Volume II Part 12 (2/2)

We dined at Fontainebleau, a name derived froues fro towards us As it caence, my friend Baletti called out to the postillions to stop In the berlin was his iven to an expected friend His mother was the celebrated actress Silvia, and when I had been introduced to her she said to me;

”I hope, sir, that my son's friend will accept a share of our faratefully, sat down again in the gondola, Baletti got into the berlin with hisParis, I found a servant of Silvia's waiting forto leave e, and we repaired to Baletti's house, which was only fifty yards distant fro

Baletti presented me to his father, as known under the nae names assumed by M and Madame Baletti, and at that time it was the custom in France to call the Italian actors by the nae 'Bon jour', Monsieur Arlequin; 'bon jour', Monsieur Pantalon: such was the manner in which the French used to address the actors who personified those characters on the stage

CHAPTER VI

My Apprenticeshi+p in Paris--Portraits--Oddities--All Sorts of Things

To celebrate the arrival of her son, Silvia gave a splendid supper to which she had invited all her relatives, and it was a good opportunity for me to make their acquaintance Baletti's father, who had just recovered fro illness, was not with us, but we had his father's sister, as older than Mario She was known, under her theatrical name of Flaminia, in the literary world by several translations, but I had a great wish to make her acquaintance less on that account than in consequence of the story, known throughout Italy, of the stay that three literary reat fame had made in Paris Those three literati were the Marquis Maffei, the Abbe Conti, and Pierre Jacques Martelli, who beca to the belief entertained by each of the ht with the pen Martelli conated hiram of Femia

I had been announced to Flaht she honoured , for she displeased reatly by her face, her manners, her style, even by the sound of her voice Without saying it positively, sheherself an illustrious member of the republic of letters, she ell aware that she was speaking to an insect She seemed as if she wanted to dictate to everybody around her, and she very likely thought that she had the right to do so at the age of sixty, particularly towards a young novice only twenty-five years old, who had not yet contributed anything to the literary treasury In order to please her, I spoke to her of the Abbe Conti, and I had occasion to quote two lines of that profound writer Mada air for my pronunciation of the word 'scevra', which ht to be pronounced 'sceura', and she added that I ought to be very glad to have learned some that it would be an important day in my life

”Madam, I came here to learn and not to unlearn You will kindly allow me to tell you that the pronunciation of that word 'scevra' with a v, and not 'sceura' with a u, because it is a contraction of 'sceverra'”

”It re”

”You,to Ariosto, who makes 'scevra' rhyme with 'persevra', and the rhyme would be false with 'sceura', which is not an Italian word”

She would have kept up the discussion, but her husband, aShe held her tongue, but from that time she told everybody that I was an impostor

Her husband, Louis Riccoboni, better known as Lelio, was the saht the Italian company to Paris in 1716, and placed it at the service of the regent: he was a reat merit He had been very handsome, and justly enjoyed the esteem of the public, in consequence not only of his talent but also of the purity of his life

During supper my principal occupation was to study Silvia, who then enjoyed the greatest reputation, and I judged her to be even above it

She was then about fifty years old, her figure was elegant, her air noble, her raceful and easy; she was affable, witty, kind to everybody, sima, for it inspired everyone with the warmest sympathy, and yet if you examined it attentively there was not one beautiful feature; she could not be called handsoly Yet she was not one of those woly, for she possessed a certain soht and captivated the interest Then as she?

Beautiful, certainly, but owing to char attracted towards her by an irresistible feeling which coe to study her, or the constancy to obtain a thorough knowledge of her

Silvia was the adoration of France, and her talent was the real support of all the coreatest authors wrote for her, especially of, the plays of Marivaux, for without her his coone to posterity Never was an actress found who could replace her, and to find one it would be necessary that she should unite in herself all the perfections which Silvia possessed for the difficult profession of the stage: action, voice, intelligence, wit, countenance, e of the human heart In Silvia every quality was froave the last touch of perfection to her qualities was never seen

To the qualities which I have just mentioned, Silvia added another which surrounded her with a brilliant halo, and the absence of which would not have prevented her froe: she led a virtuous life She had been anxious to have friends, but she had dise which she could easily have enjoyed, but which would have rendered her contemptible in her own estimation The irreproachable conduct obtained for her a reputation of respectability which, at her age, would have been held as ridiculous and even insulting by any other wo to the sahest rank honoured her with her friendshi+p e Never did the capricious audience of a Parisian pit dare to hiss Silvia, not even in her performance of characters which the public disliked, and it was the general opinion that she was in every way above her profession

Silvia did not think that her good conduct was a merit, for she knew that she was virtuous only because her self-love compelled her to be so, and she never exhibited any pride or assuh, satisfied to shi+ne by their talent or their beauty, they cared little about rendering themselves conspicuous by their virtue Silvia loved them all, and they all loved her; she alas the first to praise, openly and with good faith, the talent of her rivals; but she lost nothing by it, because, being their superior in talent and enjoying a spotless reputation, her rivals could not rise above her

Nature deprived that char woe of sixty, ten years after I had made her acquaintance The climate of Paris often proves fatal to our Italian actresses Two years before her death I saw her perform the character of Marianne in the co health the illusion was cohter in her ar her the advice of a tender mother five minutes before she breathed her last She was honourably buried in the church of St Sauveur, without the slightest opposition fro the anti-christain intolerancy of the clergy in general, said that her profession as an actress had not hindered her froood Christian, and that the earth was the cos, as Jesus Christ had been the Saviour of all ive me, dear reader, if I have made you attend the funeral of Silvia ten years before her death; believea miracle; you may console yourself with the idea that I shall spare you that unpleasant task when poor Silvia dies

Her only daughter, the object of her adoration, was seated next to her at the supper-table She was then only nine years old, and being entirely taken up by her mother I paid no attention to her; my interest in her was to come