Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1877-01-17
Private Theafrfeals I'm France I'm the
Last Century.

placed the cloistral gloom of Madame
de Maintenon's reighn. We see this
taste and fashion spring;ng up in all
the higher social ranks. The French
became nation of actors and mimics.
People of rank and fortune initiated
their children. and just as boys and
girls then as now were playing some
character, or enacting some scene in
their holidays, the lords and danes of
the court and of the hotels imagined
every variety of dramatic diversion
with which to beguile the time that
hung heavily upon their hands. 1t
was, as Taine says, carnival-time in
France all the year round. There was
comedy and the spirit of comedy every
where. ''In every chateau, in every
mansion, at Paris and in the provinces,
this fashion of comedy sets up travesties
on society and domestic life. On well
coming great parsonage, on celebrat-
ing the birthday of the master or mis-
tress of the house, its guests or invited
persons perform in an improvised oper-
eta, in an ingenious, laudatory pastor
al, sometimes dressed as gods, as vir-
tues, as NEUROLOGICAL distractions, as
operate Turks, Laplanders, and Poles.
similar TO the figures then gracing the
frontispieccs of books; sometimes in the
dress ofpeasants, pedagogues, peddlers,
milk maids, and flower girls, like the
fanciful villagers with which the cur
rent taste then filed the stage. They
sing, they dance, and come forward in
turn to recite pretty verses composed
for the occasion, consisting of so many
well-turned compliments" Among
the great houses where this sort of per-
formances was much in vogue, and
where they were presented with much
picturesqueness and elaboration, was
the historic chateau of Chantilly, then
the lordly residence of the Princes de
Conde. There the young and lovely
Duchess de Bourbon, was wont to ar
ray herself as an aliuring water-nymph,
and to conduct the young nobility
across the canal in the park to the island
which she had named the Isle of Love;
while the Princess de Cont acted as
the fair DANES pilot, and crowd of
gallants and demoiselles attended in
every variety of allegorical guise. On
one occasion, at another chateau, the
ladies were mysteriously advised that
they were TO be carried off to seraglios;
whereupon a pretty play was impro-
vised, in which the ladies got them
selves up as vestal virgins, and sought
an improvised temple in the park,
where they were received by a melodi-
Gus priest with a suspiciously black
moustache. Then the temple was sud-
denly attacked by three hundred qua
dily-attired Turks, who broke in upon
its sanctity amid thrilling chorus,
and carried off the vestals in palanquins.
We hear, on another occasion, of the
Little Trianon being turned into fair,
behind the stalls of which royal and
noble ladies appeared as saleswomen.
To the Queen was consigned the super
vision OF cafe. About the grounds,
meanwhile, charades ana little plays
were performed under the trees and be-
meath silken tents.
The rage for comedy so completely
possessed the French in the time of
Louis Nv. that house, either in town
or country, was scarcely regarded
fashionable or well furnished that did
not have its little theatre, with stage,
scenery, green room, wardrobe, foot
lights, auditorium, and all. Bachau-
mont, writing about 1770, says that the
rage was so great after theatricals that
.'there is not an attorney in his cottage
who does not wish TO have a stage and
his company of actors" County mag
mates would erect theatres in their
chateau, form companies among their
neighbers and intimates for miles
around, and beguile the long winters
with several performances week. Ii
| became a part of the education of child
rem to learn how to act gracefully in
the polite comedies of the period priv
ately played; and Madame de Genlis,
among others, wrote pretty little dram
attic pieces, in correct and graceful
verse, for the children to play; men
and women of rank became as accom-
plished in the dramatic art as profess
sionals. The Duke de Luynes declares
that .'those who are accustomed TO such
spectacles agree in opinion that it would
be difficult for professional comedians
to play better and more intelligently."
The fashion was long-lived, and was in
full favor in the early years of the
reign of Louis XVI. Marie Antoinette
was not only passionately fond of the
theatre, but was herself one of the very
best actresses in the court, and won
what was evidently the most sincere ap-
plause by taking the part of Colette in
''Le Devin de Village" and Rosinc in
''Le Barber de Seville"
The princes of the blood and the
greatest mobiles constantly participated
in these dramatic diversions.
The Count de Provence had theatre
i'm his house, and the Count d'Artois
and the Duke d'Orleans each two.
Count d'Artois, afterwards Charles n.
was noted as comedian of striking
merit; while the count de Clermont
was equally distinguished for the talent
with which he took the ''serious parts"
Philippe Egalite was famous for his
vivid representation of peasant charac-
ters and Count de Pons was a wonderful
Misdnthrope. The Prince de Linges de-
clared in one of his letters that "more
than zen of our ladies of high rank play
and sing better than the best of those 1
have seen in our theatres" ''In a GER
tain chateau, that of Saint-Aubin,"
says Taine, ''the lady of the house, to
secure large enough troupe, enrolls
her four chambermaids in it, making
her little daughter, ten years old, play
the part of Z0ire, ard for over twenty
months she has no vacation. After her