rapid passages the under jaw was in a continual state of agitation,
"in a manner, too, generally thought incompatible with the production of
pure tone from the chest, and inconsistent with a legitimate execution.
This extreme motion was also visible during the shake, which Catalani
used sparingly, however, and with little effect."

In spite of the reputation for rapacity which the avarice and arrogance
of her husband helped to create, Catalani won golden opinions by her
sweet temper, liberality, and benevolence. Her purse-strings were always
opened to relieve want or encourage struggling merit. Her gayety and
light-heartedness were proverbial. It is recorded that at Bangor once
she heard for the first time the strains of a Welsh harp, the player
being a poor blind itinerant. The music sounding in the kitchen of the
inn filled the world-renowned singer with an almost infantile glee, and,
rushing in among the pots and pans, she danced as madly as if she had
been bitten by the tarantula, till, all panting and breathless, she
threw the harper two guineas, and said she had never heard anything
which gave her more delight. The claims on her purse kept pace with the
enormous gains which seemed to increase from year to year. To her large
charities and her extravagant habits of living, her husband added the
heavy losses to which his passion for the gaming table led him. It was
said in after years that Mme. Catalani should have been worth not less
than half a million sterling, so immense had been her gains. Mr. Waters,
in a pamphlet published in 1807, says that her receipts from all sources
for that year had been nearly seventeen thousand pounds. She frequently
was paid two hundred pounds for singing "Rule Britannia," a song in
which she became celebrated; and one thousand pounds was the usual
_honorarium_ given for her services at a festival.

Mme. Catalani, in addition to her operatic performances, frequently sang