Proverbs were long the favourites of our neighbours; in the splendid and refined court of Louis the Fourteenth they gave rise to an odd invention. They plotted comedies and even fantastical ballets from their subjects. In these Curiosities of Literature I cannot pass by such eccentric inventions unnoticed. A COMEDY _of proverbs_ is described by the Duke de la Valliere, which was performed in 1634 with prodigious success. He considers that this comedy ought to be ranked among farces; but it is gay, well-written, and curious for containing the best proverbs, which are happily introduced in the dialogue. A more extraordinary attempt was a BALLET _of proverbs_. Before the opera was established in France, the ancient ballets formed the chief amusement of the court, and Louis the Fourteenth himself joined with the performers. The singular attempt of forming a pantomimical dance out of proverbs is quite French; we have a "ballet des proverbes, danse par le Roi, in 1654." At every proverb the scene changed, and adapted itself to the subject. I shall give two or three of the _entrees_ that we may form some notion of these _capriccios_. The proverb was--- _Tel menace qui a grand peur._ He threatens who is afraid. The scene was composed of swaggering scaramouches and some honest cits, who at length beat them off. At another _entree_ the proverb was-- _L'occasion fait le larron._ Opportunity makes the thief. Opportunity was acted by le Sieur Beaubrun, but it is difficult to conceive how the real could personify the abstract personage. The thieves were the Duke d'Amville and Monsieur de la Chesnaye. Another _entree_ was the proverb of-- _Ce qui vient de la flute s'en va au tambour._ What comes by the pipe goes by the tabor. A loose dissipated officer was performed by le Sieur l'Anglois; the _Pipe_ by St. Aignan, and the _Tabor_ by le Sieur le Comte! In this manner every proverb was _spoken in action_, the whole connected by dialogue. More must have depended on the actors than the poet.[37] The French long retained this fondness for proverbs; for they still have dramatic compositions entitled _proverbes_, on a more refined plan. Their invention is so recent, that the term is not in their great dictionary of Trevoux. These _proverbes_ are dramas of a single act, invented by Carmontel, who possessed a peculiar vein of humour, but who designed them only for private theatricals. Each _proverb_ furnished a subject for a few scenes, and created a situation powerfully comic: it is a dramatic amusement which does not appear to have reached us, but one which the celebrated Catherine of Russia delighted to compose for her own society.