4^8 PALAIS ROYAL. 



felf-denial enough to make over his palace, fcarcely 

 three years after it was finifhed, to Louis the thirteenth ; 

 however, he lived in it till his -death, and permitted all 

 Paris, without exception, to take part in the plays and 

 fefiivities he gave there. .So that this palace, from its 

 iTrft foundation, has always been a place of recreation 

 for the inhabitants of Paris. After his death, and that 

 of Louis XIII. queen Anne of Auftria took poffeffion 

 of it, in exchange for the Louvre. Louis the fourteenth 

 inhabited it with her ; but, on its being reprefented to 

 him that it was derogatory to the dignity of a king of 

 France to live in a palace, the infcription on which 

 betokened it to be the maniion of a fubjecl, he had the 

 v'ords effaced, and called the palace, the Palais. Royal, 

 which denomination it has retained to this "day. 



On the introduction of the opera into Paris by car- 

 dinal Mazarin, the theatrical fa] on of the palace was 

 devoted to their representation, and they kept poffef- 

 fioii of it till he built a houfe in the neighbourhood, 

 exprefsly for that purpofe. Thus the palace always 

 continued a public place of refort for the Pariiians. 



Louis XIV. not long after evacuated it for his 

 brother ; and then made it a preterit to the duke of 

 Chartres, his nephew % Since which time it has con- 

 fiantly remained to the family of Orleans. As there- 

 fore it has paffed through the hands of feveral pofl'ef- 

 fors, you will eafily imagine that there can be but little 

 left of its primitive deflgn, and that it muft have been 

 not only altered but beautified every year; but all its 

 pdffeffors have fucceffively left it and its gardens open 

 to the public. 



Its 



