Carnival ends on the 5th of February, so each Thursday there is a Serata
d' Onore of one of the actors. The first, and the only one for which
prices were raised--to a fourpence entrance fee instead of
threepence--was for the leading lady. The play was _The Wife of the
Doctor_, a modern piece, sufficiently uninteresting; the farce that
followed made me laugh.
Since it was her Evening of Honour, Adelaida was the person to see. She
is very popular, though she is no longer young. In fact, she is the
mother of the young pert person of _Ghosts_.
Nevertheless, Adelaida, stout and blonde and soft and pathetic, is the
real heroine of the theatre, the prima. She is very good at sobbing; and
afterwards the men exclaim involuntarily, out of their strong emotion,
'_bella, bella_!' The women say nothing. They sit stiffly and
dangerously as ever. But, no doubt, they quite agree this is the true
picture of ill-used, tear-stained woman, the bearer of many wrongs.
Therefore they take unto themselves the homage of the men's '_bella,
bella_!' that follows the sobs: it is due recognition of their hard
wrongs: 'the woman pays.
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