The Memoirs of Catherine the Great (25 page)

As soon as we returned to the city, we were told that besides the two days per week already devoted to French theater, there would be two other days of masked balls each week. The Grand Duke added another day for concerts in his apartment, and court was usually held on Sunday. We thus prepared for a quite merry and animated winter. One of the masked balls was for the court alone and those whom the Empress deigned to admit; the other was for all the titled people in the city to the rank of colonel and those who served as officers in the guards. Sometimes the entire nobility and the wealthiest merchants were also permitted to come. The court balls did not exceed 150 to 200 people and those that were called public, 800 maskers. In the year 1744, in Moscow, the Empress had enjoyed making all the men appear at the court masquerades in women’s clothing, all the women in men’s clothing, without masks on their faces. It was a day of perfect metamorphosis at court. The men wore large hoop skirts with women’s coats and were coiffed like the ladies were every day at court, and the women were in men’s outfits like those worn on court days. The men did not much like these days of metamorphosis. Most were in the worst possible humor because they felt that they were hideous in their costumes. Most of the women resembled stunted little boys, and the eldest had fat, short legs that hardly flattered them. No women looked truly and perfectly good in men’s clothing except the Empress herself; since she was very tall and had a somewhat powerful build, men’s clothes suited her marvelously. She had more beautiful legs than I have ever seen on any man and admirably proportioned feet. She danced perfectly and had a particular grace in all that she did, whether dressed as a man or a woman. One would have liked to gaze only at her, and one turned away only with regret because no other object could replace her. One day at one of these balls, I watched her dance a minuet. When she finished, she came over to me. I took the liberty of saying to her that it was very fortunate for the ladies that she was not a man and that her portrait alone, painted in this guise, could turn the head of more than one woman. She received my heartfelt effusion very well and replied to me in the same tone and in the most gracious possible way, saying that if she were a man she would give me the golden apple. I bent over to kiss her hand for such an unexpected compliment; she kissed me, and the entire company sought to discover what had passed between the Empress and me. I did not keep it a secret from Madame Choglokova, who quietly repeated it to two or three people, and within a quarter hour almost everyone knew it by word of mouth.

During the court’s most recent stay in Moscow, Prince Iusupov, senator and head of the cadet corps, had been the commander in chief of the city of St. Petersburg, where he had stayed in the court’s absence. For his amusement and that of the important persons who were there with him, he had had the cadets alternately perform the best Russian tragedies, by Sumarokov, and the best French ones, by Voltaire. These latter were as poorly spoken as performed by these youths, and the female roles were also taken by cadets, who in general deformed these plays. Upon her return from Moscow, the Empress ordered that Sumarokov’s plays be performed at the court by this troupe of young men. The Empress took pleasure in watching these performances, and soon people seemed to notice that she watched them performed with a greater interest than one might have expected. The theater, which was set up in one of the halls of the palace, was transported into her apartment. She took pleasure in dressing the actors. She had superb costumes made for them, and they were completely covered in Her Imperial Majesty’s jewels. Above all we noticed that the leading man, who was a rather handsome boy of eighteen or nineteen, was, as one might expect, the most adorned. Outside the theater, he was seen wearing very exquisite diamond buckles, rings, watches, lace, and linen. Eventually he left the cadet corps, and the Grand Master of the Hunt Count Razumovsky, former favorite of the Empress, immediately took him as his adjutant, which gave the former cadet the rank of Captain. At this the courtiers drew conclusions in their usual way and figured that since Count Razumovsky had taken cadet Beketov for his adjutant, this could have no other motive than to counterbalance the favor shown Monsieur Shuvalov, gentleman of the bedchamber, who was known to be neither on good terms nor allied with the Razumovsky family, and finally there was speculation that this young man was beginning to enjoy very great favor with the Empress. Moreover, it was also known that Count Razumovsky had placed in his new adjutant’s service another orderly of his, Ivan Perfilievich Elagin. He was married to the Empress’s former lady-in-waiting, who had taken care to furnish the young man with the aforementioned linen and lace, and as she was hardly rich, it was easy to imagine that the money for these expenses did not come from this woman’s purse.

No one was more intrigued by this young man’s growing favor than Princess Gagarina, my maid of honor, who was no longer young and sought to find herself a match to her liking.
⁸⁴
She had her own fortune, was not pretty, but had great intelligence and cunning. This was the second time that she had set her heart on the very person who would later enjoy the Empress’s favor: the first was Monsieur Shuvalov; the second, this same Beketov, whom I have just discussed. Many young and pretty women were linked to Princess Gagarina; moreover, she had a very large extended family. They accused Monsieur Shuvalov of being the secret reason that the Empress continually had Princess Gagarina reprimanded for her finery, and that she had forbidden her and many other young ladies from wearing now one chiffon and now another. Hating this treatment, Princess Gagarina and all the youngest, prettiest women of the court spoke badly of Monsieur Shuvalov, whom they all began to detest, though they had greatly loved him up until then. He thought to mollify them by paying them his respects and having his most faithful servants make gallant remarks on his behalf, which they regarded as a new offense. He was repulsed and badly received everywhere. All these women fled him like the plague.

While this was going on, the Grand Duke gave me a little English water spaniel that I had wanted. There was a stoker assigned to my room named Ivan Ushakov, who took care of the spaniel. The other servants decided, I know not how, to call my water spaniel Ivan Ivanovich, after this man. Left alone, this spaniel was a nice animal. He walked on his hind legs like a person most of the time and was incredibly frisky—I and my ladies did his hair and dressed him every day in a new way, and the more we dressed him up, the crazier he became. He would sit at the table with us. We would give him a napkin and he would eat very properly from his plate. Then he turned his head and asked to drink by yapping to whoever was behind him. Sometimes he climbed onto the table to take whatever he fancied, like a meat patty or a cookie or something of the sort, which made the company laugh. As he was small, he inconvenienced no one, and we left him alone because he did not abuse the liberty that he enjoyed and he kept himself perfectly clean. This spaniel amused us the whole winter, and the following summer he was taken to Oranienbaum, where Chamberlain Saltykov the younger had come with his wife, who with all the ladies of our court did nothing all day but sew and fashion the hair and the outfits for my spaniel, over which they fought. Eventually Madame Saltykova developed such an affection for the dog that it grew particularly attached to her, and when she left, the dog no longer wanted to leave her nor she the dog, and she begged me so much to let the dog go with her that I gave it to her. She took it under her arm and accompanied by the spaniel, left directly for the estate of her mother-in-law, who was then ill. Seeing her arrive with the dog and perform a thousand silly antics with him, the mother-in-law wanted to know the dog’s name, and hearing that it was Ivan Ivanovich, she could not hide her astonishment from the various people who had come to see her from the court at Peterhof. They returned to the court, and after three or four days, the city and the court were buzzing with the tale that all the young women, who were enemies of Monsieur Shuvalov, had a white spaniel named Ivan Ivanovich to deride the Empress’s favorite and that they made these spaniels perform all kinds of antics, and wear the bright colors that Shuvalov liked to dress in. The matter went so far that the Empress had the young ladies’ parents told that she found it impertinent for them to permit such things. The spaniel’s name was immediately changed, but he was fawned over as before and stayed in the Saltykov’s house, cherished until his death by his masters, despite the imperial reprimand over him. In fact this was slander, and there was only this one dog, who moreover was black, given this name, and we had not thought of Monsieur Shuvalov in naming him. As for Madame Choglokova, who did not like the Shuvalovs, she had pretended not to notice the dog’s name, though she heard it constantly and herself had given many meat patties to the dog, and had laughed at its antics and tricks.

During the last months of that winter and the frequent masquerades and balls at the court, we again saw my two former gentlemen of the bedchamber, Alexander Villebois and Count Zakhar Chernyshev, who had been made colonels in the army. As they were sincerely devoted to me, I was very content to see them again and consequently I received them. For their part, they did not miss a single occasion to give me signs of their affectionate feelings. At that time, I loved to dance. At public balls I usually changed costume three times. My jewelry was always very fine, and if the costume I wore attracted everyone’s praise, I was sure never to wear it again, because I had a rule that if it had made a big impression once, it could only make a smaller one the next time. On the other hand, at court balls that the public did not attend, I dressed as simply as I could, and so I paid my respects to the Empress, who did not much like anyone to appear overdressed. However, when the ladies were ordered to come in men’s clothes, I came in superb outfits that were meticulously embroidered or gorgeously refined, and this passed without criticism. On the contrary, this pleased the Empress, and I do not really know why. It must be admitted that at that time the cultivation of coquetry was an important part of court life, and there was competition to see whose finery would be the most elegant. I remember that one day at one of these public masquerades, after learning that everyone was having the most beautiful new outfits made, and despairing of surpassing the other women, I decided to put on a bodice of white
gros de tours
and a skirt of the same material over a very small hoop (at the time I had a very thin waist). I had my hair arranged as best I could in front; in back, I had my hair, which was long, very thick, and quite beautiful, curled, and I had it tied with a white ribbon in a ponytail. I had a single rose whose bud and leaves perfectly resembled the real thing placed in my hair. I attached another to my bodice. I put a ruff of very white gauze around my neck, put on cuffs and a little apron of the same gauze, and I went to the ball. As I entered, I clearly saw that all eyes were fixed on me. Without stopping, I crossed the gallery and went into the facing apartment. I met the Empress, who said to me, “Good God, what modesty. What, not even a beauty spot!” I began to laugh and replied that it was for simplicity’s sake. She pulled her box of beauty spots from her pocket and chose one of medium size, which she applied to my face. Upon leaving her, I went very quickly into the gallery, where I showed my beauty spot to my intimates. I did the same with the Empress’s favorite ladies, and as I was in high spirits, that evening I danced more than usual. In my life, I do not recall having had so much praise from everyone as on that day. They said that I was very beautiful and particularly radiant. To tell the truth, I have never believed myself to be extremely beautiful, but I knew how to please and I think that this was my forte. I returned to the house very happy with my simple invention, whereas all the other outfits were exceptionally fancy. It was with such entertainments that 1750 ended. Madame d’Arnim danced better than she rode. I remember that one day, when she and I wanted to see who would tire sooner, it turned out to be her, and seated on a chair, she confessed that she could no longer go on, whereas I was still dancing.

Grand Duchess Ekaterina Alekseevna (the future Catherine the Great)
wearing the Order of St. Catherine (1745).
GEORG CHRISTOPH GROOTH