Part 27

[165] Ducis’s adaptation--or distortion--of _Othello_, first produced on November 26, 1772, differed materially from the original play. “Iago’s villainy,” says Mr. Hawkins, in his “French Stage in the Eighteenth Century,” “was thought too deep and patent, especially for a Parisian audience. Pesare, as the ancient is called here, is accordingly transformed into something like an ordinary confidant, to all appearance full of sincere _bonhomie_, and with his devilish purpose hidden until he has been seen for the last time. Ducis, it has been well remarked, was extremely afraid of arousing too much emotion among his auditors. Another essential difference lay in Cassio being really in love with Desdemona (re-named Hédelmone).” Changes of minor importance were the substitution of a letter for the handkerchief, and a poniard for the pillow. Ducis also adapted--or distorted--_Hamlet_, _Romeo and Juliet_, _Macbeth_, and _Lear_.

[166] _Journal de Paris_, March 7, 1809.

[167] Antoine Dubois (1756-1837), the leading obstetric surgeon of the time. He assisted at the accouchement of the Empress Marie Louise, and was made a baron of the Empire. His son, Paul Dubois, was also a celebrated accoucheur, and the author of several able works on obstetrics.

[168] A character in the _Joueur_ of Regnard.

[169] Gaboriau, _Les Comédiennes adorées_, p. 207.

[170] Edmond de Goncourt, _Madame Saint-Huberty, d’après sa correspondance et ses papiers de famille_, p. 12.

[171] Cited by Edmond de Goncourt, _Madame Saint-Huberty, d’après sa correspondance et ses papiers de famille_, p. 14.

[172] If one is to believe a little brochure of the time, bearing the title of _Chronique scandaleuse des théâtres, ou Aventures des plus célèbres actrices, chanteuses, danseuses, et figurantes_, the lessons given by Gluck to Madame Saint-Huberty were not entirely gratuitous. “In one of those moments of incontinency to which the greatest men often yield, the celebrated Gluck recognised in her talents which had not even been suspected and which attached him to her. He resolved to make of her an actress. In like manner, the famous Champmeslé was formed by the care and counsels of Racine. However, one ought not to compare the German Orpheus to the French Euripides. Gluck sought less to teach the sentiments of which he taught her the expression, than to inspire her with the fire of his genius, and, as he had always preserved the rusticity of his German manners, he did not often fail to commit himself to it in his lessons....”

[173] All the critics were not so kind as the scribe of the _Mercure_, and one went so far as to declare that the _débutante_ was “very ugly, very bad,” and that “she could not possibly long retain her position on the lyric stage.”

[174] Edmond de Goncourt, _Madame Saint-Huberty_, p. 20.

[175] It is not clear what papers are referred to, but, in all probability, they were those relating to the separation of her goods from those of her husband which she had obtained at Warsaw, in March 1777.

[176] Cited by Campardon, _L’Académie royale de Musique au XVIIIe siècle_: Article, “Saint-Huberty.”

[177] Edmond de Goncourt, _Madame Saint-Huberty_, p. 42.

[178] Émile Gaboriau, _Les Comédiennes adorées_, p. 210.

[179] Edmond de Goncourt, _Madame Saint-Huberty_, p. 45.

[180] This multiplicity and exaggeration of gestures appears to have been Madame Saint-Huberty’s principal fault in the early part of her career. On another occasion, she was reproached with her resemblance to a woman “persecuted by internal convulsions.”

[181] Rosalie Levasseur had sung charmingly on the opening night; but on the second, she was so intoxicated as to be almost incapable of struggling through the part. At the conclusion of the performance she was arrested and conveyed to For l’Évêque.

[182] Adolphe Jullien, _L’Opéra secret au XVIIIe siècle: Madame Saint-Huberty_.

[183] _Recherches sur les costumes et sur les théâtres de toutes les nations_, i. 35.

[184] Ginguéné, _Notice sur la vie et les ouvrages de Nicolas Piccini_.

[185] _L’Opéra secret au XVIIIe siècle: Madame Saint-Huberty._

[186] “Madame Saint-Huberty played the part of Rosette with an intelligence, a sensibility, and a fervour of expression, which proves the extent and the variety of her talent, equally well calculated to render every rôle and to sing all kinds of music.”--_Mercure de France_, December 1782.

[187] Adolphe Jullien, _L’Opéra secret au XVIIIe siècle: Madame Saint-Huberty_.

[188] Edmond de Goncourt, _Madame Saint-Huberty_, p. 5.

[189] Edmond de Goncourt, _Madame Saint-Huberty_, p. 75 _et seq._ Adolphe Jullien, _L’Opéra secret au XVIIIe siècle: Madame Saint-Huberty_.

[190] Adolphe Jullien, _L’Opéra secret au XVIIIe siècle: Madame Saint-Huberty_.

[191] _Mémoires de Marmontel_ (edit. 1804), iii. 224 _et seq._

[192] See the author’s “Queens of the French Stage” (London: Harpers’; New York: Scribners’. 1905), p. 314 _et seq._

[193] The train of an ordinary actress was held by a page dressed in black and white, but actresses representing queens were entitled to two trains and two pages, who followed them everywhere they went. “Nothing is more diverting,” writes a critic of the time, “than the perpetual movement of these little rascals, who have to run after the actress when she is rushing up and down the stage in moments of great distress. Their activity throws them into a state of perspiration, whilst their embarrassment and blunders invariably excite laughter. Thus a farce is always going on, which agreeably diverts the spectator in sad or touching situations.”

[194] Adolphe Jullien, _L’Opéra secret au XVIIIe siècle: Madame Saint-Huberty_.

[195] On December 6, which was an off-day at the Opera, Madame Saint-Huberty attended a performance of the _Fausse Lord_, music by Piccini, words by Piccini _fils_, at the Comédie-Italienne. At the conclusion of the piece, when she was leaving her box, the whole audience rose, and burst into a tumult of applause, shouting: “_Vive la reine de Carthage!_” If, remarks Grimm, the public had been aware that, on that very day, by the exercise of rare delicacy and tact, the artiste had succeeded in reconciling Piccini and Sacchini, who had long been at variance, their enthusiasm would have been, if it were possible, even greater.

[196] _Notice sur la vie et les ouvrages de Nicolas Piccini._

[197] _Les Comédiennes adorées_, p. 217.

[198] Grimm, _Correspondance littéraire_, xii. 10.

[199] Grimm, _Correspondance littéraire_, xii. 10.

[200] Adolphe Jullien, _L’Opéra secret au XVIIIe siècle: Madame Saint-Huberty_. M. Jullien says “in less than five months.” He forgets that _Didon_, although not seen at the Opera until December 1 1783, had been performed at Fontainebleau in the previous October.

[201] Adolphe Jullien, _L’Opéra secret au XVIIIe siècle: Madame Saint-Huberty_.

[202] See p. 128 note, _supra_.

[203] _Mémoires secrets_, December 20, 1786.

[204] Cited by Campardon, _Académie royal de Musique au XVIIIe siècle_: Article, “Saint-Huberty.”

[205] Cited by Edmond de Goncourt, _Madame Saint-Huberty_, p. 190.

[206] The superintendent of the wardrobe of the Opera.

[207] Cited by Edmond de Goncourt, _Madame Saint-Huberty_, p. 171.

[208] It is true that Métra writes, under date March 24, 1783, as follows: “Mlle. Laguerre had been for a long time the mistress of the Duc de Bouillon. Madame Saint-Huberti has replaced her in the heart of this prince and in her rights on his fortune. He has just purchased her favours, so many times cheaply disposed of, by a contract of one hundred thousand écus.” But Edmond de Goncourt is inclined to think that Métra is here drawing upon his very vivid imagination with more than his usual freedom.

[209] Cited by Edmond de Goncourt, _Madame Saint-Huberty_, p. 186.

[210] Cabanis was the Comte d’Antraigues’s physician in Paris. Shortly before this letter was written, Madame Saint-Huberty had placed herself under his care and presumably he was still prescribing for her.

[211] All sorts of legends have gathered round the Comte d’Antraigues, who is depicted as a kind of Royalist Marat, ready to demand, on the return of the Bourbons, “his four hundred thousand heads.” One story is to the effect that, when in Venice, he had been heard to boast that he had caused several agents of the French Republic to be poisoned.

[212] This was not the only reward of her services which the ex-singer received. In 1804, the Emperor of Austria accorded her a pension of 1000 ducats, “in memory of the services rendered by her to her late Majesty Marie Antoinette of France, as superintendent of the music of that august princess.” As for the Comte d’Antraigues, he was, for some years, in receipt of a handsome pension from the various European Courts, and, in May 1800, received from the king of the Two Sicilies the royal order of Constantine, together with a pension.

[213] Madame Saint-Huberty had, of course, never appeared at the Théâtre-Français. Such is fame!

[214] As a matter of fact, her savings only amounted to some 80,000 francs, the whole of which had been lost during the Revolution.

[215] The _Times_ of July 28, 1812, states that it had been ascertained that Lorenzo was an intimate friend of Sellis, who, after attempting to assassinate the Duke of Cumberland, committed suicide.

[216] _L’Opéra secret au XVIIIe siècle: Madame Saint-Huberty._