Boyer, a French
dramatic author, had been fifty years writing without success. That he might
prove whether his condemnation was not on account of the prejudice of the
critics, he gave it to be understood that the new tragedy of Agamemnon was the
production of a young man lately arrived in Paris . The piece was received with
great applause even by Racine himself, who was the great scourge of Boyer. The
next night the tragedy was hissed, Boyer having made it known that he was the
author.
Xxx
ASK YOUR FIELD MARSHAL TO SING!
Catherine II was treating her court to concerts by Caterina Gabrielli, the celebrated Italian soprano. The Empress had asked the artist to come to St Peterborough without stating any definitive price. Gabrielli determined, however, that a royal patron should be royally charged; and when at the end of the season Catherine inquired of her entertainer what she was to be paid for her singing, she replied, ‘Five thousand ducats’ ‘Five thousand ducats!’ The Empress exclaimed. ‘Why not one of my field marshals is paid as much as that’. ‘Well, then’, retorted Gabrielli like a flash, ‘Your Majesty had better get one of your field marshals to sing for you’.
Caterina
Xxx
IF YOU MURDER,
IT WILL HAUNT YOU!
Samuel Foote once asked a man why he forever sang one tune. ‘Because it haunts me’, replied the other. ‘No wonder’, said Foote, ‘You continually murder it.’