The High Price of Marrying Into Nobility

The marital infelicities of Adelina Patti, which have lately spread before the public of Europe and America, have awakened attention afresh to the unfortunate frequency of like occurrences among lyric and dramatic artists. The plaudits of multitudes, the brilliancy of diamonds and the perfume of floral offerings at the theater are not in all cases types of homes in which love builds an altar. In some cases, ambition leads young, struggling artists to mistake a title for the one thing needful. They barter their hands for a coronet, and find that all that glitters is not gold. On the other hand, men who have titles and want gold to support their extravagancies make their altar a mere place where a mercantile transaction is recorded. Men and women alike are caught in matrimonial maelstroms and wrecked in hopes, in prospects and ambitions. The list of unhappy marriages, separations and divorces among artists in the old and new world is far too long for pleasant contemplation. From Malibran to Sontag, and even those of our own era, the end is the same—a desire for separation. This record serves to point a moral and adorn a tale: that the curtain has been rung down upon a like denouement in many instances in the past.