BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES ON THE LATE F. J. TALMA. 647 



with his presence and his converse the social hearth : but these fond 

 hopes were too soon and too fatally blighted ; for on the 19th October, 

 1826, after having taken an affectionate and affecting leave of a few 

 of his most intimate friends, and, last of all, of his two sons, in un- 

 disturbed tranquillity this amiable man and great artiste breathed 

 his last breath. Thus ended his illustrious career ! . Good in private 

 as he was great in public life, the surest, best testimony of his worth 

 and the estimation in which he was held when living, were the tears 

 of many a mourning friend over his grave : that soul-felt sorrow 

 showing itself more in the looks than in the words of those who had 

 stood by his side on the classic boards, through many a year of his 

 glories and his triumphs, to whom he had ever been ready to lend 

 the aid of his experience and matured judgment when they required 

 it, and whose strong right arm was ever held out to encourage and 

 to assist the timid and the wavering. Not seldom, too, has his advice 

 been influential in deterring those by nature and by education unfit 

 to endure the hard privations too often attendant upon the young 

 actor's early life, from its difficult and uncertain paths. 



Talma, in many points, resembled our own unrivalled Kemble ; 

 like him he was beloved in private, as in public admired ; like him, 

 character gave weight to genius, while genius conferred brilliancy 

 on character ; like him, too, the scholar and the accomplished gen- 

 tleman, he brought in the aid of the sister-arts in reform of the 

 costume, and in bringing out, as it were, in mid- day splendour, the 

 imposing grandeur and bright glories of the classic stage ; and, like 

 him, his name will long be associated in the mind of every lover of 

 the arts, and, indeed, in that of every intelligent being who ever 

 witnessed their labours, or who ever pored, delighted, over the writ- 

 ten testimony of their effect ; their names will, with such, be asso- 

 ciated with the purest and most soul-exalting moments of their lives ; 

 and, however brilliant the galaxy of dramatic talent into which they 

 may find themselves thrown at an after-period, they will still look 

 back with grateful recollection to these polar stars of dramatic 

 grandeur and scenic excellence, and recal to mind, with feelings too 

 deep for utterance, the delights they have afforded them, and the 

 " instruction wherewith they have instructed them," full " many a 

 time and oft," (e e'en from their boyish days." 



The poet, the painter, the sculptor, the musician, all leave some- 

 thing to attest their excellence in their several arts but the ' ' mighty 

 actor " must trust his after-fame to the pen of his biographer ; and 

 fortunate for him shall it be if he meet with one sufficiently generous 

 to feel, and sufficiently skilful to describe, the workings of his master- 

 mind when engaged in depicting, as they rise in rapid succession, 

 the feelings, the passions, the weaknesses, and the strength of 

 humanity ! 



