MY RECOLLECTIONS
MY RECOLLECTIONS
BY
JULES MASSENET
(1842-1912)
THE AUTHORIZED TRANSLATION DONE AT THE
MASTER'S EXPRESS DESIRE
BY HIS FRIEND
H. VILLIERS BARNETT
Authorized Translator of
H. S. H. the Prince of Monaco's Autobiography:
La Carrière d'un Navigateur
BOSTON
SMALL, MAYNARD & COMPANY
PUBLISHERS
Copyright, 1919,
By SMALL, MAYNARD & COMPANY
(INCORPORATED)
TO
LUCY ARBELL
CONSUMMATE DRAMATIC ARTIST
AND
GREATEST CONTRALTO SINGER
OF OUR TIME
IN AFFECTIONATE ADMIRATION
I DEDICATE
THIS ENGLISH VERSION
OF HER
BELOVED MASTER'S BOOK
"Chère amie, gardez aussi sa réligion, et qu'elle vous conduise, fermeet courageuse, au milieu des cahots de la vie, jusq'au paradis desarts."
FOREWORD
I have been often asked whether I put together the recollections of mylife from notes jotted down from day to day. To tell the truth I did,and this is how I began the habit of doing so regularly.
My mother—a model wife and mother, who taught me the difference betweenright and wrong—said to me on my tenth birthday:
"Here is a diary." (It was one of those long-shaped diaries which onefound in those days at the little Bon Marché, not the immenseenterprise we know now.) "And," she added, "every night before you go tobed, you must write down on the pages of this memento what you haveseen, said, or done during the day. If you have said or done anythingwhich you realize is wrong, you must confess it in writing in thesepages. Perhaps it will make you hesitate to do wrong during the day."
How characteristic of an unusual woman, a woman of upright mind andhonest heart this idea was! By placing the matter of conscience amongthe first of her son's duties, she made Conscience the very basis of hermethods of teaching.
Once when I was alone, in search of some distraction I amused myself byforaging in the cupboards where I found some squares of chocolate. Ibroke off a square and munched it. I have said somewhere that I amgreedy. I don't deny it. Here's another proof.
When evening came and I had to write the account of my day, I admit thatI hesitated a moment about mentioning that delicious square ofchocolate. But my conscience put to the test in this way conquered, andI bravely recorded my dereliction in the diary.
The thought that my mother would read about my misdeed made me rathershamefaced. She came in at that very moment and saw my confusion; butdirectly she knew the cause she clasped me in her arms and said:
"You have acted like an honest man and I forgive you. All the