QUEEN.
The honor we do you to-day is to be gay, festive, joyous. We have delighted to plan a fete for your pleasure wherein you shall behold Versailles and Trianon, court ladies, milkmaids, shepherdesses! But, first, the verses!
[According to the custom of eighteenth-century France in honoring a philosopher, the Mlles. de Pernan and de Tressau face Franklin and the Queen, courtesy deeply, recite a verse, courtesy again, and return to their places.
MLLE. DE PERNAN.
"We come to honor, one by one,
Benjamin Franklin, Freedom's son,
Who comes to us from oversea,
Champion of light and liberty."
MLLE. DE TRESSAU.
"Learned and just, benignant, wise,
You draw the lightning from the skies:
Printer and Statesman—here we see
What man through his own wit may be!"
[Throughout the revels that follow the Queen and Benjamin Franklin stand at right, while the dancers enter from left background. As soon as one group has finished dancing, center, they move to the left, and stand in a line facing Franklin and the Queen. Thus color is added to color, till the whole has a rainbow effect.
The first group to enter is the pale-violet group, ladies-in-waiting, who wear pale-violet bodices and overdresses over white. They dance a gavotte, and retire to a line at left. The stage on which the dancing is done must afford ample space, so that there is no crowding.
The second group enters. Court ladies in pale-yellow bodices and looped overdresses over white. They dance a gavotte, and then stand at left of stage.