Editing Sarah Bernhardt (section)

===Triumph in London and departure from the Comédie Française (1879–1880)===
[[File:§§Bernhardt, Sarah (1844-1923) par Jules Bastien-Lepage (1848-1884) - 1879.jpg|thumb|Sarah Bernhardt in 1879, by [[Jules Bastien-Lepage]]]]
Bernhardt was earning a substantial amount at the theatre, but her expenses were even greater. By this time she had eight servants, and she built her first house, an imposing mansion on rue Fortuny, not far from the [[Parc Monceau]]. She looked for additional ways to earn money. In June 1879, while the theatre of the Comédie Française in Paris was being remodeled, Perrin took the company on tour to London. Shortly before the tour began, a British theatre [[impresario]] named Edward Jarrett traveled to Paris and proposed that she give private performances in the homes of wealthy Londoners; the fee she would receive for each performance was greater than her monthly salary with the Comédie.{{Sfn|Skinner|1967|page=118}} When Perrin read in the press about the private performances, he was furious. Furthermore, the Gaiety Theatre in London demanded that Bernhardt star in the opening performance, contrary to the traditions of Comédie Française, where roles were assigned by seniority, and the idea of stardom was scorned. When Perrin protested, saying that Bernhardt was only 10th or 11th in seniority, the Gaiety manager threatened to cancel the performance; Perrin had to give in. He scheduled Bernhardt to perform one act of ''Phèdre'' on the opening night, between two traditional French comedies, ''Le Misanthrope'' and ''Les Précieuses''.{{Sfn|Skinner|1967|pages=118–20}}

[[File:Sarah Bernhardt Vanity Fair.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Portrait of Bernhardt in the London magazine ''[[Vanity Fair (British magazine)|Vanity Fair]]'', 5 July 1879]]
On 4 June 1879, just before the opening curtain of her premiere in ''Phèdre,'' she suffered an attack of stage fright. She wrote later that she also pitched her voice too high, and was unable to lower it.{{Sfn|Bernhardt|2000|pages=351–353}} Nonetheless, the performance was a triumph. Though a majority of the audience could not understand Racine's classical French, she captivated them with her voice and gestures; one member of the audience, Sir George Arthur, wrote that "she set every nerve and fibre in their bodies throbbing and held them spellbound."{{Sfn|Skinner|1967|page=128}} In addition to her performances of ''Zaïre'', ''Phèdre'', ''Hernani'', and other plays with her troupe, she gave the private recitals in the homes of British aristocrats arranged by Jarrett, who also arranged an exhibition of her sculptures and paintings in [[Piccadilly]], which was attended by both the [[Edward VII of the United Kingdom|Prince of Wales]] and Prime Minister [[William Ewart Gladstone|Gladstone]]. While in London, she added to her personal menagerie of animals. In London, she purchased three dogs, a parrot, and a monkey, and made a side trip to Liverpool, where she purchased a cheetah, a parrot, and a wolfhound and received a gift of six chameleons, which she kept in her rented house on Chester Square, and then took back to Paris.{{Sfn|Skinner|1967|pages=130–133}}

Back in Paris, she was increasingly discontented with Perrin and the management of the Comédie Française. He insisted that she perform the lead in the play ''L'Aventurière'' by [[Emile Augier]], a play which she thought was mediocre. When she rehearsed the play without enthusiasm, and frequently forgot her lines, she was criticised by the playwright. She responded "I know I'm bad, but not as bad as your lines." The play went ahead, but was a failure. She wrote immediately to Perrin "You forced me to play when I was not ready...what I foresaw came to pass...this is my first failure at the Comédie and my last." She sent a resignation letter to Perrin, made copies, and sent them to the major newspapers. Perrin sued her for breach of contract; the court ordered her to pay 100,000 francs plus interest, and she lost her accrued pension of 43,000 francs.{{Sfn|Tierchant|2009|page=144}} She did not settle the debt until 1900. Later, however, when the Comédie Française theatre was nearly destroyed by fire, she allowed her old troupe to use her own theatre.{{Sfn|Skinner|1967|page=142}}