inch to her stature. Her mother cuffed her, and thought she wanted more punishing; but the neighbors made other remarks. "Why, your little girl," said they, "grows pretty, where has she got this new dignity and grace ?' One among them at last won her confidence; she told him her precious secret. "Ah," said he, "I know who that little girl isMlle. Dangeville, a pupil of the Théâtre Français. He then told her what the Théâtre Français was, and finally obtained leave to take her to the play. There she saw the tragedy of Comte d'Essex, and Regnard's comedy of Les Folies Amoureuses. During the play, and on her return home to supper, she was as one in a dream, seeing, hearing nothing around her, till at last the words "allez vous coucher, grosse bête," from her mother, sent her to bed. There she went over in her mind all that she had heard, and the next morning she astonished the neighbor who had given her this treat, by repeating correctly a hundred verses of the tragedy and twothirds of the comedy, with imitations of Grandval, Crispin, and Poisson, who had played in the respective pieces. This decided her fate. songstresses of her first engagement. She became a noble, classical actress. Her majestic deportment persuaded her audience that she was tall, though her stature scarce exceeded five feet, and her inward power forced her delicate features to look commanding. The portrait of her at the Théâtre Français, over the staircase which leads to the foyer, gives some idea of the beauty of her blue eyes. Her voice was ringing and powerful, and she studied all its modulations. She was an incessant intellectual worker; a true artist. In her early performances After much opposition, many threats and hard blows from her mother, Clairon was introduced to Déhesse, an actor of some merit, who heard her recite, and brought her out at the age of thirteen at the Théâtre Italien, in 1736, in a comedy of Marivaux. Her talent was remarkable, but she was too young and too small. However, she obtained a provincial engagement, in which she had to play juvenile characters and to sing in comic operas, and dance in ballets. She appeared finally at the Français, in the year 1743, in the character of Phèdre, though with an engagement which obliged her to sing, dance, and play soubrettes, whenever called upon to do so. Clairon's resolute character showed itself in the character she chose for her first appearance the most difficult of any in French tragedy, and one in which Mlle. Dumesnil, then the first actress of the Français, was so admirable, that anything but a total eclipse seemed impossible for a young intruder. Clairon, however, showed talent, no less than determination, and though she was not at once accepted in high tragedy, she had taken the first step announcing a rivality, which she well sustained afterward. It was not long before opinions were divided upon the merits of the two great actresses. Clairon soon spurned at her feet the soubrettes and GOT. her style was declamatory, but at a later period she adopted a more natural elocution, without forfeiting any of her dignity. A high sense of poetry exalted her efforts, and in oratorical passages or in scenes of sublime and scornful passion she was unequaled. Her sense of the capabilities of dramatic art led her to enter with ardor into Le Kain's projects of stage reform, and to attempt some others independently. It appeared to her a great injustice that the professors of an art which interpreted the greatest poets of France to multitudes who otherwise would know nothing of them, which suggested fine thoughts to many, who otherwise might never pause to think, should suffer under the anathema of the Church and forfeit the rights of all other Christian men and women. Clairon's eloquence persuaded a certain lawyer, Huerne de la Motte, to take up the cause for her; and he wrote a book exposing the persecutions of the Church, its injustice to the players, and its ridiculous terror of "Tartuffe." This book was burnt by the public executioner in the court of the Palais Royal, in obedience to a decree of Parliament issued on the 22d April, 1766, and the author of the work was disbarred. Clairon's resentment against the disgrace attached to her profession grew with her greatness. The personal adulation which surrounded her seemed an affront, while the art whereby she had won it was held in contempt. An insult from Royalty finally decided her retreat from the stage. A third-rate comedian, named Dubois, was guilty of perjury in order to evade a debt, and his creditor, in pleading against him, urged that his oath was invalid because he belonged to a profession favorite actor named Bellecour upon the scene to replace Dubois. Le Kain, Clairon, Brizard, Molé, who all had important parts in the play, declined to obey the order, refused to act with Dubois, and left the house. When the hour for performance came, the players were not to be found. The theater was crowded, but the clamor of the spectators could not compel the presence of the absent. A few frightened comedians offered another piece instead, MME. MADELAINE BROHAN. which was infamous in the eye of the law. The Société de la Comédie indignantly paid the debt, and demanded the expulsion of the criminal from their company. It unluckily happened that the of fender had a pretty daughter, who tried the effect of her beauty and her charm upon the Duc de Richelieu in supplicating for the pardon of her father. She obtained an order from the Duke commanding the comedians to play with Dubois. She presented this order to her comrades at the rehearsal of the "Siege of Calais," a popular piece which was to be performed that night. They had brought a and were dismissed with violence. "Les comédiens sont des insolens." "Au cachot les insolens." "A l'Hôpital la Clairon!" vociferated the spectators; and a young colonel of infantry exclaimed in his fury, "Ah! que n'ai-je mon régiment ici!" The four principal performers who had declined to obey the Duc de Richelieu's order were, on the following day, taken to prison. Clairon passed five days in the prison of Fort Evêque, but received permission to spend the rest of the term of detention, one month, at her own house. She was the mark of much sym pathy, and Madame de Savigny, whose husband held an official position in Paris, accompanied her to prison. Voltaire addressed to her a complimentary letter. When the imprisoned comedians at the end of the month reappeared upon the scene they were received with the utmost enthusiasm ; but Le Kain, in disgust, threatened to retire, and Clairon sent in her resignation, and adhered to it; she disappeared in the zenith of her fame. The close of her career was as singular as its opening. The Margrave of Anspach, having in her prosperity been a devoted admirer of this great actress, sought her out in her retirement, and invited her to reside permanently at his court. She was now fifty years old, and he was thirteen years her junior; so that the influential position which she occupied during seventeen years at Anspach might excite envy, but could hardly suggest scandal. She returned to Paris in the year 1790, and died there in 1803, having lived to see strange and terrible events. EFFECTS OF THE REVOLUTION. The great Revolution, which upturned almost every existing institution, did not leave the Comédie Française unscathed. After its removal from the Tuileries to the playhouse now known as L'Odéon, then in 1782 inaugurated as the Théâtre Français, the "Société" enjoyed a period of great prosperity, extending to the year 1789. In 1784 it produced Beaumarchais' brilliant comedy of "Le Mariage de Figaro." The receipts of the house on the first night of representation were 5698 livres 19 sous, a sum not much inferior to the highest on record in our own time at the Théâtre Français. The attrac MME. ARNOULD-PLESSY. tion of the play increased as it went on. It is sometimes cited as a leading cause of democratic agitation in Paris, but it should be regarded as a con MLLE. MARIA FAVART. penetrate, and the great wound throbbed before he touched it. His comedy could only affect an audience well prepared to give to it a special interpretation. The time was out of joint, and the players themselves were to share in the general convulsion. Upon the performance of Chénier's play of "Charles IX." in 1789, vehement discussions arose among the performers concerning the great political questions of the day. The representation of the drama had been attended with tumultuous demonstrations from the contending Conservative and Republican parties, the excited artists carried on the storm behind the curtain, and the company finally split up into two distinct sections. The Republican party, headed by the young tragedian Talma, established itself at the Ancienne Salles des Variétés in the Rue de la Loi, before and now again called Rue de Richelieu; they baptized their theater "Théâtre de la République." This is the actual Théâtre Français. The Royalist section. remained in their old quarters, under the title of "Théâtre de la Nation": to them belongs the honor of the first introduction of oil lamps in lieu of wax candles, and of the first issue of playbills containing the names of the players. Hitherto the programme had only given the titles of the pieces, an arrangement more convenient to the players than to the public, for it not unfrequently happened that when a favorite artist was expected an inferior one appeared, and no positive promise having been made, the disappointed spectators had no breach of contract to complain of; but so many quarrels arose on this account between the comedians and their audiences that honest announcements became at last an evident necessity. When Talma took his departure from the Théâtre de la Nation he left behind him a woman whom he loved. Madame Petit, a charming young widow, née Vanhove, was the chief actress of the Royalist company. She was distinguished by her personal beauty and winning pathos. These lovers went through many vicissitudes before their affection came to its natural conclusion -marriage. In September, 1793, the Théâtre de la Nation was suddenly closed by order of the "Comité de Salut Public"; the actresses of the company were captured in their own houses in the night and conducted as prisoners to Sainte Pélagie, and the actors to the Madelonettes. Collot d'Herbois' proposition was this, that "la tête de la comédie fût guillotinée et le reste déporté ; " the crime attributed to the players being the representation of some pieces of loyal tendency and a scornful emphasis upon the words citoyen and citoyenne, substituted according to order for Monsieur and Madame whenever these titles occurred in the dialogue. The players were, however, gradually released, Madame Petit obtaining her freedom on the condition that she would appear at the Théâtre de la République. Here it was that Robespierre fell in love with her; and ascribing her evident distaste to himself to her partiality for Talma, he put down Talma's name on his list of "condamnés." A tailor who worked both for the actor and the despot warned Talma of his danger, and Madame Petit thought it best to leave Paris. By her departure Robespierre's immediate cause of irritation was removed, and the tragedian gained time. Her enforced retreat was not of long duration. In July, 1794, the downfall of Robespierre enabled her to return to the capital, and not long afterward she was married to Talma, who had, under the new system of easy marriages and loose ties, very comfortably divorced his first wife, a remarkably troublesome woman. The Republican tragedian became eventually the pet actor of Napoleon. The Emperor had a dramatic taste and a personal predilection for Mlle. Georges, which, however, did not make him unjust to the extraordinary grace and charms of Mlle. Mars. But war is damaging to art, and the conquests of Buonaparte brought no gains to the theater. He considered its interests, however, with that attention to detail which distinguished all his acts of legislation; and at Moscow, surrounded by perils, with danger and death in front of him, he dictated the code for the Comédie Française, which, with small alteration, remains in force. at the present day. TALMA. Talma was the son of a French dentist established in London: he was born and educated in Paris, but he spent his vacations in England, and his gloomy temperament was ascribed by his compatriots to his early experience of the London climate. He followed his father's profession for a short time, stealing intervals of leisure to gratify his natural tastes in the study of poetry, ancient history, and costume. He made his first appearance at the Théâtre Francais on the 21st November, 1787. His talent was at once acknowledged, but he did not reach the pinnacle of fame with a sudden bound. He was often severely criticised, and, like most other French actors, he listened to the critics and corrected his faults. He studied articulation most carefully, and finally brought it to extraordinary perfection. The conventional chant and rigid artificial action prevalent in the early days of Racine had now totally disappeared, and Talma followed the great impulse of passion both in action and elocution; but he followed it with the true artistic sense of beauty, and did not by outrageous gesture or slovenly utterance drag his poet down into the stable or the kitchen: the reform in costume begun by Le Kain and Clairon was zealously carried on by Talma, and his noble bearing and fine countenance assisted his efforts in this direction. There is a portrait of him in his old age at the foyer of the Français, the outline of which suggests a recollection of Macready. Talma died at Paris in October, 1826, and was buried at Père la Chaise: a large number of friends and admirers attended his obsequies, and two funeral orations were deliv ered at his grave. The excommunicative decree against comedians was not then annulled, but any priest who had attempted to put it in force on that occasion would have run considerable personal risk; only once more in the reign of Louis XVIII., upon the death of Mlle. Raucourt, a measure of this sort was attempted. She was an actress of no great powers, but she was much esteemed for her personal qualities, and when the church of St. Roch refused admittance to her body, the doors were broken open, and the clergy were menaced by the populace. Finally the corpse was carried with demonstrations of enthusiasm to the cemetery of Père la Chaise, where the funeral ceremony was solemnly performed, and where a monumental bust was afterward erected to mark the tomb. It is satisfactory to reflect that the ecclesiastical decree of 1850 has rendered the recurrence of such scandalous proceedings impossible. MADEMOISELLE MARS. Mlle. Mars, whose grace and finished elo free-free to breathe fresh air and to extend her views beyond the bounds of the antique Drama. His tragedies of Hernani, Le Roi s'amuse, Marion de Lorme, Angelo, Lucrèce Borgia, show the highest qualities of dramatic poetry. They transport the reader or the spectator to the scene of action; they send life into the dead centuries; the spirit of their time is in them and the passion of all humanity. Alfred de Musset's dramatic pieces written in prose, but concentrating in their movement and dialogue MME. JOUASSAIN. cution lent their charm to Molière's comedies under the First Empire, was the leading actress of the Théâtre Francais when that remarkable revolution took place in 1830, under the direction of Victor Hugo, then a young poet, which ended in the triumph of the romantic over the classical school of poetry. Greek rules were cast to the winds, and French poets threw off half their trammels. Shakspeare was enthroned as the divinity of young France. Amidst extraordinary opposition from the classical school in Paris, Victor Hugo brought out his tragedy of Hernani. The result is well known; the poet conquered, and the French Muse was set the very essence of poetry, belong to the romantic school, which may also claim as distinguished disciples Ernest Légouvé, Alexandre Dumas (père), Ponsard, and Augier. MADEMOISELLE RACHEL. From the year 1838 to 1855, Mlle. Rachel's genius as an actress of classical tragedy took almost complete possession of the Théâtre Français. Her origin is well known; the child of a Jew peddler, she roamed the streets in Paris, beating a tambourine and picking up halfpence for her sister, Sarah Félix, who sang pathetic ballads. The kindness of a gentleman, who was touched by Sarah's voice, transported the sisters from their wandering life to the Conservatoire of Music. Rachel Félix, then a little child, subsequently attracted notice by her recitations, and one of the best actors and teachers in Paris, Samson, made her his pupil. It is a mistake to say that the beggar girl, with sudden power, burst into fame as a tragedian. She was carefully educated; and she submitted to some years of training before she first appeared at the Comédie Française on the 12th of August, 1838, in the part of Camille in Les Horaces. Her voice as a girl had |