University Microfilms - The University of Arizona Campus Repository

In this age of pomp and grandeur, it is amusing and refreshing to see
the king's brother speak of his joy in a less kingly but more human
occupation.
In the Ballet Royal de Thetis et Pelee, performed as part of
the Ballet de la Nuit, Louis XIV, dancing the role of Apollo, contem­
plated upon glory and love in the verses Benserade wrote for him:
Amoureux des beautez de la seule victoire
Je cours sans cesse apres la Gloire,
Et ne cours point apres Daphne.
Toutefois il le faut, c'est une Loi commune,
Qui veut que tost ou tard je coure apres quelqu'une,
Et tout Dieu que je suis je m'y vois condamne:
Que mes premiers soupirs vont attirer de presse!
Est-il Muse, Reine ou Deesse
Qui ne voulut estre Daphne?
But Louis, in this ballet, was still too young to let love overwhelm him.
At the end he appeared as the Sun, and pronounced:
Je n'ai que depuis peu roule sur 1'Horizon;
Je suis jeune, et possible est-ce aussi la Raison
Qui m'exempte des maux que la Beaute nous cause;
De-la naist le Repos dont mon ame jouit:
Car enfin tout me voit, j'eclaire toute chose,
En rien ne m'eblouit.
Benserade enjoyed urging the young King to profit from his
youth and beauty, and wrote many songs for the court expressing the
feelings he hoped Louis would experience, as in this charming piece
entitled in his Oeuvres "Paroles pour un air. "
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