"Sire, the doctor is there. He is unwilling to bleed the lady, lest he should weaken and prevent her from playing her part. He will be forced to do so, though, unless she recovers from her fainting fit."
"Then she is sick, and not feigning?"
"Sire, to me she seems very sick."
"Then let down the curtain, and we will go. But wait; let Porporino sing something to console us, so that we may be enabled to go home without a catastrophe."
Porporino obeyed, and sang two pieces deliciously. The king applauded, the public followed his example, and the performance was over. A minute afterwards, the court and people were going out, the king stood on the stage, and caused himself to be led to the dressing-room of the prima donna.
The public does not sympathize with an actress, taken sick on the stage, as it should. Adored as the idol may be, there is so much selfishness among the dilettani, that they are much annoyed at the loss of pleasure, than by the suffering and anguish of the victim. Some sensible women deplored, as was then said, the catastrophe of the evening—
"Poor thing! She had a cold, and when she came to make her trill, found it out, and became sick, rather than fail."
"I think she did not pretend," said a much more sensible woman; "people do not fall so hard, when they are not really sick."
"Ah, who knows?" said the first; "a great actress falls just as she pleases, and is not afraid of hurting herself. They do it so well."
"What possessed Porpora to make such a scene?" said, in another part of the room, whence the la mode was going out, La Mettrie to the Marquis D'Argens. "Has her lover beaten her?"