Louis XIII., cultivated music with much success, he composed many airs, and several motets which he had performed in his Chapel. Music was his ordinary recreation when he could not go hunting. At the siege of La Rochelle, there being no musicians or singers with the army, he himself wrote out the vespers for Pentecost, that they might be ready in time. Three weeks before his death, and after he had received the extreme unction, feeling himself somewhat better, he begged Nyert, his first _valet de garderobe_ to sing a paraphrase of David, which he had set to music, to give thanks to God. Saint-Martin and Campeforte who were present, each sang a part, and thus made a concerted piece which they sang around the bed, the king from time to time joining in with his own voice. He also wrote a “_de Profundis_,” which was sung over him after his death.[282] The words still exist which were written by him for his now well-known “Amaryllis;” they were written for Madame de Hauteforte, and one of the verses runs:— Tu crois, o beau soleil! Q’ua ton eclat rien n’est pareil; Mais quoi! tu palis Auprès d’Amaryllis.[283] Tallement speaks of a concert given once where one of his songs was sung four times, the king beating the measure. To these gatherings he would admit none who were not musical, and no women whatever, “for” said he, “_they cannot keep silent_."[284] Under Louis XIV., the opera became well known in France, nor was it any longer a borrowed spectacle, for Lulli in 1664 associated himself with Moliere in writing; the latter furnishing the _libretti_, which were in themselves of the best order. In 1672 he built a permanent opera house, (Academie Royale de Musique) and thus gave to France, what it had never before possessed,—a national opera. There were, to be sure, a few French operas, before his enterprise; one given at Paris, by Cardinal Mazarin, in 1645; one entitled “Akébar, King of Mogul,” by the Abbeé Mailly and “La Pastorale en musique,” by Cambert,[285] but these do not deprive Lulli of the claim of being the “founder of French opera.” La Fontaine tried to write some _libretti_ for Lulli, which were total failures, and declined by the musician. The King (Louis XIV.), was passionately fond of Lulli’s music, and would hear scarcely any other. About this time, the idea of _whistling and hissing_ to show disapproval, was invented. It is said that Corneille’s “_Baron de Fondrieres_” has the questionable honor of being the first play that ever was hissed. The hiss, spread rapidly, but on some one having injudiciously hissed the opera of Orpheus, by the sons of Lully, the hiss was interdicted by law in 1690.[286] The repression was not very effectual, and innumerable epigrams (some of which still exist),[287] showed the derision of the public.