n French art.

In the domain of the dramatic art of the nineteenth century, two
women have made their names well known throughout Europe and
America,--Rachel, and Sarah Bernhardt, both tragediennes and both
daughters of Israel. While Rachel was, without question, the greatest
tragedienne that France ever produced, excelling Bernhardt in deep
tragic force, she yet lacked many qualities which our contemporary
possesses in a high degree. She had constantly to contend with a cruel
fate and a wicked, grasping nature, which brought her to an early
grave. The wretched slave of her greedy and rapacious father and
managers, who cared for her only in so far as she enriched them by her
genius and popularity, hers was a miserable existence, which detracted
from her acting, checked her development, and finally undermined her
health.

After her critical period of apprenticeship was successfully passed
and she was free to govern herself, she rose to be queen of the French
stage--a position which she held for eighteen years, during which she
was worshipped and petted by the whole world. As a social leader,
she was received and made much of by the great ladies of the Faubourg
Saint-Germain. Her taste in dress was exquisite in its simplicity,
being in perfect harmony with the reserved, retiring, and amiable
actress herself.

Possibly no actress, singer, or other public woman ever received such
homage and general recognition. With all her great qualities as an
actress, vigor, grandeur, wild, savage energy, superb articulation,
irreproachable diction, and a marvellous sense of situations, she
lacked the one quality which we miss in Sarah Bernhardt also--a true
tenderness and compassion. As a tragedienne she can be compared to
Talma only. Her greed for money soon ended her brilliant career;
unlike her sister in art, she amassed a fortune, leaving over one
million five hundred thousand francs.

Compared with Bernhardt, Rachel is said to have been the greater in
pure tragedy, but she did not possess as many arts of fascination.
There are many points of similarity between the two actresses: Rachel
was at times artificial, wanting in tenderness and depth, while at
times she was superhuman in her passion and emotion, and often
put more into her role than was intended; and the acting of Sarah
Bernhardt has the same characteristics. Rachel, however, was much more
subject to moods and fits of inspiration than is Bernhardt--especially
was she