BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES ON THE LATE F. J. TALMA. 641 



who had been condemned by his own father, and so entirely had he 

 identified himself with his original, that, gifted as he was, or, it may 

 almost be said, tortured, with that nervous excitability of tempera- 

 ment (without which, however, nothing great in the arts can ever 

 be attained), his feelings, too powerful for his youthful frame, had 

 overcome him in the way we have described and to this constitu- 

 tional conformation, developed by severe study, was it that he 

 afterwards owed his splendid triumphs upon the French stage. 

 When his " school-days" were over, he returned to England, where 

 he did not neglect the opportunities that presented themselves of 

 forming his judgment, and of improving his taste, in all that had 

 relation to his favourite art. John Mounet, formerly manager of the 

 Opera Comique, had endeavoured, without success, to establish a 

 French theatre in London. The fashionable coteries at the west end 

 of the town were much in favour of this scheme, but, by some means 

 or other, it could not be effected, at least to the extent and after the 

 plan contemplated. To make up, in some degree, for this disap- 

 pointment, little French pieces were gotten up at the private houses 

 of several of the nobility, and performed by the younger branches of 

 French families, at that time resident in the English metropolis. 

 Young Talma stood prominently forward on these occasions ; and so 

 successfully did he acquit himself in the parts entrusted to him, 

 that he was earnesly solicited, by several persons of high rank and 

 influence, to make an attempt at the Theatre Royal Drury-lane his 

 acquaintance with, and proficiency in, the English language justify- 

 ing such a trial of his powers and so much weight had these entrea- 

 ties with him, that it was at this time doubtful whether he, who in 

 France equalled, if he did not surpass, Lekain, was not destined to 

 console England, and to wipe away her tears, for the loss of her fa- 

 vourite Garrick ; but the French stage was the destined scene of his 

 triumphs. 



He now, a second time, quitted the shores of England, and, return- 

 ing to Paris, commenced the practice of his father's profession, which 

 he continued to follow for about the space of eighteen months. He 

 had opportunities, during this period, of seeing Mole, Mademoiselle 

 Sainval the younger, and all the distinguished artists at that time on 

 the Parisian stage. Mademoiselle Sainval endeavoured to dissuade 

 him from his intention of becoming an actor, and fortunate may it 

 be accounted for his own fame, and the advancement of the arts in 

 general, but more particularly so of his own especial one, that she 

 did not succeed in her endeavours. The success he met with in his 

 performance of Orestes, in " Iphigenie en Tauride," fixed his, till 

 then, wavering resolves, and determined him thenceforward to 

 embrace the profession of the stage, and to become an actor. With 

 the view of forwarding this, the darling object of his ambition, he 

 entered himself at the school for declamation, established in 1786, 

 and in which Mole, Dugazon, and Fleury were, at that time, pro- 

 fessors. The advice and instructions of these talented artists were 

 not, it may well be inferred, thrown away upon their distinguished 

 pupil, who, under their tuition and guidance, made, on the 21st of 

 November, 1787* his debut, and thus commenced a career, which he 



M. M. No. 102. 4 N 



