CHAPTER XLII.
Music—Composers of the time—Mrs. Billington—Her salaries—Mdlle. Mara—Mrs. Crouch—Incledon—Braham—Chamber music—Musical societies—Commemoration of Dr. Arne—Competition of pipers—Dancing—The Valse.
THESE open-air concerts showed that there was a natural taste for music in the English character, and when we look at the composers who then flourished, and at the singers who expounded their works, we must own that the dawn of the century could fairly hold its own with its latter days. Dr. Arnold, Dr. Callcott (whose glees are still sung in many a home), Shield, Stevens, and Clementi, were among the composers; and, for singers—was there not Mrs. Billington, with her extraordinarily sweet voice, her forcible expression, and flexible execution?
Gillray here has kept an excellent likeness of our prima donna, and, probably, did not much exaggerate her proportions. She was paid remarkably well, as most divas are, and, if the satirical prints, and newspaper reports of the time, do not belie her, she was as voracious after “Refreshers” as a modern Queen’s Counsel, or she could not appear.
Here we see Mrs. Billington utterly prostrate, until revived by golden pills, of which Sheridan is bringing a good supply. We can see what she earned from a newspaper cutting, or two.
MRS. BILLINGTON, AS CLARA, SINGING A BRAVURA (1802).