Page:Personal recollections, from early life to old age, of Mary Somerville.djvu/157

Rh different from each other. Somerville enjoyed a comic opera exceedingly, and so did I; and at that time Lablache was in the height of his fame. When Somerville and I made, the tour in Italy al- ready mentioned, we visited Catalani (then Madame Valabrèque) in a villa near Florence, to which she retired in her old age. She, however, died in Paris, of cholera, some years later.

Somerville liked the theatre as much as I did; so we saw all the greatest actors of the day, both in tragedy and comedy, and the English theatre was then excellent. Young, who was scarcely inferior to John Kemble, Macrcady, Kean, Liston, &c., and Miss O'Neill, who after a short brilliant career entered into domestic life on her marriage with Sir William Beecher, were all at the height of their fame. It was then I became acquainted with Lady Beecher, who was so simple and natural that no one could have discovered she had ever, been on the stage. A very clever company of French comedians acted in a temporary theatre in Tottenham Court Road, where we frequently went with a party of friends, and enjoyed very pleasant evenings. I think my fondness for the theatre depended to a certain degree on my silent disposition; for unless among intimate friends, or when much excited, I was startled at the sound of my own voice in