Diary of John Quincy Adams, volume 1
1785-01-14
Paris. At the post; paid 235. livres for a parcel of packets. Walk'd in the Palais Royal. Large Company. Few Ladies.
1785-01-17
Paris. Italian Theatre. 1st. Representation of Alexis et
Justine.1 Went before 5. o'clock. Could
not find one place high nor low. Went to the Grands Danseurs du Roi,2 in a fiacre,3 for
neither Servants nor carriage were to be found. Le trousseau
d'Agnes. Le Qui-pro-quo de l'hotellerie.4
Rope dancing. Sophie de Brabant,
Pantomime. Just such another Théatre as the Varietés. Plays just calculated to please
the mob. Rope dancing, is surprizing at first sight, and pleases. Placide. Le petit Diable et la jeune Anglaise,5 very good. Comedy of Errors all this evening. Lost
Appleton, and the Ladies. We however all met at Mr. Jefferson's, where my father spent the
Evening. Late before we got home.
Alexis et Justine, Paris, 1785, by Jacques Marie Boutet de
Monvel, with music by Nicolas Dezède (Brenner,
Bibliographical List
).
A vaudeville troupe founded by Jean Baptiste Nicolet, which performed “au fronton de”
Théâtre de Nicolet on the Boulevard du Temple. These outdoor performances or “parades” were
used to draw a crowd, and this company, within the theater, performed comic opera from the
repertoire of the Comédie Italienne. Louis XV gave the troupe its title of the Grands
Danseurs du Roi in 1772. They performed the two pieces described in note 4 (Emile Campardon, Les spectacles
de la foire, 2 vols., Paris, 1877, 1:384; 2:151–152; René Héron de Villefosse, Histoire de Paris, Paris, 1950, p. 225–226; Journal de Paris, 17 Jan.; Brenner, Bibliographical List
).
A small French hackney coach.
Le trousseau d'Agnès, ou, la veuve à marier, an unpublished
parade by Alexandre Louis Bertrand Robineau Beaunoir; Le quiproquo
de l'hôtellerie, Paris, 1779, by Antoine François Quétant (Brenner, Bibliographical List
).
Placide is probably a verse tragedy, London, 1786, by
Père Joseph Romain Joly (same). Petit diable et la jeune
anglaise has not been identified.Placide" was
Alexandre Placide (1750–1812), a French ballet dancer and acrobat, who performed in
London from 1780 to 1785. "Le petit Diable was probably
Placide’s friend Pol; "le jeune Anglaise, likely another
member of Placide's performance troupe, has not been identified (ANB; Sylvie Chevalley, "The Death of Alexandre Placide," The South Carolina Historical Magazine, 58:63 [April 1957]).
1785-01-18
Ambassador's day at Versailles, every Tuesday. Mr. A. went. Alexis
et Justine, succeeded very well last night at the Italians. Words, Monvel, music, de Zede, celebrated
authors. Dr. Jemm1 dined with us. A singular
Character.
Possibly Cal. Franklin Papers, A.P.S.
, 2:409; 4:64, 446).