"The disappointment of all hopes excited discontent to such a degree, that the words oppression and tyranny were never uttered, in the days preceding the fall of the throne, with more passion and vehemence." Two months later, the whole court was present at the representation of the _Mariage de Figaro,_ given at the house of M.de Vandreuil, an intimate friend of the Duchess of Polignac, on his stage at Gennevilliers.

"You will see that Beaumarchais will have more influence than the keeper of the seals," Louis XVI.

had said, himself foreseeing his own defeat.

The _Mariage de Figaro_ was played at the Theatre Francais on the 27th of April, 1784.
"The picture of this representation is in all the collections of the period," says M.de Lomenie.

"It is one of the best known reminiscences of the eighteenth century; all Paris hurrying early in the morning to the doors of the Theatre Francais, the greatest ladies dining in the actresses' dressing-room in order to secure places." "The blue ribands," says Bachaumont, "huddled up in the crowd, and elbowing Savoyards; the guard dispersed, the doors burst, the iron gratings broken beneath the efforts of the assailants." "Three persons stifled," says La Harpe, "one more than for Scudery; and on the stage, after the rising of the curtain, the finest collection of talent that had probably ever had possession of the _Theatre Francais,_ all employed to do honor to a comedy scintillating with wit, irresistibly lively and audacious, which, if it shocks and scares a few of the boxes, enchants, rouses, and fires an electrified pit." A hundred representations succeeding the first uninterruptedly, and the public still eager to applaud, such was the twofold result of the audacities of the piece and the timid hesitations of its censors.