first bruited about;
and for days Paris rang with the sharp jest. "_Le char l'attend!_" he
cried, pausing before the triumphal arch on which stood the horses and
empty chariot, the spoils of Venice. But the license of Monsieur
Brunet's tongue was little relished by the imperial _charlatan,--le
claqueur de la Grand Armee_, as he has been called. Corsican though he
was, he had a thorough French susceptibility of ridicule, and well knew
that, with his laughter-loving subjects, wit carried weight. The actor
was summoned before the prefect of police, severely lectured, and
admonished to abjure puns, if he would escape punishment. "_Mais que
voulez vous que je fasse_," replied poor Brunet, in piteous accents,
"_c'est mon metier de faire des calembourgs, j'y gagne ma vie. Voulez
vous donc que je scie du bois?_"[15] And, in spite of menaces and
imprisonment, he continued each evening to delight the audience of the
Varietes with his highly spiced allusions to the men and events of the
day. His reputation was European. "Brazier, in his _Histoire des Petits
Theatres de Paris_, relates that, being one day, (March 31st, 1814) on
guard at the Barriere St. Martin, a young Calmuck officer, who could
hardly speak a word of French, asked him the way to Brunet's theatre."
Aided by Tiercelin, the popular actor of the time, who took his types
from the lowest classes of the people, Brunet ensured the prosperity of
the theatre, until at last the actors at the Francais, who had long
complained of the preference accorded by the public to Brunet's
performances, addressed repeated remonstrances to government, and
declared that the taste of the nation was becoming corrupted, and the
classic drama of Corneille and Racine despised. They were supported by
Fouche and a section of the press, until at last Napoleon, who meddled
greatly in theatrical matters, and one of whose sayings was, that if
Corneille had lived in his time, he would have made him a prince,
thought proper to interfere. Brunet's company was ejected from the
Palais Royal, and took refuge, whilst the present theatre on the
Boulevard Montmartre was building, in the Theatre de la Cite, on the
left bank of the Seine. On the last night at the Palais Royal, (31st
December, 1806,) the actors and actresses took their leave of the public
on that side the river, in a series of appropriate couplets. One of
these ran as follows:--

Vous que l'tambour et tambourin
A la gloir', au plaisir e