does not wish to have a stage and his company of actors." A Bernardine living in Bresse, in the middle of a wood, writes to Collé that he and his brethren are about to perform "La Partie de Chasse de Henri IV," and that they are having a small theater constructed "without the knowledge of bigots and small minds." Reformers and moralists introduce theatrical art into the education of children; Mme. de Genlis composes comedies for them, considering these excellent for the securing of a good pronunciation, proper self-confidence and the graces of deportment. The theater, indeed, then prepares man for society as society prepares him for the theater; in either case he is on display, composing his attitude and tone of voice, and playing a part; the stage and the drawing room are on an equal footing. Towards the end of the century everybody becomes an actor, everybody having been one before.2271 "We hear of nothing but little theaters set up in the country around Paris." For a long time those of highest rank set the example. Under Louis XV. the Ducs d'Orléans, de Nivernais, d'Ayen, de Coigny, the Marquises de Courtenvaux, and d'Entraigues, the Comte de Maillebois, the Duchesse de Brancas, the Comtesse d'Estrades form, with Madame de Pompadour, the company of the "small cabinets;" the Due de la Vallière is the director of them; when the piece contains a ballet the Marquis de Courtenvaux, the Duc de Beuvron, the Comtes de Melfort and de Langeron are the titular dancers.2272 "Those who are accustomed to such spectacles," writes the sedate and pious Duc de Luynes, "agree in the opinion that it would be difficult for professional comedians to play better and more intelligently." The passion reaches at last still higher, even to the royal family. At Trianon, the queen, at first before forty persons and then before a more numerous audience, performs Colette in "Le Devin de Village," Gotte, in "La Gageure imprévue," Rosine in "Le Barbier de Seville," Pierette in "Le Chasseur et la Laitière,"2273 while the other comedians consist of the principal men of the court, the Comte d'Artois, the Comtes d'Adhémar and de Vaudreuil, the Comtesse de Guiche, and the Canoness de Polignac. A theater is formed in Monsieur's domicile; there are two in the Comte d'Artois's house, two in that of the Duc d'Orléans, two in the Comte de Clermont's, and one in the Prince de Condé's. The Comte de Clermont performs serious characters; the Duc d'Orléans represents, with completeness and naturalness, peasants and financiers; M. de Miromesnil, keeper of the seals, is the smartest and most finished of Scapins; M. de Vaudreuil seems to rival Molé; the Comte de Pons plays the "Misanthrope" with rare perfection.2274 "More than ten of our ladies of high rank," writes the Prince de Ligne, "play and sing better than the best of those I have seen in our theaters." By their talent judge of their study, assiduity and zeal. It is evident that for many of them it is the principal occupation. In a certain chateau, that of Saint-Aubin, the lady of the house, to secure a large enough troupe, enrolls her four chambermaids in it, making her little daughter, ten years old, play the part of Zaire, and for over twenty months she has no vacation. After her bankruptcy, and in her exile, the first thing done by the Princess de Guéménée was to send for upholsterers to arrange a theater. In short, as nobody went out in Venice without a mask so here nobody comprehended life without the masqueradings, metamorphoses, representations and triumphs of the player.

The last trait I have to mention, yet more significant, is the afterpiece. Really, in this fashionable circle, life is a carnival as free and almost as rakish as that of Venice. The play commonly terminates with a parade borrowed from La Fontaine's tales or from the farces of the Italian drama, which are not only pointed but more than free, and sometimes so broad that they cant be played only before princes and courtesans;"2275 a morbid palate, indeed, having no taste for orgeat, instead demanding a dram. The Duc d'Orléans sings on the stage the most spicy songs, playing Bartholin in "Nicaise," and Blaise in "Joconde." "Le Marriage sans Curé," "Leandre grosse," "L'amant poussif," "Leandre Etalon," are the showy titles of the pieces composed by Collé "for the amusement of His Highness and the Court." For one which contains salt there are ten stuffed with strong pepper. At Brunoy, at the residence of Monsieur, so gross are they2276 the king regrets having attended; "nobody had any idea of such license; two women in the auditorium had to go out, and, what is most extraordinary, they had dared to invite the queen."—Gaiety is a sort of intoxication which draws the cask down to the dregs, and when the wine is gone it draws on the lees. Not only at their little suppers, and with courtesans, but in the best society and with ladies, they commit the follies of a bagnio. Let us use the right word, they are blackguards, and the word is no more offensive to them than the action. "For five or six months," writes a lady in 1782,"2277 "the suppers are followed by a blind man's buff or by a draw-dance, and they end in general mischievousness, (une polissonnerie générale)." Guests are invited a fortnight in advance. "On this occasion they upset the tables and the furniture; they scattered twenty caraffes of water about the room; I finally got away at half-past one, wearied out, pelted with handkerchiefs, and leaving Madame de Clarence hoarse, with her dress torn to shreds, a scratch on her arm, and a bruise on her forehead, but delighted that she had given such a gay supper and flattered with the idea of its being the talk the next day."—This is the result of a craving for amusement. Under its pressure, as under the sculptor's thumb, the face of the century becomes transformed and insensibly loses its seriousness; the formal expression of the courtier at first becomes the cheerful physiognomy of the worldling, and then, on these smiling lips, their contours changed, we see the bold, unbridled grin of the scamp.2278

2202 (return)
[ De Loménie, "Beaumarchais et son temps," I. 403. Letter of Beaumarchais, (Dec. 24, 1764.)—The travels of Mme. d'Aulnoy and the letters of Mme. de Villars.—As to Italy see Stendhal, "Rome, Naples et Florence."—For Germany see the "Mémoires" of the Margrave of Bareith, also of the Chevalier Lang.—For England see my "Histoire de la litérature Anglaise," vols. III. IV.]

2203 (return)
[ Volney, "Tableau du climat et du sol des Etats-Unis d'Amérique." The leading trait of the French Colonist when compared with the colonists of other nations, is, according to this writer, the craving for neighbors and conversation]

2204 (return)
[ Mme. de Caylus, "Souvenirs," p. 108.]

2205 (return)
[ St. Simon, 461.]

2206 (return)
[ Duc de Lévis, p. 321.]

2207 (return)
[ Mme. de Genlis, "Souvenirs de Félicie," p. 160.—It is important, however, to call attention to the old-fashioned royal attitude under Louis XV and even Louis XVI. "Although I was advised," says Alfieri, "that the king never addressed ordinary strangers, I could not digest the Olympian-Jupiter look with which Louis XV measured the person presented to him, from head to foot, with such an impassible air; if a fly should be introduced to a giant, the giant, after looking at him, would smile, or perhaps remark.—'What a little mite!' In any event, if he said nothing, his face would express it for him." Alfieri, Mémoires," I.138, 1768. (Alfieri, Vittorio, born in Asti in 1749— Florence 1803. Italian poet and playwright. (SR.)—See in Mme. d'Oberkirk's "Mémoires." (II. 349), the lesson administered by Mme. Royale, aged seven and a half years, to a lady introduced to her.]

2208 (return)
[ Champfort, 26, 55; Bachaumont, I. 136 (Sept 7,1762). One month after the Parliament had passed a law against the Jesuits, little Jesuits in wax appeared, with a snail for a base. "By means of a thread the Jesuit was made to pop in and out from the shell. It is all the rage—here is no house without its Jesuit."]

2209 (return)
[ On the other hand, the song on the battle of Rosbach is charming.]

2210 (return)
[ "Correspondance secrète," by Métra, Imbert, etc., V. 277 (Nov. 17, 1777).—Voltaire, "Princesse de Babylone."]

2211 (return)
[ Baron de Bezenval, "Mémoires," II. 206. An anecdote related by the Duke.]

2212 (return)
[ Archives nationales, a report by M. Texier (1780). A report by M. Mesnard de Chousy (01, 738).]

2213 (return)
[ "Marie Antoinette," by d'Arneth and Geffroy, I. 277 (February 29. 1772).]

2214 (return)
[ De Luynes, XVII. 37 (August, 1758).—D'Argenson, February 11, 1753.]

2215 (return)
[ Archives nationales, 01, 738. Various sums of interest are paid: 12,969 francs to the baker, 39,631 francs to the wine merchant, and 173,899 francs to the purveyor.]

2216 (return)
[ Marquis de Mirabeau, "Traité de Population," 60.—"Le Gouvemement de Normandie," by Hippeau, II. 204 (Sept. 30, 1780).]

2217 (return)
[ Mme. de Larochejacquelein, "Mémoires," p. 30.—Mme. d'Oberkirk, II. 66.]

2218 (return)
[ D'Argenson, January 26, 1753.]

2219 (return)
[ George Sand, "Histoire de ma vie," I.78.]

2220 (return)
[ "Marie Antoinette," by d'Arneth and Geffroy, I. 61 (March 18, 1777).]

2221 (return)
[ D'Argenson, January 26, 1753.]

2222 (return)
[ "Marie Antoinette," III. 135, November 19, 1777.]

2223 (return)
[ Barbier, IV., 155. The Marshal de Soubise had a hunting lodge to which the king came from time to time to eat an omelet of pheasants' eggs, costing 157 livres, 10 sous. (Mercier, XII 192; according to the statement of the cook who made it.)]

2224 (return)
[ Mme. d'Oberkirk, I. 129, II. 257.]

2225 (return)
[ Mme. de Genlis, "Souvenirs de Félicie," 80; and "Théâtre de l'Education," II. 367. A virtuous young woman in ten months runs into debt to the amount of 70,000 francs: "Ten louis for a small table, 15 louis for another, 800 francs for a bureau, 200 francs for a small writing desk, 300 francs for a large one. Hair rings, hair glass, hair chain, hair bracelets, hair clasps, hair necklace, hair box, 9,900 francs," etc.]

2226 (return)
[ Mme. de Genlis, "Adèle et Théodore," III. 14.]

2227 (return)
[ Mme. d'Avray, sister of Mme. de Genlis, sets the example, for which she is at first much criticized.]

2228 (return)
[ "When I arrived in France M. de Choiseul's reign was just over. The woman who seemed nice to him, or could only please his sister-in-law the Duchesse de Gramont, was sure of being able to secure the promotion to colonel and lieutenant general of any man they proposed. Women were of consequence even in the eyes of the old and of the clergy; they were thoroughly familiar, to an extraordinary degree, with the march of events; they knew by heart the characters and habits of the king's friends and ministers. One of these, on returning to his château from Versailles, informed his wife about every thing with which he had been occupied; at home he says one or two words to her about his water-color sketches, or remains silent and thoughtful, pondering over what he has just heard in Parliament. Our poor ladies are abandoned to the Society of those frivolous men who, for want of intellect, have no ambition, and of course no employment (dandies)." (Stendhal, "Rome, Naples, and Florence," 377. A narrative by Colonel Forsyth).]

2229 (return)
[ De Bezenval, 49, 60.—"Out of twenty seigniors at the court there are fifteen not living with their wives, and keeping mistresses. Nothing is so common at Paris among certain people." (Barbier, IV. 496.)]

2230 (return)
[ Ne soyez point époux, ne soyez point amant, Soyez l'homme du jour et vous serez charmant.]

2231 (return)
[ Crébillon, fills. "La nuit et le moment," IX, 14.]

2232 (return)
[ Horace Walpole's letters (January 15, 1766).—The Duke de Brissac, at Louveciennes, the lover of Mme. du Barry, and passionately fond of her, always in her society assumed the attitude of a polite stranger. (Mme. Vigée-Lebrun, "Souvenirs," I. 165.)]

2233 (return)
[ De Lauzun, 51.—Champfort, 39.—"The Duc de—whose wife had just been the subject of scandal, complained to his mother-in-law: the latter replied with the greatest coolness, 'Eh, Monsieur, you make a good deal of talk about nothing. Your father was much better company.'" (Mme. d'Oberkirk, II. 135, 241).—"A husband said to his wife, I allow you everything except princes and lackeys.' He had it right since these two extremes brought dishonor on account of the scandal attached to them." (Sénac de Meilhan, "Considérations sur les moeurs.)—On a wife being discovered by a husband, he simply exclaims, "Madame, what imprudence! Suppose that I was any other man." (La femme au dix-huitième siècle," 201.)]

2234 (return)
[ See in this relation the somewhat ancient types, especially in the provinces. "My mother, my sister, and myself, transformed into statues by my father's presence, only recover ourselves after he leaves the room." (Châteaubriand, "Mémoires," I. 17, 28, 130).—"Mémoires de Mirabeau," I. 53.) The Marquis said of his father Antoine: "I never had the honor of kissing the cheek of that venerable man. . . At the Academy, being two hundred leagues away from him, the mere thought of him made me dread every youthful amusement which could be followed by the least unfavorable results."—Paternal authority seems almost as rigid among the middle and lower classes. ("Beaumarchais et son temps," by De Loménie, I. 23.—"Vie de mon père," by Restif de la Bretonne, passim.)]

2235 (return)
[ Sainte-Beuve, "Nouveaux lundis," XII, 13;—Comte de Tilly, "Mémoires," I. 12; Duc de Lauzun, 5.—"Beaumarchais," by de Loménie, II. 299.]

2236 (return)
[ Madame de Genlis, "Mémoires," ch 2 and 3.]

2237 (return)
[ Mme. d'Oberkirk. II. 35.—This fashion lasts until 1783.—De Goncourt, "La femme au dix-huitième siècle, 415,—"Les petits parrains," engraving by Moreau.—Berquin, "L'ami des enfants," passim.—Mme. de Genlis, "Théâtre de l'Education," passim.]

2238 (return)
[ Lesage, "Gil Blas de Santillane": the discourse of the dancing-master charged with the education of the son of Count d'Olivarés.]

2239 (return)
[ "Correspondance." by Métra, XIV. 212; XVI. 109.—Mme. d'Oberkirk. II, 302.]

2240 (return)
[ De Ségur, I. 297:

     Ma naissance n'a rien de neuf,
     J'ai suivi la commune régle,
     Mais c'est vous qui sortez d'un oeuf,
     Car vous êtes un aigle.

Mme. de Genlis, "Mémoires," ch. IV. Mme. de Genlis wrote verses of this kind at twelve years of age.]

2241 (return)
[ Already in the Précieuses of Molière, the Marquis de Mascarille and the Vicomte de Jodelet.—And the same in Marivaux, "L'épreuve, les jeux de l'amour et du hasard," ete.—Lesage, "Crispin rival de son maître."—Laclos, "Les liaisons dangéreuses," first letter.]

2242 (return)
[ Voltaire, "Princesse de Babylone."]

2243 (return)
[ "Gustave III," by Geffroy, II. 37.—Mme. Vigée-Lebrun, I. 81.]

2244 (return)
[ George Sand, I. 58-60. A narration by her grandmother, who, at thirty years of age, married M. Dupin de Francuiel, aged sixty-two.]

2245 (return)
[ Mme. de Genlis, "Souvenirs de Félicie," 77.—Mme. Campan, III. 74.—Mme. de Genlis, "Dict. des Etiquettes," I. 348.]

2246 (return)
[ See an anecdote concerning this species of royalty in "Adèle et Théodore, I. 69" by Mme. de Genlis.—Mme. Vigée-Lebrun, I. 156: "Women ruled then; the Revolution has dethroned them. . . This gallantry I speak of has entirely disappeared."]

2247 (return)
[ "Women in France to some extent dictate whatever is to be said and prescribe whatever is to be done in the fashionable world." ("A comparative view," by John Andrews, 1785.)]

2248 (return)
[ Mme. d'Oberkirk, I. 299.—Mme. de Genlis, "Mémoires," ch. XI.]

2249 (return)
[ De Tilly, I. 24.]

2250 (return)
[ Necker, "Oeuvres complètes," XV, 259.]

2251 (return)
[ Narrated by M. de Bezenval, a witness of the duel.]

2252 (return)
[ See especially: Saint-Aubin, "Le bal paré," "Le Concert;"—Moreau, "Les Elégants," "La Vie d'un Seigneur à la mode," the vignettes of "La nouvelle Héloise;" Beaudouin, "La Toilette," "Le Coucher de la Mariée;" Lawreince, "Qu'en dit l'abbé?"—Watteau, the first in date and in talent, transposes these customs and depicts them the better by making them more poetic.—Of the rest, reread "Marianne," by Marivaux; "La Vérité dans le vin," by Collé; "Le coin du feu," "La nuit et le moment," by Crébillon fils; and two letters in the "Correspondance inédite" of Mme. du Deffant, one by the Abbé Barthélemy and the other by the Chevalier de Boufflers, (I. 258, 341.).]

2253 (return)
[ "Correspondence inédite de Mme. du Deffant," published by M. de Saint-Aulaire, I. 235, 258, 296, 302, 363.]

2254 (return)
[ Mme. de Genlis, "Dict. des Etiquettes," II. 38. "Adèle et Théodore, I, 312, II, 350,—George Sand, "Histoire de ma vie," I. 228.—De Goncourt, p. 111.]

2255 (return)
[ George Sand, I. 59.]

2256 (return)
[ "A comparative view," etc., by John Andrews.]

2257 (return)
[ Mme. Vigée-Lebrun, I. 15, 154.]

2258 (return)
[ Châteaubriand, I. 34.—"Mémoires de Mirabeau," passim.—George Sand, I. 59, 76.]

2259 (return)
[ Comptes rendus de la société de Berry (1863-1864).]

2260 (return)
[ "Histoire de Troyes pendant la Révolution," by Albert Babeau, I. 46.]

2261 (return)
[ Foissets, "Le Président des Brosses," 65, 69, 70, 346.—"Lettres du Président des Brosses," (ed. Coulomb), passim.—Piron being uneasy concerning his "Ode à Priape," President Bouhier, a man of great and fine erudition, and the least starched of learned ones, sent for the young man and said to him, "You are a foolish fellow. If any one presses you to know the author of the offence tell him that I am." (Sainte-Beuve, "Nouveaux Lundis," VII. 414.)]

2262 (return)
[ Foisset, ibid.. 185. Six audiences a week and often two a day besides his labors as antiquarian, historian, linguist, geographer, editor and academician.]

2263 (return)
[ "Souvenirs", by PASQUIER (Etienne-Dennis, duc), chancelier de France. in VI volumes, Librarie Plon, Paris 1893.]

2264 (return)
[ De Valfons, "Souvenirs," 60.]

2265 (return)
[ Montgaillard (an eye-witness). "Histoire de France," II. 246.]

2266 (return)
[ M. de Conzié is surprised at four o'clock in the morning by his rival, an officer in the guards. "Make no noise," he said to him, "a dress like yours will be brought to me and I will have a cock made then we shall be on the same level." A valet brings him his weapons. He descends into the garden of the mansion, fights with the officer and disarms him. ("Correspondance," by Métra, XIV. May 20, 1783.)—"Le Comte de Clermont," by Jules Cousin, passim.—"Journal de Collé," III. 232 (July, 1769).]

2267 (return)
[ De Loménie, "Beaumarchais et son temps, II. 304.]

2268 (return)
[ De Luynes, XVL 161 (September, 1757). The village festival given to King Stanislas, by Mme. de Mauconseil at Bagatelle.—Bachaumont, III. 247 (September 7, 1767). Festival given by the Prince de Condé.]

2269 (return)
[ "Correspondance," by Métra, XIII. 97 (June 15, 1782), and V. 232 (June 24 and 25, 1777).—Mme. de Genlis "Mémoires," chap. XIV.]

2270 (return)
[ Bachaumont, November 17, 1770.—"Journal de Collé," III. 136 (April 29, 1767).—De Montlosier, "Mémoires," I. 43. "At the residence of the Commandant (at Clermont) they would have been glad to enlist me in private theatricals."]

2271 (return)
[ "Correspondance." by Métra, II. 245 (Nov. 18. 1775).]

2272 (return)
[ Julien. "Histoire du Théâtre de Madame de Pompadour." These representations last seven years and cost during the winter alone of 1749, 300,000 livres.—De Luynes, X. 45.—Mme. de Hausset, 230.]

2273 (return)
[ Mme. Campan, I. 130.—Cf. with caution, the Mémoires, are suspect, as they have been greatly modified and arranged by Fleury.— De Goncourt, 114.

2274 (return)
[ Jules Cousin, "Le Comte de Clermont," p.21.—Mme. de Genlis, "Mémoires," chap. 3 and 11.—De Goncourt, 114.]

2275 (return)
[ Bachaumont, III. 343 (February 23, 1768) and IV. 174, III. 232.—"Journal d Collé," passim.—Collé, Laujon and Poisinet are the principal purveyors for these displays; the only one of merit is "La Verité dans le Vin." In this piece instead of "Mylord." there was at first the "bishop of Avranches," and the piece was thus performed at Villers-Cotterets in the house of the Duc d'Orléans.]

2276 (return)
[ Mme. d'Oberkirk, II. 82.—On the tone of the best society see "Correspondance" by Métra, I. 50, III. 68, and Bezenval (Ed. Barrière) 387 to 394.]

2277 (return)
[ Mme. de Genlis, "Adèle et Théodore," II. 362.]

2278 (return)
[ George Sand, I. 85. "At my grandmother's I have found boxes full of couplets, madrigals and biting satires.... I burned some of them so obscene that I would not dare read them through, and these written by abbés I had known to my infancy and by a marquis of the best blood." Among other examples, toned down, the songs on the Bird and the Shepherdess, may be read in "Correspondance," by Métra.]