Publication

Abstract

We saw in the previous chapter the possible extent to which a new tragedy reached its Paris audience during a first run at the Marais or the Hôtel de Bourgogne. Even assuming a good series of twenty or so performances and reasonably full houses at the first two or three of these at least, the number of people who witnessed the play remains relatively small—a few thousand at most. In a total population of twenty million, three-quarters of them country dwellers, this is a drop in the ocean. But for a city of half a million inhabitants it is no mean feat and probably differs little from the proportion of Parisians who actually see the opening run of an important new play staged today. Then as now, theatre attendance was a minority interest.