one hundred and eighty-five performances, seventy-five in the autumn and
carnival season of 1835-'36, seventy-five in the corresponding season of
1836-'37, and thirty-five in the autumn of 1836, at a salary of eighteen
thousand pounds. These were the highest terms which had then ever been
offered to a public singer, or in fact to any stage performer since the
days of imperial Rome.


V.

Mme. Malibran's Italian experiences were in the highest sense gratifying
alike to her pride as a great artist and to her love of admiration as
a woman. Her popularity became a mania which infected all classes, and
her appearance on the streets was the signal for the most fervid shouts
of enthusiasm from the populace. For two years she alternated between
London and the sunny lands where she had become such an idol. She had
to struggle in Milan against the indelible impress made by Mme. Pasta,
whose admirers entertained an almost fanatical regard for her memory as
the greatest of lyric artists; but when Malibran appeared as _Norma_,
a part written by Bellini expressly for Pasta, she was proclaimed _la
cantante per eccelenza_. A medal, executed by the distinguished sculptor
Valerio Nesti, was struck in her honor. Her generosity of nature was
signally instanced during these golden Italian days in many acts of
beneficence, of which the following are instances: During her stay at
Sinigaglia in the summer of 1834, she heard an exquisite voice
singing beneath the windows of her hotel. On looking out she saw a wan
beggar-girl dressed in rags. Discovering by investigation that it was a
case of genuine want, she placed the girl in a position where she could
receive an excellent musical education and have all her needs amply
supplied. On the eve of her departure from Naples, the last engagement