singers, informs us that at Naples Lablache had enjoyed the friendship
and teaching of Mme. Mericoffre (a rich banker's wife), known in Italy
as La Cottellini, one of the finest artists of the golden age of
Italian singing. Mme. Lablache, too, was a woman of genius in her way,
and her husband owed much to her intelligent and watchful criticism.
The fume of Lablache speedily spread through Europe. He sang in all the
leading Italian cities with equal success, and at Vienna, whither he
went in 1824, his admirers presented him with a magnificent gold medal
with a most flattering inscription.

He returned again to Naples after an absence of twelve years, and
created a grand sensation at the San Carlo by his singing of _Assur_,
in "Semiramide." The Neapolitans loaded him with honors, and sought to
retain him in his native city, but this "pent-up Utica" could not hold
a man to whom the most splendid rewards of his profession were offering
themselves. Lablache made his first appearance in London, in 1830, in
"Il Matrimonio Segreto," and almost from his first note and first step
he took an irresistible hold on the English public, which lasted for
nearly a quarter of a century. It perplexed his admirers whether he was
greater as a singer or as an actor. We are told that he "was gifted with
personal beauty to a rare degree. A grander head was never more grandly
set on human shoulders; and in his case time and the extraordinary and
unwieldy corpulence which came with time seemed only to improve the
Jupiter features, and to enhance their expression of majesty, or
sweetness, or sorrow, or humor as the scene demanded." His very tall
figure prevented his bulk from appearing too great. One of his boots
would have made a small portmanteau, and one could have clad a child
in one of his gloves. So great was his strength that as _Leporello_
he sometimes carried off under one arm a singer of large stature
representing _Masetto_, and in rehearsal would often for exercise