t Spanish tenor to fill up the gap. She was a
failure, as Pasta had been at first in England, but time was to bring
her a glorious recompense, as it had done to her elder rival. For the
next two years Pasta sang alternately in London and Paris, and her
popularity on the lyric stage exceeded that of any of the contemporary
singers, for Catalini, whose genius turned in another direction, seemed
to care only for the concert room. But some disagreement with Rossini
caused her to leave Paris and spend a year in Italy. During this time
her English reputation stood at its highest point. No one had ever
appeared on the English stage who commanded such exalted artistic
respect and admiration. Ebers tells us, speaking of her last engagement
before going to Italy: "At no period of Pasta's career had she been
more fashionable. She had literally worked her way up to eminence,
and, having attained the height, she stood on it firm and secure; no
performer has owed less to caprice or fashion; her reputation has been
earned, and, what is more, deserved."

On her reappearance in London in 1827 Pasta was engaged for twenty-three
nights at a salary of 3,000 guineas, with a free benefit, which yielded
her 1,500 guineas more. Her opening performance was that of _Desdemona_,
in which Mme. Malibran also appeared during the same season, thus
affording the critics an opportunity for comparison. It was admitted
that the younger diva had the advantage in vocalization and execution,
but that Pasta's conception was incontestably superior, and her reading
of the part characterized by far greater nobility and grandeur. The
novelty of the season was Signor Coccia's opera of "Maria Stuarda,"
in which Pasta created the part of the beautiful Scottish queen. Her
interpretation possessed an "impassioned dignity, with an eloquence of
voice, of look, and of action which defies description and challenges
the severest criticism." It was a piece of acting which great natural
genius, extensive powers of observation, peculiar sensibility of
feeling, and those acquirements of art which are the results of sedulous
study, combined to make perfect. It is said that Mme. Pasta felt this
part so intensely that, when summoned before the audience at the close,
tears could be seen rolling down her cheeks, and her form to tremble
with the scarcely-subsiding swell of agitation.

During a short Dublin engagement the same year the following incident
occurred, showing how passi