Note 71 — Chapter V

“The arrangements of this comparatively small theatre combine all that is chaste, elegant, light, and splendid in architecture and decoration. Illuminated with its thousand lights reflected from their crystal branches, it appears some fairy palace of Parian marble and burnished gold, at once noble and simple, magnificent and tasteful. To this splendid theatre no one was admitted who had not been presented at Court, and received a special invitation through the ‘premier gentilhomme de la chambre,’ or through their own ambassador. Every one appeared in full court dress, and the boxes, or rather the gallery which was round the theatre, is so constructed that every individual is distinctly seen. The King and the Royal Family occupy a centre box on one side; the ministers and ambassadors occupied a box on the left-hand of the King, the French Duchesses on the right, for the women do not mingle with the men under the present régime in the Court of the most gallant country in the world. The ‘parterre’ was exclusively occupied by the male part of the audience,” &c. &c.—Lady Morgan’s France in 1816, vol. i. p. 221.