Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1885-05-20
Rachel.

In his clever and brilliant volume
entitled "Rachel ct Ia Tragedie," Jules
I Janin describes meeting between HIM
self and the great tragic actress IN 1896,
when she was plain, Insignificant
child of sixteen, and he was the sue
cessful and all powerful critic of the
Debdts. ''C'est moi que j'etais au
Gymnase, said the future representa-
tive of Phedre. sly etiOns," he an
swered equally ungrammatically. Be
tween this and the year 1858, when AL
phonSe Karr retails with painful min
uteness the ''vente apres deces de Ml'e.
Rachel" lie all the years of triumph
and all the years Of disappointment sue
cess and suffering through which the
great actress passed. Although not
quite subscribing to the accuracy of NJ
jams statement with regard to her
want of education and grammar there
is no doubt that Rachel is one of the
most remarkable instances of natural
genius on record. She might, like
Pasta, to the observation ''Vous aveZ
du beaucoup etudier Pantique' have
replied: "Je Pal beaucoup sent"
1t was this innate dramatic appre-
hensiOn that, while as yet the names of
Tancred, Helen, Hermione or Pyrrhns
presented only vague symbols to the
mind, induced her to lie awake at night
in the wretched garret occupied in COM
mon with her sisters Studying the state
" verses of Racine. 1t was this vehe-
menee of appreciation and intellectual
power that enabled her To change the
voice that was pronounced grating and
diSagreeable by her first master, ChOron
into the most flexible, penetrating and
passionate dramatic organ ever heard.
II WAS his absorbing earnestneSS that
endowed her with energy when the time
came to throw off the shabby garments
she had worn as a girl and don the dIs-
dems, the draperies, the sandals of an
tiquity, wearing them with incCmpara-
ble grace and dignity. Victor Hugo
and BalZac, representatives of the ro-
mantle school, were all-powerful when
this child, unaided and alone, stepped
forward, and endeavored to obtain a
hearing for Corneille and Racine. DOna
Sol had been played by Mile. Mars;
Dorvalhad appeared in Marion D.lor-
me: Frederic Lemaitre had been de-
lighting every one in Ruy Bias. How
was it possible to induce the public to
listen to poets who, almost two centu-
aries before, had recounted the TRACE
dies and greatness of ancient Greece
and Rome1
1t is said that the memory of the
first friendship they have formed, or
of the first woman they have loved,
dies out from the hearts of men, but
that they never forget the first great
actor or actress they have seen.
Whether this be true or not, the theatrer
even when by the passage of the years,
we have become ratiOnalists and unro-
mantle, has shortened many dull
hour, and exercised many sad thought
recreating and stimulating our jaded
spirits. Do We not owe debt of graf
ltude, then to those who have sung to
us or played to us, and ought We not
constantly and faithfully TO endeavor
to clear their memories from the accu-
sations cast at them bya carping crowd?
Above all, Frenchmen owe debt of
gratitude to her of whom we write.
In her frail, weak person this young
girl embodied what their poets had con-
ceived. She was the transformation
into active force of all the tragedy and
pathos, the love and sorrow that had
laid dormant in mems hearts and brains.
she became the mouth-piece of the
ayes that had passed when she recited
Corneille and Racine the mout-piece
OF the ages to come when wrapped in
their tricolor flag she chanted Marsel-
laise. "One felt In the air, says Nine.
Louise Collett to Beranger, like
mighty breath of hope, that bore along
with it all useful desires" That beau
tiful apparition, pale, menacIDg, was
no longer a woman she was the God
dess Of Liberty calling on her country
men to arm.