rtain
chateau, that of Saint-Aubin, the lady of the house, to secure a large
enough troupe, enrolls her four chambermaids in it, making her little
daughter, ten years old, play the part of Zaire, and for over twenty
months she has no vacation. After her bankruptcy, and in her exile,
the first thing done by the Princess de Guemenee was to send for
upholsterers to arrange a theater. In short, as nobody went out in
Venice without a mask so here nobody comprehended life without the
masqueradings, metamorphoses, representations and triumphs of the
player.

The last trait I have to mention, yet more significant, is the
afterpiece. Really, in this fashionable circle, life is a carnival
as free and almost as rakish as that of Venice. The play commonly
terminates with a parade borrowed from La Fontaine's tales or from the
farces of the Italian drama, which are not only pointed but more than
free, and sometimes so broad that they cant be played only before
princes and courtesans;"[2275] a morbid palate, indeed, having no taste
for orgeat, instead demanding a dram. The Duc d'Orleans sings on the
stage the most spicy songs, playing Bartholin in "Nicaise," and Blaise
in "Joconde." "Le Marriage sans Cure," "Leandre grosse," "L'amant
poussif," "Leandre Etalon," are the showy titles of the pieces composed
by Colle "for the amusement of His Highness and the Court." For one
which contains salt there are ten stuffed with strong pepper. At Brunoy,
at the residence of Monsieur, so gross are they[2276] the king regrets
having attended; "nobody had any idea of such license; two women in
the auditorium had to go out, and, what is most extraordinary, they
had dared to invite the queen."--Gaiety is a sort of intoxication which
draws the cask down to the dregs, and when the wine is gone it draws on
the lees. Not only at their little suppers, and with courtesans, but in
the best society and with ladies, they commit the follies of a bagnio.
Let us use the right word, they are blackguards, and the word is no more
offensive to them than the action. "For five or six months," writes a
lady in 1782,"[2277] "the suppers are followed by a blind man's buff
or by a draw-dance, and they end in general mischievousness, (une
polissonnerie generale)." Guests are invited a fortnight in advance. "On
this occasion they upset the tables and the furniture; they scattered
twenty caraffes of water about the room; I finally got away at half-past
one, wearied out, pelt