somebody ventured to say, by no means inaudibly, "well, this is royally
ill played!" The lesson was thrown away upon her, for never did she
sacrifice to the opinion of another that which she thought permissible.
When she was told that her extreme plainness in dress, the nature of her
amusements, and her dislike to that splendour which ought always to attend
a Queen, had an appearance of levity, which was misinterpreted by a
portion of the public, she replied with Madame de Maintenon: "I am upon
the stage, and of course I shall be either hissed or applauded." Louis
XIV. had a similar taste; he danced upon the stage; but he had shown by
brilliant actions that he knew how to enforce respect; and besides, he
unhesitatingly gave up the amusement from the moment he heard those
beautiful lines in which Racine pointed out how very unworthy of him such
pastimes were.--MONTJOIE, "History of Marie Antoinette."]

It was agreed that no young man except the Comte d'Artois should be
admitted into the company of performers, and that the audience should
consist only of the King, Monsieur, and the Princesses, who did not play;
but in order to stimulate the actors a little, the first boxes were to be
occupied by the readers, the Queen's ladies, their sisters and daughters,
making altogether about forty persons.

The Queen laughed heartily at the voice of M. d'Adhemar, formerly a very
fine one, but latterly become rather tremulous. His shepherd's dress in
Colin, in the "Devin du Village," contrasted very ridiculously with his
time of life, and the Queen said it would be difficult for malevolence
itself to find anything to criticise in the choice of such a lover. The
King was highly amused with these plays, and was present at every
performance. Caillot, a celebrated actor, who had long quitted the stage,
and Dazincourt, both of acknowledged good character, were selected to give
lessons, the first in comic opera, of which the easier sorts were