things with infinite taste and delicacy, to Persiani, when the latter
lady was singing at Naples in 1835: while the representative of
_Lucia_ was changing her costume between the acts, a lady entered her
dressing-room, and complimented her in warmest terms on the excellence
of her singing. The visitor then took the long golden tresses floating
over Persiani's shoulders, and asked, "Is it all your own?" On being
laughingly answered in the affirmative, Malibran, for it was she, said,
"Allow me, signora, since I have no wreath of flowers to offer you, to
twine you one with your own beautiful hair." Mme. Persiani's artistic
tour through Italy, in 1835, culminated in Florence with one of those
exhibitions of popular tyranny and exaction which so often alternate
with enthusiasm in the case of audiences naturally ardent and
impressible, and consequently capricious. When the singer arrived at the
Tuscan capital, she was in such a weak and exhausted state that she did
not deem it prudent to sing. Her manager was, however, unbending,
and insisted on the exact fulfillment of her contract. After vain
remonstrances she yielded to her taskmaster, and appeared in "I
Puritani," trusting to the forbearance and kindness of her audience.
But a few notes had escaped her pale and quivering lips when the angry
audience broke out into loud hisses, marks of disapprobation which were
kept up during the performance. Mme. Persiani could not forgive this,
and, when she completely recovered her voice and energy a few weeks
after, she treated the lavish demonstrations of the public with the most
cutting disdain and indifference. At the close of her engagement, she
publicly announced her determination never again to sing in Florence, on
account of the selfish cruelty to which she had been subjected both by
the manager and the public. Persiani's fame grew rapidly in every part
of Europe. At Vienna, she was named chamber singer to the Austrian
sovereign, and splendid gifts were lavished on her by the imperial
family, and in the leading cities of Germany, as in St. Petersburg and