Act I.



A Representation at the Hotel de Bourgogne.



The hall of the Hotel de Bourgogne, in 1640.  A sort of tennis-court arranged

and decorated for a theatrical performance.



The hall is oblong and seen obliquely, so that one of its sides forms the back

of the right foreground, and meeting the left background makes an angle with

the stage, which is partly visible.



On both sides of the stage are benches.  The curtain is composed of two

tapestries which can be drawn aside.  Above a harlequin's mantle are the royal

arms.  There are broad steps from the stage to the hall; on either side of

these steps are the places for the violinists.  Footlights.



Two rows, one over the other, of side galleries:  the highest divided into

boxes.  No seats in the pit of the hall, which is the real stage of the

theater; at the back of the pit, i.e., on the right foreground, some benches

forming steps, and underneath, a staircase which leads to the upper seats.  An

improvised buffet ornamented with little lusters, vases, glasses, plates of

tarts, cakes, bottles, etc.



The entrance to the theater is in the center of the background, under the

gallery of the boxes.  A large door, half open to let in the spectators.  On

the panels of this door, in different corners, and over the buffet, red

placards bearing the words, 'La Clorise.'



At the rising of the curtain the hall is in semi-darkness, and still empty.

The lusters are lowered in the middle of the pit ready to be lighted.