high opinion of Sophie and was also a friend of Lauraguais, was much
distressed by her conduct. Under date October 7, 1761, he writes to
Mlle. Voland: “This affair displeases me more than I can tell you.
This girl had two children by him (Lauraguais); he was the man of her
choice; there had been no constraint, no self-interest, none of those
things which go to make ordinary engagements. If ever there was a
sacrament, this was one; so much the more so, since it is not in the
nature of a man to espouse only one woman. She forgets that she is
married. She forgets that she is a mother. It is not only a lover; it
is the father of her children whom she is leaving. Mlle. Arnould is
something more in my eyes than a little baggage.”
[24] Favart, _Mémoires et Correspondance_, i. 195. Several writers
refuse to accept this letter as genuine, believing that Favart
invented it. It must be admitted, however, that its dry humour is very
characteristic of Sophie.
[25] Mr. Sutherland Edwards, in his “Idols of the French Stage” (vol.
i. p. 181), falls into a singular error. He states that, on his return
to Paris, Lauraguais found that Sophie “had placed herself under the
protection of M. de Saint-Florentin, for whom, however, she had no
affection.” Sophie did certainly place herself under the protection
of Saint-Florentin; but it was not his private but his official
protection, as Minister for Paris and Chief of the Police; a not
altogether unnecessary precaution, since Lauraguais had threatened to
poison her.
[26] _Mémoires secrets de la République des Lettres._
[27] Grimm, _Correspondance littéraire_, iii. 297.
[28] _Arnoldiana._ According to another account, Choiseul came to
Sophie’s dressing-room, on the conclusion of the performance, to
compliment her and assure her of the great pleasure she had afforded
the King. “Ah well!” she replied, “tell his Majesty that, if he is
satisfied with Iphise, he should restore to her Dardanus!”
[29] _Correspondance littéraire_, v. 431.
[30] _Correspondance littéraire_, vi. 145. Mlle. Heinel seems also
to have made a very favourable impression upon Horace Walpole, who
mentions her several times in his letters, and always in terms of
admiration. After seeing her for the first time, on the occasion of
his visit to Paris, in 1771, he writes to the Earl of Strafford:
“There is a finer dancer [than Mlle. Guimard], whom M. Hobart is to
transplant to London; a Mademoiselle Heinel, or Ingle, a Fleming. She
is tall, perfectly made, very handsome, and has a set of attitudes
copied from the classics. She moves as gracefully slow as Pygmalion’s
statue when it was coming to life, and moves her leg round as
imperceptibly as if she was dancing in the Zodiac. But she is not
Virgo.” The lady came to London that same winter, and danced for some
months at Covent Garden, where she created as much enthusiasm as in
Paris. On April 21, 1772, Walpole writes again: “I am just going to
the Opera to hear Milice sing. I do not believe he will draw such
audiences as Mlle. Heinel has done. The town has an idle notion
that she made so much impression upon a very high heart, that it is
thought prudent to keep it out of her way. She is the most graceful
figure in the world, with charming eyes, beautiful mouth, and lovely
countenance; yet I do not think we shall see a Dame du Barri on this
side the Channel.”
The staid Dr. Burney was another of Mlle. Heinel’s admirers, and
informs us that, besides the six hundred pounds salary she received
from the management of Covent Garden, she was “complimented with a
_regallo_ of six hundred more from the Macaroni Club.”
[31] This prince is said to have had sixty acknowledged mistresses,
besides occasional and “imperceptible” ones.
[32] In her _Mémoires_, Sophie writes: “The prince had, for a moment,
the idea of devoting himself to me. But he wished me to be entirely
his own, without any distraction or reserve. I never had any taste for
exaggerated grandeurs, and am of the opinion of that philosopher who
said that happiness is only to be found in moderation.”
[33] E. and J. de Concourt, _Sophie Arnould_, p. 70. According to the
_Chronique scandaleuse_, Sophie had a daughter by the Prince de Condé,
who afterwards married the Comte de R***.
[34] He was the architect of Bagatelle, in the Bois de Boulogne,
which he built for the Comte d’Artois, and designed the gardens of
the Château de Meréville (Seine-et-Oise) and of Belœil, in Belgium,
the seat of the Prince de Ligne. Extant specimens of his work are the
hôtel built for Mlle. Contat, at the corner of the Rue de Berri, in
the Champs-Elysées, and the dome of the old Halle aux Blés, now the
Bourse du Commerce.
[35] One which accused her of practising the shameful vices of
antiquity. _See_ E. and J. de Goncourt’s _Sophie Arnould_, p. 86 _et
seq._
[36] Madame du Barry was, however, amply avenged. Sophie’s comrades
of the theatre, scarcely one of whom but had suffered from her
sarcastic tongue, were not slow to avail themselves of so excellent
an opportunity of paying their tormentor back in her own coin, and,
for some time afterwards, never failed to let fall the odious word
“_Hôpital_” whenever Mlle. Arnould happened to be within earshot; a
proceeding which, Bachaumont tells us, “no doubt greatly humiliated
that superb queen of opera.”
[37] _Mémoires secrets_, vi. 136.
[38] Eighteenth-century composers appear to have been continually
tinkering with this unfortunate opera, one of the most popular of
the famous Lulli-Quinault series. When it was revived in January
1759, La Borde, Louis XV.’s musical _valet-de-chambre_, made various
alterations in the music, “which disgusted equally the partisans of
the old and the new schools.” In November 1771, Berton, one of the
directors of the Opera, substituted some very inferior melodies of his
own, which, if possible, were even less to the taste of the audience,
and, eight years later, Johann Christian Bach, the eleventh son of
the celebrated master, tried his hand at the score, likewise without
success.
[39] This was one of the most successful of Sophie’s “creations.”
The piece, the libretto of which had been adapted by Sedaine from a
_conte_ of the Chevalier de Boufflers, published in 1761, was played
twenty-six times in succession, an unusually long run in those days.
[40] The _Mercure_ is lavish in its praise of Sophie’s rendering of
Colin, the boy’s part, in Jean Jacques Rousseau’s _Devin du Village_,
in which she appeared in December 1767. But Mr. Douglas thinks that
her performance was less successful than that rather partial organ
declared it to be. At all events, he says, she did not repeat the
experiment, and was always extremely sarcastic if any of her fellow
actresses undertook masculine parts. Mlle. Allard, whose innumerable
_galanteries_ had astonished, and almost shocked, even the nymphs of
the Opera, one day happened to remark, after playing such a part, that
she believed that half the audience really thought she was a boy. “But
the other half _knew_ you were not, _ma chère_,” observed Sophie.
[41] Mr. Ernest Newman, “Gluck and the Opera,” p. 133.
[42] _Gluck et Piccini_, p. 89.
[43] Rousseau, _La Nouvelle Héloïse_.
[44] E. and J. de Goncourt, _Sophie Arnould_, p. 119.
[45] Desnoiresterres, _Gluck et Piccini_, p. 93.
[46] Mr. Ernest Newman, “Gluck and the Opera,” p. 139.
[47] The _Mémoires secrets_ attribute much of the applause to “the
desire of the public to please Madame la Dauphine, who did not cease
to clap her hands, and thus compelled the Comtesse de Provence, the
princes, and all the boxes to do likewise.”
[48] _Mémoires secrets_, vii. 185.
[49] Grimm, _Correspondance littéraire_, viii. 322.
[50] Métra, _Correspondance secrète_, i. 64.
[51] _Mémoires secrets_, viii. 321.
[52] Campardon, _L’Académie royale de Musique au XVIIIe siècle_:
Article, “Levasseur.”
[53] _Gluck et Piccini_, p. 132.
[54] By the rules of the Opera, Sophie, as senior “_actrice chantante
seule_” could have insisted, had she been so minded, on taking the
part of Alceste. In 1774, Mlle. Duplant, who then occupied that
position, claimed the title-part in _Iphigénie_, and considerable
difficulty was experienced in persuading her to forego her claim, and
be content with Clytemnestra.
[55] In October of that year, two successive issues of this worthy’s
organ were confiscated by the police, on account of the scandalous
attacks upon certain members of the theatrical profession which they
contained.
[56] _Mémoires secrets_, ix. 230.
[57] La Harpe relates that in the scene where Iphigenia says to
Achilles “_Vous brûlez que je sois partie_,” the pit applied the words
to the actress and burst into ironical applause.
[58] See p. 170 _infra_.
[59] In addition to her pensions, she had 2000 livres a year from
a settlement made upon her by Lauraguais, and owned a house at
Port-à-l’Anglais, which she sold, some months after her retirement
from the stage, for 20,000 livres. From a letter to Alleaume, written
apparently during the winter of 1775-1776, we learn that she was then
in receipt of allowances from at least two more of her noble lovers;
4250 livres from the Prince de Conti, and 3250 from the Prince de
Condé; but how long these payments were continued it is impossible to
say.
[60] The antiquary Millin, who annotated a copy of _Arnoldiana_ which
afterwards came into the Goncourts’ possession, asserts that she had
had tender relations with the Comte d’Artois and “my lord” Stuart.
[61] Mr. R. B. Douglas, “Sophie Arnould: actress and wit,” p. 209.
[62] Cited by the Goncourts, _Sophie Arnould_, p. 132.
[63] _La Chronique scandaleuse_, No. 29, cited by E. and J. de
Goncourt, _Sophie Arnould_, p. 149.
[64] According to another account, to which the Goncourts and Mr.
R. B. Douglas both give credence, it was a bust of Sophie herself,
by Houdon, representing her as Iphigenia; and the agents of the
revolutionary committee “mistook a sky-blue band on which was painted
a quarter-moon and two stars for the scarf of Marat.” But is not this
making rather a severe call upon our credulity?
[65] According to Castil-Blaze, during the Reign of Terror, Lauraguais
disguised himself as a coachman and drove a _fiacre_.
[66] The official Republican name for the Opera.
[67] Cited by E. and J. de Goncourt, _Sophie Arnould_, p. 302.
[68] Campardon, _Académie royale de Musique au XVIIIe siècle_:
Article, “Guimard.”
[69] _Ibid._
[70] _Arnoldiana._
[71] Edmond de Goncourt, _La Guimard_, p. 18.
[72] Castil-Blaze, _Histoire de l’Académie de Musique_, i. 267.
[73] Cited by Edmond de Goncourt, _La Guimard_, p. 304 note.
[74] The Archbishop of Sens.
[75] He was the author of _Pensées et Maximes_, published some years
after his death, a work in the style of La Rochefoucauld, which
reveals him as a keen observer of life and particularly of woman. Here
are some of his reflections:
“Vouloir qu’on soit amoureux avec raison, c’est vouloir qu’on soit fou
avec raison.”
“Une femme qui sait mal est moins supportable qu’une femme qui ne sait
rien.”
“Le plaisir est comme une fleur, dont l’odeur est délicate, et qu’il
faut sentir légèrement, si on veut toujours lui trouver le même
parfum.”
“La plupart des femmes ressemblent à des énigmes qui cessent de
plaire, dès qu’elles sont devinées.
“Qui aime est bien plus heureux que d’être aimé.
“On combat l’amour par la fuite et la colère par le silence.”
[76] _Mémoires secrets_, iii. 383.
[77] The titles of some of the pieces represented speak for
themselves: _Junon et Ganymède, comédie érotique_; _La Vierge de
Babylone, comédie érotique_; _César et les deux Vestales, pièce
érotique en un acte_; _Héloïse et Abailard, comédie érotique en un
acte_; _Ninon et Lachatre, scène érotique_; _Minette et Finette, ou
les Épreuves d’amour_, and so forth.
[78] It was composed by Armand, concierge of the Hôtel des Comédiens,
and author of several dramas, at the instance of La Borde, who had
recommended him to make it as salacious as possible.
[79] Mlle. Guimard had, in point of fact, a third lover already, in
the person of the dancer Dauberval; but he was a negligible quantity,
so far as contributions to the lady’s revenues were concerned. A
satirical print of the time entitled _Concert à trois_, shows us the
ballerina holding a roll of music in her hand and about to sing,
her chief protector, the Prince de Soubise, playing the violin, the
_sous-entreteneur_, La Borde, beating time with the conductor’s bâton,
and Dauberval playing the cornet.
[80] The _Mémoires secrets_ attribute another source to the 6000
livres: “This actress, very celebrated by her talents, having had
a rendezvous in an isolated faubourg with a man whose robe exacted
the most profound mystery, had occasion to witness the misery,
grief, and despair of the people of this neighbourhood, on account
of the excessive cold. Her heart was moved with compassion at such a
sight, and of the 2000 écus, the fruit of her iniquity, she herself
distributed a part and carried the balance to the curé of Saint-Roch,
for the same purpose.”
[81] Edmond de Goncourt, _La Guimard_, p. 89.
[82] Walpole, writing to Sir Horace Mann, on September 9, 1771, says
of the Hôtel Guimard: “The _salle-à-manger_ is to have _des serres
chaudes_ (_sic_) round it, with windows opening into the room; that it
may have orange-flowers and odours all the winter.”
[83] Métra, _Correspondance secrète_, vol. viii. Edmond de Goncourt,
_La Guimard_, p. 90.
[84] See note, p. 109, _supra_.
[85] Campardon, _L’Académie royale de Musique au XVIIIe siècle_:
Article “Guimard.”
[86] Edmond de Goncourt, _La Guimard_, p. 226.
[87] Previous to this arrangement being arrived at, the Chevalier de
Saint-George, the Creole, famous as a fencer and musician, offered,
with the assistance of a society of capitalists, to undertake the
direction of the Opera. But Mlle. Guimard, Sophie Arnould, and certain
other nymphs, jealous of the honour of their profession, addressed a
petition to the Queen, representing that their honour would not allow
them to submit to the direction of a mulatto.
[88] Campardon, _L’Académie royale de Musique au XVIIIe siècle_:
Article, “Dauvergne.”
[89] The dancer Nivelon, who escaped across the Belgian frontier,
with the intention of making his way to England, was hotly pursued
by a police-agent named Quidor, with orders to arrest him and bring
him back to Paris. While, however, Quidor was endeavouring to obtain
an extradition warrant from the authorities at Brussels, the dancer
contrived to reach Ostende and escaped across the Channel.
[90] _Mémoires de Fleury_, ii. 119.
[91] Edmond de Goncourt, _La Guimard_, p. 254.
[92] He was the son of a musician of the Opera, and was born on
August 31, 1746. He became a dancer at the theatre in 1764, where he
quickly distinguished himself by his skill in “_la danse haute_,” his
performances in the ballets introduced into _Les Amours de Ragonde_
(1773), _Iphigénie en Aulide_ (1774), _Philémon et Baucis_ (1774), and
_La Chercheuse d’esprit_ (1778), being particularly admired. In 1781,
owing to an injury to one of his feet, he retired from the active
exercise of his profession, and was appointed _maître des ballets_.
In the following year, he received from the King a pension of 1500
livres, for his services as a dancer in ballets represented before the
Court. A facile and graceful poet, Despréaux was the author of several
parodies of operas: _Christophe et Pierre Luc_, parody of _Castor et
Pollux_; _Momi_, parody of _Iphigénie_; _Syncope, reine de Mic-Mac_,
parody of _Pénélope_, and _Berlingue_, parody of _Ernelinde_, which so
pleased Louis XVI. when played before the Court, at Choisy, in 1777,
that he granted the author a pension.--Campardon, _Académie royale de
Musique au XVIIIe siècle_, i. 146.
[93] The marriage contract states that the property of the bride
consisted of (1) an annuity of 12,000 livres; (2) a pension of 2600
livres on the King’s Privy Purse; (3) a pension of 6000 livres on
the Royal Treasury; (4) a pension of 3000 livres on the treasury of
the Opera; (5) a sum of 110,000 livres, partly in cash and partly in
furniture, jewellery, linen, and wearing apparel.
[94] In a manuscript collection of his _chansons_ preserved in the
_Bibliothèque de l’Opéra_, he describes himself in the following terms:
“Il faut que je vous désigne
De ma taille la grandeur:
Cinq pieds, trois pouces, neuf lignes,
Voilà juste ma hauteur.
Large front, bouche moyenne,
Menton pointu, le nez long,
Les yeux gris, figure pleine,
Sourcils bruns, cheveux blonds.”
[95] Edmond de Goncourt, _La Guimard_, p. 276.
[96] A. F. Didot, _Souvenirs de Jean Étienne Despréaux_, p. 34.
[97] Edmond de Goncourt, _La Guimard_, p. 301.
[98] Among the writers who have fallen into this error may
be mentioned: Lemazurier (_Galerie historique des acteurs du
Théâtre-Français_), M. de Manne (_Galerie historique de la troupe
de Voltaire_ and _Biographie générale_: Article, “Raucourt”), Émile
Gaboriau (_Les Comédiennes adorées_), Mr. Sutherland Edwards (“Idols
of the French Stage”), and Mr. Frederick Hawkins (“The French Stage in
the Eighteenth Century”).
[99] Mlle. Clairon subsequently wrote to Larive: “Mlle. Raucourt has
made her _début_ with the greatest success. All Paris dotes on her,
and, although Brizard may be her only recognised master, people name,
at each verse which they hear her utter, the person of whom she has
taken lessons. She is only sixteen and a half; she is beautiful as an
angel, sensible, noble. She will be, I hope, a charming subject, and
I dare believe that Madame Vestris will gnaw her fingers, more than
once, at having disobliged me.... This woman is the first person whom
I have really hated. Mlle. Raucourt is worthy of all the pains that I
am taking to form her, but I confess that I find it very sweet, while
serving her, to avenge myself for all the ingratitude and insolence of
the other.” Cited by Edmond de Goncourt, _Mademoiselle Clairon_, p.
285.
[100] Brizard played the part of _fidus_ Achates in _Didon_.
[101] _Correspondance littéraire_, Supplementary volume, p. 352.
[102] _Mercure de France_, January 1773.
[103] _Mémoires secrets_, vi. 288.
[104] Gaboriau, _Les Comédiennes adorées_, p. 73. Manne, _Galerie
historique de la troupe de Voltaire_.
[105] Grimm writes: “The Princesse de Beauvau, the Princesse de
Guéménée, and the Duchesse de la Vallière have also made her presents
of superb dresses. The greater part of those which the ladies of
the Court had had made for the Dauphin’s marriage will go to enrich
the theatrical wardrobe of Mlle. Raucourt, which will soon be of
considerable size.”
[106] The name is frequently written Saint-Val.
[107] _Mémoires secrets_, vi. p. 297.
[108] _Correspondance littéraire_, Supplementary volume, p. 356.
[109] _Mémoires secrets._
[110] He was the author of a highly successful comedy, called _Le
Séducteur_, produced at the Comédie-Française, November 8, 1783.
[111] For further information concerning this unpleasant subject, into
which we naturally do not care to enter, see Edmond de Goncourt’s
_Maison d’un artiste_, ii. 60, and the same writer’s _Sophie Arnould_,
p. 86. A similar charge was brought against Sophie Arnould, though,
apparently, with less reason.
[112] _Correspondance littéraire_, ii. 282.
[113] The expelled actress may have derived some little consolation
from perusing the following criticism of her successor in the
_Nouvelles à la main_: “July 9.--Mlle. Sainval the younger made her
first appearance yesterday, in _Zaïre_, on her return to the Comédie.
She is ugly, and particularly hideous when she weeps, ungraceful,
flat-breasted, and has a doleful and monotonous voice.”
[114] Campardon, _Les Comédiens du Roi de la Troupe française_, p. 251.
[115] _Ibid._ p. 255.
[116] La Harpe, _Correspondance littéraire_, ii. 415.
[117] Hawkins, “The French Stage in the Eighteenth Century,” ii. 250
_et seq._
[118] La Harpe, _Correspondance littéraire_, iii. 3 _et seq._
[119] _Mémoires secrets_, xiv. 214 _et seq._
[120] _Mémoires secrets_, xix. 103.
[121] La Harpe, _Correspondance littéraire_, iii. 327. La Harpe states
that a rumour was current that Mlle. Raucourt had only lent her
name to the play, and that it was really the work of either Durosoy
or Monvel. This rumour, however, is indignantly repudiated by the
_Mémoires secrets_, which declare it to be nothing but a malicious
invention of the lady’s enemies.
[122] _Mercure de France_, March 1782.
[123] Hawkins, “The French Stage in the Eighteenth Century,” 339.
[124] _Mémoires de Fleury_, v. 228, _et seq._
[125] _Souvenirs_, i. 82.
[126] M. Gaston Maugras, _Les Comédiens hors la loi_, p. 460 _et seq._
[127] Gaboriau, _Les Comédiennes adorées_, p. 151.
[128] Campardon, _Les Comédiens du Roi de la Troupe italienne_:
Article, “Dugazon.”
[129] _Mes Récapitulations_, i. 124.
[130] _Souvenirs_, i. 94.
[131] Thurner, _Les Reines de Chant_, p. 66.
[132] _Correspondance littéraire_, xi. 417.
[133] _Correspondance littéraire_, xii. 261. At the conclusion of
the piece on the first evening, Madame Dugazon was called before the
curtain, “an honour,” say the _Mémoires secrets_, “which had never yet
been accorded to any actress at this theatre or any other.”
[134] Campardon, _Les Comédiens du Roi de la Troupe italienne_:
Article, “Dugazon.”
[135] _Mes Récapitulations_, i. 125.
[136] _Correspondance littéraire_, xiii. 132.
[137] Thurner, _Les Reines du Chant_, p. 65.
[138] Gaboriau, _Les Comédiennes adorées_, p. 163.
[139] Gaboriau, _Les Comédiennes adorées_, p. 165.
[140] Madame Dugazon’s feelings were probably intensified by the fact
that her husband had espoused the popular side with enthusiasm, and
had been appointed aide-de-camp to the notorious Santerre. After the
9th Thermidor, the actor was, for some time, the object of hostile
demonstrations whenever he appeared on the stage. But he courageously
refused to bow before the storm, and, little by little, the public
forgave him. In 1807 he retired from the stage, and, two years later,
died, “a raving madman,” on an estate which he had bought near Orléans.
[141] _Souvenirs._
[142] He composed three operas: _Marguerite de Waldemar_ (1812), _la
Noce écossaise_ (1814), and _le Chevalier d’industrie_ (1818); and two
ballets: _les Fiances de Caserte_ and _Alfred le Grand_. But none of
these pieces seem to have been at all favourably received. He died in
1826, five years after his mother.
[143] Gaboriau, _Les Comédiennes adorées_, p. 170.
[144] In Louise Contat’s _acte de naissance_, which bears date
June 16, 1760, her father, Jean François Contat, describes himself
as “_soldat de la maréchaussée et marchand de bas privilégié à
Paris_.”--Jal, _Dictionnaire de Biographie et d’Histoire_, article
“Contat.”
[145] Hawkins, “The French Stage in the Eighteenth Century,” ii. 209.
[146] _Mémoires de Fleury_, ii. 217.
[147] The critic of the _Mercure_ wrote: “What respect can they (men
of letters) hope to inspire, when they themselves become the first to
denounce their own secret vices, and, to sum up all in one word, when
their mind seems to make a jest of calumniating their heart?”
[148] For an account of this affair, see the author’s “Queens of the
French Stage,” p. 324 _et seq._
[149] La Harpe, _Correspondance littéraire_, iv. 51.
[150] The friendship between Beaumarchais and the Comte de Vaudreuil
had its origin in the following incident. The latter had had a
dispute, at one of the Court theatres, with a M. de Miromesnil, a
distinguished amateur actor, as to the manner in which drunkenness
should be depicted on the stage. Some of the company jestingly
ascribed the count’s remarks to personal experience. “Nay,” answered
Vaudreuil, “they are not my own. I borrow the lesson from the great
Garrick, who gave it on the Boulevards to Préville, who acted upon
it before a few working men, and caused them to take the mimicry for
reality.” Miromesnil disputed the authenticity of the anecdote, and,
on being assured that it was true, offered to lay a heavy wager that a
Boulevard was not the place. Beaumarchais happened to be standing by.
“Take the wager,” he whispered to the count; “it is yours.” Vaudreuil
did so. Beaumarchais left the theatre, and shortly afterwards returned
with a letter, in which Garrick himself stated that the incident
occurred on the Boulevards. From that moment, the count evinced a warm
interest in the dramatist’s fortunes.--Hawkins, “The French Stage in
the Eighteenth Century,” ii. 291.