Montpensier, Anne-Marie-Louise d'Orléans, duchesse de, 1627-1693
When Gaston d'Orléans took his young wife to Chantilly immediately
after his marriage, he sent for a troupe of comedians, who went to
the château with their band and with violins,--"thus," reports a
contemporary, "rendering the little journey very diverting." On the
occasion already mentioned, when the same Prince conducted his daughter
to Tours so that he might present Louison Roger to her, he did not
permit the little Princess to languish for the theatre. "Monsieur
sent for the comedians," wrote Mademoiselle, "and we had the comedy
nearly every day."[60] When Monsieur returned to his château in Blois
his troupe followed him. When Mademoiselle returned to the Tuileries
(November, 1637) she found a private theatre in every house to which
she was invited.
Actors worked without respite; they had no vacations; they played in
the French, in the Spanish, and in the Italian languages; and English
comedy also, played by English actors, was seen in Paris. Richelieu's
theatre in the Hôtel de Richelieu[61] "was provided with two audience
halls,--one large, the other small. Both were luxuriously mounted. The
decorations and the costumes of the actors displayed such magnificence
that the audience murmured with delight."
The _Gazette de France_, which bestowed nothing but an occasional
casual notice upon the royal theatre of the King's palace, dilated
admiringly upon the Théâtre de Richelieu and the marvels with which the
Cardinal regaled his guests. The _Gazette_ reported the occasion of the
presentation of "the excellent comedy written by Sieur Baro," and the
ballet which followed it.
The ballet was interlaced by a double collation. One part of the
collation was composed of the rarest and most delicious of fruits;
the other part was composed of confitures in little baskets,
which eighteen dancing pages presented to the guests. The baskets
were all trimmed with English ribands and with golden and silvern
tissue. The pages presented the baskets to the lords and then the
lords distributed them among the ladies.
Mademoiselle was one of the company, and she received her basket with
profound satisfaction. Three days after the first comedy of Baro was
played the Court again visited the Cardinal's theatre to witness a
second play by the same author. Baro was a well-known literary hack. He
had been d'Urfé's secretary and had continued _Astrée_ when d'Urfé laid
down his pen. The success of the second representation was phenomenal.
The ornamentation of the theatre [commented the _Gazette_], the
pretty, ingenious tricks invented by the author, the excellences of
the verse ... the ravishing concert of the lutes, the harpsichords,
and the other instruments, the elocution, the gestures, and the
costumes of the actors compromised the honour of all the plays that
have been seen either in past centuries or in our own century.
We consider Baro's plays insipid, but they were very successful in
their day.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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