A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Tofts, Catherine
TOFTS, Mrs. Catherine, 'little inferior, either for her voice or her manner, to the best Italian women,'[1] was the first of English birth who sang Italian Opera in England. A subscription concert was instituted in November 1703 at the Theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields, where Mrs. Tofts sang several songs, both Italian and English.[2] In the following year she continued to sing at the 'Subscription Music.' On January 29, Margherita de l'Epine sang for the first time, at Drury Lane. On the second appearance of this, Tofts's future rival, a disturbance occurred at the Theatre, while she was singing, which 'was suspected[2] to have been created by her emissaries,' a suggestion which she denied in the 'Daily Courant,' Feb. 8, 1704. In the same year she sang and played the part of Pallas in Weldon's 'Judgment of Paris.'
In 1705 came the first attempt to plant Italian, or pseudo-Italian, Opera in England; and to the success of this endeavour Mrs. Tofts and her rival were the chief contributors, the former playing successively the chief parts in Arsinoe,' 'Camilla,' 'Rosamond,' 'Thomyris,' and 'Love's Triumph.' 'Mrs. Tofts,[3] who took her first grounds of musick here in her own country, before the Italian taste had so highly prevailed, was then not an adept in it; yet whatever defect the fashionably skilful might find in her manner, she had, in the general sense of her spectators, charms that few of the most learned singers ever arrive at. The beauty of her fine proportioned figure, and the exquisitely sweet, silver tone of her voice, with that peculiar rapid swiftness of her throat, were perfections not to be imitated by art or labour.' At a very early stage of her short but brilliant career, she drew a salary of £500,[4] higher than that which was paid to any other member of the company,—a sure test of the estimation in which she was held by the management and the public: at the same time, Valentini and de l'Epine only drew £400 apiece, and the Baroness, £200. At another time, this salary was commuted[4] into a share in the profits of the theatre. Again, we find her offering to sing for 20 guineas a night, or 'in consideration the year is so far advanced' for 400 guineas till the 1st of July, provided she was allowed to sing in another play, to be produced elsewhere, if not on an opera night. These were high terms in 1708. She sang also at the concerts at Court. Meanwhile, she was no stranger to the quarrels and disputes which seem to have prevailed at the Opera then as in later times. There was a warm correspondence[4] about a bill of 80 guineas, for Camilla's dress, which Rich declined to pay; but Camilla refused to appear in 'Thomyris' till it was paid; and Rich then compromised the matter. She further demanded[4] an allowance for 'locks for hair, Jewells, ribbons, muslin for vails, gloves, shoes, washing of vails, etc.,' for which she modestly affirmed that '£100 was not sufficient for the season.'
Were it not that similar complaints and demands were common from other singers, there would seem to be here some foundation for the charge brought against Mrs. Tofts in the epigram, attributed to Pope:—
So bright is thy beauty, so charming thy gone?,
As had drawn both the beasts and their Orpheus along;
But such is thy avarice, and such is thy pride,
That the beasts must have starved, and the poet have died!
She must however have had a great passion for money, and a great disregard of the means of raising it, if Lady Wentworth's contemporary account may be trusted. 'Mrs. Taufs,' says that delightful writer and most eccentric speller, 'was on Sunday last at the Duke of Somerset's, where there were about thirty gentlemen, and every kiss was one guinea; some took three, others four, others five at that rate, but none less than one.'[5]
This unfortunate singer, the first English-woman distinguished in Italian Opera, lost her reason early in 1709. In a most ungenerous vein Steele alludes to her affliction,[6] and attributes it to the habit she had acquired of regarding herself as really a queen, as she appeared on the stage, a habit from which she could not free herself. Burney supposes that this was an exaggeration, by means of which the writer intended only to 'throw a ridicule on opera quarrels in general, and on her particular disputes at that time with the Margarita or other female singers.' Hawkins says that she was cured, temporarily at least, and 'in the meridian of her beauty, and possessed of a large sum of money, which she had acquired by singing, quitted the stage (1709), and was married to Mr. Joseph Smith, afterwards English consul at Venice. Here she lived in great state and magnificence, with her husband, for a time; but her disorder returning' (which, if true, upsets Burney's theory), 'she dwelt sequestered from the world in a remote part of the house, and had a large garden to range in, in which she would frequently walk, singing and giving way to that innocent frenzy which had seized her in the earlier part of her life.' She was still living about the year 1735.[7]
Her voice did not exceed in compass[8] that of an ordinary soprano, and her execution, as shown by the printed airs which she sang, 'chiefly consisted in such passages as are comprised in the shake, as indeed did that of most other singers at this time.' It may be observed, however, that all singers 'at this time' added a good deal to that which was 'set down for them' to execute; and probably she did so too.
It is somewhat strange that, of a singer so much admired as Mrs. Tofts undoubtedly was, no portrait should be known to exist, either painted or engraved.