to his dreadful purpose.

The feelings of a French audience do not permit the spirit of Hamlet's
father to appear on the stage: "L'apparition se passe, (says Madame de
Stael)[3], en entier dans la physionomie de Talma, et certes elle n'en
est pas ainsi moins effrayante. Quand, au milieu d'un entretien calme et
melancolique, tout a coup il apercoit le spectre, on suit tout; ses
mouvemens dans les yeux qui le contemplent, et l'on ne peut douter de la
presence du fantome quand un tel regard l'atteste." The remark is
perfectly just, nothing can be imagined more calculated to dispel at
once the effect which the countenance of a great actor, in such
circumstances, would naturally produce, than bringing any one on the
stage to personate the ghost; and whoever has seen Talma in this part,
will acknowledge that the mind is not disposed to doubt, for an instant,
the existence of that form which no eye but his has seen, and of that
voice which no ear but his has heard. We regretted much, while
witnessing the astonishing powers which Talma displayed in this very
difficult part of the play, that it was impossible to see his genius
employed in giving effect to the character of Aristodemo, (in the
Italian tragedy of that name by Monti), to which his talents alone could
do justice, and which, perhaps, affords more room for the display of the
actor's powers, than any other play with which we are acquainted.

But the soliloquy on death is the part in which the astonishing
excellence and genius of Talma are most strikingly displayed. Whatever
difficulty there may often be to determine the particular manner in
which scenes, with other characters, ought to be performed, there is no
difference of opinion as to the manner in which soliloquies ought in
general to be delivered. How comes it, then, that these are the very
parts in which all feel that the powers of the actors are so much tried,
and in which, for the most part, they principally fail? No one can have
paid any attention to the English stage, without being struck with the
circumstance, that while there may be much to praise in the performance
of the other parts, many of the best actors uniformly fail in
soliloquies; and that it is only of late, since the reputation of the
English stage, has been so splendidly revived, that we have seen these
difficult and interesting parts properly performed. It is in this
circumstance, more than any other, in which the talents of Talma are
most re