XXIX. AN EVENING WITH RACHEL. IT -was the evening of May 29, 1839, when this supper occurred, of which the reader, after the lapse of thirty-eight years, is invited to partake. Mademoiselle Rachel had performed in Voltaire's tragedy of " Tancr&de" to a crowded and enraptured audience, for she was then in the flush of her first celebrity, only eleven months having elapsed since her first appearance in classic tragedy. The real name of this " sublime child," as the French poets love to style her, was Elizabeth Rachel Felix, and she was born in Switzerland, the daughter of a Jewish peddler. In her early days she used to sing in the cafes of Paris, accompanying herself on an old guitar. She was about eleven years of age when her voice caught the ear of one of the founders of the Royal Conservatory of Music, who placed her in one of its classes, and agreed to defray the expenses of her education. Her voice not proving to be as promising as her benefactor imagined, he procured an admission for her into a declamation class, where her wonderful talent was trained and developed. She made her first appearance at the Theatre Frangais, in September, 1838, and she was speedily accepted as the first actress of the age. The fortunes of the theater, which had been at the lowest ebb, were restored, and her father demanded for her, and in time obtained, a revenue of eighty thousand francs per annum. It was a night, as I have just said, of Voltaire's (362)
