should call chanting. Le Kain, who was formed by Voltaire's instructions, and who shone in his tragedies, did not, however, chant quite so much as his master. Talma chanted less than Le Kain; yet he was not quite free from a certain degree of formality. He excelled in the delivery of half-lines or broken verses, as for example, the qu'en dis-tu? in Lafosse's tragedy of "Manlius." Still, however, when Talma had to recite about twenty verses in succession, he often chanted as much as Le Kain. Talma's death will, perhaps, entirely banish this style of recitation from the French stage. Our tragic declamation partakes greatly of that affectation of dignity which Macready assumes in the character of Virginius; but it will gradually approximate to the style of Kean in Othello. All our tragedians will, by turns, try Talma's parts, but probably none of them will rise above mediocrity. The fact is, that the taste of the French public now demands simplicity, and our present race of tragic actors are even more formal than Talma. They have not sense to perceive that the Charter which Louis XVIII. was forced to grant us in 1814 has had its effect on our manners. Charles X. is much more simple than Louis XVI. was. And the Dauphin, when he ascends the throne under the title of Louis XIX. will be as simple and natural in his manners as any well-bred private gentleman. The Dauphin has never seen any of that affectation, which in the reign of Louis XV. was styled at Versailles dignity of manner ! A nobleman of the court of Charles X. would be laughed at were he to assume the haughty manners of even the most plain and unaffected courtier of the reign of Louis XVI.

In France we have no establishments like your Universities of Oxford and Cambridge for the education of the youth of the aristocracy exclusively; and Talma's two sons were brought up at a school kept by a M. Morion, who had, among his pupils, the children of some of the first families in France. Here Talma's sons continued until about two years ago, when, at a distribution of prizes, the Bishop of Hermopolis (Frayssinous) publicly insulted them, because they were the children of a player excommunicated by the Gallican Church! This insolence was condemned even by the aristocracy of the Faubourg St. Germain; and in the opinion of many prudent and pious persons, it sufficiently justified the desire expressed by Talma to be conveyed straight to Père La Chaise. The son of a duke, and the son of that duke's agent, receive precisely the same education in a Parisian school; and if the agent's son be more clever than the duke's son, he gains the prize. The lads at these establishments are continually jesting with each other upon the titles which some of their parents possess. The Duke de Chartres, son of the Duke d'Orleans, who will perhaps one day be King of France, was educated in a Lycée, and he used to beat his schoolfellows when they called him Monseigneur.

You will see from what I have just stated, that with us stilted tragedy is. dead with Talma. He mounted the tragic stilts in 1800, because he had to perform to people educated under the old regime. The taste of a theatrical audience of that time can only be well understood by a man, who being born in 1773, would have been twenty years of age in 1793, and would consequently have had the opportunity of observing the manners which the emigrants took with them to London, and brought back with them on their return to Paris. But this man would now be fifty-four years old; and how few people of that age are to be found among a theatrical audience! You see, when one dives a little below the surface, the character of a people explains every thing. The same circumstances which preclude the possibility of a revival of that style of tragic acting which has expired with our great Roscius, render the restoration of the old aristocratic feeling equally impossible. The son of the poor Procureur, who, when at college, has perhaps thrashed the son of a Duke or a Peer, will not be very ready to show him respect when, after they have both quitted college, the Procureur on his way to the Palais de Justice may meet the Peer of France going to give his vote in the Chambre des Pairs.

all measure.

Talma was the son of a dentist, and he himself followed that business in early youth. Throughout the whole of his life he was even more distinguished for goodness of heart than for talent. For his premature reputation he was indebted principally to Madame de Staël, who extolled him beyond Through the puffing of that celebrated woman, he acquired in the year 1804 that reputation which he did not really deserve until 1812. Talma possessed talent without wit, and a considerable share of haughtiness involved him in continual disputes with his theatrical comrades. Le Kain attempted a reform in dramatic costume. Before his time the Emperor Augustus used to be represented in red stockings and a wig of Louis XIV.'s reign. Le Kain ventured to perform the character in an embroidered robe. But Talma was the first who appeared with unpowdered hair, and a toga without embroidery. When the celebrated Mademoiselle Coutat saw him for the first time dressed for Brutus in Voltaire's tragedy, she exclaimed, "He looks like a statue;" a remark which the fair actress intended as a bitter sarcasm.

The collectors of anecdotes have published very exaggerated accounts of Talma's intimacy with Bonaparte, which commenced in 1795. Talma never lent any thing but books to the young general, who was soon destined to immortalize himself in the campaigns of Italy, and who was at that time passionately enamoured of Madame de Beauharnais, whom he shortly afterwards married. Bonaparte, even after he became Emperor, kept up his friendly intercourse with Talma. He was fond of talking familiarly with men of talent, for he felt his own powers, and liked to show them off. He wished every one with whom he conversed to speak his mind out freely, and not to be restrained by any feeling of respect towards him. In 1802, when he became First Consul, he used frequently to pass whole nights in discoursing with Talma on tragic acting. An observation which he made on one of these occasions, is particularly curious, because it may perhaps be regarded as a proof of the profound finesse which he practised about the year 1802, in order to conceal his ambitious projects, and to avoid giving offence to the Jacobins, who were then very powerful. Talma performed before the First Consul the part of Cæsar in Corneille's "Death of Pompey," in which he had to deliver the following line :

"Pour moi qui tient le trône égal à l'infamie."

At the close of the play Bonaparte desired Talma to come and see him on the following morning. Talma accordingly repaired to the Tuileries, and the First Consul having dismissed the Generals who were with him, thus addressed the great actor:-" From your performance of Cæsar last night, it appeared to me that in one point you misunderstood the part. You had too great an air of sincerity in delivering the words :

'Pour moi qui tient le trône égal à l'infamie.'

Here Cæsar by no means expresses his real feelings. He says this because he wishes to persuade the Romans that he holds the throne in detestation.'" What renders this anecdote the more curious is, that in 1802 Bonaparte was playing precisely the same part as Cæsar. Talma profited by the criticism of the First Consul, who said when he saw him: "That was wellit was like Cæsar."

It will be recollected that about the year 1808 Napoleon assembled nearly all the Continental sovereigns at Erfurt. Talma having solicited permission to go thither, the Emperor replied :-" By all means. Go, and you shall play before a whole pit full of kings."

During Napoleon's stay at Erfurt, wishing to enjoy a jest at the expense of his fellow-sovereigns, he desired Talma to perform in Voltaire's "Death of Cæsar," a tragedy which was strictly prohibited in Paris. The piece is full of violent attacks upon royalty; and during the performance Napoleon very much enjoyed the embarrassment of the sovereigns, who found themselves, as it were, openly insulted. Talma himself was somewhat embar

rassed, and frequently seemed to hesitate in the delivery of some furious republican sentiment.

One day, in the year 1808, Napoleon was conversing with Talma at the Tuileries, while several royal personages were waiting for their turns to speak with the Emperor. Talma, observing this, wished to withdraw, but Napoleon detained him, saying, "No, no; let them wait; let them wait." During this conversation, which Talma related to me himself, the Emperor recommended him, above all things to let his acting be as simple as possible.* "You see in this palace," said he, "kings who have come to solicit the restoration of their states; great captains who have come to ask me for crowns. Ambition and other violent passions agitate all around me. Here I behold men offering to serve those whom they hate. Young princesses intreating me to restore them to the lovers from whom I have separated them. Are not these tragic characters ? And I am perhaps the most tragical of all. Yet you do not find that we continually strain our voices, and make violent gestures. We are calm, except at those times when we are agitated by passion; and those moments are always of short duration. A man's natural strength would not enable him to continue in such a state of excitation for two hours in succession: and besides, when a man is under the impulse of violent passion, he has less strength than usual."

Talma used to relate his conversations with Napoleon in a style of simplicity, which rendered it impossible to suspect him of misrepresentation. He had no more than that degree of pretension, without which no man can nowa-days succeed in Paris. He was the last of the great men formed by our beneficial Revolution. With what astonishing rapidity they have vanished from the scene of life. Napoleon, Massena, Murat, Davoust, David, Regnault, and Talma, are all numbered with the dead; and some of them have sunk into a premature grave.

Talma had a beautiful country residence at Brunoy, near Paris, where he expended enormous sums of money; and yet he has left only 10,000l. to his two sons. He was very charitable to the poor; and what is rather singular, he gave a great deal to the Catholic priests, who were continually applying to him for money for church repairs and other purposes of a similar kind. Talma spoke English very well, and he frequently read Shakspeare in the original. Before he performed in Ducis' imitation of Hamlet, he read the original play, and he often remarked "This Shakspeare electrifies me." Nature had endowed Talma with a handsome countenance, and a finely proportioned figure. When he performed the part of Orestes in the tragedy of Clytemnestra," about four years ago, nobody would have supposed him to have been more than five and twenty. He never approached so nearly to perfection as in 1821, when he performed Sylla. In this character he presented a striking resemblance to Napoleon.

Talma had no idea of his approaching dissolution. During his long illness the only circumstance which rendered him uneasy, was that his extreme thinness would disable him from personating certain youthful characters, in which he was obliged to have his neck uncovered. Talina's forte was the delineation of terror; for he was but an indifferent representative of love. And yet that passion influenced his whole life. He was beloved by some of the most distinguished women of his time; and even at the period of his death, he is said to have been in love with, and jealous of his last wife.

The judicious advice of Napoleon may be said to have materially assisted Talma in attaining the high eminence which he latterly enjoyed.

HYMEN'S BALL.

HYMEN afforded a ball

On the outside of his Castle;
Some call it Happiness Hall,
Others account it a bástile.
Be that as it may, in a trice
Dancing we had and hilarity;
Hearts that were bound up in ice
Melted to amorous charity-

Beauty look'd smiling on Faith,
Coyness grew into festivity,
Pairs as they whirl'd out of breath,
Waltz'd themselves into captivity.
CHORUS.

Wedlock's a glorious thing,
Blessings be on the beginning o't,
Should your
neck break with the string,
Sweet is at least the spinning o't.

Hallow'd Flirtation's domain,
Eden of Sentimentality,
Oh how thy songs and champagne
Strung the soul's congeniality-

Crowds to the Castle (no more

Single to pine and to pout again) Flock'd-and behind them the door

Was shut that lets nobody out again.

Stunn'd as it slamm'd on them, some
Look'd rather sheepish, I'm vext to say,
But for one face that was glum,
Twenty brighten'd with ecstacy.
CHORUS.

Wedlock's a glorious thing,

Blessings be on the beginning o't, Should your neck break with the string, Sweet is at least the spinning o't.

TO THE

SEVENTEENTH VOLUM E.