Explore "Jenny Lind the Artist" by Henry Scott Holland on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
The excitement of the public, when the fateful day arrived, exceeded anything that had ever been witnessed by the oldest frequenter of Her Majesty's Theatre.
From an early hour in the afternoon, the colonnade in the Haymarket was thronged by a crowd of ladies and gentlemen, in evening dress, waiting patiently to secure good places in the pit. The file of carriages seemed interminable. When the doors were opened, at half-past seven, the crush was terrific. Ladies were fairly carried off their feet, and pressed against the barriers with a force which neither they nor their protectors had power to resist. Neither in the pit, nor even in the "three-shilling gallery," could "standing-room" be found, at any price, for the disappointed applicants who continued to besiege the doors; and many of those who had succeeded in effecting an entrance were wedged into corners from which the stage was invisible. The Queen, the Prince Consort, the Queen Dowager, and the Duchess of Kent, occupied the Royal boxes, to the left of the stage. Mendelssohn sat in the stalls, with his friend, Mr. Grote. And every corner of the house was crowded with the most brilliant representatives of the talent, the fashion, and the wealth of London.