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The Harmonious Unfortunate: new light on Catherine Tofts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2011

Olive Baldwin  and
Thelma Wilson
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Abstract

Catherine Tofts, ‘the first English prima donna’, was the female lead in the all-sung operas in the Italian style performed on the London stage from1705, but little has previously been known about her early life or musical training. This article draws on various sources, including her father's will, a petition she wrote in 1704 and Delarivier Manley's Memoirs of Europe to show that her family background was Scottish and that she grew up in the household of Bishop Gilbert Burnet. It names possible singing teachers and lovers, and shows that she did not leave the stage in 1709 because of mental instability, as has been assumed, but because of debt and the consequent need to escape from her creditors. The end of her career shows the difficulties faced by a leading English singer when Italians, particularly the castrati, came to dominate the operatic scene in London.

Type
Research Article
Information
Cambridge Opera Journal , Volume 22 , Issue 2 , July 2010 , pp. 217 - 234
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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References

1 Sands, Mollie, ‘Mrs. Tofts, ?1685–1756’, Theatre Notebook, 20 (1956), 100–113Google Scholar .

2 DL 30 Nov., 14 Dec.; LIF 21 Dec.; DL 4 Jan., 18 Jan.; LIF 1 Feb.; DL 22 Feb.; LIF 7 Mar.; DL 14 Mar.; LIF 30 Mar. For each concert Mrs Tofts was advertised as singing unspecified songs in Italian and English. The concerts also featured performances by leading singers and dancers from both theatre companies, and the final concert included the farce Squire Trelooby with actors from both DL and LIF.

3 On 29 May 1703, Narcissus Luttrell noted that a subscription was being raised for ‘Mrs Seigniora, the Italian songstresse at the playhouse here’ (Narcissus Luttrell, A Brief Historical Relation of State Affairs (Oxford, 1857), V, 303). It is not clear where these subscription concerts took place but the cost to the subscribers was apparently high. See Cook, D. F., ‘Francoise Marguérite de l’Epine: the Italian Lady?’, Theatre Notebook, 35 (1981), 61–62Google Scholar .

4 Diverting Post, 9–16 June 1705.

5 The political satire, The Secret History of Queen Zarah, and the Zarazians; Being a Looking-glass For ----- -------- In the Kingdom of Albigion (1705), an attack on Sarah Churchill, her husband the Duke of Marlborough and the Whigs in general, previously attributed to Mrs Manley, is now believed not to have been written by her. See Downie, J. A., ‘What if Delarivier Manley did not write The Secret History of Queen Zarah?’, The Library, 7th ser., 5 (2004), 247–264CrossRefGoogle Scholar . For a full consideration of Manley's politics, see Rachel Carnell, A Political Biography of Delarivier Manley (London, 2008).

6 Vol. I, 284; vol. II, 305–20. The key to volume II of The Memoirs of Europe lists her as ‘the lovely Neighbour’, the way she is first referred to.

7 It was advertised as ‘Just Publish'd’ in the Examiner for 16–23 November 1710, and had a fulsome dedication to the Tory Abigail Masham, contrasting her virtues with the wickedness of the Duchess of Marlborough, whom she had replaced in influence over the queen.

8 Memoirs of Europe, II, 307.

9 Patricia Köster, in her facsimile edition The Novels of Mary Delariviere Manley (Gainesville, FL, 1971), states that the keys were printed separately and sold by hawkers. They are now most often found bound in with the appropriate works, as in the copies at the British Library. Cambridge University Library (Syn. 7.70.57(3)) has a set of keys to the volumes of The New Atalantis and The Memoirs of Europe, all without any indication of printer, publisher or date.

10 Steele was a notable Whig. See Knight, Charles, A Political Biography of Richard Steele (London, 2009)Google Scholar .

11 In the New Atalantis Manley had attacked Steele as Monsieur Le Ingrate: ‘he shapes his Manners to his Name and is exquisitely so in all he does … and does not bely the Country he was born in [Ireland], which is fam’d for Falshood and Insincerity’ (p. 187). Steele responded in less personal terms in the Tatler, 63 (1–3 September 1709) and at more length in number 92 (8–10 November), where he distinguished between the writers of satire and the writers of libels: ‘the Satyrist and Libeller differ as much as the Magistrate and the Murderer’. He described libellers as the ‘worst of Mankind’ and threatened to reveal the identities of libellers who wrote anonymously or under false names.

12 Burnet's diocese of Salisbury was also known as New Sarum.

13 Memoirs of Europe, II, 314.

14 GB-Ob, Ms Hearne's Diaries 17, 77. Hearne certainly hated Burnet: on 30 November 1705 he referred to him as ‘a brawny Lecherous Scotchman’ (Bliss, J. (ed.), J. Buchanan-Brown (rev.), The Remains of Thomas Hearne (London, 1966), 28)Google Scholar .

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18 Memoirs of Europe, I, 223.

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21 Copy of the will of Andrew Tofts, Prob. 11/475 at the National Archive, Kew. We have been unable to trace his burial, either in Westminster or London.

22 The singer's name appears at various times as Catherine, Catharine, Katherine and Katharine. She spelled her name as Catherine and Cath: in the two signatures that appear in facsimile in Sands, 112–13. We have used Catherine throughout, except in quotations.

23 At this time a respectable woman would have been called ‘Mrs’ rather than ‘Miss’ once she became of marriageable age.

24 National Portrait Gallery, London, Tonson Papers, Box 1. A transcript of the document is included as an appendix to this article. We are grateful to Thomas McGeary for drawing our attention to this document and for his help in the preparation of this article.

25 Sainty, J. C. and Bucholz, R. O., Office Holders in Modern Britain, XII, Officials of the Royal Household 1660–1837, part 2 (London, 1998), 155Google Scholar .

26 Luttrell, V, 257.

27 GB-Lbl, Egerton MS 2678, f. 7 and Add. MS 61420, f. 81.

28 Memoirs of Europe, II, 316.

29 Memoirs of Europe, II, 315.

30 The song is ‘Hermilia conquers with such art’. Nicola Matteis was to work in Vienna until his death in 1737.

31 de Beer, E. S. (ed.), The Diary of John Evelyn (Oxford, 1955), IV, 48Google Scholar .

32 The older Nicola Matteis published books of violin music. He was dead by 1703, when he featured as a letter writer in Tom Brown's A Continuation or Second Part of the Letters from the Dead to the Living. The songs published in the 1690s have sometimes been attributed to the older composer, but it now seems certain that they were by the younger Matteis. See Jones, Simon, ‘The Legacy of the “Stupendious” Nicola Matteis’, Early Music, 39 (2001), 553–568CrossRefGoogle Scholar .

33 Wilson, John (ed.), Roger North on Music (London, 1959), 238Google Scholar .

34 Cibber, Colley, An apology for the life of Mr. Colley Cibber (London, 1740), 226Google Scholar .

35 Memoirs of Europe, II, 315.

36 Thomas Clayton, preface to the word book of The Passion of Sappho and Feast of Alexander (1711), quoted in McGeary, Thomas, ‘Thomas Clayton and the Introduction of Italian Opera to England’, Philological Quarterly, 72 (1998), 172Google Scholar .

37 Olive Baldwin and Wilson, Thelma, ‘Music in the Birthday Celebrations at Court in the Reign of Queen Anne: A Documentary Calendar’, A Handbook for Studies in 18th-Century English Music, 19 (2008), 8–9Google Scholar .

38 Hawkins, John, A General History of the Science and Practice of Music (London, 1776), V, 169Google Scholar .

39 LC 7/3, ff. 167–168, given in The London Stage, revised on-line version ed. Robert D. Hume and Judith Milhous (www.personal.psu.edu/users/h/b/hb1/London%20Stage%202001/lond1705.pdf), 1705–6 season, 268.

40 LC 7/3, f. 88, given in The London Stage on-line version, 1705–6 season, 276; Milhous, Judith and Hume, Robert D., Vice Chamberlain Coke's Theatrical Papers, 1706–1715 (Carbondale, IL, 1982), 29Google Scholar .

41 Memoirs of Europe, II, 309.

42 Daily Courant, 21 Dec. 1703.

43 LC 7/3, ff. 167–168. See n. 39.

44 Memoirs of Europe, II, 309.

45 Letter written by Isabella, Lady Wentworth to her son on 10 December 1708, GB-Lbl, Add. MS 31143, ff. 243–244.

46 Tom Plainwright, in O. Sedgwick's The Universal Masquerade; or, the World turn'd Inside-out, II (1742) also remembered Mrs Tofts disappointing her audience: ‘Mrs. Toft, who never came upon the Stage, or went off, without universal Applause. This blew up her Female Fantastry, and the Whim came into her Head, one Night, that she would baulk her Audience: She did so, and so incensed the English Spirit, that the next Time she came upon the Stage, they hissed her off … With an equal English Spirit, she withdrew into Italy, where Cardinals and Princes courted her for her fine Voice’ (135–6).

47 Milhous and Hume, 46.

48 Memoirs of Europe, II, 308.

49 Memoirs of Europe, II, 308.

50 Hawkins, V, 152–3.

51 See Vivian, Frances, Il Console Smith, mercante e collezionista (Venice, 1971)Google Scholar .

52 National Archive, Kew: Letter dated 23 August 1715, SP 99/61, f. 49; letter dated 28 September 1716, SP 99/61, f. 235.

53 Sands, 113.

54 Schafer, Robert G., ‘Mrs. Tofts Goes Abroad’, Huntington Library Quarterly, 25 (1961–2), 69–70CrossRefGoogle Scholar .

55 Defoe, Daniel, The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders, &c. (London, 1721), 70Google Scholar .

56 Sasse, Konrad, ‘Opera Register from 1712 to 1734 (Colman-Register), Händel Jahr-Buch, 5 (1959), 202Google Scholar .

57 Memoirs of Europe, II, 317.

58 Two editions of Camilla were published in 1709, one solely in English and one with Italian words opposite the English words for the roles taken by Nicolini, Valentini and the Baroness.

59 Köster includes a facsimile of this copy.

60 See Cruickshanks, Eveline, Handley, Stuart and Hayton, D. W., The History of Parliament: The House of Commons 1690–1715, V (Cambridge, 2002), 307–310Google Scholar .

61 Memoirs of Europe, II, 308.

62 In spring 1708 Tofts, L'Epine and Valentini were all paid £7. 10s a performance. See Milhous and Hume, 78.

63 Milhous and Hume, 120–1.

64 Milhous and Hume, 106–7.

65 Daily Courant, 30 March 1709 and later issues.

66 See White, Eric Walter, ‘The Rehearsal of an Opera’, Theatre Notebook, 14 (1960), 79–90Google Scholar .

67 Given in the on-line London Stage for the 1708–9 season, 474–5. (www.personal.psu.edu/users/h/b/hb1/London%20Stage%202001/lond1708.pdf).

68 Daily Courant, 23 May 1709.

69 Daily Courant, 12 and 14–19 February 1709. Mrs Tofts was advertised as performing her own part in Pyrrhus and Demetrius on 8 March (Daily Courant, 7 March).

70 Both lists are reproduced in full in the on-line London Stage for the 1709–10 season, 520, 538 (www.personal.psu.edu/users/h/b/hb1/London%20Stage%202001/lond1709.pdf).

71 Memoirs of Europe, II, 310.

72 Milhous and Hume, 155. In 1705 William Armstrong sent songs from Arsinoe to Thomas Coke, the future Vice Chamberlain (GB-Lbl, Add. MS 69949, f. 5).

73 Cibber, 242–3.

74 Schafer, 69–70.

75 Daily Courant, 25 April 1712. See also the letter from ‘Camilla’ in the Spectator of 29 July 1712.

76 Letters dated 3 June and 14 June 1714 (GB-Lbl, Add. MS 70032, ff. 277–278, 297) and 30 August 1714 (GB-Lbl, Add. MS 70033, f. 90).

77 New Atalantis, II, 50; Memoirs of Europe, I, 299–301.