RACHEL, ELISA (properly ELISA RACHEL FELIX), a celebrated French tragedienne, was h. at Munf, in Switzerland, of poor Jewish parents, on Feb. 28, 1820. The family removed to Lyons, in France; and in order to aid in its support, the child Rachel and her sister Sarah were in the habit of singing for chance gratuities in the streets and cafes of the place. In 1831 the transferred to Paris, and for Rachel, lessons were procured in singing from an eminent teacher of the day. In music, she gave no promise of special excellence; and in 1833 she made her first appearance on the stage as an actress. Though her talent had previously been discerned by certain of the more cious (among others, Jules Jauin and the celebrated Mlle. Mars), it was only in 183S that in the character of " Camille," in Corneille's tragedy of Les Hamm, she first strdngly attracted the attention of the public. The admiration excited by her perform ance rapidly grew into enthusiasm ; and from this time forward, in the great parts supplied by the classic masterpieces of Corneille, Racine, and Voltaire, she shone with out a rival. In 1843 her fame may be said to have culminated in her appearance as "Phedre" in the tragedy of that name by Racine. In Adrienne Lecourreur, a piece expressly written for her by-MM. Legouve and Scribe, she had also immense success, though in other more modern parts, her popularity was somewhat less. The furor excited in Paris in 1848 by her public recitation of the ..Varseillaise Hymn, in the interest of the revolutionary government, will continue to connect her name with the public history of the period. In 1849 she made the tour of the French protinces, and subsequently visited
England and Russia, everywhere meeting with success and enthusiastic recognition. Her health, however, had begun to fail: in 1855, in the course of a professional visit to America, it altogether gave way, and she returned utterly prostrated. A residence at Cairo failed to restore her to strength; and on Jan. 3, 1858, she flied at Cannet, near Toulon. As an artist, within the limits prescribed by ber genius, she had probably never been quite equaled. Of the burning intensity which characterized her rendering of passion in its fiercer concentrations, no words can give an adequate image. " She does not act—she suffers," some one very well said of her. Her " Phedre"—by common consent her masterpiece—was an apocalypse of human agony, not to be forgotten by anyone who ever witnessed it. In character, Rachel was neither exemplary nor amiable. Of the details of her private life, it is as well that nothing should be said. In her professional relations. she was notoriously grasping and avaricious. Her immense popularity enabled her, during much of her career, pretty much to dictate her own terms to managers, and of this power. she is said to have availed herself without scruple or generosity. In this way she very rapidly amassed a large fortune. If little else of good is on record of her, she was constant in her home affections, and throughout she frankly made her whoie family sharers of her prosperity.