de Vermandois; but
these distinguished personages probably sang more than they danced.
Louis XIV. frequently figured in ballets, one of his favourite
characters being the Sun in "Flora," said to be the eighteenth ballet
in which he had played a part. Lulli, the composer, director of the
Opera, paid great attention to the ballet, occasionally appearing as a
dancer; as a singer and comic actor he had already acquired fame. To
Lulli has been attributed the introduction of rapid dancing, in
opposition to the solemn and deliberate steps favoured by the court
during the early part of the reign of Louis XIV. It may be added, that
the king held out a measure of encouragement to such of his nobility
and courtiers as were disposed to follow his example and exhibit upon
the scene. "It is our pleasure," he says in the patent granted to the
Abbe Perrin, the first director of the French Opera, 1669, "that all
gentlemen and ladies may sing in the said pieces and representations
of our Royal Academy, without being considered on that account to
derogate from their letters of nobility or from their privileges,
rights, and immunities." The dramatic ballet, or ballet of action, is
said to have been invented by the Duchesse du Maine, whose theatrical
entertainments at Sceaux rivalled the festivities of Versailles, and
obtained the preference of many nobles of the court. The lady,
however, unfortunately meddled with the Spanish conspiracy--she should
have confined herself to the plots of ballets--and forthwith the
establishment at Sceaux was broken up. In this way Mouret, her musical
director, who also composed several operas and ballets for the
Academy, suffered severe loss; eventually he went mad and died in the
lunatic asylum at Charenton.

Mademoiselle de Subligny came to England armed with letters of
introduction from Thiriot and the Abbe Dubois to John Locke of all
people! Locke probably was not very sympathetic in regard to the
lady's art, yet respect for his friends led him to bestow upon her due
civility and attention; according to Fontenelle, he constituted
himself her _homme d'affaires_. Another dancer, Mademoiselle Salle,
whose charms and graces Voltaire had celebrated in verse, appeared in
London with letters of introduction from Fontenelle to Montesquieu,
then ambassador at the court of St. James's. It is clear that the
ballet-dancers were becoming personages of real importance.

Mdlle. Salle, it seems, achieved extraordinar