{"id":467,"date":"2024-01-14T11:15:59","date_gmt":"2024-01-14T11:15:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/dancebiographies\/?p=467"},"modified":"2024-02-20T09:03:26","modified_gmt":"2024-02-20T09:03:26","slug":"mademoiselle-salle-and-her-discontents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/dancebiographies\/2024\/01\/14\/mademoiselle-salle-and-her-discontents\/","title":{"rendered":"Mademoiselle Sall\u00e9 and Her Discontents"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Robert V. Kenny<\/mark><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Mistriss SALL\u00c9 toujours errante,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Et toujours vivant m\u00e9contente …<\/p>\nMistress Sall\u00e9, forever wandering and forever discontented …<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n

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Marie Sall\u00e9 in retirement by Maurice-Quentin de La Tour, 1741. Copy: Wikipedia. Public Domain.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Shortly after Marie Sall\u00e9\u2019s return to Paris in the summer of 1735, at the end of what turned out to be her last season in London, the Abb\u00e9 Pr\u00e9vost\u2019s journal, Le Pour et Contre<\/em>, gave an account of an incident at Covent Garden that would certainly have explained her reason for leaving London in a state of discontent. This incident had supposedly occurred during a performance of the ballet scenes in Handel\u2019s new opera Alcina<\/em>, choreographed by Sall\u00e9 herself:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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People unashamedly hissed her [onstage] in the theatre. The opera Alcina<\/em> was being performed. Mademoiselle Sall\u00e9 had composed a Ballet, in which she took the role of Cupid, a role she danced in male attire. It is said<\/em> that this attire ill-suits her and was apparently<\/em> the cause of her fall from grace. [Emphasis added.]<\/p>\nOn n\u2019a pas eu honte de la siffler en plein th\u00e9\u00e2tre. On jouait l\u2019Op\u00e9ra d\u2019Alcine<\/em>. Mademoiselle Sall\u00e9 avait compos\u00e9 un Ballet, dans lequel elle se chargea du r\u00f4le de Cupidon, qu\u2019elle entreprit de danser en habit d\u2019homme. Cet habit, dit- on<\/em>, lui sied mal, et fut apparemment <\/em>la cause de sa disgr\u00e2ce.1)<\/mark><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

These events are widely assumed to have taken place at the premi\u00e8re of Alcina<\/em> on 16 April 1735; indeed, the Biographical Dictionary of Actors<\/em>, following Pr\u00e9vost, states as a fact that on that date she was hissed by members of the rival opera company from the King\u2019s theatre.2)<\/mark><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A pirated edition of Le Pour et Contre <\/em>in the Hague had already published a different report of her dissatisfaction with England, followed by an epigram, two lines of which appear above as my epigraph: “Mademoiselle Sall\u00e9<\/em>, unable to appear in England<\/em> with the same satisfaction as before, when she received the applause of the Court and the City, has resolved to abandon the English<\/em> and return to France<\/em>. I am told that she has indeed left and is expected to arrive in Paris at any moment. Here is an Epigram<\/em> on the subject of her return:<\/mark><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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EPIGRAM on the Return of Mademoiselle Sall\u00e9 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mlle SALL\u00c9 <\/em>forever wandering, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And living forever discontented, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still deafened by the sound of hissing, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heavy of heart, light of purse, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Comes home, cursing the English,<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just as, on leaving for England,<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She had cursed the French.<\/em><\/p>\nMademoiselle Sall\u00e9 ne pouvant plus paraitre en Angleterre<\/em> avec la m\u00eame satisfaction que ci-devant, lorsqu\u2019elle recueillait les applaudissements de la Cour et de la Ville, a r\u00e9solu d\u2019abandonner les Anglais<\/em> et de retourner en France<\/em>. On me mande qu\u2019elle est effectivement partie, et qu\u2019on l\u2019attend \u00e0 Paris<\/em> \u00e0 tout moment. Voici une Epigramme<\/em> qu\u2019on a faite sur son retour.

EPIGRAMME sur le retour de Mademoiselle Sall\u00e9<\/em>
Mistriss SALL\u00c9<\/em> toujours errante,
Et toujours vivant m\u00e9contente,
Sourde encor du bruit des sifflets,
Le c\u0153ur gros, la bourse l\u00e9g\u00e8re,
Revient, maudissant les Anglais<\/em>,
Comme en partant pour l\u2019Angleterre<\/em>
Elle maudissait les Fran\u00e7ais<\/em>.3)<\/mark><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

This news item must have been written around mid-June (NS) because on 2 July 1735 (NS) in Paris, les nouvelles \u00e0 la main<\/em> [manuscript news-sheets] carried a report which appears to show knowledge of this pirated Hague edition of Le Pour et contre<\/em>: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

La Sall\u00e9 has come back from England, as discontented with the English as she was with us when she left. Here is an epigram that depicts her perfectly \u2026<\/mark><\/p>\nLa Sall\u00e9 est revenue d\u2019Angleterre, aussi m\u00e9contente des Anglais qu\u2019elle l\u2019\u00e9tait de nous quand elle partit. Voici une \u00e9pigramme qui la peint au naturel …<\/mark><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The news-sheet reproduces the epigram with a slightly different second line: \u2018Et qui vit toujours m\u00e9contente\u2019 <\/mark>[‘And who lives forever discontented’<\/mark>].4)<\/mark><\/sup> According to Pr\u00e9vost\u2019s account, the hissing incident strongly suggested that Sall\u00e9, once the idol of London society, had fallen out of favour with it. This situation had been foreshadowed by other observers. In a letter of 9 January 1734 Mattieu Marais noted: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The English, who know little about dance, are growing tired of Sall\u00e9 and say they had enough of her last year, and the ladies find her prissy [pimpesou\u00e9e<\/em>] and hoity-toity.<\/mark><\/p>\nLes Anglais, qui se connaissent peu en danse, se lassent de la Sall\u00e9 et disent qu\u2019ils en ont eu assez il y a un an, et les dames anglaises la trouvent pimpe-sou\u00e9e et faisant la milady.<\/mark>5)<\/mark><\/sup><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

<\/mark><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The word \u2018pimpesou\u00e9e\u2019 implies a woman who plays \u2018hard to get\u2019 and it may be that Sall\u00e9\u2019s impeccable private life was partly responsible for the ladies\u2019 resentment of a mere dancer whose moral standards were higher than their own. In early 1735, Pr\u00e9vost had printed some English verses indicating that Sall\u00e9 had aroused displeasure not only for her financial success but, more dangerously, for expressing a low opinion of the English:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Miss Sall\u00e9 too (late come from France) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Says we can neither dress nor dance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet she, as is agreed by most, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dresses and dances at our cost. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She from experience draws her rules <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And justly calls the English fools. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For such they are, since none but such <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For foreign Jilts would pay so much.6)<\/mark><\/sup><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

In the following I propose to re-examine the supposed Cupid incident and suggest an alternative explanation for what happened.<\/p>\n\n\n

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First, it is important to note that, other than in Pr\u00e9vost (whose wording –\u2018it is said\u2019 and \u2018apparently\u2019\u2014indicates that he is writing at second or third hand), there is no reference to the Cupid incident in any other source. It is nowhere mentioned in the London press or in any contemporary French or English correspondence \u2013 including that of John Rich and the inveterate gossip Lord Hervey, who would surely have commented on it.  As for the suggestion that the hissing on this occasion came from a rival company, Sall\u00e9 seems to have been on good terms with dancers from the other theatres; in fact, the London Daily Post and General Advertiser <\/em>had reported on 17 March 1735 that <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Celebrated Monsieur [George] Denoyer and Mademoiselle Salle, by Permission of the Masters of the two Theatres Royal, … agreed to dance together at each other’s Benefit.\u00a0\u00a0<\/mark><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The idea that hissing could have been provoked by Sall\u00e9\u2019s costume as one of the fluttering cupids in Alcina\u2019s garden is, in my view, equally far-fetched.  In the London seasons of 1733-4 and 1734-5, travesty roles for women in dance, often as cupids or petits-ma\u00eetres<\/em>, were commonplace, as can be seen from these selections from two seasons\u2019 playbills in The London Stage<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Covent Garden, 16 March 1734. The Nuptial Masque<\/em> or The Triumphs of Cupid and Hymen.<\/em> \u2018Cupid \u2013 Miss Norsa, the first time of her appearing in boy’s clothes.\u2019<\/mark><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Drury Lane, 18 March 1734. \u2018Minuet by Mlle Grognet (in Boy\u2019s Cloaths);\u2019 Prince of Wales present.<\/mark><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Covent Garden, 18 March 1734. \u2018A Courtier by Miss Norsa in Boy\u2019s Cloaths.\u2019<\/mark><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Goodman\u2019s Fields, 25 March 1734. \u2018An Epilogue of thanks spoke by Mrs Roberts in Man\u2019s Cloaths.\u2019<\/mark><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lincoln\u2019s Inn Fields, 1 April 1734. \u2018Minuet by Mlle Grognet in Boy\u2019s Cloaths.\u2019<\/mark><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Covent Garden, 6 April 1734. \u2018Mrs Kilby, the first time of her appearing in Boy\u2019s Cloaths.\u2019<\/mark><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Covent Garden, 29 April 1735 \u2018Harlequin by Miss Norsa Jr., the first time of her appearance on any stage.\u2019<\/mark><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Haymarket, 5 May 1735. Grognet benefit. \u2018The Wedding<\/em> (new) by Mlle Mimi Verneuil and Mlle Grognet in Man\u2019s Clothes.<\/mark><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Covent Garden,\u00a0 20 May 1735.\u00a0 \u2018Afterpiece Minuet by Mlle Grognet in Men\u2019s Cloths, and Miss Baston.\u2019<\/mark><\/p>\n\n\n\n

York Buildings, 3 June 1735. \u2018A Minuet by Miss Norsa in Boy\u2019s Cloaths and Miss Oates.\u2019<\/mark><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Haymarket, 9 July 1735. Aaron Hill Zara<\/em>. Epilogue spoken \u2018by Miss ___ in Boy\u2019s Cloaths.\u2019<\/mark><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Click here<\/a> for an image of the actress Peg Woffington in a trousers role (London, 1746).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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However, in dance (as opposed to opera) this kind of travesty was almost exclusively the preserve of very young girls and women.7<\/sup><\/mark><\/a>)<\/mark><\/sup> It was, for example, a specialty of Manon Grognet (\u2018la petite grognette\u2019 as Mathieu Marais called her in 1733), who was currently dancing in travesty as a petit-ma\u00eetre <\/em>at the Little Haymarket Theatre \u2013 but, as Marais had written,  specifically contrasting  her dancing with that of Sall\u00e9, \u2018it\u2019s a different kind of dancing, and there will be enough for everyone <\/mark>[c\u2019est une autre danse, et il y en aura pour tout le monde<\/mark>].\u20198<\/a><\/sup>)<\/sup><\/mark>  <\/mark>What he was surely referring to was the difference between the \u2018belle danse’ of the Op\u00e9ra-trained Sall\u00e9 and the sprightly commedia<\/em> style that Grognet would have learned at the fairs.) As an adult, Sall\u00e9 (aged twenty-six in 1735) never danced in male attire, and nothing in her entire adult career in London or Paris lends a shred of credibility to the idea that this woman of impeccable taste and judgment would have played a young male Cupid, so soon after the refined grandeur of her recent ground-breaking appearances as Galatea in Pygmalion<\/em>,<\/strong> Ariadne in Bacchus and Ariadne<\/em>, a Bridal Virgin in Apollo and Daphne<\/em>, and the Bridal Nymph in A Nuptial Masque<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Mademoiselle Sall\u00e9’s 1734 Benefit as advertised in the Daily Journal<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

How, then, did this unlikely story arise? I believe there may be a clue in a letter from Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, <\/a>to Diana, Duchess of Bedford, dated 24 June 1735, telling of an incident which did indeed take place at Covent Garden during a performance of Alcina<\/em>. The King attended performances of this opera both on the opening night, 16 April, and on 14 May with the Queen and Princess Amelia. Since nothing unseemly was reported about the opening night (it surely would have been publicly noticed then), the incident recounted by the Duchess must have taken place on 14 May.  While the Duchess could not be bothered to know the name of the performer in question, Sarah McCleave has identified her as Marie Sall\u00e9:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The famous dancing woman (I do not know her name) in the opera, the audience were so excessive fond of her that they hollered out \u201cencore\u201d several times to have her dance over again, which she could not do, because as she was coming on again, the King made a motion with his hand that she should not. At last the dispute was so violent that to put an end to it, the curtain was let down, whereby the spectators lost all after the third act.9)<\/mark><\/sup><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The Duchess\u2019s letter provides evidence not only that Sall\u00e9 danced in Alcina<\/em> until 14 May but, more importantly, that a full month after the premi\u00e8re of the opera, far from being out of favour, Sall\u00e9 was still immensely popular.  As Alcina<\/em> has only three acts, the Duchess\u2019s meaning is unclear, but it seems likely that the incident took place at the end of the second act in the ballet of good and bad dreams, probably the \u2018Entrance of pleasant dreams\u2019 [Entr\u00e9e des songes agr\u00e9ables], which Handel borrowed from the ballet he had written for Sall\u00e9 in Ariodante <\/em>in January 1735. The King\u2019s gesture was clearly one of impatience, indicating that he wanted the evening to end soon.  On the following day, 15 May, he was to prorogue parliament and on 17 May he would eagerly set out for Hanover and the arms of his mistress. He had sat through two acts and his mind was already elsewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the Duchess makes clear, the audience\u2019s anger at the King\u2019s peremptory dismissal of the popular dancer was so violent that the performance had to be brought to an end. Hissing there certainly was, and Sall\u00e9 was indeed obliged to leave the stage, not because of her costume (which audiences over the three previous weeks had already seen without comment), but, according to the Duchess of Marlborough, in obedience to a gesture from the King which most of the audience would not have seen. Could it be that the noisy outburst at this aborted performance on 14 May was thought by some (especially those who heard of it at second-hand) to have been directed not against the King but against Sall\u00e9 herself when she attempted to return to the stage to take her encore? Might it even be that her entr\u00e9e <\/em>was not a solo and that a cupid or cupids en travesti<\/em> entered with her, adding to the confusion?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This explanation may perhaps be supported by the opening of the already quoted news item from the pirated Hague edition of Le Pour et contre<\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Parisians<\/em> have learned with a joy that is neither shocking nor insulting to Mademoiselle Sall\u00e9<\/em>, of the unfortunate accident[10]<\/mark><\/sup> that befell her recently <\/em>[emphasis added<\/em>] in London, since this insult seemed to them to predict the prompt return of this famous dancer.<\/p>\nLes Parisiens<\/em> ont appris avec une joie qui n\u2019a rien de choquant ni d\u2019insultant pour Mademoiselle Sall\u00e9<\/em>, le f\u00e2cheux accident qui lui est arriv\u00e9 en dernier lieu<\/em> [emphasis added<\/em>] \u00e0 Londres, puisque cet affront leur semblait pronostiquer le prompt retour de cette fameuse Danseuse.<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

This report seems to me entirely consistent with the incident described by the Duchess of Marlborough. <\/a>The report that Sall\u00e9 was being less favourably received than before by the Court (the King?) and the City (the raucous audience?), makes the \u2018unfortunate incident\u2019 sound very recent, far more like the \u2018violent dispute\u2019 which happened on 14 May than something which has hitherto been presumed to have taken place on 16 April and of which there is not a single mention in the English press.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the Earl of Egmont, a friend and confident of both King and Queen, noted in his journal for 14 May, \u2018In the evening I went to Handel\u2019s opera called Alcina<\/em>\u2019<\/mark>, it might seem odd that he made no mention of any disturbance. However, earlier in the day, he had had a long discussion with the Bishop of Salisbury concerning the unstable state of international affairs, and the King\u2019s apparent indifference to it. The Bishop warned Egmont that \u2018Sir Robert [Walpole] sees his situation and is very uneasy at it, and so is the Queen. [\u2026] It is a great misfortune the King is made believe the people\u2019s affections are warm to him, none daring to tell him the truth.\u201911)<\/sup><\/mark> Egmont might, then, have found nothing newsworthy in a rowdy demonstration against the monarch and in favour of a much-loved dancer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sall\u00e9, however, may well have interpreted the King\u2019s gesture as an unexpected sign of sudden royal disfavour, and she might even have taken the ensuing raucous demonstration to be directed against her rather than against the King. After the performance on 14 May there is not a single known mention of her by name in the London press or contemporary correspondence concerning the remainder of the Covent Garden season. There were altogether eighteen performances of Alcina<\/em>, ending with a royal command performance for Queen Caroline on 2 July, but Sall\u00e9 cannot have been dancing in London on 2 July 1735, or at any point after mid-June at the latest, for one very simple reason. What seems to have been hitherto overlooked is the crucial fact that Britain did not adopt the Gregorian revisions to the calendar until 1752, and until then the date in England (Old Style) was eleven days behind the date in Catholic Europe (New Style). Sall\u00e9 must have already been in Paris well before 2 July (New Style) for the news of her arrival to reach the news-sheets and inspire the mocking epigram. The journey from London to Paris could take over a week, often ten days or more, depending on the state of the seas and the roads. This means that at the very latest Sall\u00e9 must have left London around mid-June (OS) and performances of Alcina<\/em> must<\/em> therefore have continued without her.12)<\/mark><\/sup> <\/mark>It could even be that Sall\u00e9 walked out of Covent Garden immediately after the \u2018unfortunate incident\u2019 of 14 May; her \u2018empty purse\u2019 mentioned in the mocking verses would be the result of the loss of salary for the remaining nine performances. This view is supported by the fact that, when Alcina<\/em> was revived, in November of the 1736-7 season, it was without either Sall\u00e9 or the dances. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Extract from one of Handel’s dances for Sall\u00e9 in Terpsichore<\/em> (1734).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Sall\u00e9\u2019s behaviour may seem an over-reaction to what might best be described as an unfortunate concatenation of misunderstandings. But it was in keeping with her hypersensitive and headstrong character.  There has been no previous discussion of the fact that every one of Sall\u00e9\u2019s seasons between 1730 and 1735 ended abruptly in some kind of irregular incident, violent altercation, and\/or illness — Paris in August 1730; London in May-June 1731; Paris in November-December 1732; London in May 1734; London in May-June 1735. The nouvelles \u00e0 la main<\/em> dated 25 August 1730 reported that she and one of the directors (Claude-Fran\u00e7ois Leboeuf) had argued on the stage of the Op\u00e9ra, perhaps even coming to blows.13)<\/mark><\/sup> In London, where she remained from November to the end of the 1730-31 season, Sall\u00e9 received a glittering royal benefit on 25 March 1731. However, her name disappeared from the playbills from 3 May until 1 June, when there was a single announcement of \u2018Dancing by Mlle Sall\u00e9\u2019; then Rich\u2019s company moved to Richmond, and Sall\u00e9, presumably, went back to France. No explanation seems to exist for this rather odd, month-long hiatus. In her letter to the Duchess of Richmond in 1731, Sall\u00e9 made it abundantly clear that she did not like John Rich, whom she described as \u2018a rude and unjust man at whose hands I have suffered too much ill treatment<\/mark> [un homme impoli et injuste, dont j\u2019ai souffert trop de mauvais traitemens<\/mark>].\u201914)<\/mark><\/sup> The last two lines of the epigram written about her two years later \u2013 \u2018Just as on leaving for England\/ <\/em>She had cursed the French<\/em>\u2019 <\/mark> — would seem to be further confirmation of the fact that Sall\u00e9 had left Paris in October 1733 in unpleasant circumstances. On 24 May 1734, Pygmalion<\/em> and Bacchus and Ariadne <\/em>were advertised, as \u2018being the last Time of the Company\u2019s performing this Season<\/mark>‘ (Daily Journal<\/em>). However, according to Rich\u2019s Register<\/em> the audience was dismissed, \u2018by reason Madem Sall\u00e9 wou\u2019d not come to the House.\u201915)<\/sup><\/mark><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Whatever exactly happened in 1735, it is clear that the \u2018unhappy incident\u2019 (\u2018f\u00e2cheux accident\u2019) was the culmination of a number of unfortunate events, and one from which she did not recover. It affected her health: Voltaire, who saw her soon after her return, wrote on 15 July to Sall\u00e9\u2019s ardent but frustrated admirer, Nicolas-Claude Thi\u00e9riot, \u2018So, you are avenged; your nymph has lost her beauty [<\/mark>Vous voil\u00e0 donc veng\u00e9 de votre nymphe; elle a perdu sa beaut\u00e9<\/mark>].\u201916)<\/mark><\/sup> Sall\u00e9 had not, however, lost the admiration of audiences in both countries. The pirated Pour et contre <\/em>had recorded the \u2018joy\u2019 with which Parisians looked forward to her return: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It is not yet known whether she will dance at the Op\u00e9ra, and the public display an impatience about this which does her credit.<\/p>\nOn ne sait encore si elle dansera \u00e0 l\u2019Op\u00e9ra,et le public t\u00e9moigne l\u00e0-dessus une impatience qui lui fait honneur.<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The Daily Journal<\/em> of Tuesday 5 August (OS) reported that, to the delight of all Paris, Sall\u00e9 was to dance in the new opera Les Victoires Galantes, <\/strong><\/em>the original title of Fuzelier-Rameau\u2019s Les Indes Galantes<\/em>, premiered on 23 August 1735 (NS). It added, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We do not mind what shall be done upon the Rhine by Marshall Coigny, or in Lombardy by Marshall Noailles, but what Mademoiselle Sall\u00e9 will perform on the stage of Paris.17)<\/mark><\/sup><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The fact that her activities were the object of so much speculation may simply be the result of her \u2018celebrity\u2019 status, enhanced by prurient interest in the \u2018virtue\u2019 (i.e., chastity) of a mere dancer and perhaps also by the very unpredictability that I have been describing.  Judges as severe as Voltaire seem to have been charmed by her charismatic personality. Proof that she still had a loyal following in London is suggested by the report in the Grub Street Journal <\/em>for 19 August 1736 that Desnoyer, \u2018the famous Dancer at Drury-lane theatre,\u2019<\/mark> had gone to Paris \u2018by order of Mr. Fleetwood<\/mark> [the theatre manager]\u2019 to try to hire Sall\u00e9 for the winter season \u2013 something that certainly does not suggest any dimming of her star. But the hopes of Desnoyer and Fleetwood were to be disappointed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Sall\u00e9 ever return to England? Dacier notes that some of her contemporaries thought this, though he could find no evidence of it.18)<\/sup> <\/mark>An unsubstantiated and uncorroborated account, written some ten years after the event it claims to describe, was included in an anonymous article (M\u00e9moires d\u2019un Musicien<\/em>) which appeared in three numbers of the Journal Encyclop\u00e9dique <\/em>in May-June 1756, just a month before Sall\u00e9\u2019s death in obscurity:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mlle Sall\u00e9, the French dancer in whom the most respectable morals were united with the rarest talents, caused admiration on the London stage for graceful qualities which the English had not hitherto seen, and which are created and acquired only in France. I had known her there; she seemed most content to receive me, and I was witness to her unhesitating sacrifice of over a thousand louis<\/em> which ought to have accrued from her engagement with Handel, even though she was solicited by the greatest lords in London to break it off, which a caprice led them to speculate would be more desirable.<\/p>\nMlle. Sall\u00e9, Danseuse Fran\u00e7oise, qui scavoit unir les moeurs les plus respectables aux plus rares talens, faisoit assez admirer sur le Th\u00e9\u00e2tre de Londres des graces que les Anglois n’avoient pas encore connues, & qui ne naissent, & ne peuvent s’acquerir qu’en France. Je l’y avois connue, elle parut fort aise de me voir, & je fus temoin du sacrifice qu’elle n’h\u00e9sita point de faire de plus de mille Louis qui auroient d\u00fb lui revenir de son engagement avec Hendel, quoique sollicit\u00e9 par les plus grands Seigneurs de Londre de le rompre, pour en prendre un nouveau avec un entrepreneur qu’un caprice leur faisoit esperer plus agr\u00e9able.19)<\/mark><\/sup><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

In a 1996 article by David Charlton and Sarah Hibberd, these few lines became the subject of scholarly speculation on the possibility of Sall\u00e9\u2019s return to London, a discussion taken up and amplified by Sarah McCleave.20)<\/sup> <\/mark>Whatever the facts of this matter may be, one thing is clear: after leaving London in June 1735, Marie Sall\u00e9 was never again to dance on the English stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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About the author<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Dr Robert V Kenny is Honorary Fellow in French Studies in the University of Leicester. His full-length study of Sall\u00e9’s uncle Fran\u00e7ois Moylin (Francisque)  and his travelling theatre companies in England and France will be published by Boydell and Brewer early in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

References<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
    \n
  1. Antoine Fran\u00e7ois Pr\u00e9vost, Le Pour et contre<\/em>, 6 (87), pp. 286-7. Immediately before this story, the writer claims to have no idea what caused Sall\u00e9\u2019s fall from grace. The whole article gives the impression of having been concocted from several sources or rumours.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Highfill, Philip H., Jr., Edward A. Langhans, Kalman Burnim, eds., A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers, and Other Stage Personnel in London, 1660-1800<\/em> Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1973-93, vol.13, p.183.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3.  Le Pour et contre<\/em> (pirated edition), The Hague: Isaac van der Kloot, 1735, 6 (206), p. 72. Jean Sgard\u2019s index confirms the fact that this news item and the epigram did not appear in the Paris edition. Jean Sgard, Le \u2018Pour et contre\u2019 de Pr\u00e9vost<\/em>, introduction, tables et index<\/em>, Paris: Nizet, 1969, p. 210.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. This news and a half-remembered part of the epigram were also contained in a letter from Mathieu Marais to the President of the Dijon Parlement, Jean Bouhier, dated 3 July (New Style), and, according to Emile Dacier, the verses appeared in London in the General Advertiser<\/em> of 10 July (Old Style), although I have not been able to verify this. <\/mark>Editor\u2019s note<\/em>: I have seen this in British Library \u2018Latreille Collection\u2019 Add. MS 32251, fol. 231v; also in Walter Eisen, Margret Eisen, and Otto Erich Deutsch, H\u00e4ndel-Handbuch<\/em>, vol. 4, (Kassel: B\u00e4renreiter, 1985), p. 253; both sources claim it appeared in several newspapers after the opera season ended on 2 July 1735. A search for Sall\u00e9 in the Burney Newspapers throughout July 1735 in Gale primary sources online yields nothing on the dancer. An additional manual browse of the twelve surviving issues of the London Daily Post and General Advertiser<\/em> for July 1735 (a most likely source), does not yield anything on Sall\u00e9 \u2013 but six of these issues have articles cut from them. The George Frideric Handel Collected Documents<\/em> project does not include any references to this epigram for July 1735. See Donald Burrows, Helen Coffey, John Greenacombe and Anthony Hicks (eds.), The George Frideric Handel Collected Documents<\/em> 1734-1742<\/em>, vol. 3 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. Quoted in Emile Dacier, Une Danseuse de l\u2019Op\u00e9ra sous Louis XV, Mlle Sall\u00e9 (1707-1756)<\/em>. Paris: Plon-Nourrit, 1909, p. 144. Henri Duranton\u2019s edition of these letters gives \u2018trop lou\u00e9e\u2019 instead of \u2018pimpesou\u00e9e\u2019. Dacier\u2019s reading sounds more likely.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  6. Antoine Fran\u00e7ois Pr\u00e9vost, Le Pour et le Contre<\/em>, 1735, vol.6 (76), p.22-3.  Jean Sgard confidently dates this number no later than February\/early March 1735.  See Sgard, Le \u2018Pour\u2019<\/em>, p.32.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  7. Indeed, back in Paris in January 1733, a titillating travesty role by the opera singer Mlle Le Maure as \u2018l\u2019Amour\u2019 in Louis de Boissy\u2019s comedy Les Etrennes<\/em> (in the act \u2018la Vue\u2019 of Pierre-Charles Roy\u2019s Ballet des sens<\/em>, premi\u00e8re 5 June 1732) was held up as the very antithesis of Sall\u00e9\u2019s more elevated and noble style. Dacier, p. 102.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  8. Mathieu Marais, Letter of 1 December 1733, in Correspondance litt\u00e9raire du pr\u00e9sident Bouhier<\/em>, ed. Henri Duranton, vol. IX (2): Lettres de Mathieu Marais. <\/em>Saint-Etienne, 1981.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  9. Letters of a Grandmother 1732-1735. Being the Correspondence of Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough with her Granddaughter Diana, Duchess of Bedford<\/em>, ed. Gladys Scott Thompson (London: Jonathan Cape, 1943), p.151. Quoted in Sarah McCleave, Dance in Handel\u2019s London Operas<\/em>, Rochester, N.Y.: University of Rochester, 2013, p.1.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  10. The French word accident<\/em> regularly has the broader meaning of incident.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  11. J. Perceval. Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts, Manuscripts of the Earl of Egmont: Diary of Viscount Percival afterwards first Earl of Egmont<\/em> \u2026volume 2, 1734-1783<\/em> (London: H.M. Stationery Office, 1920-23), p. 177.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  12. She probably returned to France with the company of her uncle Francisque, wh had been performing a season of French drama at the Little Haymarket theatre until early June.  The company included Manon Grognet, but there is no justification for Deirdre Kelly\u2019s statement that she and Sall\u00e9 travelled \u2018openly\u2019 together, or for the inferences drawn from this supposed fact. See <\/a>Ballerina: Sex, Scandal, and Suffering Behind the Symbol of Perfection<\/em> (Vancouver, 2012), p. 34.  <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  13. Biblioth\u00e8que Historique de la Ville de Paris, ms. 26700.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  14. McCleave, Dancing at the English Opera<\/em>, p. 37.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  15. The London Stage<\/em>, Part 3, vol. 1, p. 401.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  16. Letter 490, \u0152uvres compl\u00e8tes de Voltaire<\/em> \u2026 nouvelle \u00e9dition<\/em> (Paris: Garnier fr\u00e8res, 1880), vol. 33, pp. 505-506.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  17. The original report inverts \u2018of\u2019 and \u2018on\u2019. This must surely be an error.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  18. Dacier, p.253.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  19. Journal encyclopedique, <\/em>14 (1756), 47-48, as translated in David Charlton and Sarah Hibberd, \u2018\u201cMy father was a poor Parisian musician\u201d: a memoir (1756) concerning Rameau, Handel’s Library and Sall\u00e9\u2019, Journal of the Royal Musical Association<\/em>, Vol. 128, No. 2 (2003), pp. 161-199, [47-48 in the original], p. 197.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  20. See Charlton and Hibberd, p.197; McCleave, Dance in Handel\u2019s London Operas<\/em>, pp.119-20.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Next Post<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    The next post will be a report on an aspect of Sarah McCleave’s ‘Fame and the Female Dancer’ project.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    By Robert V. Kenny Mistriss SALL\u00c9 toujours errante, Et toujours vivant m\u00e9contente … Mistress Sall\u00e9, forever wandering and forever discontented … Shortly after Marie Sall\u00e9\u2019s return to Paris in the summer of 1735, at the end of what turned out to be her last season in London, the Abb\u00e9 Pr\u00e9vost\u2019s journal, Le Pour et Contre, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,1],"tags":[148,147,150,151,149,36,153,154],"class_list":["post-467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dancebiography","category-uncategorised","tag-alcina","tag-g-f-handel","tag-georges-desnoyer","tag-john-rich","tag-manon-grognet","tag-marie-salle","tag-maurice-quentin-de-la-tour","tag-robert-v-kenny"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/dancebiographies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/dancebiographies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/dancebiographies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/dancebiographies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/56"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/dancebiographies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467"}],"version-history":[{"count":32,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/dancebiographies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":507,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/dancebiographies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467\/revisions\/507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/dancebiographies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/dancebiographies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/dancebiographies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}