The XVIIIth century; its institutions, customs, and costumes France, 1700-1789 . lar as the tragediesdeclaimed in rhythmical periods by the actors of the Th(;atreFrangals. The new pieces occasionally interpolated into the ancientrepertory were, moreover, very inferior to the works of Ouinault andLully. The verses of Lamotte, Danchet, Roy, Abbe Pellegrin, andthe musical compositions of Destouches, Campro, Lacoste and Bertin,were about on a level of mediocrity. The opera-ballets were notmuch better, but the ballet proper had much improved since thedeath of Lully (1687). As regards scenery, dress
The XVIIIth century; its institutions, customs, and costumes France, 1700-1789 . lar as the tragediesdeclaimed in rhythmical periods by the actors of the Th(;atreFrangals. The new pieces occasionally interpolated into the ancientrepertory were, moreover, very inferior to the works of Ouinault andLully. The verses of Lamotte, Danchet, Roy, Abbe Pellegrin, andthe musical compositions of Destouches, Campro, Lacoste and Bertin,were about on a level of mediocrity. The opera-ballets were notmuch better, but the ballet proper had much improved since thedeath of Lully (1687). As regards scenery, dresses, and stageeffects, the Royal Academy of Music was unrivalled. As Dufresnywrote in the Amusements Serieux et Comiques, the opera was 392 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. an enchanted spot and the land of rapid transformations. In thetwinkling of an eye, the men become demi-gods, and the goddesseschange into weak mortals. There is no need to travel in foreigncountries, for they are brought before your eyes, and, withoutmoving from your seat you can go from one end of the world to the. -Dumirail, :is a peasant: after Wattcau. Other, and from the infernal regions to the Elysian fields. If you aredistressed at the sight of some arid desert, a signal lands you in theabode of the gods ; another signal and you are in fairyland. Theopera was the very temple of heathen m)-thology, and yet it wastolerated b)- the moralists, who were very severe as a rule, whilegentlemen and ladies of high birth were entitled, in accordance withthe privilege granted to Lully and Moliere by Louis XI\^, to singin public without loss of rank. The old Court party never went to th(^ \>^^y^ ^^id the courtiers THE THEATRES. 393 took care not to be seen there, for fear of losing favour with Madamede Maintenon and the King. Even the Princes and Princessesscarcely ventured to attend the theatres, and when they did it wasalmost in secret. The Due dOrleans, who was much more at Paristhan at Versailles, was the only excep
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