It may have been by reason of this that Taglioni was appointed teacher of dancing and deportment to some of the younger members of the English Royal Family; and later undertook the tuition of a few favoured young dancers. Yet Fortune did not favour her always, and she died at Marseilles on April 25th, 1884; like Guimard, also neglected and in poverty. But while there is one to read the records of the stage her name will survive as one of the founders and supreme exponents of the idealistic school of Ballet. TAGLIONI (“SYLPHIDE”) “Slim, virginal, upon the stage she springs: And joy forthwith relumines weary eyes That, looking ever on dull mundane things, Long had forgot youth’s heritage of joy: Slim, virginal, clad in resplendent white With floral coronal and fluttering wings She stands serenely poised; then, swift to rise, Gleams like a sunlit dove in sudden flight: So, once again, return to our dulled sight Dreams of a golden age without alloy. “How many sages sought in ancient time Some magic stone transmuting all to gold; Elixirs rare have many yearned to find, Recalling refluent youth ere life depart; How many strove to conjure from the air, From water, earth or fire with subtle art The elemental beings therein divined! “But thou, with art more potent and sublime, Transmutest all! None seeing thee is old! All hearts forlorn, from dross of woe are freed! And in the magic glamour of thy grace, Hope’s listless wings win strength once more to fare Towards that Ideal whose lineaments we trace Importally incarnate in--‘Sylphide!’” CHAPTER XXVII CARLOTTA GRISI (GISELLE) Seldom is a good dancer also a born singer; and still more rarely do both talents develop simultaneously to such a point that there can be any serious doubt as to which to relinquish in favour of the other. Yet such was the happy fate of Carlotta Grisi, the cousin of the two famous singing sisters, Giuditta and Giulia Grisi. Carlotta at one time showed such promise of becoming a vocalist that no less a person than the great Malibran advised her to devote her life to singing. But when Perrot, the famous ballet-master, who had received his _congé_ from the Paris Opera, saw her, when she was earning her living as a dancer at Naples, he was clever enough to suggest that she should develop _both_ talents, fully intending that under his encouragement and tuition she should become at least a finished _danseuse_, for he saw in the future of such a pupil an opportunity of securing his own return to the Opera. Moreover, although--as a famous _maîtresse de ballet_ of our time once described him to me--“ogly as sin,” he managed to become her husband!