Operatic kings and queens were suppressed by the republic. Not only were they forbidden to appear on the stage, but even their names were not to be pronounced behind the scenes, and the expressions _côté du roi_, _côté de la reine_, were changed into _côté jardin_, _côté cour_, which at the theatre of the Tuileries indicated respectively the left and right of the stage, from the stage point of view. At first all pieces in which kings and queens appeared, were prohibited, but the dramas of _sans culottes_ origin were so stupid and disgusting, that the republic was absolutely obliged to return to the old monarchical _répertoire_. The kings, however, were turned into chiefs; princes and dukes became representatives of the people; seigneurs subsided into mayors; and substitutes more or less synonymous, were found for such offensive words as crown, throne, sceptre, &c. In a new republican version of a lyrical work represented at the Opera Comique, _le roi_ in one well known line was replaced by _la loi_, and the vocalist had to declaim _La loi passait, et le tambour battait aux champs._ A certain voluble executant, however, is said to have preferred the following emendation: _Le pouvoir exécutif passait, et le tambour battait aux champs._ The scenes of most of the new operas were laid in Italy, Prussia, Portugal,--anywhere but in France, where it would have been indispensable, from a political, and impossible from a poetical, point of view to make the lovers address one another as _citoyen_, _citoyenne_. * * * * * On the 19th of June, 1793, the directors of the Opera having objected to give a gratuitous performance of _The Siege of Thionville_, the commune of Paris issued the following edict: "Considering that for a long time past the aristocracy has taken refuge in the administration of various theatres; "Considering that these gentlemen corrupt the public mind by the pieces they represent; "Considering that they exercise a fatal influence on the revolution; It is decreed that the _Siege of Thionville_ shall be represented gratis and solely for the amusement of the _sans culottes_, who, to this moment have been the true defenders of liberty and supporters of democracy." Soon afterwards it was proposed to shut up the Opera, but Hébert, the ferocious Hébert, better known as _le père Duchèsne_, undertook its defence on the ground that it procured subsistence for a number of families, and "caused the agreeable arts to flourish." It was thereupon resolved "that the Opera should be encouraged and defended against its enemies." At the same time the managers Cellérier and Francœur were arrested as _suspects_. Neither of them was executed. * * * * * [Sidenote: THE "MARATISTES" AGAIN.]