Anne Homan-Mulock Kennard

“ In the year 1842, Rachel went, for the first time, to Belgium. Her stay there only lasted a month—from the 22nd of July to the 29th of August. It was then that the pale, insignificant school-girl from the Rue d'Isabey looked at her, with eager hazel eyes, seeking to read the riddle of her life, and listened to her with a heart throbbing to every heart-throb of the actress; for did not the star of genius shine on her brow also? and, diverse as were their lives, and far apart as lay the paths they each of them trod, had not the same "efflux of sacred essence" descended on them both from above? ”

“ That saving clause, love of kindred and obedient reverence for her parents, is apparent in every letter written to the different members of her family, while the delicately-veiled satire with which she makes fun of those who endeavour to utilise her genius for their own ends, and the warm gratitude with which she refers to those who have really been kind and helpful during her artistic career, speak equally well for her head and heart. ”

“ Mademoiselle Rachel, quite bewildered, says the fatal word "toujours" no matter how. M. Samson thinks he discovers the intonation suggested by father Félix, and becomes indignant.
"You are an ungrateful pupil. You are indebted to me for success, and this is how you behave. I've done with you; adieu!"
Mademoiselle Rachel, dismayed at having offended her professor, without whose assistance she can do nothing, says "toujours" as he wishes. There is no mistaking her this time, and father Félix, in his turn, flies into a passion.
"You unnatural child! you rebellious daughter!" ”

“ Mars and Talma could not endure these journeys far from their beloved Paris. "I am only a rustic Célimène in the provinces," the former used to declare; whilst Talma averred, "I feel like a contraband hero; my royal robes are but a farmer's coat, my sceptre but a black-thorn stick, my imperial crown adorns my bent and unimpassioned head, like an old grey hat fit to scare the birds at fruit-time."
The spirit of wandering was, however, born in Rachel. She never felt the depressing effects of an uncultured audience, and her genius never suffered from the deteriorating effects of acting to them. ”

“ The small side-door, where the child Rachel had knocked so often in vain with her little hand, thin and rigid with hunger and cold, was hardly visible. As she gazed, she must have lived over again all those days of varying sadness and joy, of depression and exultation, which are a portion of every actor's life. Slowly she turned away, bending forward to look at the walls of the theatre where she had awakened the echoes with the voice of Hermione, Camille, and Monime, and where she had made men and women tremble and weep as she chanted the "Marseillaise." ”

“ Under the dictation of none but her own genius, she had as a child selected the heroic masterpieces of the early French tragedians, as the mouth-piece of her genius, and in an age when Romanticism, extravagance, and rhodomontade were at their height, the young priestess stepped forth, and lit the sacred fire on altars grown dim and cold, bringing Frenchmen's hearts back to the worship of what is truest and best in their country's literature. ”

“ The intoxication of applause passes into my blood and burns it up. Do you think, after it is over, it is pleasant to return home prosaically, take my cup of soup, and go to bed, with despair and misery gnawing at my heart? No, I can assure you it is not; but I am obliged to! The public, the world, see the artist, but they forget the woman. ”

“ I will never forget them, nor those mornings consecrated to the dramatic education of my marvellous pupil. I count them among the happiest hours of my life. . . . What quickness of perception, what precision of understanding! Remember that this child knew nothing—that I had to explain the character of the person she was about to represent, and to give her a short historical lecture, as it were, before the lesson in declamation began; but, once she had grasped the subject, she entered at once into the spirit of the rôle. Nothing was slurred over, nothing was left unstudied. ”

“ How happy and proud I am, my dear child, that my influence has been of some avail in keeping you at the Théâtre Français, whose ruin was decreed the day you left it. It is no use; there is but one Rachel; she reigns absolute sovereign, and we must all submit. Remember that your life and your work are part and parcel of the theatre. It would be a matter of eternal regret if you gave up those evenings, that audience entranced by your representation, the discriminating applause, the tender appreciation of poets and critics. He who has once tasted that inebriating draught can never do without it. ”

“ A few days after her first appearance the actress disappeared from the Gymnase, and I, perhaps, was the only person who had remembered her, when suddenly she reappears at the Théâtre Français in the great tragedies of Corneille, Racine, and Voltaire. Now she is listened to, encouraged, applauded. She has found the legitimate development of her precocious dramatic genius. It is nothing short of marvellous, this uneducated child, without art, without preparation of any kind, thus becoming the interpreter of our grand old tragedies! She blows their ashes into a flame by her genius and her energy ”

“ Then comes the most touching scene, the one in which Rachel made her first theatrical success. Geneviève has arrived at Malmaison, weary and footsore. Hope and courage have failed her, and she sinks, half-fainting, in a corner of Josephine's drawing-room. When the Empress, proud and triumphant—for this is the first day of her imperial splendour—enters, she is startled by seeing the poorly clad, tearful peasant girl. In a moment Geneviève is at her feet; and so eloquently and well does she plead her cause, that Josephine induces the Emperor to pardon both Thibaut and Victor. ”

“ At ten o'clock in the evening there was another attack of suffocation, much more prolonged than the last. After an hour's struggle her eyes closed, an extreme pallor overspread her face, that intense suffering had suffused with colour for a moment. Sarah, frightened, called "Rachel!" and implored her sister to answer; but in vain. She felt her heart, her pulse; there was only the slightest flutter perceptible, vibrations of the life that was ebbing away. Rose, her attached and devoted servant, burst into tears and fell on her knees at the foot of her mistress's bed. ”

“ In the whole history of art there is no tragedy sadder than this poor Rachel longing for the tranquil joys of life, but never attaining them, until her very aspiration became a stimulus to restlessness and greed, weeping and complaining that she led other people's lives, and yet staggering on to the bitter end, only borne along at last by the intoxication of applause and the love of gain. ”

“ Mademoiselle Mars exclaimed, turning sharply to him, as if stung to the quick, "surely you will allow her to recruit her strength. Are you afraid she will not grow old soon enough? She grows taller while performing, this young girl." For my own part, though far from ill-disposed to the young actress, I could not summon up such an amount of admiration, and was struck by Mademoiselle Mars' enthusiasm. ”

“ It had come round, in the inscrutable course of history, that Corneille and the old French drama was to make its appeal to America and a spirit the most different to its own. . . . The music ceased; there was a lull. The curtain rose and disclosed a scene in Rome. Two draped figures, like Romans in old pictures, entered and declaimed. They turned to go, but before they left the scene—before the eye was quite ready—as if she had suddenly become visible, without entering, like a ghost—there was Rachel. ”