Mid-Victorian Memories

Abstract

Among the more intimate of the Doria sisters’ fellow-students at Leipzig, and the most frequent guests at their mother’s hospitable supper-table there — a highly popular institution among a cosmopolitan flock of young people mostly with appetites too big for their pockets — was the future Sir Arthur Sullivan, as notable then for easy charm of manner, and adaptability to all sorts and conditions of persons and circumstances, as when he became no less welcome a guest at royal tables. It may interest some who only saw him in after years to learn that he was golden-curled in his student days, and this in spite of the strong strain of African blood that became increasingly perceptible with increasing age. He was, in fact, an Octoroon, and was accordingly subjected to inconveniences and annoyances during his visit to the United States which permanently embittered him against Americans and American ways. I never saw much of him, for when my then future wife came home after some years in Italy he had already soared into social planes far above ours. But he never forgot, or at any rate never seemed to forget, the old Leipzig life when reminded of it by one who had also lived it; and in some talks I had with him about my supplying him with a libretto (I quite forget the proposed subject; but that it was essentially un-Gilbertian I need not remember in order to know), I thought I discovered the secret of his charm.

Robert Edward Francillon (1841–1919) was a prolific author who turned out numerous books: poems, tales, novels and stories for children. A Gallery of Gods and Heroes; or, The Kingdom of Jupiter (1892) was often reprinted. Other works that achieved popularity were National Characteristics, and Flora and Fauna of London (1872) and Romantic Stories of the Legal Profession (1883). He was Clara Rogers’s brother-in-law.