[57] La Harpe relates that in the scene where Iphigenia says to Achilles “_Vous brûlez que je sois partie_,” the pit applied the words to the actress and burst into ironical applause.
[59] In addition to her pensions, she had 2000 livres a year from a settlement made upon her by Lauraguais, and owned a house at Port-à-l’Anglais, which she sold, some months after her retirement from the stage, for 20,000 livres. From a letter to Alleaume, written apparently during the winter of 1775-1776, we learn that she was then in receipt of allowances from at least two more of her noble lovers; 4250 livres from the Prince de Conti, and 3250 from the Prince de Condé; but how long these payments were continued it is impossible to say.
[60] The antiquary Millin, who annotated a copy of _Arnoldiana_ which afterwards came into the Goncourts’ possession, asserts that she had had tender relations with the Comte d’Artois and “my lord” Stuart.
[61] Mr. R. B. Douglas, “Sophie Arnould: actress and wit,” p. 209.
[62] Cited by the Goncourts, _Sophie Arnould_, p. 132.
[63] _La Chronique scandaleuse_, No. 29, cited by E. and J. de Goncourt, _Sophie Arnould_, p. 149.
[64] According to another account, to which the Goncourts and Mr. R. B. Douglas both give credence, it was a bust of Sophie herself, by Houdon, representing her as Iphigenia; and the agents of the revolutionary committee “mistook a sky-blue band on which was painted a quarter-moon and two stars for the scarf of Marat.” But is not this making rather a severe call upon our credulity?
[65] According to Castil-Blaze, during the Reign of Terror, Lauraguais disguised himself as a coachman and drove a _fiacre_.
[66] The official Republican name for the Opera.
[67] Cited by E. and J. de Goncourt, _Sophie Arnould_, p. 302.
[68] Campardon, _Académie royale de Musique au XVIIIe siècle_: Article, “Guimard.”
[71] Edmond de Goncourt, _La Guimard_, p. 18.
[72] Castil-Blaze, _Histoire de l’Académie de Musique_, i. 267.
[73] Cited by Edmond de Goncourt, _La Guimard_, p. 304 note.
[75] He was the author of _Pensées et Maximes_, published some years after his death, a work in the style of La Rochefoucauld, which reveals him as a keen observer of life and particularly of woman. Here are some of his reflections: