The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1877-03-07
Che 8utland daily 6lohe
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 8, 1877.
GFrom tho New York SUM-
HIGH ART VS.. HYMEN.
Tho Matrimonial Mishaps of Prima Donna,


The Matrimonial Mishaps Of Prima Donnas.
The matrimonial misfortunes of actors,
actresses and prima donnas are proverbial
These gay creatures of the stage, who so
delight us with their mimic art and their
sweet voices, oflentimes depart from our
sight to go to homes wherein domestic hap
piness fails to dwell
Whether II Is that the fictitious coniugal
woes which they depict in the drama or
warble in enhancing notes in the opera, be-
gin in them desire to try an actual expe-
rience thereof in their own lives, or that
the admiration and applause which all the
world gives them, unfit those artists for the
quiet Joys OF an unruffied home, we know
not. Perhaps man or woman accustomed
to the incense of the public plaudts may
find it dull and stupid to endure the prosaic
duties of married life. The admiration
which enraptured audiences so freely Of
fer him, may unfit the husband to stand his
wife's soberer estimate when he takes off
his stage clothes and puts on those of an
ordinary man. The wife whom the hus-
band sees in plain attire and without paint
or powder, may think he pays too little re-
gard to the beauty and graces about which
the town raves.
However this may be, actora and actress
es, prima donnas, tenors AID baritones,
when they marry, not frequently fail to
gain that domestic bliss which is the most
priceless boon in this troublous life of ours.
We do not say this of all of them, by any
means. Some of the happiest homes any
where to be found are those of important
contributors to the amusement of the pub.
lie. The popular conception that all stage
people are loose in their ways, and desti-
tute of fitness for happy domestic life, is
wrong and vulgar. Many of them are in
every way most estimable persons, as faith
ful to their home duties as to those of their
art. But, still, coDjugal unpesssntnesses
80 often occur among the dramatic profess
sion and being public characters, their
home griefs are apt coon 10 become public
property. They do not seem very much to
regret this, for they are accustomed to de-
pict before whosoever chooses to buy tick
ct to the performance, the SORROWS of stage
heroes and herolnes, SO they are, perhaps,
not unwilling TO admit tha public to q view
OF their own private woeg.
If we go as far back as Shakespeare him
self, we find that the immortal dramatist,
who was also a player, was not happy
husband, though whether the fault was bis
or that of Anne Hathaway, his wife, we
cannot say. AS she was eight years his
senior, however, it was probable from the
Start they would have trouble, especially as
Shakespeare must have been o man much
engroesed IN his own thoughts, and perhaps
he made himself nuisance about the house
to wife who didn't care rap for his poe
try or pay any respect 10 his musings. But
we needn't GO back to Shakespeare to flnd
ill-starred unions of the people of the stage.
There are plenty of them in cur own i'm
mediate time. Fanny Kemble, though so
charming on the stage, failed to charm
Pierce Butler off it, or else he to charm
her, for after a bitter married life they
wisely concluded to separate, and fourteen
years from the wedding were divorced.
Anna Cora Mowatt, once noted on the
stage, found no happiness in her married
lie, and when released from the burden of
Mr.. MowaIt, she married Mr.. Ritchie but
he too failed to satisfy the yearuiugs vf bel
dramatic heart, and they lived apart, she in
Europe and he in America. Forrest and
his wife fought for years in the courts, and
though Mrs. Forrest succeeded in the end,
Charles O'COnor and she had trouble about
the money obtained from the stubborn ac-
tor, and the recouniing of that fact IN the
newspapers has embittcTed the aged law
yer's declining years. The pretty Miss
Nelson, too, the lovely Juliet and Rosa
lind of the stage, finds MIR. Lee, her hus-
band, unworthy or the prize he gained in
marrying her.
But the matrimonial troubles which now
interest US most are those of Adelina Patti
and her husband. the gay and perhaps dis
solule Marquis De Caux. There was talk
of her surrendering her tuneful heart to
burly tenor named Nicolini, but che denies
II like an honest woman; and besides, 1t
does not seem likely, for he is not the sort
of man to take captive lovely woman's
affections The true story is that, after en-
daring all che thought she ought to en-
dure from her husband Patti at st. Peters
burg shipped him at short notice, and got
the desp0tic czar to turn him out of Rus
sia, while she telegraphed to Paris to begin
proceedings for separation. Whatever
the causes of estrangement, and Patti al
leges them to be gross i'll treatment, it is
indisputable that the operate queen and
her spouse have left each other /; and per-
haps 1t is just as well that it is 80. She is
great singer, and il may be wisest for her
to devote her whole attention to the beau
tiful art in which she delights all hearers,
and from which she makes great deal of
money, so that she has no need of hus-
band TO support her. In fact, she has sup
ported De Caux in luxurious idleness, and
that is very mean position for man to
occupy.
We all know of the tempestuous matr-
monial experience Of Lucca, another of our
popular singers She seems to be spunky
little woman, who naturally exacis great
deal of attention aud devotion from hus-
band, and when she doesn't get it or thinks
she Is shabbily treated by him, she will not
stand the neglect. We fancy that the main
cause Of the trouble in these various cases
is this the wives support the husbands by
their work, and that fact begets In the la
dies a sort of contempt for their spouses,
and makes them rather exacting and dicta-
torisl.
But, after all, these matrimonial misfor-
tunes make really little difference to the
public, so long as they do not mar the
voices of Patti and Lucca, and 30 far they
4 l.