New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1874-04-16
BREAKFASTIYG WITH ROYALTY.

Did Moliere take breakfast with Louis XlV.Y
This is one of the important questions now
agitating the salons of Paris. Dumas the
elder represents the comedian as thus hOnored,
in the play of I" La Jeunesse de Louis XIV"
The controversy has even crossed the Chan
mel. "Why,r asks The Daily News, "should
"nOt the comedian have sat at the table OF
"the Kingq BettertOn very often dined with
Charles H., and has recorded the fOndness
"of the merry monarch for roast shoulder OF
" yeal.p Moreover we are told that John Kem-
able took tea more than once with George ILL.,
and Queen Charlotte; and that Talma was
ga constant guest during the first empire at
"the Tuileriesn Nevertheless The Gazette Is
Obliged to admit what is historically true
that tho Grand Monarch, the complete
embodiment of etiquette, always break
tasted and dined alone. BettertOn may
have dined with Charles H., who was
a king fond Of unbending, though we sus-
pect his breakfasts, and dinners, and suppers,
we're oftener with Mrs. Eleanor Gwynn than
with the first great English tragediaD of whom
we know anything. We do not believe that
John Kemble took tea, as The Gazette says,
"more than Once,n or even once, with George
ILL., or old Charlotte. She, at least, was full OF
German notions Of royal etiquette, and OBJ
liged Mrs. Siddons to stand while reading
Shakespeare to her. Upon the point of dietetic
refreshment we are enabled TO speak with alb
solute certainty. The irreverent Peter Pindar
tells us, when Mrs. Siddons was ordered Z" to
"wait upon their majesties and spout" and to
how to mind their stops and commas, show
"em,n that they did mot offer to her one
drop of beer, Nor wine, nor chocolate, her
heart to cheer,n though she was "ready
"to drop to the earth" subsequently, VOL
colt exutingly relates that his verses had
shamed royalty into something like considerate
politeness, and that both King John and bis
sister were treated at the palace to "ice-cream
"and Wines" But not a word does he say of
Kemble's dining with royalty. He may have
had plate at the yeOmens table, but that he
ate dinner in state with the King Is highly
improbable. AS for Talma, he was the intimate
personal friend of Napoleon when that great
man was O sous-lieutenant of artillery. If the
actor dined t6te-d-t6te with the Emperor, it
must have been seldom and in very private
way.
1t is.a comfort to know that if Moliere did
breakfast with his King the meal was probably
q good one. Whatever other debts his Majesty
might incur, he paid cash invariably to his
stomach. De Joinville tells us that st.
Louis "never ordered anything particular
cor delicate to be cooked for him, but
"took patiently whatever was set before
"him.n But this son of st. Louis sur
named the Fourteenth was as hugo feeder
as any of the later Roman Emperors. "Noth-
"ing.n wrote Mad. dc Maintenon, conf
dentially. "but the extraordinary health and
strength of the King could be consolation
"for the manner in which he treats those he
"best loves. If he made me eat half as much
as he eats himself, L should not be long
alive" at makes me tremble," she adds,
to see him eat" He was, in fact, whether we
consider quality or quantity, one of the most
remarkable of the royal feeders for whom an
impoverished people have been forced to find
fodder. The Emperor Charles at Yuste may
have been capable of holding more, and Fred
ericb the Great may have beaten Louis
in the speciality Of eel-pie; but for general
and miscellaneous grossness and gormandizing,
the Grand Monarch stands unapproached and
unapproachabe! Nobody but Gargantua could
have rivaled him. He had matters mostly his
own way while he was living; he was thought
to be magnanimous, and was really small
minded; was esteemed tall, and is now proved
to have been short; and, though every inch
king in one sense, he cuts no very royal figure
in history. One would like to believe very
little good of any king. for it must be admit
ted that these monarchs are rather q shabby
set-sensual, selfish, and frequently brutal.
Any honest man would prefer Moliere's fame,
even if he had to take his old plebeian name
of Pocquelin with it,