Mme. Sarah Bernhardt and her friends at Sainte-Adresse.
Her success, however, was not unmixed. She was known to be of Jewish origin, and the Russian fanatics did not omit to remind her of it. At Odessa she was pelted with stones, and at Kieff she was insulted. But these things were mere trifles. At St. Petersburg her coming created as much excitement as if it had been an event of national importance. The prices charged for the series of twelve performances are significant.
| Roubles | £ | s. | d. | |
| Pit boxes | 120 = | 13 | 0 | 0 |
| Dress circle boxes (front seats) | 150 = | 16 | 5 | 0 |
| Dress circle (centre box) | 180 = | 19 | 10 | 0 |
| Dress circle front row | 72 = | 7 | 15 | 0 |
| Dress circle 2nd and 3rd rows | 60 = | 6 | 10 | 0 |
| Upper boxes (front) | 150 = | 16 | 5 | 0 |
Her success was prodigious. Not content with raining flowers on the stage, ladies in the audience jumped over the partition separating them from the pit, so that they could approach the great artiste as closely as possible. She would have received many costly presents had she not made it known that she would accept nothing but flowers. At length she tore herself away from her enthusiastic admirers, to whom she had appeared in La Princesse Georges, Rome Vaincue, Hernani, Jean Marie, and La Dame aux Camélias. From St. Petersburg she went to Warsaw, and thence to Genoa, where she was seized with one of those sudden attacks which had recurred rather too frequently for some time past. In the middle of the second act of La Dame aux Camélias she collapsed into a chair with blood pouring from her mouth. The performance was stopped, but on the following day the indefatigable woman was en route again. After playing at Bâle and Lausanne, she gave a series of six performances, beginning on the 16th of February at Lyons, where she appeared in Les Faux Ménages, by Pailleron. Then she returned to Italy, receiving £240 for each appearance, and meeting with enthusiastic applause everywhere. She left Italy, and suddenly Paris was struck dumb by the following extraordinary and totally unexpected announcement, published by the newspapers on the 8th April—
London.—At eight o’clock this (Tuesday) morning, April 4th, at the Greek Consulate, Sarah Bernhardt was married to her fellow-actor Daria, who recently took Angelo’s place in her troupe. The news may appear improbable, seeing that Sarah was at Naples last Friday, and even performed that evening; but it is none the less a fact that she left Naples on the following morning, ostensibly for Nice, took the train on to Paris, and thence to Boulogne, crossed to Folkestone, and finally reached London, accompanied by M. Damala.
Marriage was, in fact, the only eccentricity Sarah had not yet perpetrated, but she was now enabled to make up for lost time with the kind assistance of M. Damala, an actor by choice, but formerly an attaché in the Greek diplomatic service. The newly-married couple began the first quarter of their honeymoon by immediately taking the train for Marseilles, whence they started by special steamer on April 5th for Spain, to continue the tour. They returned to Marseilles on May 5th, and performed at Grenoble, Geneva, Rouen, and Brussels. On the 26th, a benefit performance was given at Paris for the widow of M. Chéret, and Sarah Bernhardt and her husband played La Dame aux Camélias for the first time in the French capital. The performance, a triumphal success, brought in 59,051 francs (£2362).
As Léa.
Her wanderings soon began again. London, Brighton, Blackpool, Manchester, and Scotland saw the wonderful artiste. In the meantime it was announced that she had made arrangements for a four months’ tour in America, and that she and her husband were to be paid £40,000 for fifty performances. Then it became known that after so many wanderings Sarah was to return to Paris and appear in a new play, Fédora, by M. Sardou, at the Vaudeville. She had been promised £40 a night for a minimum of a hundred performances. The première on December, 12, 1882, met, with considerable success, but while the perfomances were proceeding the financial difficulties with which the artiste had long been struggling were revealed to the public. She had spent money very freely, and omitted to balance her income and expenditure. She carried out all sorts of wild schemes, such as that of buying the Ambigu theatre for her son Maurice, then seventeen years of age. The affair turned out a very expensive one, and in February 1883, big placards posted on the walls of Paris announced that Mme. Sarah Bernhardt-Damala’s diamonds and jewellery were to be sold by auction on the 8th, 9th, and 10th, at the Hôtel des Ventes. The announcement created a great sensation, much to the vendor’s advantage, the sale producing no less than £7128. Actresses such as Mme. Marie Magnier, Marthe Devoyo, and Julia de Cléry, well-known demi-mondaines, collectors, and boulevardiers, competed for the wonders of Sarah’s jewel-case. The importance of the sale may be estimated by the following lots, and the prices at which they were knocked down—
| £ | |
| Very handsome single necklace thickly set with rose diamonds and enriched with brilliants | 960 |
| Bracelet, 573 pearls in nine rows | 321 |
| Bracelet | 302 |
| Brooch | 150 |