import of his message, that Louis had to play the part of consoler. Full of sorrow, the old judge once more retired to his country house to pass his time in agricultural labours and works of charity. One day in December, 1793, his house was visited by three members of a revolutionary committee, who arrested his daughter and her husband. The next day he himself and his grandchildren were carried off, despite the tears and reclamations of the inhabitants of Malesherbes. After being kept in prison in Paris about four months, and after seeing his children led to the scaffold—his daughter, indeed, was guillotined before his eyes—he was put to death, 22nd April, 1794, in the seventy-third year of his age. A list of his writings, which are at once terse and elegant, will be found in La France Litteraire, under the name Lamoignon.—R. H.
MALHERBE, François de, was born at Caen of a noble but decayed family, about the year 1555. His father, who was reduced in circumstances, embraced the protestant religion, much to the grief of his son, then about nineteen. Entering the household of Henri d'Angoulême, a natural son of Henri II., and governor of Provence, Malherbe remained in the service of this prince until 1585, when his patron died. In the meantime Malherbe had married Madaline de Coriolis, a lady of a legal family, by whom he had several children. He had the misfortune to outlive them all; one of them, a daughter, died of the plague in his arras; another, a young man of high promise, was killed in a duel. His father, although then in his seventy-third year, could with difficulty be prevented from challenging his son's antagonist, 1627. Malherbe took an active part in the war of the League, and conducted in person the siege of Martigues in Provence. He had long devoted his leisure to poetic composition; and in 1600 he wrote an ode on the arrival in France of Marie de Medicis, the wife of Henri IV. By this and other writings he attracted the attention of the king, who sent for him and retained him at court. On the king's death Malherbe received a pension from the queen-dowager. In 1628 he died. A host of anecdotes remain to prove that he was not of a temper calculated either to inspire affection or to retain it. Somewhat brusque in his manner, frequently cynical in his language, the "good things" which he has left behind him certainly are such as a better-natured man would not have uttered. Thus, to a young lawyer who had asked his opinion of a copy of verses, Malherbe said, "Had you no alternative but either to write this piece or to be hung?" Friends indeed he had, though even with these his amicable relations were frequently disturbed. As a reformer of the French language—as one who contributed materially to its purity and correctness—he must always hold a high place in the literary history of his country, though a place perhaps somewhat lower than that assigned to him by Boileau. Modern critics indeed have not been wanting, who altogether dispute his claims to grateful remembrance. According to these writers, if he purified the language he also weakened it; and what it gained by him in accuracy and elegance it lost in colour, freedom, and force. Malherbe's poems have gone through very numerous editions. They chiefly consist of odes, sonnets, and other short pieces. He also translated Seneca De Beneficiis, and the 33rd book of Livy.—W. J. P.
MALIBRAN, Maria Felicia, Madame, afterwards De Beriot. This distinguished singer, the eldest daughter of Manuel and Josquina Garcia, was born in Paris in 1808. At eight years of age she was brought to England, where she remained without intermission for eight or nine years, and thus acquired that knowledge of the English language which afterwards enabled her to make so great an impression on the English stage. Garcia was a man of brutal temper, but a thorough musician. His treatment of his daughter was cruel and tyrannical, and his instructions were rendered a penance by his unkindness and even cruelty; but she was indebted to them for the high cultivation of her genius, and for an extent and solidity of musical knowledge in which probably no vocal performer ever excelled her. In the London opera season of 1825, a disappointment occurring in one of the performances on account of the return of Madame Pasta to Paris, Garcia offered the services of his daughter, and she accordingly made her debut on the 7th June, 1825 (being under seventeen years of age), in the part of Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia. After this she was engaged as one of the principal singers of the York festival of that year, where she exhibited surprising ability, considering her youth and inexperience. She then went to America with her father, who carried with him a small company of performers, for the purpose of giving Italian operas in the United States. They commenced their performances at New York, and Mademoiselle Garcia appeared in several of Rossini's operas. The Americans were captivated with her voice, beauty, and vivacity; but except her father and herself the company was wretched, and the public, notwithstanding the novelty of the entertainment, soon discovered the inefficiency of the performers. The speculation accordingly failed, and Garcia fell into difficulties and distress. In these circumstances his daughter was induced to accept the hand of M. Malibran, a merchant and banker of reputed wealth, but more than double her age. The marriage was a most unhappy one. Malibran had either deceived her as to his circumstances, or they speedily changed. His affairs became involved; and after his wife had vainly endeavoured by professional exertions to retrieve them, he was made bankrupt and thrown into prison. In these circumstances Madame Malibran at once, and unsolicited, resigned for the benefit of his creditors the whole of the provision which had been made upon her by the marriage settlements—a noble act, which gave rise to strong manifestations of favour and approbation on the part of the American public. A separation having taken place between her and this unworthy husband, Madame Malibran returned to Europe, and made her first appearance in Paris in the beginning of the year 1828, in the character of Semiramide. One of the Paris journals gives a graphic account of the debut:—"The singer, at her entrance, was greeted with warm applause. Her commanding figure, and the regularity of her features, bespoke the favour of the public. The noble and dignified manner in which she gave the first phrase, 'Fra tanti regi e popoli,' justified the reception she had obtained; but the difficult phrase, 'Frema il empio' proved a stumbling-block which she could not surmount. Alarmed by this check, she did not attempt the difficult passage in the da capo, but dropping her voice, terminated the passage without effect and made her exit, leaving the audience in doubt and dissatisfaction. The prodigious talent displayed by Pisaroni in the subsequent scenes gave occasion to comparisons by no means favourable to Madame Malibran. On her re-entrance she was coldly received; but she soon succeeded in winning the public to her favour. In the andante to the air, 'Bel raggio lasinghier,' the young singer threw out such powers, and displayed a voice so full and beautiful, that the former coldness gave way to applause. Encouraged by this she hazarded the greatest difficulties of execution, and appeared so inspired by her success, that her courage now became temerity." From that time Malibran became the idol of the Parisian public. She appeared as Desdemona, Rosina, and Romeo, in the Romeo e Giulietta of Zingarelli—characters as different from each other as can well be imagined; and two of them, moreover, among the masterpieces of Pasta. It was remarked by a French critic, that "If Malibran must yield the palm to Pasta in point of acting, yet she possesses a decided superiority in respect to song." "Since that time," remarks Mr. Hogarth, "the superiority of Malibran to Pasta, in respect to song, became more and more evident; while in respect to acting, though no performer has ever approached Pasta in her own peculiar walk of terrible grandeur, yet none has ever surpassed Malibran in intelligence, originality, vivacity, feeling, and those 'tender strokes of art' which at once reach the heart of every spectator. Her versatility was wonderful. Pasta, it has been truly said, was a Siddons; Malibran was a Garrick." Her next engagement was at the London Italian opera, where she appeared on the 21st March in the famous season of 1829. Her range of characters at that period included Desdemona, Rosina, Semiramide, Romeo, Tancredi, Ninetta, and Zerlina. To the last of these, which she performed on the 28th of May, 1829, she gave a completely new reading, playing it with all the exuberance of a boisterous rustic. The "exclusives" denounced the attempt as being vulgar; well may it be said that there is no vulgarity like the squeamishness of the excessively genteel. With the commonplace her lot was the same as that of all original and independent minds; what they cannot sympathize with they underrate. It is sufficient for the fame of Madame Malibran that, from the moment she demonstrated unequivocal character, she secured the undivided preference of all the most eminent members of her profession; and to the day of her death we believe that she maintained this station in their esteem against all her competitors.
