BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES ON THE LATE F. J. TALMA. 645 



the report that Talma had been one among the persecutors of the 

 French actors who had been arrested and thrown into the prisons of 

 the Luxembourg ; Larive and Mademoiselle Contat advocated his 

 cause on this occasion so successfully, as effectually to destroy these 

 unfounded malicious reports, the shame of which reflected back upon 

 their authors. 



The intimacy that took place about this time (1795) between 

 Buonaparte and Talma, gave rise to much absurd rumour ; among 

 others was one, that Napoleon took lessons from the great actor as 

 to his deportment and demeanour on state occasions. Talma let 

 slip no opportunity of contradicting such reports, even after the fall 

 and death of his royal associate, when less generous spirits, who had 

 been raised to wealth and honours on the shoulders of this political 

 colossus, joined in the general cry against him ; but the intimacy 

 that existed between these extraordinary men lived on "through 

 good and through bad report/' On Napoleon's being proclaimed 

 emperor, Talma thought it but fit in him to discontinue his accus- 

 tomed morning visit. Napoleon, observing this, sent for him on the 

 very day upon which the public authorities were to congratulate him 

 on his elevation to the throne ; and he was ever after to be found at 

 the break fast- table of the emperor. In the year 1808, in conjunc- 

 tion with the performers of the Comedie Fran9aise he performed, as 

 Napoleon expressed it, before a parterre of kings. This was at 

 Erfurt. But, to return to the Theatre Fra^ais. Encouraged by 

 his brilliant success, Talma strenuously set about restoring the honours 

 of the ancient classic drama, which had been almost totally laid aside 

 for the works of modern dramatists. He did not, however, escape 

 the critic's lash for what they termed an innovation ; but his ardour 

 and perseverance were not to be daunted by any obstacles, however 

 discouraging, when his end was the attainment of perfection in the 

 mighty art he devotedly loved. He thoroughly understood the sim- 

 plicity of the true drama, aided by the development of the feelings 

 and passions of the human breast, in which the interest must be sus-, 

 tained and kept alive, without any other artificial resources than 

 those derived from the poetry of the author and the eloquence of the 

 actor. An anecdote is related of Talma, which sets in a powerful 

 light the spell in which he held his audience, whom he kept so fast 

 bound in the delusion of the scene, as to make them feel it reality. 

 He was playing Hamlet in one of the provincial theatres : at the 

 moment when he was about to plunge the dagger into the guilty 

 breast of his mother, a piercing cry, instantly followed by a great 

 commotion, was heard issuing from a box near the stage. A veteran 

 officer of tried courage, who had again and again distinguished him- 

 self in the field, had had his nervous system so intensely wrought 

 upon by the powerful acting of Talma, that his frame could no 

 longer sustain itself against the force of its inward workings, and ut- 

 tering a cry, he had fallen in a fainting fit from his seat. He was 

 immediately carried out ; when, after the lapse of some minutes, 

 coming to himself, still under the effects of the nervous excitement 

 of the scene, he anxiously asked if he had really killed his mother ! 

 The writer of this article himself witnessed the power of dramatic 



