Page:A happy half-century and other essays.djvu/61

detail, and such titled actors, that Moore's heart was melted and his head was turned (as any other heart would have been melted, and any other head would have been turned) by the reports thereof. A Grand Duchess of Russia took the part of Lalla Rookh; the Duke of Cumberland was Aurungzebe; and a beautiful young sister of Prince Radzivil enchanted all beholders as the Peri. "Nothing else was talked about in Berlin" (it must have been a limited conversation); the King of Prussia had a set of engravings made of the noble actors in their costumes; and the Crown Prince sent word to Moore that he slept always with a copy of "Lalla Rookh" under his pillow, which was foolish, but flattering. Hardly had the echoes of this royal fete died away, when Spontini brought out in Berlin his opera "The Feast of Roses," and Moore's triumph in Prussia was complete. Byron, infinitely amused at the success of his own good advice, wrote to the happy poet: "Your Berlin drama is an honour unknown since the days of Elkanah Settle, whose 'Empress of Morocco' was presented by the court ladies, which was, as Johnson re-