'La face du théâtre change.' With these words Louis XIV announ-
ced his decision to assume personal power on the death of Cardinal
Mazarin in 1661. The phrase has an authentic ring: this was indeed
a major change of political direction as seen by a young monarch
passionately fond of ballets, masques and operas and fully aware of
the part he was to play. Not only do his words reflect a way of
thinking prevalent at the time; they also suggest that those who,
like the royal French actor, were at the centre of events knew exactly
how much depended on a right choice of setting. The scene change
he was referring to was becoming increasingly evident in many parts
of Europe, and it was being reflected in art and literature. The entry
of Louis le Dieudonnâ -- the God-given -- into his rightful
inheritance, so long withheld him by his minister the cardinal,
marked the decisive return of princes everywhere to their due
authority and power after an unsettled and often turbulent period
of some twenty years; so, too, did Charles II's restoration to the
throne so nearly usurped by the aspiring commoner Cromwell, the
'Lord Protector'.

Oh Happy Age! Oh times like those alone
By Fate reserv'd for Great Augustus Throne!
When the joint growth of Armes and Arts foreshew
The World a Monarch, and that Monarch You

wrote Dryden as the final flourish of his Astraea Redux, a poem to

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