softest outburst of Lydian or Spheral symphonies something of eating
Care! Then too, in the Court-circle itself, "is Trajan pleased," or are
all things well? Readers have heard of that "TRAJAN EST-IL CONTENT?" It
occurred Winter, 1745 (27th November, 1745, a date worth marking), while
things were still in the flush of early hope. That evening, our TEMPLE
DE LA GLOIRE (Temple of Glory) had just been acted for the first time,
in honor of him we may call "Trajan," returning from a "Fontenoy
and Seven Cities captured:" [Seven of them; or even eight of a kind:
Tournay, Ghent, Bruges, Nieuport, Dendermond, Ath, Ostend; and nothing
lost but Cape Breton and one's Codfishery.]--

"Reviens, divin Trajan, vainqueur doux et terrible;
Le monde est mon rival, tous les coeurs sont a toi;
Mais est-il un coeur plus sensible,
Et qui t'adore plus que moi?"
[TEMPLE DE LA GLOIRE, Acte iv. (--OEuvres,--xii. 328).]

"Return, divine Trajan, conqueror sweet and terrible;
The world is my rival, all hearts are thine;
But is there a heart more loving,
Or that adores thee more than I?"

An allegoric Dramatic Piece; naturally very admirable at Versailles.
Issuing radiant from Fall of the Curtain, Voltaire had the farther honor
to see his Majesty pass out; Majesty escorted by Richelieu, one's
old friend in a sense: "Is Trajan pleased?" whispered Voltaire to his
Richelieu; overheard by Trajan,--who answered in words nothing, but in
a visible glance of the eyes did answer, "Impertinent Lackey!"--Trajan
being a man unready with speech; and disliking trouble with the people
whom he paid for keeping his boots in polish. O my winged Voltaire,
to what dunghill Bubbly-Jocks (COQS D'INDE) you do stoop with homage,
constrained by their appearance of mere size!--

Evidently no perfect footing at Court, after all. And then the
Pompadour, could she, Head-Butterfly of the Universe, be an anchor that
would hold, if gales rose? Rather she is herself somewhat of a gale, of
a continual liability to gales; unstable as the wind! Voltaire did
his best to be useful, as Court Poet, as director of Private
Theatricals;--above all, to soothe, to flatter Pompadour; and never
neglected this evident duty. But, by degrees, the envious Lackey-people
made cabals; turned the Divine Butterfly into comparative indifference
for Voltaire; into preference of a Crebillon's poor faded Pieces:
"Suitabler these, Madame, for the Private Theatr