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A BARE Oluiy LADY. 265
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
_ — Amon G The Curious And Unexpected Th...
This successful commencement of her dramatic labors was followed by new and constant triumphs during the period of nearly thirty
years , which she passed in the career chosen for her originally Iby her parents , but into which she threw herself with all the energy
of her nature ; a career which she quitted in the plenitude of her talent , and at the height of her popularity , compelled to this step
by an affection of the larynx which defied the skill of all the physicians of that day . Despite the jealous bickerings and difficulties which
appear to be inseparable from the histrionic career , and from which _, she seems to have had her full share of annoyance , few dramatic
artists can boast of a career so uniformly successful as that of Caroline Vanhove , and in which she had the rare privilege of
being associated with her father , whom she adored , and the great actor who subsequently became her husband , and who appears to
have appreciated her equally as an artist and as a woman and popular actress . She was married by her friends to a man named
Petit ; for whom she does not seem to have had any predilection , and between "whom and herself no sympathy ever existed . Not long
after she had contracted this inauspicious union , she inspired a violent passion , not only in the savage breast of the redoubtable Dictator
of the Reign of Terror , but also in the heart of the glorious dictator of a more peaceful stage . Prom Robespierre the charming
young actress appears to have recoiled with , instinctive horror , thereby attracting to herself the remorseless vengeance of the Man
of Blood ; a vengeance equally directed against the great actor who had dared to dispute tlie object of his dangerous partiality with the
dreaded dictator . Happily , the downfall of the tyrant delivered when the actress the latter and was her being adorer 1 put from forth his for power their , destruction at the very . moment
But though the homage of Robespierre had failed to touch either the heart or the ambition of the young actress , the affection of
Talma—then in the prime of his talent and renown , and bent on inducing her to liberate herself , by means of a divorce from her
inauspicious marriage , and to marry himself—found the fair artiste anything but indifferent ; yet she steadily refused to seek for a
divorce , and even , in her desire to cure the great tragedian of an attachment which _slie was not in a position to reciprocate ,
obtained a conge of several months from the director of the Comedie Frangaise , and undertook an extensive round of provincial
engagements , in tlie hope that her absence -would suffice to cure her illustrious suitor of his passion .
This hope , however , was destined to prove illusory ; and an incident which occurred soon after the actress ' s return to Paris ,
brought their mutual affection to a crisis . One night , shortly after her re-appearance at the Comedie
_Frangaise , Madame Petit Vanhove was acting in a play of Collot d'Herboisin which the heroine is run away withwhen the clumsy actor
, , , who performed the part of the lover , in carrying off the lady , made
YOL . IV . V
A Bare Oluiy Lady. 265
A BARE _Oluiy LADY . 265
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Dec. 1, 1859, page 265, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01121859/page/49/
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