[Ads-l] Request help with French: Quote: An empty carriage drove up to the stage door and Sarah Bernhardt alighted

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

An empty taxi drew up outside 10 Downing Street and Clement Attlee got
out of it.

The statement above is often attributed to Winston Churchill although
Churchill quotation expert Richard M. Langworth labels it apocryphal.
I've been asked to explore this topic, so I've been examining
precursors.

Small and thin individuals have sometimes been targeted with quips
that follow the same template. Here is an instance aimed at the French
actress Sarah Bernhardt.

[ref] 1879 May 31, Buffalo Commercial Advertiser, Table Talk, Quote
Page 2, Column 4, Buffalo, New York. (Newspapers_com)[/ref]

[Begin excerpt]
. . . but only yesterday, says a correspondent, you may read in the
same paper a fragment of conversation as follows: "An empty carriage
stops, and who is it who steps out? Sarah Bernhardt."
[End excerpt]

Perhaps some list member can help me with the French in the following.
I think it may contain a similar joke.

Date: December 14, 1878
Periodical: La Revue Politique et Littéraire
Series 2, Year 8, Number 24
Article: Causerie Littéraire
Start Page 568, Quote Page 569
Publisher: Librairie Germer Baillière, Paris
Database: Google Books Full View

https://books.google.com/books?id=unlQAQAAMAAJ&q=%22voiture+vide%22#v=snippet&

[Begin excerpt]
Oui, elle y est bien montée, en effet, en présence d'un bon public de
badauds dont je faisais partie. J'étais là quand déboucha sur le
Carrousel et s'arrêta devant la foule compacte une voiture vide. Mlle
Sarah Bernhardt en descendit. Ses yeux voilés et noyés nageaient déjà
dans un bain d'azur; une brise légère semblait déjà la soulever
mollement; ses boucles aériennes flottaient; par sa traîne seule elle
tenait à la terre.
[End excerpt]


Garson

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