Old and New Paris: Its History, Its People, and Its Places, v. 1Edwards, H. Sutherland (Henry Sutherland)
History
Old and New Paris: Its History, Its People, and Its Places, v. 1
Edwards, H. Sutherland (Henry Sutherland)
Paris (France) -- Description and travel; Paris (France) -- History
In 1770 the famous company again changed their domicile, and, by the
king's special permission, took possession of the theatre built in 1671
at the palace of the Tuileries. Here they remained twelve years, until
1782, when they left the palace of the kings of France and installed
themselves in the house afterwards to become known as the Odéon, on
the left bank of the Seine, close to the Luxemburg Palace. According
to Fréron, the daring satirist who was in no way afraid to take even
Voltaire for his mark, the dramatic literature of France had now fallen
to a very low point, by reason of the worldly success of its authors.
"The gay life of most of our authors helps," wrote Fréron, "to keep
them within the bounds of mediocrity. Love of pleasure, the attractions
of society that luxury which had so long kept them at a respectful
distance, now enervate their souls. They are men of society, men of
fashion, runners after women, and themselves much run after. They are at
every party, every entertainment; no supper is complete without them;
they are sumptuously dressed, and have luxuriously furnished rooms. It
was not by supping out every night in society that the Corneilles, the
Molières, the La Fontaines, and the Boileaus composed those masterpieces
which will constitute for ever their glory and the glory of France. They
were simply lodged and simply clothed; a large flat cap covered the
sublime head of the great Corneille, but all the assembly rose before
him when he made his appearance at the play." Since the days of Fréron
the incomes and the luxury of French dramatic authors have greatly
increased; a result mainly due to the exertions of Beaumarchais, whose
_Marriage of Figaro_ was produced at the Comédie Française two years
after its installation at the Odéon in 1784. It was Beaumarchais who
secured for French dramatic authors a fixed proportion of the receipts,
and caused this equitable arrangement, previously unknown, to be
perpetuated.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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