The series Essay on Human Butterflies offered 18th-century print collectors a new and charming subject, one that wed the genre of ornament prints with the vogue for imagery of animals acting like people. Charles-German de Saint-Aubin etched 12 imaginative and witty compositions in which butterflies (with human-like bodies) undertake activities ranging from dueling to dancing. In French Theater, two butterflies with beautiful, spread wings perform a mock drama, one holding aloft a dagger while the other kneels and weeps with handkerchief in hand. This masquerade scene is framed by a fantastic, open structure festooned with flower garlands, the ceiling a gossamer spider’s web.