  Musicians — Paganini — His avarice — Ole Bull — Curious musical instruments — Jim Crow — The opera and its singers — The ballet — Actors, etc. — Madame Vestris's leg. In music we had, as composers, Balfe, who is more honoured abroad than at home, John Barnett, Julius Benedict, W. Sterndale Bennett, Sir Henry Bishop, Michael Costa, J. B. Cramer, Moscheles, Sir George Smart, and Vincent Wallace. As English singers, Braham and Phillips, Madame Carodori Allan, Madame Anna Bishop, Miss Stephens, Clara Novello, Adelaide Kemble, and Miss Paton. In 1831 Paganini came to England, and gave his first concert on June 3rd at the King's Theatre. He began badly—he raised the prices, and the people would not stand it, and he only gave way at the last moment, as we see by the following letter in the Times of June 2nd, addressed to the editor. "Sir, "The evening of my first concert in the King's Theatre is now so near, that I feel the duty of announcing it myself, to implore the favour of the English nation, which honours the arts as much as I respect it. "Accustomed, in all the nations of the Continent, to double the ordinary prices of the theatres where I have given my concerts, "Paganini." As it was, the prices were high enough. The boxes the same as on opera night, orchestra and stalls, £1 1s.; pit, 10s. 6d.; gallery, 5s. His avarice was notorious, as noted in the following verses, which appeared in The Original of July 28, 1832. "A Note of Enquiry, addressed to Paganini. "Grant me reply, great Fiddler, to a word In a notice of his first concert, the Times says— "The personal appearance of Paganini is remarkable. He is a tall, thin man, with features rather emaciated, pale complexion, a sharp, aquiline nose, and a keen eye, the expression of which is greatly heightened when he is animated by his performance. His hair, which is dark, is worn long behind, and combed off the forehead and temples, in a manner which gives an air of great simplicity to his countenance. He seems to be about fifty years of age. The King gave him a diamond ring, and money rolled in to him. His prices were high, and he always insisted upon being paid before he would perform. Here is an example (Times, December 8, 1831)— "Brighton. December 6th.—Some sensation has been excited at Brighton by a circumstance relative to Paganini. Mr. Gutteridge, it appears, had engaged the Signor to play at the theatre for one night, at the moderate sum of 200 guineas. As the theatre, however, when crammed almost to suffocation, would only produce about £200, and, after paying Paganini and other expenses, he would have had to disburse nearly £300, Mr. Gutteridge was, of course, compelled to raise the prices. It was, In November, 1833, a Mr. Freeman sued Paganini for thirty guineas, alleged to be due to him for his services as interpreter and agent, and in the course of the trial it came out that Paganini had amassed £30,000 in England alone. His rival, the celebrated Norwegian violinist, Ole Bull, came over here in 1836, and gave his first concert at the King's Theatre on May 21st of that year, and the criticism upon his performance was that "the applause he received was unbounded, as little forced, and as sincere as any we have ever heard." He stayed in England a year. It is said that "there is but one step from the sublime to the ridiculous," and, musically, that seems to be from Paganini and Ole Bull to Eulenstein, the performer on the Jew's harp, who was here in the autumn of 1833. In a biographical account of him we find that he was of humble origin, and born in Wurtemberg. "He went to Stutgard, and received a command to appear before the queen. Pursuing his travels, he visited Paris, with five pounds in his pocket, and five hundred in his imagination. Here The accordion was a new and fashionable instrument, and there was in 1836 a musical instrument called an "Æolophone," which I fancy must have been a kind of Æolian harp; and in 1837 there was an awful thing called the "Eidophusion," whilst, all during the reign, a composite instrument, called the "Apollonicon," was performed on daily at 101, St. Martin's Lane. Whilst on the subject of music in England, I must not omit to mention the commencement of a peculiar school, which since has attained large dimensions—I mean the "nigger" songs, of which the first was sung in 1836 by an actor named T. D. Rice, who introduced it at the Adelphi, in a play called "A Flight to America." Although very silly stuff, it became the rage, and I reproduce it because it was the first of its kind. It will be noted that the nigger costume was not of that exaggerated and complex character into which it has now developed. Jim Crow. "I cam from ole Kentucky, "I us'd to take him fiddle, "I landed fust at Liverpool, "I lighted den upon my head, "Dis head, you know, am pretty tick, "When I got into Lunnon, "Dem young Jim Crows about de streets, "Dem urchins what sing my song, For some reason or other this buffoonery became a perfect rage; there were Jim Crow hats, Jim Crow coats, neckerchiefs, etc.; nay, it even was made use of in political satire. "Opera Charges. "The following sums are paid nightly to the performers at the King's Theatre: Pasta, £200, Taglioni, £120, Rubini, £100, Tamburini, £100, Donzelli, £50, Zuchelli, £50. Madame Pasta will receive £3500 for the season; and the amount payable to the principal characters alone, on the rising of the curtain, is above £1000." The premiÈres danseuses were Taglioni, the two Elslers, Carlotta Grisi, and Duvernay, who married a country banker, Mr. Lyne Stephens, and who died enormously rich, either late in 1894 or early in 1895, when her collection pictures, etc., were sold at Christie's, and fetched fabulous prices. A great male dancer was Perrot. It is an easy transition from opera to the drama, and among actors we find the names of Paul Bedford, J. B. Buckstone, T. P. Cooke, A. Ducrow, W. Farren, J. P. Harley, Chas. J. Kean, R. Keeley, C. Kemble, J. Liston, W. C. Macready, John Parry, J. Phelps, J. Reeve, J. Vandenhoff, B. Webster, F. H. Yates, and C. M. Young. Among actresses I may mention During this reign died several veterans of the stage. In 1831 died Mrs. Siddons and Elliston; in 1832, Munden; in 1833, Edmund Kean; in 1836, Richardson, the showman; and in 1837, the famous clown, Joey Grimaldi. There were besides two names not to be forgotten, not belonging to professors of the legitimate drama, but yet worthy in their way to be chronicled—namely, Charles Matthews, who died in 1835, famous for his "At Home," and his "Monopolylogue," and "Love, the Polyphonist." There was a curious police case in 1831, re a curious subject—no less than Madame Vestris's leg; and the following is a portion of the case as reported in the Times of January 21st:— "Marlborough Street.—A young man was brought into this office a few days ago, charged with stealing and disposing of, on his own account, and for his own use, the casts of several figures in plaster of Paris and other compositions, the property of Mr. Papera, the celebrated Italian modeller, in whose service the prisoner lived as journeyman, and the offence charged being clearly supported by evidence, the young man was fully committed for trial. "Yesterday Mr. Papera applied again to the sitting magistrate, for advice how to act in a case in which he had to charge the young man in prison with an offence of much more enormous nature than that for which he had been committed to take his trial. "The magistrate inquired what sort of legs they were? "Mr. Papera said they were casts of Madame Vestris's leg to a little above the knee and including the foot. "The magistrate asked if such casts could not have been made by other artists, so as to render it difficult for Mr. Papera to identify them as belonging to him. "Mr. Papera said it was impossible these casts could have been made by any other artist, because he was the only person to whom Madame Vestris had ever 'stood' to have a cast taken of her leg, and from that cast he had made one mould or model, and only one, and that was always kept with the greatest care under lock and key, except when required to be used in his model room, so that no person could possibly obtain access to it, except some one in his employ; and, as for any attempt at imitation, that was impossible to do with success, for so beautiful and perfect was the symmetry of the original, that it was from it alone the various natural niceties of the complete whole could be acquired and to perfection formed. "The magistrate asked Mr. Papera if he kept these legs ready made in his establishment, and if in that state they were stolen by the prisoner? "Mr. Papera said no; they were too rare and valuable an article to be kept ready made in the ordinary way of common shop legs, and were only made to 'order'—that is, when especially ordered by artists or amateurs." On February 22nd the young man was tried at the Old Bailey and acquitted. |
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