instituted a new band in his favor in the year 1652, and gave them the name of Les petits Violons. The different parts of a musical piece were not then performed from regular books, but learned off by heart by the musicians, who should each be individually instructed by the master. Here Lulli introduced his first great improvement, making his pupils play from the book and learn their own parts, so that in a short time he was able to produce symphonies and other harmonised pieces, and brought his band to greater perfection than any of the Italians of his day. He was now appointed superintendent of the king's music, and in the year 1672, a quarrel having arisen between the Abbé Perrin and his associates, the former gave up his privilege of the academy of music, which was granted to Lulli, who caused a new theatre to be constructed near the Palais d' Orleans, in the Rue Vaugirard, called the Luxemburg. After the death of Molière in 1673, the French opera was removed to the Theatre of the Palais Royal, where it remained for a long time. The first piece brought out by Lulli, was that of Les Féles de l'Amour et de Bacchus, a pastoral with ballets, the words by Quinault, in 1672, and was soon followed by that of Cadmus. The first female actors and singers did not appear until the year 1681.

Such was the foundation of the French Académie de Musique by the famous Lulli, of whom Voltaire says that he "was the father of true music in France." Before the time of this great master, attention was paid only to the first parts of the singing. In the violin parts, the bass and tenor instruments only performed a simple accompaniment, a sort of counter-point, which the players composed generally as it occurred to them, and played without book, and the singers of the same parts followed the same method. But Lulli brought the whole into a regular system, such as is practised at the present day. He was the first also to introduce oboes, trumpets, drums, and cymbals into the Orchestra, and even made use of a whistle in one of the scenes of his Acis et Galatèe. The words of his Operas were principally written by Quinault, who was an advocate by profession, and considered the best poet of his time, notwithstanding the severe judgment passed upon him by the critic Boilcau:

"Et tous ces lieux communs de morale lubrique,
Que Lulli rechauffe des sons de sa musique."

When these two concerted a piece between them, it was

at once submitted to the King, Louis XIV., and his court jury, who decided on the scenes, verses, dresses, and music, and then it was shewn to the Académie Française, of which Quinault was a member. La Fontaine wrote an opera for Lulli, but it was condemned by the whole court, and not allowed to be played.

So great was the favor of Lulli at court, that it raised up many enemies to him, amongst the rest Guischard, who attempted to poison him with juice of tobacco. The king, however, gave him letters of nobility, and appointed him one of his secretaries, to the great annoyance of the high courtiers, who up to this time considered that an honor particularly reserved for themselves. They cut him, and would not receive him into their society until the king insisted, and on the day of his reception into the confrérie, he treated the members to the Opera of le triomphe de l'Amour. Lulli now neglected the violin so much, that he would not even allow one to be brought into his house, but the Marèchal de Grammont, by a happy ruse, managed to get him to play. She desired Lulli to hear one of his valets, Lalande, playing on that instrument, and to give him a few instructions. The lesson began, but Lulli, soon disgusted with the bad performance of his pupil, snatched the violin from his hands, and commencing himself, became so excited by his own music, that he could not be got to stop for three hours.

One of his best operas, Atys, created a great sensation at court, and gave rise to a bon mot of the king, who, when Madame de Maintenon declared Atys to be her favorite, said, "Ah, Atys is a happy man." Boileau, at the performance of this opera, asked the box-keeper to put him in a place in the theatre, where he would not hear the words, as though he liked Lulli's music much, he had a sovereign contempt for Quinault's verses. This is but one of the injustices which this bitter critic committed.

Quinault's last opera was that of Armide, the last act of which had to be rewritten five times in order to please Lulli. It is still considered a very excellent performance, has been reset by Rameau, subsequently by Gluck, and is still frequently played in France. Moliére's Bourgeois Gentilhomme, and Fontenelle's Psyche, and also Bellerophon, were brought out by Lulli. The singers of his time were not of such excellence as to need much mention, the two principal female vocalists being La

Rochois and La Maupin. The adventures of the latter are somewhat curious as given by Mr. George Hogarth.

She was born in 1673, and married at a very early age, but soon ran away with a fencing master, from whom she learned the use of the small sword. After remaining for some time at Marseilles, where she narrowly escaped the punishment of burning alive for setting fire to a convent, she went to Paris, appeared on the opera stage at the age of two-and-twenty, and was for a considerable time the reigning favourite of the day. Having on some occasion been affronted by Dumeni, a singer, she put on male attire, watched for him in the Place des Victoires, insisted on his drawing his sword and fighting her, and on his refusing, caned him and took his watch and snuff-box. Next day Dumeni having boasted in the opera house, that he had defended himself against three men, who had attempted to rob him, she told the whole story, and produced his watch and sunff-box in proof of her having chastised him as a coward. Thevenard, another singer of note, was nearly treated in the same manner, and had no other way of escaping, but by publicly begging her pardon, after hiding himself in the Palais Royal for three weeks. At a Ball given by Monsieur the brother of Louis XIV., she appeared in men's clothes, and having behaved impertinently to a lady, was called out by three of her friends. Instead of avoiding the combat, by discovering her sex, she drew her sword, and killed all the three; and then, returning very coolly to the ball-room, told the story to Monsieur, who obtained her pardon. After some other adventures, she went to Brussels, where she became mistress to the Elector of Bavaria. This prince, having quitted her for the Countess of Arcos, sent her by that lady's husband a purse of 4000 livres, with an order to quit Brussels. But this singular heroine threw the purse at the Count's head, telling him it was a recompense worthy of such a contemptible scoundrel as himself. She afterwards returned to the Parisian stage, which she left in 1705. The conclusion of such a life is not the least extraordinary part of it. She became at last very devout, and having recalled her husband, from whom she had been long separated, lived with him in a pious manner till her death in 1707, at the age of thirty-four. Such is the history of this woman, given by Laborde and other writers; and strange as it is, there seems no reason for doubting its truth.

Lulli owed his death to a wound he gave himself in the foot with a cane, as he was beating time to a Te Deum performed in honor of the king's recovery from a serious illness in 1687. The court doctors advised him to have the limb amputated, but he put himself under a quack, who promised to save the nember, and only produced mortification. His confessor would not give him absolution, if he did not consent to burn a rather licentious opera, which he was engaged composing, called Achille et Poliréne. It was taken from a drawer and

cast into the fire. One of the Princes of Vendôme asked him, why he had burned it, as he might recover. "Hush," said Lulli, "I have got another copy of it." However, when pronounced beyond recovery, he shewed intense remorse, and stretched himself on a bed of ashes, with a rope round his neck, singing to one of his own airs the words, " Il faut mourir, pècheur, il faut mourir." After his death the obnoxious opera was finished by another composer and subsequently performed. This famous man was stout in person, dark in face, with a spirited expression. He was much addicted to the table, which predisposed him to the illness from which he died. The chevalier de Lorraine, one of his boon companions, obtained admittance to him on his death-bed on the plea of long friendship. Madame Lulli, in her husband's presence, upbraided him as being the person who made him last drunk, and caused his death. "My dear wife," said Lulli interrupting her, "M. le Chevalier was certainly the last who made me drunk, and if I recover shall be the first to do so again." He left a fortune of twenty-six thousand pounds sterling after him, at least three times the value of the same sum at the present day. His music was very simple, and though the accompaniment was rather thin and weak, it retained possession of the French stage until the middle of the last century, to the time of Rameau. A specimen of his play of Proserpine is given in the Harmonicon of 1823. For a good description of the style of actors and dresses of this period, we may refer to a paper of Addison's, in No. 29 of the Spectator.

The

The principal followers of Lulli up to the time of Rameau, were Colasse, Campra, and Destouches, the former of whom produced an opera, Astrée, by la Fontaine in 1691. author himself thought so little of it, that he told some ladies, who sat behind him during the performance, and who praised both the author and the piece, "Well, ladies, the piece is not worth a farthing, and this M. de la Fontaine, whom you talk of, is a block head, he tells you so himself." In fact up to the time of Rameau, no eminent name appears connected with the French Opera except Coupin and Marchand, two great organists, and Leclaire, a violinist. A new style of music. was now introduced, more elaborate and fuller in the accompaniments and chorus, which promised soon to supersede that of Lulli.

Rameau was born in the year 1683, at Clermont in Auvergne,

An

and published several treatises on music in his youth, but did not produce any opera until his fiftieth year in 1733, when he brought out his "Hyppolyte et Aricie," which at once gave him a triumph and superseded the music of Lulli. Factious spirit, however, in favor of either of these composers ran very high, and for a long time divided the public and court. Italian company having come to Paris, and acted in the year 1752 a Burletta, Serva Padrona, the parties in the contest were changed, and the public divided between the Italians and French, and the feud became so strong that Jean Jacques Rousseau, who wrote his Lettre sur la Musique Française against the French school, was burned in effigy at the Opera house door. The Italians were after two years driven from Paris. Rousseau himself produced a piece, Le Devin du Village, which has been since reproduced on the French stage, but he got into such bad odour with his orchestra from his imperious manner, that they hung him in effigy. Rameau was a man of a coarse disposition, selfish and very avaricious. He brought out his last opera, les Paladins in 1760, and four years after died at the age of 81 years.

During his time, Mondonville composed Titon et Aurore in the height of the Italian dispute, when the theatre was divided into two sides, the Coin du Roi, the French faction, and the Coin de la Reine, the Italian. The author procured the assistance of Madame de Pompadour, by whose orders the pit, before the doors were opened, was filled by the king's household, excluding the other party, so that the Opera was completely successful. He also produced a piece, Daphnis et Alcimadure, in the patois of Languedoc, sung by artistes from the south, the musical language of which, contrasted with the French, created a great sensation on the stage.

At the Opera Comique many Operas á ariettes or ballets, were now represented, some by the famous Favart. He was son of a pastry cook, and made chansonnier to Marshal Saxe's army in Flanders before the battle of Rocoux. He married a Mademoiselle Chantilly, with whom the general fell desperately in love. They escaped from the camp before Maestricht during a stormy night, when the bridges of communication between two parts of the army, then in a perilous position, had been swept away. Marshal Saxe was found by one of his officers, Dumesnil, sitting on his bed and bewailing his fate in tones of the most violent grief. The officer thought his anxiety