And Garrick replies, laying his finger, with unerring instinct, upon the one weak spot in Mlle. Clairon's acting:-- "What shall I say to you, my dear friend, about 'the Clairon.' Your dissection of her is as accurate as if you had opened her alive; she has everything that art and a good understanding, with great natural spirit, can give her. But there I fear (and I only tell you my fears and open my soul to you) the heart has none of those instantaneous feelings, that life-blood, that keen sensibility, that bursts at once from genius, and, like electrical fire, shoots through the veins, marrow, bones, and all, of every spectator. Madame Clairon is so conscious and so certain of what she can do, that she never, I believe, had the feelings of the instant come upon her unexpectedly; but I pronounce that the greatest strokes of genius have been unknown to the actor himself till circumstances and the warmth of the scene has sprung the mine, as it were, as much to his own surprise as to that of the audience. Thus I make a great difference between a great genius and a good actor. The first will always realise the feelings of his character, and be transported beyond himself; while the other, with great powers and good sense, will give great pleasure to an audience, but never ----"'Pectus inaniter angit, Irritat, mulcet, falsis terroribus implet, Ut magus.' "I have with great freedom communicated my ideas of acting, but you must not betray me, my good friend; the Clairon would never forgive me, though I called her an excellent actress, if I did not swear by all the gods that she was the greatest genius too."[169] * * * * * Space forbids us to give more than a brief account of the many triumphs of this superb _tragédienne_, who, besides worthily sustaining all the chief characters of the classic répertoire, created forty-three rôles, in not one of which did she fail to uphold her reputation, while the great majority were brilliantly successful. Among the former, she was probably seen to most advantage in Médée--in which character Carle Van Loo painted her in his celebrated portrait--Phèdre, Hermione, Zénobie, Didon, and Cléopâtre. Among the latter, taking them in chronological order, should be mentioned Arétie in the _Denys le Tyran_ of Marmontel; Fulvie in Crébillon's _Catalina_; Azéma in the _Sémiramis_ of Voltaire; Électre in the _Oreste_ of the same writer; Cassandre in Chateaubrun's play, _Les Troyennes_; Idamé in Voltaire's _Orphelin de la Chine_; Astarbé in the tragedy of that name, by Colardeau; Aménaïde in the _Tancrède_ of Voltaire; and Aliénor in De Belloy's _Siège de Calais_, during the run of which last play occurred the unfortunate incident which led to her retirement from the stage.