greatly dreaded by his orchestra, whom he used to belabour over the head
with his fiddle. In this manner he is said to have broken scores of
violins, and one unlucky clarionet-player, in particular, who was never
either in time or tune, cost him a vast number of instruments. They
shivered like glass upon the obdurate noddle of the faulty Orpheus, and
Lully swore he had never met with so vile a musician, or so hard a head.
After a time it was discovered that the offender wore a leaden lining to
his periwig. Louis XIV. never ceased to take a most paternal interest in
his opera company. He went so far as to regulate and write out with his
own hand, the salaries allowed to the performers. Those were not days
when a singer was better paid than the general of an army, or a minister
of state; when each note of a tenor's voice was worth a corresponding
one, and of no small figure, issued from the Bank of France. The salary
of a first rate tenor or barytone, was then less than is now given to a
chorister or walking gentleman. Sixty pounds were the highest yearly sum
granted by Louis XIV. to the best opera singer. The first female dancer
received thirty-six pounds! We are quite sure, that the waiting maid of
an Elssler or a Taglioni, would turn up her nose at such a pittance.
Louis XIV. was gathered to his fathers, and soon after his death
matters improved a little. Still the pay was poor enough. But what of
that? Those were the palmy days of the heroes and heroines of the foot
lamps. For the disciples of Thespis, Paris was a paradise. True, when
dead they were refused Christian burial, but they cared little about
that, sinners that they were, for, whilst living, courted, flattered,
and cherished, they amassed, or more often spent, princely fortunes.
During the dissolute half century preceding the revolution, they were at
the summit of their prosperity. High born dames, even princesses of
blood royal, culled their favourites from amongst the knights of the
buskin; actresses, dancers, mere figurantes, saw the wealthiest and
proudest languishing at their feet, and contending for their smiles.