The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-05-02

I
Noel Noel! !" at the good bits, and to drag
off disappearing prentices to the Chatelet,
| where smart whipping was given them to
| correct their taste on dramatic questions. AS
time rolled on, however, and as play-houses
arose, theatrical managers found il necessary
to be more tolerant. The question of pay
had something to do with this. In the reign
of Henry III it cost two SoLs (about I'd. modern
| money! to go into the pit of one of the two
wooden theatres then existing In Paris; but it
was an understood thing that by disbursing
this sum the spectator had perfect right to
express what opinion he pleased as to the
! performance; and if we may believe Bran
tome andEother contemporary writers, the most
| approved method of conveying criticism was
by pelting the actor with stones, which the
! play-goer brought with him for the purpose
Whether this liberty of judging led to incon-
veniences or no is not very clear, but we may
conclude it did; for about century later,
! Louis XIV being king, we find an order of
! the Lieutenant of Police. La Reynie, formally
prohibiting any expressions of disapproval
| whatever within the walls of royal theatres.
! This was at the time when Corneille, Moiere,
! Racine, and Regnard were popular favorites;
and it may be remarked that a critic bold
enough to hiss in those days ran twofold
danger, for not only was he exposed to be
seized by Nj. de la Reynies agents, but he
| stood the best possible chance of being beaten
black and blue by the iveried servants of the
noblemen who sat in the boxes. There is a
story told of the Prince de Conde, who, being
one evening at the Comedie Franchise,
and observing q man in the pit hiss a scene
in CHINA, jumped up Indignantly and shouted
to his servant below, ''Seize that fellow! !"
Unfortunately for the Prince, he was
! but lately returned from the unsuccessful
campaign in which he had been obliged to
raise the siege of Lerida; and the man in the
| pit had only to shout, ooh no, my lord you
| don't take me; my names Lerida, to turn
the laugh against the discounted nobleman,
and to insure himself the protection of the
audience. 1t may be mentioned incidentally
that in the reign of Louis XIV theatrical
| performances began at four or half past, and
were generally over by o'clock. Actors were
seldom paid fixed salary, but usually formed
sort of joint-stock society, dividing the
profits share and share alike. The price of
admission to the pit was then (1G42-1715) five
sous, equivalent to about 10d nowadays; and
seat in the boxes cost two livres, !. g., four
and half modern francs. AS the
! playgoing public was very limited,
audiences were much more refined and
difficult to please then than they are
now, and anything like the modern claque
would have been useless If piece was
! good, il was enthusiastically and uproariously
cheered, the spectators throwing flowers,
money, and in some cases even jewelry, to
the performers (the Due de Richelieu, in the
reign of Louis XIV, one day threw his gold
and diamond snuff-box to the chief actor in
Voltaire's Zaire); but if the piece was bad it
| fell fiat at once, without hope of remission,
! and no amount of mercenary appauding
could have galvanized it into life again. The
| biographers of Scarron mention that at the
! first performance of one of the poets early
pieces the curtain fell at the conclusion of
the first act amid dead silence. The actors
were much chagrined, for they had counted
upon the success of the work; but instead of
continuing the other acts the leader of the
troupe came forward and naively declared
that as the rest of the piece was no better
than the beginning, indeed perhaps rather
worse, the actors would not put the courtesy
of the audience to the test, bat proceed to
play something else. This announcement
was received with general burst of applause,
and Scarron's play was shelved accordingly.
A considerable change had come over the
theatrical world some hundred years later,
when Napoleon [ ascen!ed the throne. There
were then eleven theatres in Paris IN q more
or less hourishing condition, and the cgGqUe
was then q recognized institution, working
not SO much on behalf of theatrical managers
as for the behoof of public order in general,
and of the Prefecture of Police in particular.
The Emperor liked nothing in the shape of
riot, whether in theatre or in the streets,
was put down at once If a maR was caught
Kissing in theatre, the least that could hap
pen to him was to be dragged before the
Commissaire de Police, and made to show his
passport state who he was, and what were his
means of living During the restoration it
was even worse. Party spirit between Roy
alists and Bonapartists ran SO high from 1915
to 1880, that piece which was applauded by
the press of one party was sure to be cried
down by the organs of the other. Had it not
been for the formidable array of cLagueurs,
which every manager took care to have in the
pit, half the playhouses of Paris would have
been converted into battle-felds; as it was,
the CldqueurS had often more than enough to
do in sitting the groans of the Quarter Latin
students, who were wont to go en- nlaSSe to
all the first performances" at the Theatre
Francais and the Odeon, and howl hideously
whenever any anti-liberal sentiment was
uttered on the stage.
Up to 1920 it was usual for theatrical mana.
gers to covenant with a chef dc cLdgue (ol
leader of the cLdqUe orchestra, and give him sc
much year, on the understanding that he
should bring fiye-and- thirty or forty cLGQueW7S
to the house every night. One day, how.
ever, it was discovered that this arrangement
was not at all paying one. The only man
who thrived under it was the chef de cLague
who generally made his fortune at the end OF
few years, and retired rich; while his ex
employer, the manager, too often ended hi
career in the bankruptcy court. The chef d
cLague had several ways of making money out
of his contract. Besides his fixed salary
from the manager he received so much yea
from most of the actors and actresses
especially from those who had not much
talent. and in addition to this he freouentl,