f
that country, that it would be quite fruitless to attempt to describe a
style of acting unknown to the people of Britain; and of that style
Mademoiselle Mars is the model. Every thing that can result from the
truest elegance and gracefulness of manners--from the most genuine and
lively _abandon_ of feeling,--from the most winning sweetness of
expression, and the greatest imaginable gaiety and benevolence,
displayed in one of the most beautiful women ever seen, and endowed with
the most delightful and melodious voice, is united in Mademoiselle
Mars; and all words were in vain, which would pretend to describe the
bright and glittering vision which captivates the imagination. It is
impossible to conceive any thing more perfect as a specimen of art, or
more beautiful as an imitation of nature, than her representation of the
kind of heroine most commonly to be found in a French comedy; lively and
playful, yet elegant and graceful; entering with ardour into amusements,
yet capable of deep feeling and serious reflection: fond of admiration
and flattery, yet innocent and modest; full of petty artifice and
coquetry, yet natural and unaffected in affairs of importance;
capricious and giddy in appearance, but warm-hearted and affectionate in
reality. It is a character to which there is a kind of approximation
among many French women; and if it were as well supported by them in
real life, as by her on the stage, it would be difficult even for French
vanity to describe the fascination of their manner, in terms of
admiration which would not command general assent. There is much
variety, it must be added, in her powers. On one occasion, we saw her
act Henriette in Les Femmes Savantes of Moliere, and Catau La Partie de
Chasse de Henri IV, anL it was difficult to say whether most to admire
the wit, and elegance, and police raillery of the woman of fashion, or
the innocent gaiety, and interesting naivete of the simple peasant girl.

There is no actress at present on the English stage of equal eminence in
a similar line of parts. The exhibition which can best convey to an
English reader some slight notion of her enchanting acting, is the
manner in which Miss O'Neil performs the scene in Juliet with the old
nurse; because it is probably exactly the manner in which Mademoiselle
Mars would perform that scene, but cannot afford any conception of her
excellence in scenes of higher interest and greater feeling. Mrs Jordan
may have equalled he