I just read "A Tale of Two Cities" again. Dickens, in his preface, claims a fair amount of authenticity for the book. This made me wonder to what extent French lutenists were a part of the arrogant and powerful feudal system which he portrayed.
The book's timeframe (1750-1800) was after the lute's heyday, but several parts of the book (eg, the beginning and end of Chapter 9) imply that the French nobility system had been little changed over two hundred years. To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
