the other day upon a public walk here, and in conversing upon their

518
F R O M HERTFORD 9 M A R C H
1765
the other day upon a public walk here, and in conversing upon their
profession Garrick told Preville he acted the drunken m a n well,
but he would act it still better if he did it more nobly, and that his
jambes n'etaient pas assez enivres. T o persuade h i m perfectly he
showed him h o w to act the part by playing it himself; the other was
tempted to improve upon so good a model, and they both performed
so naturally that they assembled a crowd around them to see what
would be the end of the drunken frolic.16
Mademoiselle Clairon has threatened to quit the stage but is again
reconciled to it; her reason was that she was ill-used in a sort of
monthly magazine that comes out here.17 She even complained to the
D u k e de Choiseuil, w h o told her that if she would compare her situation with his, she could be at n o loss for his opinion that it was her
fate, though this instance was indeed an exception, to be praised and
applauded every day; that his lot was widely different: that he was as
constantly hissed and abused and yet he continued to act.18
16. A rather different account of this
famous 'frolic,' recalled to Preville by
Garrick in a letter of 7 Jan. 1775 (Garrick,
op. cit. iii. 978), is given in G r i m m , Correspondance, ed. Tourneux, 1877-82, vi.
320, sub 'juillet 1765': 'Un jour, en revenant avec Preville, a cheval, d u bois de
Boulogne, il lui dit: "Je m'en vais faire
l'homme ivre; faites-en autant." Ils
traverserent ainsi le village de Passy, sans
dire u n mot, et, en u n clin d'ceil, tout le
village fut assemble pour les voir passer.
Les jeunes gens se moquerent d'eux, les
femmes crierent de peur de les voir tomber de cheval, les vieillards hausserent les
epaules et en eurent pitie;, ou, suivant
leur humeur, poufferent de rire. E n sortant d u village, Preville dit a Garrick:
"Ai-je bien fait, m o n maitre?— Bien, fort
bien, en verity, lui dit Garrick; mais vous
n'eHiez pas ivre des jambes." '
17. T h e critic Freron (n. 1 above), in
Lettre V (17 Jan.) of his Annee litteraire
for 1765, had attacked the loose morals of
actresses, asserting that 'c'est en vain
qu'apres avoir acquis une honteuse cerebri te par le vice, on affecte u n maintien
grave et reserved Cette honnetet6 tardive
et fausse ne sert qu'a former u n contraste
reVoltant avec I'histoire connue d'une
jeunesse infame' (i. 120). His words were
interpreted as being directed against Mlle
Clairon, the favourite actress of Voltaire
and the philosophes, of w h o m Freron was
the arch-enemy: 'Le journaliste, sans la
n o m m e r , la peint avec des couleurs si
fortes et si caracterisdes, qu'on ne peut la
meconnaitre, pour peu qu'on soit au fait
de ses anecdotes et de sa celebrity (Louis
Petit de Bachaumont, Memoires secrets,
1780-9, ii. 146, sub 24 Jan. 1765). Consequently, Mlle Clairon threatened to quit
the stage if she were not given satisfaction, and an order was solicited from the
King for Fr^ron's incarceration in the For
l'Eveque. It was delayed by Fr£ron's
being confined with the gout (ibid. ii.
157, sub 14 Feb.). Later the Queen herself intervened in his behalf, and Mile
Clairon carried her complaint to the D u c
de Choiseul (ibid. ii. 161, sub 21 Feb.). See
next note.
18. 'Mademoiselle, nous sommes, vous
et moi, chacun sur u n theatre; mais avec la
difference que vous choississez les r61es qui
vous conviennent, et que vous etes toujours
sure des applaudissements d u public. II n'y
a que quelque gens de mauvais gout,
c o m m e ce malheureux Freron, qui vous
refusent leurs suffrages. Moi, au contraire,
j'ai m a tache souvent tres d£sagr£able;
j'ai beau faire de m o n mieux, on m e
critique, on m e condamne, on m e hue, on
m e bafoue et cependant je ne donne