Page:Anecdotes of Great Musicians.djvu/92

80 the sons and daughters of pleasure, her only luxury was the luxury of doing good, and in the midst of wealth her only profusion consisted in beneficence." It is a pleasure to find such words as these spoken concerning a prima donna. The records so many of them leave of their personality speak only of selfishness, avarice, sharp temper, and whimsicality, varied now and then by an ostentatious bit of charity.

As an illustration of Malibran's kind-heartedness we may cite the following incident: Only about a year before her death she was engaged by an Italian professor to sing at a concert he was giving, and at her regular terms of twenty guineas. For some reason the concert was a financial failure. The teacher called on her the next day to explain this, and to see if Malibran would be content with a smaller sum. But no, she declared she must have the full amount.

The Italian slowly counted out twenty pounds and then looked up and asked if that would do.

"No, another sovereign," she said, "my terms are twenty guineas, not pounds."

So he put down another pound, sighing to himself as he did so, "My poor wife and children." Then Malibran took up the money and pretended to depart, but turned around and put it all back in the hands of the astonished professor, saying:—

"I insisted on having the full amount that the sum might be all the larger for your acceptance."  

It is very easy to criticize, especially to make adverse criticism. A critic may tear to tatters in ten minutes a composition which represents a composer's best thought for ten years. Many of the so-called musical critics have not a tithe of the learning or natural ability of the men whose works they deride. This being the state of