"Article 6.—Madame Patti will at her own expense provide all requisite costumes for the Operas selected.
"Article 7.—Mr. Mapleson engages that Madame Patti shall be announced daily during the series of Representations or Concerts in a special leaded advertisement among the Theatrical Advertisements over the Clock as well as in the Operatic Casts or Concert Programmes in all Journals in which he may advertise his Operas or Concerts and likewise that her name shall appear in a separate line of large letters in all Announce Bills of Operas or Concerts in or at which she is to appear and that such letters shall be at least one third larger than those employed for the announcement of any other Artiste in the same Cast or Programme.
"Article 8.—Madame Patti is not to be at liberty to sing elsewhere during this engagement except at State Concerts.
"Article 9.—In the event of Madame Patti not appearing in Opera or at Concert on the day for which she may have been announced to sing owing to her indisposition such intended appearance shall be treated as postponed if such indisposition be of a temporary character, and for every such non-appearance a substituted Representation or Concert shall be given before the Sixteenth July One thousand eight hundred and eighty five, but if such indisposition continues during a period longer than two succeeding Operatic or Concert nights provided by the first Article the number of non-attendance nights shall be counted off the Eight agreed for Representations or Concerts as if Madame Patti had actually appeared thereat. In the case of such postponement the payment of the Five hundred pounds shall be postponed until the morning of the day on which the substituted Representation or Concert shall be given; but in the case of counting off the day as wholly gone no salary shall be payable by Mr. Mapleson therefor; but beyond such postponement or deduction from payment, as the case may be, he shall have no ground of complaint nor claim for non-attendance or otherwise. And he engages to announce her indisposition or withdraw her name from all advertisements and other announcements of performance at the earliest time and with all due diligence and publicity.
"Article 10.—In the event of an Epidemic of Cholera, Small pox, Fever or other contagious or deadly disease breaking out within the range of the London Bills of Mortality Madame Patti shall be at liberty to cancel this Engagement by notice in writing as provided in the Twelfth Article, and thereupon she shall be no longer required nor bound to continue the Representations or Concerts, and thereupon the Two thousand pounds deposit in the Eleventh Article mentioned, and no more, shall be repayable to him if he shall have duly performed his several engagements herein.
"Article 11.—Mr. Mapleson, as a preliminary obligation performable by him (and on performance of which Madame Patti's obligations under her engagements herein depend) hereby engages to deposit the sum of Two thousand pounds Cash with Messrs. Rothschild, at their Counting-house in New Court, St. Swithin's Lane, London, on or before the Tenth June One thousand eight hundred and eighty five to the credit of Madame Patti, as part guarantee for Mr. Mapleson's fulfilment of this engagement. Such Two thousand pounds are to be applied by Madame Patti as payment for the last four actual Representations or Concerts, or (as the case may be) retained by her as her own property for and on account of damages sustained by her through the nonperformance of this engagement by Mr. Mapleson.
"Article 12.—Should Mr. Mapleson fail to make such deposit in full by the day named Madame Patti shall be at liberty at any time afterwards, and notwithstanding any negotiation, withdrawal of notice, waiver, extension of time for depositing, or acceptance of part payment of such Two thousand pounds to put an end to this Engagement by lodging with Mr. Mapleson's Solicitors, Messrs. J. and R. Gole in London, a letter signed by her, announcing her determination of this Engagement; and thenceforth this Engagement shall be at an end except so far as regards the Agreement next following, that is to say, That on such failure and determination Mr. Mapleson shall, and he hereby agrees to pay to Madame Patti on demand the sum of Four thousand pounds as and for compensation to her for expenses incident to this Engagement and for loss of time in procuring other engagements of an equal character.
"ADELINA PATTI."
About the sum payable per night to Mdme. Patti by the terms of the above agreement I say nothing. Five hundred pounds a night was only half what I had paid her in the United States; and soon afterwards at Her Majesty's Theatre I myself offered to give the famous vocalist six hundred and fifty per night. The sting of the contract lies for the manager, pecuniarily speaking, in the clause which empowers the singer to declare herself ill at the last moment, while guaranteeing her against all the consequences sure to arise from her too tardy apology. The manager has suddenly to change the performance, and, worse by far, to incur the charge of having broken faith with the public; for however precisely the certificate of indisposition may be made out, there are sure to be some knowing ones among the disappointed crowd who will whisper, as a great secret known to them alone, that the prima donna has not been paid, and that the certificate is all a sham.
What an unfair clause, too, is that by which, if the manager does not pay in advance to the prima donna at the exact time prescribed the whole of the sum payable to her for all the performances she binds herself to give, he will by such failure render himself liable for the entire sum without the prima donna on her side being called upon to sing at all.