on. Audiences howled _la
Carmagnole_ or the _ca ira_, before the curtain went up; and when the
play began, revelled in highly-spiced, political dramatics, in which
the Pope soon became the most reviled and popular of villains. The
Pope {274} drunk, the Pope kicked in the stomach by his brutal
confederate George III, the Pope making love to Madame de Polignac, the
Pope surrounded by the tyrants of Europe swallowed up by the
flame-belching volcano of an enchanted island, such were the titbits
that brought moisture to the palates of the connoisseurs of the drama
in Paris.

The efforts of Joseph Chenier to get his tragedy _Timoleon_, played, at
a moment when he was not in good repute with the Committee of Public
Safety, may serve as an example of many similar incidents. The words,
"We need laws, not blood," in his _Charles IX_, had displeased
Robespierre and Billaud-Varennes, and the Jacobins were resolved to
prevent any new production. He read the Ms. of his _Timoleon_ however,
with great success, to the company of the Theatre de la Republique.
Vilate may be left to continue the tale:

Le lendemain je me trouve place, dans la Societe des Jacobins, pres
David et Michot. Celui-ci disait a l'autre: _Ah! la belle tragedie que
celle de Timoleon; c'est un chef d'oeuvre; demande a Vilate_. Je ne
pus me defendre de rendre une justice eclatante~.~.~. au genie de
l'auteur. Le peintre (David)~.~.~. nous repond: _Chenier une belle
tragedie! c'est impossible. Son ame a-t-elle jamais pu sentir la
liberte {275} pour la bien rendre? Non, je n'y crois pas_. A quelques
jours de la, me trouvant avec Barere et Billaud-Varennes, on parle de
_Timoleon_. Billaud ne put dissimuler son humeur: _Elle ne vaut rien;
elle n'aura pas l'honneur de la representation. Qu'entend-il par ce
vers contre-revolutionaire_:

_N'est-on jamais tyran qu'avec un diademe_?

Barere, qui avait mele ses applaudissements a la lecture de la piece,
mais auquel j'avais deja rapporte les propos de David, ajoute: _Oui, il
n'y a pas de genie revolutionaire; elle manque dans le plan_. Billaud
a Barere: _Ne souffrons pas qu'elle soit jouee_. Barere: _Donnons lui
le plaisir de quelques repetitions_.

Several rehearsals were accordingly permitted to take place. Two
performances followed. At the third there came a collapse.

On laisse aller la tragedie jusqu'a la scene ou Aristocles va pour
placer le bandeau royal sur la tete de Timophane, sous pretexte