The reception which is going to be held today at Neuilly at the home
of Comte Robert de Montesquiou, in the "Pavillon des Muses", is predicted
to be something wondrous.
Mme Sarah Bernhardt has returned from Brussels expressly to recite
several beautiful pieces of poetry, with musical settings by M. Francis
Thomé.
Mme Breval is also to be heard there along with M. Reynaldo Hahn, the
exquisite composer.
Through a happy or perhaps intended coincidence, this matinée is taking
place on 30th May, that is to say on the same date as the one given a few
years ago by M. de Montesquiou at Versailles, which has left such a
beautiful memory in the minds of all those who attended.
Mondanités, Le Gaulois, 30 May 1901.
Might Proust have written this? In a letter to Mme de Noailles
[27 May 1901]: "I received from Brussels (where he is with Sarah
Berhardt) (confidential) a letter from Reynaldo Hahn, who tells
me this. He took Le Coeur innombrable away with him, he is
wild about it and read it to Sarah. She was enthusiastic, thinks you are
the greatest of poets, a great genius etc., immediately memorized the
'Offering to Pan' and is going to recite it on Thursday at M. de
Montesquiou's."
The previous reception in Versailles mentioned here was recounted in
Proust's piece Une fête littéraire à
Versailles, Le Gaulois, 31 May 1894.
In the longer reports in Le Gaulois and Le Figaro the next day the
name of Mme Proust is included among the guests, although not Marcel's.
The poem by Mme de Noailles that Sarah Bernhardt recited was L'offrande
à la nature rather than Offrande à Pan.
It was not unusual for Proust to submit small notes to be included in
the newspapers' society columns. There is no proof that this was one of
them but the points above suggest this could be a possibility.
Created 02.08.23