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15 March 1902 — Rome | |
Saturday. 15th [March 1902]. I breakfasted in my room as usual at 8, dressed & sat writing till 11.30 when Donna Laura came in to see me. I went out with her for a walk & Minghetti’s niece met us at the door. She took us into one or two bric a brac shops and then I left them in Via Tritone & returned to the hotel to see Sophy—then at 1 I went to lunch with the Curtis in Pa di Spagna. Met there a Miss Milman daughter of the Govr of the Tower of London a lively talkative young woman. She is travelling with friends & on their way to Sicily. She says she is cousin to Mr C. Williamson at Pal. Capello Venice. She gave a curious account of his father Col. W. who is furious with his son ever since he became R.C. & fulminates still against him declaring that if his wife goes to Venice to see their son she shall never return to his house! Miss M. says Mr W. is enjoying his liberty from the life of a priest & likes the good things of this world. I returned to Sophy after having been to pay Count de Basterot a farewell visit at 3 oclock & remained chatting with her till tea time. She told me of her curious experiences of feeling as if her spirit had got outside her body & that sometimes it had been exquisite pain & a sense of desolation & at others bliss & rapture &c– At 5 Miss Charlotte Percy & Mrs Prinsep came– The latter handsome but very sad. I left them at 5.30 & went to the Pal. Frano to pay a visit to Mme d’Antas. Her husband is Portuguese Ambr to the Pope. They are old friends from the time we were colleagues at Madrid. After a little chat with her I took a cab & went to call on Marchesa del Grillo (Mme Ristori). She & her daughter received me cordially & we all talked Italian. I was sitting by Mme R. & Bianca del Grillo by Mme Pompea née Aganoor—(Vittoria) the poetess who has lately married. Mme R. talked therefore to me & fell to telling me how she had once seen at the Museum of Naples an old Roman statue that she had admired immensely on account of the form & drapery of the peplus. She told the Director of the Museum that she would like to have a model of the drapery & he at once assented to her taking the pattern– So she went again with her maid, tapes, paper measures &c & astonished the public who happened to be visiting the Museum by getting up on chairs & ladders to take the patterns & dimensions. She said that afterwards she had used the pattern at Paris where the dressmaker undertook to make the garment & succeeded perfectly. She used it when playing “Medea.” When Legouvé asked her to play “Medea” she said she was so fond of her own children that she could not bear even to pretend to kill any child. He begged her so hard if only to read the piece that she consented to do so. He said he would undertake that the killing of the children should not revolt her. So that evening while her maid was brushing her hair she read it & was so struck with the beauty of the piece & Legouvé promising to arrange about the killing of the children she consented to play the piece & it created immense applause & was a great success. She said the children were supposed to be killed behind the scenes & when the populace parted on each side of the stage there lay the children dead behind her. The funny thing was that sometimes the children would take fright at the scene & applause & jump up & run away instead of lying there apparently dead. I was sorry to have to leave soon after this talk & drove to the Piazza di Spagna to see Ersilia Canevaro & then back to my hotel for dinner at table d’hôte. Mme Ristori said today—ah in those days there was really art & not merely poetasters not of the best morals as now a days. I spoke of la Duse. She said—yes she was a fine actress what a pity she has ruined herself with her infatuation with d’Annunzio. I told her how I had confessed to La Duse when she came to see me at Venice that I had returned the tickets I had taken when she was going to play at Venice, as soon as I found out that the piece was “La Dame aux camelias”—& that I had asked her why she always played such pieces & that she had answered that the public would have nothing else. Mme R. said she ought to have formed the public & not they her. She said that when dressed for the Medea in that drapery she had copied at Naples she covered herself in the 1st act with a blue mantle that going over her head enveloped her & the children in her arms from head to foot. On seeing her Legouvé said “But you are not going on dressed like that.” She answered “never fear vous verrez”—& in the 2nd act she threw it off & was in the statuesque draperies. | |
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