3-028-413 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Prince Imperial's private theatricals, 1870. The 14-year-old prince '...had been engaged, in conjunction with several of his young companions, in studying the parts of a comédie- vaudeville, with a view to its performance...on the evening of Shrove Tuesday, at the Tuileries...[In the audience were] the Emperor and Empress, Prince Napoleon, Princesses Clotilde and Mathilde, Prince and Princess Joachim Murat...M. Jules Cohen [presided] at the piano..., and M. Filou [sic], the Prince's tutor, [acted] as prompter. The name of the piece...was "La Grammaire," the authors being MM. Labiche and Joly. The young Prince Imperial, with bald head and whiskers, is said to have succeeded admirably in his make up as Poitrinas, an old antiquary...The part of Blanche, which, it seems, the Prince's companions had, in a manly spirit, refused one after the other, was only accepted eventually by young Maxime Frossard, son of the Prince's governor, on the Prince declaring that as no one seemed willing to undertake it he would be obliged to perform the part of the young lady himself...M. Frossard acquitted [himself] to admiration...[and] in his character of Blanche, was as gracious, charming, coquettish, and timid as it was possible even for a young girl to be'. From "Illustrated London News", 1870.