I Am Louis XIV

   Chapter 307 Frederick and the Grand Princess (3)

In addition to two or three embellished rings and pins, the jewels worn by the Grand Princess today are only a string of pearls on the neck, but this string of expensive pearls makes people consciously stay away from the Grand Princess - in artificial Before cultured pearls existed, all pearls were naturally produced, and since they were said to be naturally produced, flaws, distortions, or deformities were inevitable. For example, the Baroque style, which is emerging recently in architecture and decoration, originally meant a deformed pearl, because it did not meet the aesthetic requirements of absolute symmetry and unity advocated by the classicists.

The bead chains that the Grand Princess is wearing now are each the size of the little finger and have a similar diameter. They are smooth and flawless, but compared to pearls, the girl's skin is thinner and more delicate, and you can even see the blue veins under the skin. Frederick stood for a while, then stepped forward, "Sorry for keeping you waiting, Your Highness."

"I was a little early," said the Grand Princess indifferently. "It feels very comfortable to walk all the way from the Louvre to here in the morning." She put away the book on her lap, and Frederick hurriedly took it for her. In his hand, he glanced at the cover inadvertently, and found that it was the Latin version of the "Ten Books of Architecture" written by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius. When he held it in his hand, he could feel that there were hard bookmarks in the book, and there were more than one place. His heart moved. If it was another noble girl, he would casually ask her when she was interested in such a boring thing. got interested.

   But in front of the big county master, he has to be more cautious.

   "That's right." The Grand Princess said, "Your Highness, wait, can you call me Lady Mary?"

   "Of course," Frederick immediately understood the meaning of the grand dame: "Then you can also call me Mr. William."

  The Grand Princess smiled: "Of course."

Although the king entrusted the establishment of four art academies to him and his four children, not many people in the outside world knew about this matter, and those who knew about it also knew how to keep silent, let alone not Take this opportunity to huddle up and flatter - the king intends to use this to get the princes and princesses to put into practice what they have learned in the books, not for you to do it for you.

Therefore, not only the lord of the county, the eldest princess, the crown prince, the Duke of Colonna, in the construction site and in the office, they are all called Mr. and Mrs., and people who don't know only know that they have a prominent background, but they don't know how prominent they are - they still Therefore, they suffered a small loss, but they recovered quickly, and there was still interest. After all, they still had the king and the Duke of Orleans standing behind them.

   Since then, at least no one dared to perfunctory and deceive them in the open, as for the secret - "Even my uncle can't avoid this situation," said the grand princess.

   Frederick swore he was really surprised: "But your uncle..." was the Sun King.

"Apart from God, no one can control people's hearts." The Grand County Master said: "Everyone has their own ideas, even the workers at the bottom. A large Egyptian house can make some people feel fearful, some people are grateful, and some people will be grateful. People hold resentment." This is what she realized when she went outside the palace: "So in many cases, we can only guarantee that most of the time, most people will benefit."

   "And what about those who are never satisfied?"

   "Then we can only look at the will of God," said the Grand Princess.

   Frederick smiled, and he saw that there were always people in black coats haunting them, "Presumably God must have many servants who are willing to do it for him."

"There is no doubt about that." The Grand County Lord smiled and said that the Drama Academy was not far from the square they had agreed upon. They only walked for ten minutes before Frederick saw a huge building standing beside a small square— But that's not the Academy of Drama, that's the Paris Opera House. It used to be a stinky fish market and a tanning workshop. Later, because of the rectification in Paris, these were all moved downstream, leaving a large space here. When Louis XIV ordered this place to be set aside, people thought that the king intended to build a new palace, but a splendid building did stand up, but it did not only belong to the king, it belonged to the whole of Paris and even the people of France.

In fact, the drama of this era can be said to be the synthesis of all artistic expressions of consciousness such as sculpture, music, painting and ballet. When Louis XIV handed over the drama school to the grand county master, it can be said to be quite partial, but it was also the time when What the Grand County Lord needs—The Drama Academy needs the most coordination and negotiation work, and involves the most people and things. The Grand County Lord can take such decisive measures when dealing with rumors about Carlos II and her. Exercise during this time is not irrelevant.

To the side of the Opera House is the Academy of Drama, which once belonged to the Duke of Bouillon, but because the Duke of Bouillon stood against the King in the Frond riot, the Duchess of Bouillon has not been allowed to return to Paris to this day, or Versailles, so Colbert bought it at a very good price.

This building is an uncompromising classicist building. There is a delicate lighting pavilion in the middle of the completely symmetrical building. The lighting pavilion runs through the top and bottom. The sun can be projected from the top glass to the center of the bottom hall, illuminating the sun. Marble statue of the **** and the nine muses.

The halls on the left and right sides have glass windows on one side and niches on the other side. The strange thing is that there is only one statue inside. Although it looks like a Roman from the costume, but: "This seems to be Molière. Sir?" asked Frederick in surprise.

  The Grand County Lord smiled: "Yes, it's a license from my uncle. There are a total of twenty-four niches here, and anyone who has made outstanding contributions to French drama can have a statue."

Frederick noticed the words of France: "That's not surprising," he sighed, "they will go completely crazy." He was still surprised when he saw the Dutch painter Rembrandt in the French court. How a Dutchman could willingly serve Louis XIV, what a wise choice it seems now!

  Until now, painters, sculptors and musicians are still only lowly craftsmen in the eyes of dignitaries, and the most honorable among them is only entering the court and working for the king. If they know that as long as you have talent and ability, you can not only get a lot of gold and Louis in Paris, but also get the appreciation of the nobles, show your talent to the fullest - and even pass your name and statue to a hundred years later... Looking at the row of gold letters under the statue of Molière, Frederick could see a pair of red eyes with jealousy.

"Mr. Molière is still insisting on hiding his ashes in the statue after his death." The Grand County Lord said helplessly, but this is absolutely impossible. This is not a cemetery or a church, so Mr. Molière changed his ways and said, Decided to use my own skull as a prop, the one held by the prince in Hamlet...

   "It reminds me of Florence," said Frederick.

"Uncle really intends to recreate the glory of the Renaissance in Paris." The Grand County Master said it for granted, and if it was said in the mouth of others, even the current Grand Duke of Tuscany, people would think that he was talking nonsense to Louis X. Fourth, it is also a goal that can be achieved by walking step by step.

Frederick felt that Leopold I would be willing to hear this, although he would be very uncomfortable, but the Sun King was better in the arts than in the military, even Frederick, he must admit that he His heart relaxed slightly.

At this time, Molière, Racine, and Gao Naiyi all came out to welcome Ben Lin, the great county master. Gao Naiyi was over seventy years old. He had changed from a lawyer to a dramatist. People thought he was crazy. , only he knows that he is living the life of his dreams every day, living without food and clothing, writing plays, watching plays, communicating with colleagues, and even secretly fighting each other has become an interesting thing - it may also be because the king strictly forbids them Use too despicable means. The most important thing for him now is to complete a long tome that no longer adopts the Trinity system, namely the story of the famous five wise emperors of Rome, which he hopes will make himself in the "temple"-their view of those niches. Name, take a place.

Molière needless to say, although there is already a statue of him in the alcove, he is still working tirelessly to create a new play about the prostitutes. In fact, he wants to write an opera that celebrates virtue, but since After Louis XIV had seen a skit of the same form and content, he strictly forbade him to continue to create similar works - excessive praise would only embarrass him, extremely embarrassing.

   As for Racine, he was born in 39 years, so he is not so eager. He is currently creating a tragedy based on ancient Greek mythology, hoping to perform for the king in the theater of Versailles Palace.

   But the three of them are here today, not for the work of any of them, but for Jean de la Fontaine.

La Fontaine is also an interesting person. Like Corneille, he was also a lawyer at the High Court, but he loved writing and was not enthusiastic about the legal profession. He returned to the country during the first Frond riots. He hoped to be able to live a peaceful life, but unfortunately he lacked talent in investment and trading. He went bankrupt soon after and had to return to Paris to find opportunities.

   Well, he found Fouquet.

Fouquet was not bad to La Fontaine, but the problem was that before he had time to repay the benefactor, Fouquet became the king's prisoner, so this Mr. La Fontaine was chivalrous and resolutely wrote a letter of affection. His petition was sent to the Louvre, and he did not know that his petition had not even been sent to the king, and was summed up by Bontang as a useless document, and was thrown into the roaring furnace with the scattered letters of petition.

La Fontaine didn't know about this, but after he sent the letter, he was frightened. In his dreams, he thought that he had been beheaded by the king, so he fled all the way back to the country. He returned to Paris again, this time he was smarter, only hanging out in art salons and theaters, he was talented, and Molière took a fancy to him soon after, and Racine became his friend.

The final turning point was when the eldest princess was five or six years old. The king wanted some stories that could be read to the children. They should be simple, beautiful, and simple. Before La Fontaine, he wrote a few fables in the countryside, because in the countryside , even priests and squires can't master many words, and if they criticize him too much, he will lose his only market. Hearing this opportunity, of course La Fontaine did not hesitate to present the three words he wrote with both hands. volume of allegorical poems, and after being approved by the king, vowed that he would continue to write until his death.

Today, La Fontaine came to the Academy of Drama because the Academy of Drama needs his allegorical poems to practice what the students have learned in the course and to use it for examinations. After all, the students are required to use four or five hours of performances again and again. It is really unreasonable to complete the homework or exam content. This kind of scene usually only occurs during the year-end exam.

The grand princess has a very good impression of La Fontaine. His fables are her bedtime stories every night. As soon as she sees him, the grand princess thinks of her high-ranking father. Singing sleep songs, telling stories, watching her quietly leaving the dormitory when she fell asleep, she couldn't help feeling warm in her heart - she kindly asked them to get up and watched a few short performances with everyone. The drama school was established not long ago, but these students It was already like that, even the grand princess and Frederick beside her were watching with great interest.

   "But don't want the final narration," the grand county master pointed out after reading it: "It is better to let people think for themselves than to stuff heavy truths into their minds."

  La Fontaine leaned over and said yes, he originally put what he wanted to express after each story, and after the performance, a narrator would read it out.

   "Re-enact the last story, as I said, without the last narration." said the grand county master, and those in animal masks took to the stage again.

Although Frederick's eyes were condensed on the stage, his mind was on the Grand County Master. At first, he thought that the king appointed the Grand County Lord and others to be the director of the Art Academy. It was just a false title, just a game, and another person who really did things. There are other people, I didn't expect that the big county master can really put forward opinions, and others are willing to follow.

And this opinion is not aimless. After canceling the narration, the whole drama has become complete and just right. It was really superfluous at first. The audience below are all experienced playwrights. Of course, this subtle but obvious change will not be missed. , a compliment suddenly sounded, and La Fontaine also said that when he went back, he would delete all these principles.

  The great county lord hastily stopped him, because publications, unlike plays, may not fully understand the author's intentions by some people with limited imagination.

   She was so busy discussing with these playwrights that she even forgot that she had a guest by her side.

  Frederick didn't mind at all, he just felt that he had opened a jewel box. He thought that this jewel box was enough for him to cherish. Who knew that there were still many treasures hidden in it that needed to be explored.

   (end of this chapter)