History of the Opera from its Origin in Italy to the present Time / With Anecdotes of the Most Celebrated Composers and Vocalists of Europe

by H. Sutherland Edwards

[49] The origin of this absurd title has been already explained (page 15).

[50] Molière Musicien, par Castil Blaze, vol. II., p. 409.

[51] Gluck's name proves nothing to the contrary. The Slavonian languages are such unknown tongues, and so unpronounceable to the West of Europe that Slavonians have in numerous instances Latinised their names like Copernicus (a Pole), or Gallicised them like Chopin (also a Pole), or above all, have Germanised them like Guttenberg (a native of Kutna Gora in Bohemia), Schwarzenberg (from Tcherna Gora, the Black Mountain).

[52] We have a right to suppose that the priest did not exactly know for whose arm the mass was ordered.

[53] Of which, the best account I have met with is given in the memoirs of Fleury the actor.

[54] From 1821 to 1828.

[55] For an interesting account of the production of this work, see "Beaumarchais's Life and Times," by Louis de Loménie. See also the Preface to Tarare, in Beaumarchais's "Dramatic Works."

[56] See vol I.

[57] Question. Quelle est la meilleure? Answer. C'est Mara. Rejoinder. C'est bientôt dit (bien Todi).—(From a joke-book of the period).

[58] A celebrated male soprano, and one of the last of the tribe.