Later Queens of the French Stage
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H. Noel Williams. Later Queens of the French Stage
Later Queens of the French Stage
Table of Contents
LATER QUEENS OF THE. FRENCH STAGE
I. SOPHIE ARNOULD
II. MADEMOISELLE GUIMARD
III. MADEMOISELLE RAUCOURT
IV. MADAME DUGAZON
V. MADEMOISELLE CONTAT
VI. MADAME SAINT-HUBERTY
INDEX
Отрывок из книги
H. Noel Williams
Published by Good Press, 2021
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But two fine eyes, as one of her biographers very justly observes, count for much, especially when animated by the intelligence, the feeling, and the passion which belonged to Sophie; and no sooner did she appear upon the stage than a host of soupirants gathered about her. For some months, however, they sighed in vain. The guardian of the Golden Fleece was not more vigilant or more awe-inspiring than Madame Arnould. Every evening she escorted her daughter to the theatre, remained in her dressing-room while the mysteries of her toilette were being performed, accompanied her to the corner of the stage, and then waited in the wings until the young actress made her exit, when she again took charge of her. She seemed to have as many eyes as Argus himself. If an admirer bolder than the rest ventured to approach Sophie, before he had uttered half a dozen words down would swoop the watchful mother, with a freezing: “Allons! laissez la petite en repos, s’il vous plait, Monsieur!” before which the luckless gallant fled incontinently. If a poulet were despatched, it was invariably intercepted and returned to the sender, with a message which made him feel supremely foolish. “She is not a woman at all,” exclaimed the indignant Duc de Fronsac, after one of these rebuffs; “she is a veritable watch-dog!”
But even the most intelligent of watch-dogs cannot always discriminate between friend and foe. The danger came from a quarter whence the poor mother least expected it. She herself admitted the wolf into the sheepfold.
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