or two, deposed the boy of fifteen from the position of page to that of
scullion; but Count Nogent, accidentally hearing him sing and struck by
his musical talent, influenced the princess to place him under the care
of good masters. Lulli made such rapid progress that he soon commenced
to compose music of a style superior to that before current in
divertissements of the French court.

The name of Philippe Quinault is closely associated with the musical
career of Lulli; for to the poet the musician was indebted for his best
librettos. Born at Paris in 1636, Quinault's genius for poetry displayed
itself at an early age. Before he was twenty he had written several
successful comedies. Though he produced many plays, both tragedies and
comedies, well known to readers of French poetry, his operatic poems are
those which have rendered his memory illustrious. He died on November
29,1688. It is said that during his last illness he was extremely
penitent on account of the voluptuous tendency of his works. All his
lyrical dramas are full of beauty, but "Atys," "Phaeton," "Isis," and
"Armide" have been ranked the highest. "Armide" was the last of the
poet's efforts, and Lulli was so much in love with the opera, when
completed, that he had it performed over and over again for his own
pleasure without any other auditor. When "Atys" was performed first in
1676, the eager throng began to pour in the theatre at ten o'clock in
the morning, and by noon the building was filled. The King and the Count
were charmed with the work in spite of the bitter dislike of Boileau,
the Aristarchus of his age. "Put me in a place where I shall not be able
to hear the words," said the latter to the box-keeper; "I like Lulli's
music very much, but have a sovereign contempt for Quinault's words."
Lulli obliged the poet to write "Armide" five times over, and the
felicity of his treatment is proved by the fact that Gluck afterward set
the same poem to the music which is still occasionally sung in Germany.