I am told that in a German concert or opera, they hardly ever
encore a song; that though they may be dying to hear it again, their good breeding usually preserves them against requiring the repetition.
The singer would have conquered an audience of American rowdies by her brave, unflinching tranquillity (for she answered
encore after
encore, and smiled and bowed pleasantly, and sang the best she possibly could, and went bowing off, through all the jeers and hisses, without ever losing countenance or temper:) and surely in any other land than Italy her sex and her helplessness must have been an ample protection to her--she could have needed no other.
There was a great deal more clapping when she finished, and when this was over, as an
encore, she gave a piece which imitated the sea; there were little trills to represent the lapping waves and thundering chords, with the loud pedal down, to suggest a storm.
They actually try to
encore one of her characters -- an old north-country lady; modeled on that honored preceptress in the late Mr.
"Prenez
encore quelquechose, monsieur; une pomme cuite, des biscuits,
encore une tasse de cafe?"
She received another enthusiastic
encore. She reappeared in still less gown and danced.
As I entered the little town, I came upon two of the fishermen's wives interchanging that last word "which never was the last": and it occurred to me, as an experiment with the Magic Watch, to wait till the little scene was over, and then to '
encore' it.
It was about 1710 that the word
encore was introduced at the operatic performances in the Haymarket, and very much objected to by plain- going Englishmen.
He never responded to more than one
encore, which was always "Home, Sweet Home." After that, while the audience clapped and stamped its approval and delight of the dog Caruso, Jacob Henderson would appear on the stage, bowing and smiling in stereotyped gladness and gratefulness, rest his right hand on Michael's shoulders with a play-acted assumption of comradeliness, whereupon both Henderson and Michael would bow ere the final curtain went down.
When the time came, therefore, for the ape to return from the wings in reply to an
encore the trainer directed its attention to the boy who chanced to be the sole occupant of the box in which he sat.
Now it happened that this song, then in the height of the fashion, had been given to the young ladies by a young friend of theirs, whose name was on the title, and Miss Swartz, having concluded the ditty with George's applause (for he remembered that it was a favourite of Amelia's), was hoping for an
encore perhaps, and fiddling with the leaves of the music, when her eye fell upon the title, and she saw "Amelia Sedley" written in the comer.
We want a little something to answer
encores with, anyway."