18th century transformations in modes of political representation paralleled new theories of representation on the stage. Friedland writes that Antoine-François Riccoboni's L'art du Theatre marked the shift in theories of theatrical representation, from a system where the performers' "representation of a character necessarily entailed the actor's actual physical experience of the character's emotions", to a new system of representation where the actors performance was not 'true' but resembled what was true.Friedland (2002), p. 21. In Friedland's words "... this new, artificial system depended, not on the actors' belief – or, as we tend to refer to it today, on the spectator's suspension of disbelief".Friedland (2002), p. 23. At the same time, as modes of representation shifted in the world of theater, parallels emerged in the representation of the king. In an absolutist monarchy the king was the source of his own legitimacy, whereas under the new system of representation the king's legitimacy came from the critical judgement of the individual.Friedland (2002), p. 55.
