of September 7, 1741, appeared a paragraph which startled her old
admirers: "We hear from Italy that the famous singer, Mrs. C-z-ni, is
under sentence of death, to be beheaded for poisoning her husband." If
this was so, the sentence was never carried into execution, for she
sang seven years afterward in London at a benefit concert. She issued
a preliminary advertisement, avouching her "pressing debts" and her
"desire to pay them" as the reason for her asking the benefit, which,
she declared, should be the last she would ever trouble the public with.
Old, poor, and almost deprived of her voice by her infirmities,
her attempt to revive the interest of the public in her favor was a
miserable failure; her star was set for ever, and she was obliged
to return to Holland more wretched than she came. She had scarcely
reappeared there when she was again thrown into prison for debt; but,
by entering into an agreement to sing at the theatre every night, under
surveillance, she was enabled to obtain her release. Her recklessness
and improvidence had brought her to a pitiable condition; and in her
latter days, after a career of splendor, caprice, and extravagance,
she was obliged to subsist, it is said, by button-making. She died in
frightful indigence, the recipient of charity, at a hospital in Bologna,
in 1770.


IV.

Associated with the life and times of Faustina Bordoni, and the most
brilliant exponent of the music of her husband, Hasse, Carlo Broschi,
better known as Farinelli, stands out as one of the most remarkable
musical figures of his age. This great artist, born in Naples in 1705,
was the nephew of the composer Farinelli, whose name he adopted. He was
instructed by the celebrated singing-master Porpora, who trained nearly