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PARTISAN REVIEW
hinder her from using the most dishonorable methods. Her rights
are beyond all question for her, so what difference does it make
how she attains them-especially since in this world, as it seems
to her, the honorable methods are precisely the ones that always
fail.
It
is just for this reason, perhaps, that she has shifted the
struggle for her rights from the field of singing to one not very
dear to her. Her claque has circulated remarks of hers
to
the
effect that she feels quite capable of singing so that it would be a
real pleasure to all classes of the people, including the remotest
sections of her opposition, a real pleasure in the sense meant by
Josephine, not in the sense in which the people have always claimed
to have got pleasure from her singing. But, she added, since she
could not adulterate the sublime and flatter the vulgar, things
would have to remain as they were.
It
is different, however, with
her struggle to be released from work; of course this also involves
her singing, but she does not carry on the fight here directly by
means of the precious weapon of song; any means she employs
are good enough here.
So the rumor was spread, for example, that unless her demand
was granted, Josephine would shorten her coloratura passages. I
had never heard of these coloratura passages, nor have I ever
noticed anything of the sort in her singing. Nevertheless, Josephine
was going to shorten her coloratura passages: not eliminate them
entirely for the time being, but just shorten them. It is said that
she carried out this threat, but I at all events was never struck by
any differences from her previous performances. The people as a
whole went on listening as before, nor was there any change in
their treatment of Josephine's demand. However, it is undeniable
that there is often something as truly graceful about Josephine's
thinking as there is about her figure. For example, after this last
performance, she announced-as if her original decision had been
too harsh or abrupt for the people-that at her next performance
she would restore the coloratura passages in their entirety.
But
after the next concert she again changed her mind; she was defi·
nitely all through now with her full-length coloratura passages,
and they would not be restored again until her demand had re–
ceived a favorable answer. The people listened to all these an·
. nouncements, decisions and changes of decision distractedly, the
way an adult absorbed in his own thoughts listens distractedly to
