lt the keenest pleasure and most
unbounded pride in her great triumphs.

[Illustration: ELIZABETH TAYLOR GREENFIELD.]

All this was chronicled by the press, and formed the theme of constant
conversation and correspondence. Many testimonials from persons in
this country skilled in music and of fine general culture, as well as
others from the Queen of England and several of the English nobility,
were among her rich possessions, and were so great in number and so
flattering in character as to have made hers almost, if indeed not
altogether, an exceptional case.

These strong evidences of approval did not, however, make Miss
Greenfield vain. The natural simplicity of her character remained
unchanged. All the many exhibitions of great public and private
admiration, and the praises that her performances constantly evoked,
while of course affording her much pleasure, served mainly as impulses
to newer and higher efforts in her chosen and beloved profession. Nor
was her disposition less tried by the many difficulties that often
formed in her pathway. Of these I need not speak here. But amidst
them all this noble lady and artist was ever brave, patient, hopeful,
ambitious in a certain sense, yet modest.

Fully aware of the magnificent quality of her voice, and of its
phenomenal character; singing a higher and a lower note than either of
her great contemporaries,--Parodi, Kate Hayes, and Jenny Lind,--she
yet did not rest content, as most persons under the same circumstances
would have done, with the enthusiastic plaudits elicited by her
performances, but diligently applied herself to a scientific
cultivation of a voice in natural power well-nigh marvellous, as well
as to acquiring a scholarly knowledge of the principles of general
music. In this commendable course she met with remarkable success,
considering the circumstances by which she was surrounded.

And now, quoting at times largely from her "Biography," I proceed to
give the following sketch of the career of this remarkable queen of
song.

Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield, better known perhaps by her musical
sobriquet, the "Black Swan," was born in Natchez, Miss., in the year
1809. When but a year old she was brought to Philadelphia by an
exemplary Quaker lady, by whom she was carefully reared. Between these
two persons there ever existed the warm affection that is felt by
mother and daughter. In the year 1844 this good lady died. In her will
the subject of this sketch