Free The King in Love: Edward VII's Mistresses by Theo Aronson Page A

Cavendish, 'Sarah Bernhardt, a woman of notorious character. Not content with being run after on the stage, this woman is asked to respectable people's houses to act, and even to luncheon and dinner, and all the world goes. It is an outrageous scandal.' 5
    But it was, of course, as an actress that Sarah Bernhardt should have been judged and here Lillie Langtry, so soon to become an actress herself, showed admirable discernment. 'This great and overwhelming artist was almost too individual, too exotic, to be completely understood or properly estimated
all at once
. Her superb diction, her lovely silken voice, her natural acting, her passionate temperament, her fire – in a word, transcendent genius – caused amazement . . .' Bernhardt's personality was 'so striking, so singular that, to everyday people, she seemed eccentric; she filled the imagination as a great poet might do.' 6
    Sarah's opinion of Lillie was more succinct. 'With that chin,' she snapped after first meeting her, 'she will go far.' 7
    Lillie was being remarkably generous in her assessment of Sarah, for not least among the actress's admirers was the Prince of Wales. In a way, this is surprising. Bertie's taste in women, as in so much else, was conventional. He liked dressy, well-groomed, curvaceous women. So punctilious himself, he disapproved of any sloppiness in dress; with the freedom affected by the so-called 'new women', he had very little sympathy. When Lady Florence Dixie appeared at Ascot in one of her 'rational' garments – a shapeless white boating dress – he icily asked her whether she had, by mistake, come in her nightgown. On the other hand, Bertie admired spirit, and Sarah Bernhardt was certainly spirited. Nor would he have been shocked by her unashamed hedonism.
    The two had met, some years before, in Paris, and on his frequent visits to the French capital, the Prince always made a point of seeing the actress, both on and off stage. He even, on one occasion, appeared on stage with her. During a performance of Sardou's
Fédora
, the irrepressible Bertie doubled as the corpse in the scene in which the distraught heroine weeps over the body of her murdered lover. One can only hope that Queen Victoria did not hear about this unseemly behaviour on the part of the forty-year-old Heir Apparent.
    During this 1879 London season, Bertie seems to have paid the visiting actress a great deal of attention. He not only reserved a box for each of her opening nights in her different roles but let it be known that she was to be received in society. He even entertained her atMarlborough House. After one such visit, Sarah scrawled a note of apology to the doyen of the Comédie Française. 'I've just come back from the P. of W. It is twenty past one. I can't rehearse any more at this hour. The P. has kept me since eleven . . .' 8
    Quite clearly, Bertie was fascinated by the piquant-faced Frenchwoman. Whether or not they became lovers is uncertain. Given their shared sexual appetites and moral attitudes, it is not unlikely. Sarah had a seductive, smouldering quality that the Prince would have found hard to resist, and few women, least of all Sarah Bernhardt, would have turned down the opportunity of sleeping with a future king who also happened to be a man of great charm and considerable amorous expertise.
    What did Lillie Langtry make of all this? She would have realised that the Prince was fascinated by the actress but she would have been far too astute to have mentioned it, let alone to have reproached him for it. She was, in any case, in no position to throw stones. Not only was Lillie carrying on her clandestine affair with Arthur Jones, but her public behaviour was becoming increasingly indiscreet. Daisy, Countess of Warwick, then in her first season, has a story to tell on this score. Daisy was being courted by a young lord whose protestations of undying love she was more than ready to believe until she one night happened to overhear him call Lillie