‘Lord Middlesex[89] took the opportunity of a rivalship between his own mistress, the Nardi, and the Violetta, (a German, afterwards Mrs. Garrick,) the finest and most admired dancer in the world, to involve the whole menage of the opera in the quarrel, and has paid nobody; but like a true lord of the treasury, has shut up his own exchequer. The principal man-dancer was arrested for debt; to the composer his lordship gave a bad note, not payable in two years, besides amercing him entirely three hundred pounds, on pretence of his siding with the Violetta.’
9th. The annexed advertisement—for such it undoubtedly is—appears in the Morning Post of to-day. This paper would never have inserted it unless paid for, I am convinced:—
‘Bochsa, with Mr. and Mrs. R. Bishop, Phillips, and Mori, is going in a few days to Leamington and Malvern, and to the Isle of Wight, to give some concerts, under the patronage of their Royal Highnesses the Duchess of Kent and the Princess Victoria. The success which that distinguished harpist met with last season in the provinces, while exhibiting his new harp effects, has perhaps induced him to try the experiment again.’
Mr. and Mrs. Bishop, Mr. H. Phillips, and Mr. Mori, must feel highly dignified, and equally gratified, at being thus announced as the train of M. Bochsa,—as his tail!—to use a term applied, rather vulgarly, to a small parliamentary party; and the Duchess of Kent and Princess Victoria will not, I should suppose, be very well pleased at such use being made of their names.
11th. In the Observer of this date is the following paragraph:—
‘It has been a mystery to many how Laporte has been able, under such accumulating losses, to carry on his season to its present termination, by which the subscribers, if we mistake not, are losers by several nights. It seems now generally admitted that he has paid scarcely anybody in full—that he has disbursed as far as his means by subscription and the takings at the doors went, and that his performers, giving him credit for good intentions, as well as for a large sum of money, have agreed to take bills at long dates, to be paid (if he can) out of the receipts of next season. This arrangement presumes that Laporte will continue his speculations at the King’s Theatre next season, which, we have some reason to know, may be questionable.’
I doubt the reality of M. Laporte’s great losses, though the losses of the subscribers, in almost every way, admit of no doubt.