The last trait I have to mention, yet more significant, is the afterpiece.  Really, in this fashionable circle, life is a carnival as free and almost as rakish as that of Venice.  The play commonly terminates with a parade borrowed from La Fontaine’s tales or from the farces of the Italian drama, which are not only pointed but more than free, and sometimes so broad that they cant be played only before princes and courtesans;"[75] a morbid palate, indeed, having no taste for orgeat, instead demanding a dram.  The Duc d’Orléans sings on the stage the most spicy songs, playing Bartholin in “Nicaise,” and Blaise in “Joconde.”  “Le Marriage sans Curé,” “Leandre grosse,” “L’amant poussif,” “Leandre Etalon,” are the showy titles of the pieces composed by Collé “for the amusement of His Highness and the Court.”  For one which contains salt there are ten stuffed with strong pepper.  At Brunoy, at the residence of Monsieur, so gross are they[76] the king regrets having attended; “nobody had any idea of such license; two women in the auditorium had to go out, and, what is most extraordinary, they had dared to invite the queen.” — Gaiety is a sort of intoxication which draws the cask down to the dregs, and when the wine is gone it draws on the lees.  Not only at their little suppers, and with courtesans, but in the best society and with ladies, they commit the follies of a bagnio.  Let us use the right word, they are blackguards, and the word is no more offensive to them than the action.  “For five or six months,” writes a lady in 1782,"[77] “the suppers are followed by a blind man’s buff or by a draw-dance, and they end in general mischievousness, (une polissonnerie générale).”  Guests are invited a fortnight in advance.  “On this occasion they upset the tables and the furniture; they scattered twenty caraffes of water about the room; I finally got away at half-past one, wearied out, pelted with handkerchiefs, and leaving Madame de Clarence hoarse, with her dress torn to shreds, a scratch on her arm, and a bruise on her forehead, but delighted that she had given such a gay supper and flattered with the idea of its being the talk the next day.” — This is the result of a craving for amusement.  Under its pressure, as under the sculptor’s thumb, the face of the century becomes transformed and insensibly loses its seriousness; the formal expression of the courtier at first becomes the cheerful physiognomy of the worldling, and then, on these smiling lips, their contours changed, we see the bold, unbridled grin of the scamp.[78] _____________________________________
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Notes: 

[1].  “La vie de salon” is Taine’s title.  In Le Robert & Collins’ Dictionary salon is translated as “lounge” (Brit.) sitting room, living room, or (cercle littéraire) salon.

[2].  De Loménie, “Beaumarchais et son temps,” I. 403.  Letter of Beaumarchais, (Dec. 24, 1764.) — The travels of Mme. d’Aulnoy and the letters of Mme. de Villars. — As to Italy see Stendhal, “Rome, Naples et Florence.” — For Germany see the “Mémoires” of the Margrave of Bareith, also of the Chevalier Lang. — For England see my “Histoire de la litérature Anglaise,” vols.  III.  IV.