LOUIS XIV.
Plays of an irreligious or seditious tendency found no sympathy with Louis XVI., and he interdicted the production of “The Mariage de Figaro” by Beaumarchais, remarking that the author of it “scoffs at everything that ought to be respected in government,” but his Majesty was eventually induced to withdraw his veto.
Marie Antoinette took a keen interest in all kinds of theatricals, and private representations were performed in her apartments. According to Montjoie,[146] she condescended to take characters not always of the most dignified description; she also played in comic operas. This sort of amusement, he adds, was imitated, and all classes of society imbibed a taste for theatrical representations; “there was not a man of rank, a financier, nor even a citizen in easy circumstances, who would be without his theatre. Formerly a private gentleman would have been disgraced if suspected of metamorphosing himself into an actor, even in a private house. The Queen, however, by her example having put an end to this prejudice, the head of the magistrates, unmindful of the dignity of his position, performed the lowest comic parts.”[147] Indeed, the theatre was a constant topic of conversation at Court, and when the Queen had not been present she never omitted asking, “Was it well attended?”
It was in 1774 that the King addressed Marie Antoinette thus: “You are fond of flowers. Well, I have a bouquet to offer you: it is the Little Trianon”;—a fatal present, as it turned out, for this “Little Trianon” became “the imputed cause of ruinous extravagance, and the fancied scene of improper indulgences.” During her residence here the favourite amusement was private theatricals, at which the King regularly attended.
On one occasion when Marie Antoinette went to the opera, a striking proof was given by the audience of their extraordinary and marked affection for her. The opera of “Iphigenia” by Glück was being performed, in the second act of which there is a chorus, in which Achilles sings the first verse, turning to his followers and saying—
“Chantons, célébrez votre reine!”
Instead of that the actor gave these words—