lass.
Those who remember Rachel, however, can testify that she breathed the
most ardent life into the frigid remains of Racine and Corneille,
relumed them with Promethean heat, and showed them to be instinct with
the truest and intensest passion--When she occupied the scene, there
could be no thought of the old artificial times of hair powder and
rouge, periwigs and patches, in connection with the characters she
represented. Phedre and Hermione, Pauline and Camille, interpreted by
her genius, became as real and natural, warm and palpitating, as
Constance or Lady Macbeth could have been when played by Mrs. Siddons,
or as Juliet when impersonated by Miss O'Neill. Before Rachel came, it
had been thought that the new romantic drama of MM. Hugo and Dumas,
because of its greater truth to nature, had given the _coup de grace_
to the old classic plays; but the public, at her bidding, turned
gladly from the spasms and the rant of "Angelo" and "Angele," "Antony"
and "Hernani," to the old-world stories, the formal tragedies of the
seventeenth century poet-dramatists of France. The actress fairly
witched her public. There was something of magic in her very presence
upon the scene.

None could fail to be impressed by the aspect of the slight, pallid
woman who seemed to gain height by reason of her slenderness, who
moved toward her audience with such simple natural majesty, who wore
and conducted her fluent classical draperies with such admirable and
perfect grace. It was as though she had lived always so attired in
tunic, peplum, and pallium--had known no other dress--not that she was
of modern times playing at antiquity, she was the muse of Greek
tragedy in person. The physical traditions of her race found
expression or incarnation in her. Her face was of refined Judaical
character--the thin nose slightly curved, the lower lip a trifle full,
but the mouth exquisitely shaped, and the teeth small, white, and
even. The profuse black-brown hair was smoothed and braided from the
broad, low, white, somewhat over-hanging brow, beneath which in shadow
the keen black eyes flashed out their lightnings, or glowed luridly
like coals at a red heat. Her gestures were remarkable for their
dignity and appropriateness; the long, slight arms lent themselves
surprisingly to gracefulness; the beautifully formed hands, with the
thin tapering fingers and the pink filbert nails, seemed always
tremblingly on the alert to add significance or accent to her