Produced by David Widger
Being Secret Letters from a Gentleman at Paris to a Nobleman in London
By Lewis Goldsmith
PARIS, September, 1805.
My LORD:—I was lately invited to a tea-party by one of our richupstarts, who, from a scavenger, is, by the Revolution and by Bonaparte,transformed into a Legislator, Commander of the Legion of Honour, andpossessor of wealth amounting to eighteen millions of livres. In thishouse I saw for the first time the famous Madame Chevalier, the mistress,and the indirect cause of the untimely end, of the unfortunate Paul theFirst. She is very short, fat, and coarse. I do not know whetherprejudice, from what I have heard of her vile, greedy, and immoralcharacter, influenced my feelings, but she appeared to me a most artful,vain, and disagreeable woman. She looked to be about thirty-six years ofage; and though she might when younger have been well made, it isimpossible that she could ever have been handsome. The features of herface are far from being regular. Her mouth is large, her eyes hollow,and her nose short. Her language is that of brothels, and her mannerscorrespond with her expressions. She is the daughter of a workman at asilk manufactory at Lyons; she ceased to be a maid before she hadattained the age of a woman, and lived in a brothel in her native city,kept by a Madame Thibault, where her husband first became acquainted withher. She then had a tolerably good voice, was young and insinuating, andhe introduced her on the same stage where he was one of the inferiordancers. Here in a short time she improved so much, that she was engagedas a supernumerary; her salary in France as an actress was, however,never above twelve hundred livres in the year—which was four hundredlivres more than her husband received.
He, with several other inferior and unprincipled actors and dancers,quitted the stage in the beginning of the Revolution for the clubs; andinstead of diverting his audience, resolved to reform and regenerate hisnation. His name is found in the annals of the crimes perpetrated atLyons, by the side of that of a Fouche, a Collot d'Herbois, and otherwicked offsprings of rebellion. With all other terrorists, he wasimprisoned for some time after the death of Robespierre; as soon asrestored to liberty, he set out with his wife for Hamburg, where someamateurs had constructed a French theatre.
It was in the autumn of 1795 when Madame Chevalier was first heard of inthe North of Europe, where her arrival occasioned a kind of theatricalwar between the French, American, and Hamburg Jacobins on one side, andthe English and emigrant loyalists on the other. Having no money tocontinue her pretended journey to Sweden, she asked the manager of theFrench theatre at Hamburg to allow her a benefit, and permission to playon that night. She selected, of course, a part in which she could appearto the most advantage, and was deservedly applauded. The very nextevening the Jacobin cabal called the manager upon the stage, and insistedthat Madame Chevalier should be given a regular engagement. He repliedthat no place suitable to her talents was vacant, and that it would beungenerous to turn away for her sake another actress with whom the publichad hitherto declared their satisfaction. The Jacobins continuedinflexible, and here, as well as everywhere else, supported injustice byviolence. As the patriotism of the husband, more than the charms of thewife, was known to have produced this indecent fracas, which for upwards