contained the genuine correspondence between her and her husband before their marriage. She also wrote "Memoirs of Ninon de l'Enclos," the "Morality of Shakespere's Dramas Illustrated," three novels, four comedies, and "Essays addressed to Young Married Women." She died in Ireland, in 1793.
GRIGNAN, FRANCES, COUNTESS DE,
Daughter of the celebrated Madame Sevigné, was born in 1646. In 1669, she married Count Grignan, an officer of high rank at the court of Louis the Fourteenth. Her residence in Provence with her husband, and at a distance from her mother, was the cause of the writing of those excellent letters which passed between the mother and daughter. She had two daughters and one son. Her life owes all its celebrity to the interest excited by the letters of her mother. The death of the Countess de Grignan occurred in 1705.
GRISI, SIGNORA GUILIA,
Was born at Milan on the day of the fete of St. Guilia, 1812. Her father was an officer of engineers, in the service of Napoleon; her aunt was the celebrated singer, Josephine Grassini, and her elder sister was Guidetti Grisi, a mezzo soprano of considerable repute on the Italian stage. The childhood of Guilia gave little promise of the pre-eminence she afterwards attained. She had a quick ear, but was afflicted with a chronic hoarseness which seemed an effectual bar to her advancement in the vocal profession. Her musical education was, however, not neglected; she was much with her sister, whose professional engagements rendered her study and practice almost incessant. It was soon remarked that Guilia could repeat from memory the most difficult passages which she had heard her sister practising; and as she grew up her voice became more clear and flexible, without losing its depth and power. At the age of seventeen, after much study and preparation, she made her debût at the Bologna theatre, at which Guidetti was prima donna, in Rossini's opera of "Zelmira," taking the contralto part, for which she was then fitted, although her voice afterwards developed into a splendid soprano. Her success was such as to induce Signor Lanari, of Florence, to endeavour to secure her for his own theatre, and he succeeded in binding her to serve him exclusively for a term of six years, at a salary much too low for her deserts. After performing for him at Florence, Crivelli, and Milan, where she appeared with Pasta in Bellini's opera of "Norma," she terminated the engagement in a sudden and unexpected manner, by flying into France, which she reached after some strange adventures, and was received by her sister, who was then performing at Paris, and at once engaged as prima donna at the Theatre Italien. Since that period she has shone as one of the brightest stars in the operatic hemisphere.
In April, 1834, she came to London, where her first performance was in the character of Ninette in "La Gazza Ladra." From this time to 1854, when, conjointly with Signor Mario, with whom she had achieved some of her greatest triumphs, she took her farewell of the English stage, she was constantly before the public, adding to the enthusiastic admiration with which she was regarded by every change of character assumed by her, whose impersonifications
