Page:Rachel (1887 Nina H. Kennard).djvu/179

 "She has played wretchedly! she will destroy the piece!" exclaimed the indignant authoress, in her box; but when face to face with the actress, on whom she knew depended all the future of her piece, the diplomatic woman of the world merely said, "N'importe; with you I shall hope even yet to succeed."

Rachel acted Lady Tartuffe in England. "She was graceful, ladylike, and diabolical," Mr. Lewes tells us; but that the play had no merit beyond what Rachel gave it was made apparent when it was revived at the Comédie Française in 1857. In spite of Madame Plessy's refined and charming talent, it only ran for six nights. Rachel appeared in it thirty-five times.

There is a curious analogy between the story of Adrienne and the story of Rachel. A poor straw-plaiter came from the depths of La Champagne to Paris to make bread to fill his own and his children's mouths. His young daughter watched with eager awe, from the window of their wretched lodging opposite the Théâtre Français, the exits and entrances of the actors and actresses, and at last herself essayed her powers, with some young companions, on an amateur stage at a grocer's shop in the Rue Férou. The rehearsals excited considerable curiosity in the neighbourhood, and were honoured by the presence of several persons of distinction. Above all, the audience were delighted with the talent of the girl Adrienne, who to the most favourable personal gifts united originality, deep feeling, and a voice capable of expressing every gradation of emotion. She soon rose to the top of her profession, and accompanied by her father, who encouraged and cultivated her taste by his judicious advice, she spent some years acting in the country towns of France, finally obtain-