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



afterwards rendered so brilliant ; and in which, by hard application 

 and unwearied devotion to its object, he attained the highest excel- 

 lence where excellence is less often attained than in the pursuit of 

 any of its sister handmaids. If the " new actor" on this occasion did 

 not achieve a complete triumph, his debut was, at least, not only 

 successful, but highly encouraging, and giving much of that promise 

 which he afterwards so entirely realized. He followed this up with 

 increasing success by the performance of various other characters, 

 during the two years preceding that revolution which gave a new 

 character to the whole face of Europe. 



Talma, though but an humble associate of the old Comedie Fran- 

 gaise, employed the leisure imposed upon him by the aristocratical 

 routine of theatrical management, in pursuing those studies bearing 

 upon, and connected with, his own particular art. He sedulously 

 applied himself to the study of history, and, encouraged by the 

 example of David, who restored the classic character of the French 

 school of painting, he first began to apply those principles of reform 

 in dramatic costume, which his predecessors had either entirely ne- 

 glected, or had touched with a too gentle hand. To the reform but 

 just commenced by Lekain, Talma, ere he left off his good work, put 

 the finishing stroke, as in England what Garrick began Kemble ge- 

 nerally concluded, and in his own person thoroughly perfected. Talma 

 commenced this course of reform in costume in the early part of the 

 year 1789, on the enactment of the tragedy of Brutus, in which he had 

 to personate a minor character, and in which he appeared habited, for 

 the first time, in the true Roman toga, and in all the strict correctness 

 of the ancient costume ; and, though the character was short, and in 

 itself unimportant, he achieved, in some degree, a triumph over old 

 prejudices and long-established customs, founded as they were on 

 ignorance and error. Talma's noviciate was just completed when 

 Chenier presented his tragedy of Charles IX. to the Comedie Fran- 

 9aise. The part of Charles he, of course, offered to Saintphal, the 

 then leading tragedian ; but he, preferring that of the King of 

 Navarre, the character of Charles was entrusted to Talma. This 

 was on the 4th of November, 1789, upon which occasion this great 

 tragedian laid the corner-stone of his after-reputation and professional 

 fame. The skill he displayed inportraying the weakness, hypocrisy 

 and cruelty, which formed the frightful mixture of Charles's cha- 

 racter the exactness of his costume and, above all, the force and 

 power he gave to the melo-dramatic portion of the character, with 

 no faults but such as were attributable to youth and inexperience, 

 gained him the highest applause, and produced an impression upon 

 the minds of the audience, which was not easily to be effaced. 



The success of Charles IX. was complete. Talma soon gave a 

 fresh proof of the peculiar talent he possessed in seizing upon the 

 style and expression of countenance of the persons he represented, in 

 his personation of J. J. Rousseau, in a little piece, intended to cele- 

 brate the anniversary of the taking of the Bastile. The Baron de 

 Gricum, speaking of Talma, on this occasion, says, " that much as 

 he resembled the portraits we have of Charles IX., he seemed to have 

 carried this peculiar faculty of his art still higher, in the representa- 



