SARAH BERNHARDT AS GISMONDA, FROM A PAINTING BY CHARTRAN.
MEMORIES OF MY LIFE
Being my Personal, Professional,
and Social Recollections as
Woman and Artist
By
SARAH BERNHARDT
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
NEW YORK MCMVII
Copyright, 1907, by
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
Published October, 1907
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
My Aunts
PAGE
My mother and her sisters—The “mask of butter”—The beauty of my mother—Away with my nurse—Life in a concierge’s lodge—My aunt comes for me—An accident—I must go to school—Off for Auteuil—Mme. Fressard and her boarding school—I am left alone—Life at the pension—My schoolmates—Back to Aunt Rosine—My father and Rossini—My disagreeable Aunt Faure—My delightful Uncle Faure
1–16
CHAPTER II
I begin my convent life
Grandchamps Convent—My terror of the cloister—The lovely Mother Superior—The dormitory—The garden—Farewell to my father—My new schoolmates—Compulsory soup—The despised and the beloved Sister—Pets and playthings—I rescue a playmate—Preparations for the archbishop’s visit—The play in which I was not given a part—My failure as a costumer—How I got a part—Monseigneur’s arrival—The performance—The tragedy of Monseigneur Sibour—My father dies—I am baptized and confirmed
17–38
CHAPTER III
A prank and its results
In the Pyrénées—Goat-herding and vacation joys—Back to the convent—The Croizettes—A soldier in the convent—How I shocked the nuns—“The Angel Raphael” and César—A night of horror—I leave the convent forever—My ambition
39–47
CHAPTER IV
In family council assembled
A fateful day—Day-dreams and music lessons—The woes of making my toilet—The assembling of the family—The obnoxious notary—The council—My religious aspirations—My hopes are quenched—The Duc de Morny’s advice—My memory of Rachel—My fate is decided—The views of the family—I am introduced to the theater—My first play and its strange effect upon me
48–60
CHAPTER V
I recite “The Two Pigeons”
Plans for my career—The director of the Conservatoire—I study for the examination—The rules of M. Meydieu—Learning Aricie—The examination day—Dressing for the ordeal—I recite a fable—The result—How I announced it—The family rejoices
61–74
CHAPTER VI
I decline matrimony and wed Art
The awakening of a will—An offer of marriage—I am forced to condemn a gentleman to death—I win a prize—I go for an engagement—The embarrassment of having a naughty small sister—I lose the engagement—I find encouragement in M. Doucet—My lessons—Fencing and elocution—Tribulations with a coiffeur—I enter a competition—The prize I did not win—My rival—Legends that defy history—An humiliating homecoming—The offer of another engagement—An interview at the Théâtre Français and its happy outcome—My aunt has a celebration
75–97
CHAPTER VII
I make my début and exit
My first role—The first rehearsal—Troubles with the costumer—The arraying of Iphigénie—The make-up shop—The approach of the first night—I suffer the horrors of stage-fright—“Quand-même”—The début—New rôles—The disastrous results of taking my sister to a ceremony—The arrogance of a manager—I am cheated of a part and cancel my engagement
98–110
CHAPTER VIII
Castles in Spain
Broken plans—I receive a new offer—I interview the manager of the Gymnase—I make a new engagement—An idiotic rôle in an imbecile play—I determine to kill myself—The allurement of Spain distracts me—I follow my star—Sardou and my letter of resignation—Marseilles and the sea—At Alicante—The night intruder—Gala days at Madrid—Back to Paris—My mother’s illness—I settle down by myself
111–123
CHAPTER IX
I return to the stage
Fated rives me back to the theater—New fields at the Porte Saint Martin—The disadvantages of being thin—New prospects—An appointment and a contract—A death and another début—Success at the Odéon—I appear as the chorus—Happy days—George Sand—The disciples of Victor Hugo disapprove of Dumas’s “Kean”—I succeed in spite of a hideous costume—François Coppée and “Le Passant”—The triumph of “Le Passant”—Our summons to the Tuileries—A rehearsal before imperial spectators—Empress Eugénie’s feet—Fêted by an Emperor and a Queen
124–145
CHAPTER X
In fire and war
My student adorers—I meet with some curious criticism—Gloomy presentiments—My apartments are burned—Saving my grandmother—Ruin and devastation—My benefit—Patti sings for me—My new home—Discomfort and worry—The delayed insuring—Kind words from friends—An insulting proposition—Evil days—Rumors of war—The nineteenth of July—I am taken from Paris—War news—Success of the German arms—I return to Paris under difficulties—I come across a relative—Into the siege
146–164
CHAPTER XI
I establish my war hospital
Paris in war times—My ambulance at the Odéon—The changes brought by war—Getting supplies—The Prefect’s coat—The lady of the Palais de l’Industrie—Provisions for my hospital—My hospital staff—Heroines of the siege—Cowards and heroes—Christmas
165–177
CHAPTER XII
More hospital days
Sufferings from cold and hunger—Struggles for food and fuel—The bombardment of the city—The ravages of fighting—The wounded—The ambulance is fired upon—The bargaining of the children—Toto—The inventor of balloons—The burial of the maigrotte—I receive news from my family—The horrors of night-time—My fowls—The end of the siege
178–194
CHAPTER XIII
A wartime journey
I find a companion for my flight from Paris—We start on our journey—Trouble at the city gates—Unwelcome acquaintances—The young cripple—A tedious railway trip—A German inn—Crowded out of a hotel—We find shelter—Some wounded admirers and a dead adorer—The cry of the woman—We start on again
195–206
CHAPTER XIV
Hombourg and return
At the station—German insolence—The crowd in the railway carriage—The surgeon major who was bound to smoke—We are wrecked—A dismal prospect—A dreary search for shelter—The wheelwright’s colt—Expensive hospitality—I turn cook—Crossing a battlefield by night—The robbers of the dead—The capture of a thief—Rest at Cateau—Confusion at Cologne—German kindness—How I make myself sleep—We arrive at Hombourg and start back again for Paris—Home again
207–226
CHAPTER XV
The commune and Victor Hugo
Paris after the war—Gambetta, Rochefort, and Paul de Rémusat—One man’s delicacy of mind—A cowardly Prefect of Police and his revenge—The Commune—Captain O’Connor—Paris in ruins—Back to the theater—“Jean-Marie”—My success grows—My mistaken opinion of Victor Hugo—The queen and her valet—Victor Hugo improvises—Victor Hugo’s kindness—Rehearsals of “Ruy Blas”—A Parisian first night and what it meant to me—Victor Hugo’s homage
227–240
CHAPTER XVI
I leave the Odéon
The night of the triumph—A talk with the “Master”—A forgotten luncheon—How I feel when I receive a letter—Overtures from the Comédie Française—Managerial interference—Perrin of the Comédie—I sign a new contract—I lose a lawsuit—Victor Hugo’s supper—The death of M. Chilly—Mamma Lambquin’s premonitions
241–253
CHAPTER XVII
I return to the Comédie Française
My happy memories of the Odéon—I return to an old battle-ground—A Marquise who was too stout—M. Sarcey’s account of my début—The reason I was frightened—What happened to my mother—A strange distribution of rôles—My growing popularity and my delight in playing jokes—Sophie Croizette as a rival—I turn my energies to sculpture—The clash of the “Croizettists” and the “Bernhardtists”—A fight for the moon—Success in “Le Sphinx”—A childish freak of temperament—Zaïre triumphs—I learn something useful about my acting
254–267
CHAPTER XVIII
A holiday and new sucesses
A period of sculpturing—My success in making busts—My coffin—A superfluous hearse—A holiday in Bretagne—The delights of the shore—Painting in the country—“L’Enfer du Plogoff”—Into the abyss—“The eyes of the shipwrecked ones”—“Sarah Bernhardt’s chair”—The fête of Racine—I play the rôle of Phedre—A tangle of authors and an actress—Unforeseen success—My new hôtel
268–282
CHAPTER XIX
Busy days
Alexandre Dumas, fils—A quarrel and a reconciliation—The partisans stir up more trouble—“L’Etrangère”—The grandmother of the sea—More sculpturing—A long search for a model—The missing hands and feet—Criticism of my group—Appeasing the god of the bourgeeois—Luncheon with Victor Hugo—“Hernani”—The tear of Victor Hugo
283–293
CHAPTER XX
A balloon ascension
“The Young Girl and Death”—How my energetic versatility aroused indignation—I accept an invitation to go ballooning—A trip through the clouds—Dinner among the stars—The descent—Vachère—The journey back to Paris—A storm of criticism—I send in my resignation and then withdraw it—A trip to the south—A sale in the open—A ridiculous Othello—Mr. Jarrett, impresario—I agree to do independent acting in London—More trouble with the Committee—The Times makes an announcement—The end of disputes
294–307
CHAPTER XXI
My London début
Our ridiculous preparations for departure—“La Quenelle,” who adored me, and his life-preserver—A carpet of flowers—We find the Prince of Wales has departed—My welcome and the journalists—Visitors—Hortense Damian and her “Chic commandments”—My shortcomings as a recipient of kindnesses—London hospitality—Rotten Row and the Avenue des Acacias—My first experience as a traqueuse—Trying my voice—My fright—My début—What the critics thought of me
308–321
CHAPTER XXII
My stay in England
I overtax my strength—Outwitting the doctor—The effect of a dose of opium—A lapse of memory and the talk it caused—Dumas’s judgment of his own plays—I exhibit my statues—Mr. Gladstone and “Phedre”—The success of my exhibition—A jaunt to Liverpool—I hunt for lions—My new pets—My homecoming creates a sensation—A Bedlam in Chester Square—How I suffered from the press—The tranquil lady—The company opens a campaign against me—My letter to M. Wolff—I hesitate on the brink of leaving the Comédie
322–337
CHAPTER XXIII
I again leave the Comédie Française
The cruelties of publicity—My first interview with a reporter—A victim of caricaturists—Perrin tells me my faults—An anonymous threat—My re-appearance in Paris—An intoxicating triumph—The discourtesy of actors—Coquelin, Mounet-Sully, Bartet, Réjane, and Duse—Trying times—“L’Aventurière”—An unjust attack—I send in my resignation—Cruel slanders—Mr. Jarrett offers a new proposition—I prepare for an American tour—The sad story of my costume for “Phedre”—The Comédie brings suit against me—The financial record of my London performances—Another visit to London—I overcome the critics
338–354
CHAPTER XXIV
Preparations for America
Coquelin deserts me—The charm of London—Brussels and Copenhagen—A Danish triumph—A visit to Elsinore—I am decorated by the King—An international supper with international complications—The fickleness of Fame—My farewell reception at Paris—Duquesnel proves himself my friend—A triumphant tour of France—I sign a contract with the “Vaudeville”—I leave Paris
355–367
CHAPTER XXV
My arrival in America
The gnome-haunted ship—I embark on L’Amerique—Homesickness—The widow of President Lincoln—A snowstorm in mid-ocean—The steerage passengers—A child is born in the steerage—What if the emigrants should mutiny?—Precautions in case of shipwreck—The Promised Land of the emigrants—My fête-day—The harbor of the New World—How I was welcomed—A fatiguing reception—Rest under compulsion—The kind of man Mr. Jarrett was—Another reception—The silly questions of the reporters—Press agents and slander
368–385
CHAPTER XXVI
New York and Boston
I go to Booth’s Theater for the first rehearsal—The crowd at the stage door—The customs officers come to examine my trunks—The treatment of my costumes—The Brooklyn Bridge—I settle with the Board of Customs—I make my first appearance in “Adrienne Lecouvreur”—I am serenaded—“La Dame aux Camélias”—My sister impersonates me—The journey to Menlo Park—I am entertained in fairyland by Mr. Edison—Mr. Edison and Napoleon I.—We start for Boston—Boston women—An extraordinary personage—My apartments—A curious experience with a whale
386–401
CHAPTER XXVII
I visit Montreal
“Hernani” in Boston—Feminine intellectuality—The whale follows me to New Haven—Attentions from the showman—I start for Canada—My entry into Montreal—A cordial welcome—A greeting from a poet—I cause a sensation by fainting—My rescuer and his tragedy—The Bishop of Montreal condemns me—Ottawa and the Iroquois—The Montreal students—An adventure on the ice
402–414
CHAPTER XXVIII
My tour of the western states
Springfield and Springfield audiences—I inspect Colt guns—Baltimore—Philadelphia and Chicago—A pleasant sojourn—A visit to the slaughtering house—Another bishop condemns me—St. Louis—The fish without eyes—My jewels are exhibited—It nearly results in a tragedy—The attempted robbery—The man who would have robbed me
415–427
CHAPTER XXIX
From the Gulf to Canada again
Cincinnati and then South—Crossing the Mississippi in flood-time—A brave engineer—The charm of New Orleans—The horrors of the flood—The hairdresser and the serpents—A strange reception at Mobile—“La Dame aux Camélias” under scenic difficulties—A round of smaller towns—Blocked by the snow—A snow ball fight—Pittsburg and a former friend—A long ride—A mistaken reporter
428–440
CHAPTER XXX
End of my American tour
An outing at Niagara Falls—An icy excursion—I am presented with a miniature of the Falls—Vanity brings me to ridicule—A foolhardy escapade—A memorable performance at New York—I embark for home—The last of the whale man—A stowaway—The trip home—A glorious reception at Havre—A performance for the life-savers—A turning-point
441—456
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
FACING
PAGE
Sarah Bernhardt as Gismonda, from a Painting by Chartran Frontispiece
