Letter to the Countess of T. on a Second French Theater in Paris

the epigram of your good friend J. Jacques Rousseau Jean-Jacques Rousseau, philosopher and writer. "The Royal Academy of Music," he says in his Dictionary, "is one of the Academies in all of Europe that makes the most noise." Let us pass on to the French, who seem to be the Theater of the Nation, in a word, a Theater such as few exist, where the Actresses and Actors are very important persons. You will permit me, Madame, a short digression on this subject. Why this importance? It makes the least sensible man laugh. These Gentlemen and these Ladies should remember what they are; that they are only Comedians; that is to say, people in the King's employ, and paid by the Public to amuse it in every way, and not to impose upon it in any manner, and above all, not to give it laws. Let us reason. Is it not giving laws to the Public to play only the Plays they choose, to change them only when they wish, to accept or refuse others at their whim (although it is the height of ridicule to see actors acting as Judges of the Plays that Authors present to them, as you have said more than once); to push their self-sufficiency to the point of going to find old ones that are almost forgotten