Later Queens of the French Stage

Later Queens of the French Stage

BY H. NOEL WILLIAMS AUTHOR OF QUEENS OF THE FRENCH STAGE, MADAME RCAMIER AND HER FRIENDS, MADAME DE POMPADOUR, MADAME DE MONTESPAN, MADAME DU BARRY, ETC. LONDON AND NEW YORK H A R P E R & B R O T H E R S 45 ALBEMARLE STREET, W. 1906 IN her unpublished Mmoires,[1] which she began, but never completed, and only a few pages of whichpossibly all that she wrotehave been preserved, Sophie Arnould tells us that she was born in 1745, in the same alcove in which Admiral Coligny had been assassinated two hundred years before. As a matter of fact, the celebrated singer was born on February 14, 1745, and it was not until some years after her birth that her parents removed to the Htel de Ponthieu, Rue Bthisy, then known as the Rue des Fosss-Saint-Germain lAuxerrois.[2] Sophies parents belonged to the upper bourgeoisie, and at the time of her birth appear to have been in {4}comfortable circumstances. Her father, Jean Arnould, was a worthy man, whose worldly ambitions were limited to securing a comfortable competence, retiring from business, and purchasing some Government or municipal office and the social distinction which went with it. Her mother, however, had received an excellent education, which, joined to her natural intelligence, says Sophie, rendered her in society the most amiable and interesting of women. She affected literary society and numbered among her friends and acquaintances Voltaire, Fontenelle, who, a few days before his death, called to show her the manuscript of one of the great Corneilles tragedies, Piron, the Comte de Caylus, Moncrif, the Abb (afterwards the Cardinal) de Bernis, Diderot, and dAlembert. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 45184
Author: Williams, H. Noel (Hugh Noel)
Release Date: Mar 21, 2014
Format: eBook
Language: English