his
tragic performers, who played every evening in the classic works of
Corneille and Racine. I and my companions had hoped to have seen one
such representation, but unfortunately I was informed that they took
place for the sovereigns and their suites alone, and that everybody
else was excluded from them." In this dilemma Spohr had recourse to
stratagem. He persuaded four musicians of the orchestra to vacate their
places for a handsome consideration, and he and his pupils engaged to
fill the duties. But one of the substitutes must needs be a horn-player,
and the four new players could only perform on violin and 'cello. So
there was nothing to be done but for Spohr to master the French horn at
a day's notice. At the expense of swollen and painful lips, he managed
this sufficiently to play the music required with ease and precision.
"Thus prepared," he writes, "I and my pupils joined the other musicians,
and, as each carried his instrument under his arm, we reached our place
without opposition. We found the saloon in which the theatre had been
erected already brilliantly lit up and filled with the numerous suites
of the sovereigns. The seats for Napoleon and his guests were right
behind the orchestra. Shortly after, the most able of my pupils, to whom
I had assigned the direction of the music, and under whose leadership I
had placed myself as a new-fledged hornist, had tuned up the orchestra,
the high personages made their appearance, and the overture began. The
orchestra, with their faces turned to the stage, stood in a long row,
and each was strictly forbidden to turn around and look with curiosity
at the sovereigns. As I had received notice of this beforehand, I had
provided myself secretly with a small looking-glass, by the help of
which, as soon as the music was ended, I was enabled to obtain in
succession a good view of those who directed the destinies of Europe.
Nevertheless, I was soon so engrossed with the magnificent acting of the
tragic artists that I abandoned my mirror to my pupils, and directed my
whole attention to the stage. But at every succeeding _entr'acte_ the
pain of my lips increased, and at the close of the performance they
had become so much swollen and blistered that in the evening I could
scarcely eat any supper. Even the next day, on my return to Gotha,
my lips had a very negro-like appearance, and my young wife was not a
little alarmed when she saw me. But she was yet more nettled when I told
he