admission; the best place in the house costing less than a pit-ticket at
the Italian opera in London. The Opera Comique receives nearly ten
thousand pounds a-year, the Français eight, the Odeon four. The other
theatres do as well as they can without subsidies, and, as in this
country, are losing or profitable concerns according to the skill of the
manager, to the merits of the actors and plays produced; and, oftener
still, according to the caprice and good pleasure of the public. Their
prices of admission are generally higher in proportion than those of the
larger theatres. It must be admitted that their performances are often
more amusing.

Although one or two attempts were made at earlier periods, the permanent
establishment of the opera in France cannot be traced further back than
the reign of Louis XIV., when Cardinal Mazarine had the happy idea of
introducing it, in hopes of amusing that most unamuseable of monarchs.
The novelty found great favour, both with sovereign and courtiers.
Performances took place in the king's private apartments; the Marquis of
Sourdeac, a man of immense wealth and considerable mechanical skill,
constructed a theatre in his Norman castle, and brought out the "Toison
d'Or," with words by Corneille. At last an opera company was regularly
installed in a building in the Rue Vaugirard, and here, upon one
occasion, when the King was present, the Prince of Condé, and other
great nobles, danced upon the stage amongst the actors. "The first opera
in which female dancers were introduced was the Triumph of Love, played
at St. Germains before Louis XIV. On the occasion of this brilliant
_fête_, several ladies of the court were amongst the performers, and it
was resolved that they should in future be replaced by professional
_danseuses_, the female characters in the ballet having previously been
sustained by men." Lully, the celebrated composer, was manager of the
opera house, where he amassed a very large fortune. He made himself