I compare it to something kept behind a curtain, about which there is a great deal of bustle and fuss, and a wonderful air of seeming solemnity; but when, by any accident, the curtain happens to be open--and the company see what it is, they burst into laughter.
Paine uses a theatrical metaphor to illustrate how monarchy, despite its pomp and ceremony, is revealed as absurd and laughable when its true nature is exposed.
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More from Thomas Paine
They had a cause at stake, on which depended their freedom or their slavery.
The object is not so much the produce of the tax as the justice of the measure.
The American constitutions were to liberty what a grammar is to language: they define its parts of speech, and practically construct them into syntax.
When it becomes necessary to do anything, the whole heart and soul should go into the measure, or not attempt it.