Philidor's contemporaries had some difficulty believing he could be so good at two such different arts, but he was. His work on comic opera ("opéra bouffe") excelled. He wrote 25 such works, four with collaborators (including Rousseau). "His "Tom Jones" (1765) was regarded as the finest work in the theatre... His "Ernelinda, Princess of Norway" (1766) so pleased Louis XV that he gave Philidor a pension of 25 "louis d'or" (French gold coin) from his own purse". The English, however, ignored his music, and after 1792 he never returned home. The French Revolution made his connection with royalty a danger.