162 Pre-Bailway Life in London. 



managers were enabled to collect the finest talent in 

 Christendom. To the outside world, who were not 

 subscribers, going bo the opera required much care and fore- 

 thought. On a subscription night, with the exception of 

 the galleries and gallery stalls, and close, stuffy boxes high 

 up, where seeing and hearing were almost impossible, the 

 only refuge was the pit, the seats of which were not only 

 as uncomfortable as they could be, but were, from some 

 unknown cause, generally occupied before those who had 

 paid some four or five shillings beyond the nominal price of 

 eight shillings and sixpence, reached the much-coveted 

 destination ; and the ticket-holders thought themselves 

 fortunate if they could obtain standing room with their 

 backs to a wall or a column. No one could pass the doors 

 except in full evening dress, and woe be to the unlucky 

 wight who came in a black neck-cloth, as he would be 

 certain of refusal, in spite of all remonstrance. It was a 

 glorious sight on a birthday night to see the boxes crowded 

 with beautiful women wearing their Court plumes, and 

 jewels which vied with the flash of bright eyes, and it was 

 not difficult to know when the Royal party had arrived, as 

 without any commotion or bustle, faces were all turned 

 in the same direction, and the words "the Queen," 

 passed from lip to lip throughout the audience. 

 How fresh the scene all comes to one's mind now ; of old 

 Lablache in the supper scene in " Don Giovanni " singing, 

 and eating the macaroni from a side table the while ; of 

 Grisi in the poisoning scene of " Lucre tia Borgia," keeping 

 the door with outspread arms, and giving the antidote to 

 INIario. It is a well-authenticated fact that Grisi felt this 

 and many similar scenes so keenly, that frequently she came 

 oflf in a violent fit of hysterics, and required medical aid to 

 restore her. Again, one hears the grand " Suoni la tomba " 

 in " Puritani," the ghost chorus in *' Sonnambula," and the 



