Sketch from Memoir
of Miss Catherine Hayes (London: Cramer and Co., 1852?)
Americans embraced celebrity culture with open arms in the 1850s. They fixated on an ever-changing lineup of famous and talented women. Newspapers provided them with tidbits about the lives of actress Fanny Kemble, dancer Lola Montez, author Fanny Fern, as well as singers Jenny Lind and Catherine Hayes; all of these women experienced being at the top of the celebrity heap. Fame was frenzied but also fleeting. Even the French noticed how fickle American audiences could be. This article appeared in the Paris literary newspaper Le Constitutionnel on October 4, 1851, and was reprinted in The New York Herald. For more about Lind and Hayes, see the end of this post.
Le Constitutionnel, January 5, 1827.
THE
DUEL BETWEEN A NIGHTINGALE AND A SWAN
All sovereigns are changeable. It is
no more possible to count upon the friendships of the people than upon that of
kings. There is no popularity so well established that, in a single moment,
cannot be changed into disgrace. Who would have believed that Jenny Lind
herself had experienced that truth, and that the American people should show
themselves as inconstant as they were at first idolatrous?
another sees also her enthusiastic admirers besieging her staircase, stifling themselves in her corridor, and run over by the wheels of her carriage
It is so, however; and the truth
cannot be longer concealed. Jenny Lind (who would have believed it?) has a
rival. The nightingale is not more incomparable. She does not reign alone in
American hearts and dollars. Another cantatrice sees also the people running to
her, following her in the streets, overwhelming her with ovations; another sees
also her enthusiastic admirers besieging her staircase, stifling themselves in
her corridor, and run over by the wheels of her carriage. There is the price of
so many roulades, fifteen thousand francs every night, so many concerts at
twenty-five francs per seat, and of so many witty terms in the eulogiums of the
papers of the United States. Who is it possible to trust to now a-days, if the
Yankees are so ungrateful and so changeable?
This new star which arises to the
horizon of the United States, is Miss Catherine Hayes, an Irish lady, who has
sung with some success at the Scala, and at several theatres of Italy, who has
sung for two or three years in London; and upon whom the English critics could
not express an opinion, without immediately receiving from Ireland a thousand
or two challenges. Poor Thackeray narrowly escaped his life, for having, in his
romance of Pendennis, adverted to the trial that took place a century ago, of a
female prisoner called Hayes. An Irish paper denounced him as having
maliciously sought, as a true Saxon, to tarnish the fame of that cantatrice;
and associations of young men in all the cities of Ireland, determined to fight
Thackeray in succession, till the latter had paid with his blood for the insult
he offered to the most melodious of the daughters of Erin.
Such is the lady whom they oppose to
the cantatrice who saw the whole Union bowing at her feet, and already there
are found some persons who think that the name of Hayes is more harmonious than
Lind, and who declare the Christian name of Jenny to be vulgar, and discover a
thousand beauties in that of Catherine. Besides, if Jenny is a nightingale,
Catherine is a swan. Her fellow countrymen have thus baptized her, and that
name will always endure. Why should not the Swedish Nightingale yield the palm
to the Irish Swan? Has not the swan a celebrated reputation amongst the singing
birds?
Jenny Lind. Library of Congress, LC-DIG-pga-05446
It was during the last summer that a
thousand rumors began to circulate in the United States about the Irish Swan.
First, some words were said about her, then they talked at random, then
biographies were published, her portraits were exposed in the stores, and it
was announced that all of them had been sold on the same day. After this, the
swan who was so well advertised, and who had near her a certain Braham, who is
as clever as the Barnum of the Nightingale, caused to be written in the most
babbling paper of New York that the Swan was very desirous to visit the United
States, that she looked at the Americans as the greatest people, and at the
United States as the most beautiful country of the world. This Swan, in her
passion for the United States, sought to be presented to all Americans coming
to London to visit the exhibition, and spoke only to them about Niagara Falls,
the natural bridge of Virginia, the monstrous cavern of Kentucky, the
magnificent bay of New York, the borders and highlands of the North River,
&c. The Swan sang to her ravished hearers, neither “Linda di Chamouni,” nor
the Irish ballads of Crouch, but the “Traveler’s Guide to New York.”
Then the United States were informed
that Miss Hayes was the most intelligent of the artists, and her only defect
was that she had not as much voice as wit. The desire of seeing her was
manifested on every side, the journals made themselves the organs of the
general sentiment, and the joy was universal, when it was known that the Swan,
yielding to the passion which devoured her, had sailed on board of the steamer
Pacific. Like the Nightingale, the Swan gave a concert on board, for the
benefit of the crew. Like Jenny Lind, when she disembarked in the port of New
York, she found an immense crowd, armed with bouquets, and waving
handkerchiefs, hats and umbrellas, and all raising the strongest acclamations.
Like her, she could scarcely gain her carriage, and go to the hotel where an
apartment was prepared for her.
During the day an immense crowd was
standing under the windows of the Swan, who was obliged to appear every ten
minutes on the balcony, to bow, and send kisses with her hand. A serenade was
prepared for the evening, and the friends of the cantatrice in vain represented
that she was tired from the fatigues of her travel, and it would be better to
let her enjoy a little rest. At last, it being remarked, that it was Sunday,
and that it was not well to profane the day of the Lord, the enthusiastic crowd
agreed to give the serenade on the following day.
We need not say that all the
journalists stand sentinels around the Irish singer, to notice all her
movements. Her actions are registered: “she appeared at the office,” “she had
such a toilet,” “she has applauded such actors at such passages,” “she has
hidden under such a bonnet and veil her beautiful eyes,” “her intelligent and
expressive face,” “and her ebony hair.” After the opera, the Swan returned to
her hotel, to be present when the serenade would be given. The serenade was
executed, was as unanimously attended, and as well accompanied as any of those
given to Jenny Lind. It was given by the same Philharmonic Society which had so
many times cheered in Broadway the name of Jenny Lind. That society had learned
Irish melodies, just as a year ago they had studied Swedish airs. And in the
middle of the crowd, escorting the musicians, and applauding with enthusiasm,
and between every piece shouting tremendous hurrahs, it was easy to recognize,
torch in hand, thirty or forty of the same firemen who burnt so much rosin in
honor of the Nightingale. It is true, indeed, these firemen who had constituted
themselves the body guards of Jenny Lind—who had adopted her colors—who were
always ready, night and day, to accompany her and illuminate the city on her
passage, were present without shame or remorse, waving their unfaithful torches
under the windows of the Swan.
The Nightingale is dethroned, long
life to the Swan!
On the day following began the
receptions; numerous persons solicited the honor of being presented, and
proclaimed after their visit that it was the most delightful day of their life.
In spite of the incessant tide of visitors, Miss Hayes found time to go to the
office of the NEW YORK HERALD, which Jenny Lind had also visited. But Miss
Hayes was not only pleased to see the office, the parlor, and the library of
the editorial rooms, she visited also the counting rooms and the printing-office:
she examined the presses, and asked some explanations about their mechanism;
she wanted to pass under and upon the platform of the circular press, in order
to see it working. She desired to see also the presses which print the covers
of the HERALD, and the press for the theatrical posting-bills, and she retired
filled with admiration. On the other hand, the fortunate editor of the HERALD
proclaims that Miss Hayes has a spirit full of wit, elegance and good taste,
full of grace, candor and simplicity, and that she displays in every thing,
wonderful perceptive faculties; he believed also it was but just to consecrate
in her honor three or four columns; and the Nightingale, so much welcomed of
old, obtained not a single line. The Nightingale has danced in a masked ball,
and neither her costume, nor her hair-dress, nor the number of her dances, nor
the names of her cavaliers, have been made known. The Nightingale is dethroned,
long life to the Swan! But let the Swan take care, her turn may come: the list
of the singing birds is not exhausted; Barnum is yet full of life and his purse
full of dollars; and a paper announced that Mme. Sontag will visit the United
States next year.
Jenny Lind, the Swedish Nightingale, toured the
United States from 1850 to 1852. She set records for ticket sales and sparked a
consumer free-for-all with merchants offering hundreds of Jenny Lind items for
sale. Catherine Hayes, the Irish Swan, is less remembered today but also caused
a sensation when she toured America. She visited cities all through the country
from 1851 to 1853.
Thanks for reading! Have a question or comment? Let
me know. Find links to previous posts above to the right.
Further Exploration
“The
Duel Between a Nightingale and a Swan” The
New York Herald Oct. 28, 1851. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030313/1851-10-28/ed-1/seq-2/
Memoir of Miss Catherine Hayes.
London: Cramer and Co., 1852[?]. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo1.ark:/13960/t88g9679p&view=1up&seq=11
Rosenberg, Charles G. Jenny Lind in America. New York: Stringer & Townsend, 1851. https://www.google.com/books/edition/Jenny_Lind_in_America/8_s-AAAAYAAJ?q=&gbpv=1%23f=false
Walsh,
Basil. Catherine Hayes, 1818-1861: The
Hibernian Prima Donna. Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 2000.
Ware,
W. Porter and Thaddeus C. Lockard, Jr. P.T.
Barnum Presents Jenny Lind: The American Tour of the Swedish Nightingale. Baton
Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1980.
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