[1] Their real names were Hugues Guéru, Robert Guérin, and Henri Legrand. Apprenticed to bakers in the Faubourg Saint-Laurent, they deserted their masters to play in a tennis-court near the Estrapade, a machine invented, in the days of François I., for the benefit of heretics. Turlupin usually played a roguish valet, Gros-Guillaume a pedant, and Gaultier-Garguille a supremely stupid old man. They eventually joined the company of the Hôtel de Bourgogne, whose popularity was immensely strengthened by their inclusion.—Hawkins, "Annals of the French Stage," i. 51.

[2] The Civil Lieutenant was, after the Provost of Paris, the first magistrate of the Châtelet; to him belonged, among other functions, the supervision of guardians and trustees of children under age and of conseils de famille.

[3] He was a child of seven or eight, and his father's object in inserting his name in the acte de naissance was probably to annoy his unfortunate wife.

[4] This is Jal's conclusion. While compiling his famous Dictionnaire critique de Biographie et d'Histoire, he made an exhaustive search of the registers of all the old parishes of Paris—there were sixty-eight—but failed to discover either the acte de naissance of Armande or the death certificate of Joseph Béjart, which two events must have taken place within a few days of each other.

[5] Jal, Dictionnaire critique de Biographie et d'Histoire, Article "Béjart."

[6] His real name was Zacharie Jacob. A gentleman by birth, he had been educated for the army and had served the Duc de Guise as page, but his passion for the theatre led him to become an actor. In spite of the ridicule to which he was subjected by Molière, he was an excellent tragedian, and in parts made up of "transports and bursts of rage" much admired. His death, which occurred in 1668, is said to have been caused by over-exertion as Orestes in Racine's Andromaque.

[7] Œuvres complètes de J. Racine (édit. d'Aime-Martin), vi. 136.

[8] See p. 33, infra.

[9] M. Gustave Larroumet, La Comédie de Molière, l'auteur et le milieu, p. 85.

[10] Hawkins, "Annals of the French Stage," ii. 61.

[11] They were both married women and the wives of actors, who joined Molière's company at the same time. At this period, and indeed for long afterwards, actresses bore officially the title of "demoiselle," as did all women other than the wives of the nobility, or of ennobled citizens, or daughters of noble parents who had married citizens: these were styled "dame" and "madame." Thus, we find Colbert, before he rose to fame, "offering a coach to Mademoiselle, his wife;" the mother of La Bruyère described in a legal document as a "demoiselle veuve"; while La Fontaine, in his correspondence, invariably refers to his wife as "Mademoiselle." People spoke also of la Du Parc, la de Brie, la Béjart, la Molière, and so forth, a custom which has continued to this day. This la, which appears so contemptuous, was not the exclusive property of actresses or of women of the people. Madame de Sévigné and Saint-Simon employ it for ladies of the fashionable world, but, by preference, for those of medium virtue: la Beauvais, la Montespan, &c.; and eighteenth century writers frequently make use of it in referring to the mistresses of Louis XV.: la Châteauroux, la Pompadour, la Du Barry. Nowadays, however, it is no longer a term of contempt; "it has become a particle which confers nobility and immortality on great singers and tragédiennes, if the race is not extinct."—M. J. Noury, La Champmeslé, p. 94.

[12] M. Henri Chardon, Nouveaux documents sur la vie de Molière: M. de Modène, ses deux femmes, et Madeleine Béjart.

[13] Jal, Dictionnaire critique de Biographie et d'Histoire: Article "Béjart."

[14] M. Henri Chardon, Nouveaux documents sur la vie de Molière: M. de Modène, ses deux femmes, et Madeleine Béjart.

[15] M. Larroumet, La Comédie de Molière, 105 et seq.

[16] La Comédie de Molière, p. 134.

[17] Molière was responsible for the plot, the prologue, the first act, and the first scenes of the second and third acts; Quinault contributed all the lyrical matter, with the exception of the Italian plainte, which, like the music, was by Lulli; Pierre Corneille wrote the rest.

[18] Mr. W. E. Henley in the Cornhill Magazine, xli. 445.

[19] Gaboriau's Les comédiennes adorées, 269.

[20] "Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature."

[21] La Comédie de Molière, p. 146.

[22] The first edition, now very rare, a copy of which is in the possession of the British Museum, contains a "foreword" from the bookseller to the reader, which is so curious that we make no apology for transcribing it:

"I know neither the author of this history, nor the hand from whence it came to me. A courier who, in passing through this town, purchased some books at my shop, made me a present of it, and assured me that it is true in every detail. I believe it to be incumbent upon me to give this present to the public, in order that it may share the principal adventures of this famous actress, as celebrated by her coquetry as by the reputation of the late Molière, her first husband.

"The same courier assured me that the author of this history has included therein only the chief adventures which happened to this actress, having passed over an infinity of other little amorous incidents, as trifles unworthy of his book or his heroine. I am persuaded that there is not an actress in France whose career would not afford sufficient material for a similar history. But, while we await their appearance, I give you this one, precisely as it came into my hands, without adding or subtracting anything. May it afford you diversion! Adieu."

[23] M. Gustave Larroumet, La Comédie de Molière, p. 149.

[24] Among the writers who accept wholly, or in part, the statements of La Fameuse Comédienne may be mentioned Grimarest, Taschereau, M. Loiseleur, and Gaboriau, though the last-named writer ought not perhaps to be taken very seriously. The article on Armande in Mr. Sutherland Edwards's "Idols of the French Stage"—hitherto, we believe, the only attempt to give any detailed account of the actress in English—is admittedly largely based on the information contained in this libel.

[25] Armand de Gramont, Comte de Guiche, brother of Philibert de Gramont, the hero of Count Hamilton's Memoirs.

[26] Antoine Nompar de Caumont, Comte, and afterwards Duc, de Lauzun, the beloved of la Grande Mademoiselle, who so nearly succeeded in securing the hand and vast possessions of that princess, and who, in November 1671, was imprisoned at Pignerol, where he remained ten years. For an account of his adventures, see the author's "Madame de Montespan" (London, Harpers: New York, Scribners: 1903).

[27] When Molière married, he went to live in the Rue de Richelieu. In the following year, however, he removed to the Béjarts' house situated at the corner of the Rue Saint-Thomas du Louvre and the Place du Palais-Royal. It was a very large house, capable of accommodating two or three families, and Mlle. de Brie had for some time occupied part of it. Molière's object in residing there seems to have been to allow his young wife to enjoy the society of her family, but there can be no doubt that he committed a very grave mistake in residing under the same roof as a woman with whom he had formerly had a liaison.

[28] Études sur la vie et les œuvres de Molière.

[29] La Comédie de Molière, p. 158.

[30] Molière's troupe only played three times a week, on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Fridays; on the other days, the theatre was occupied by the Italian comedians. Friday was the favourite day for the production of new plays. The playhouses were also frequently closed: during Holy Week and the week following Easter, during the illness of a member of the Royal Family, on public fête days, and also, occasionally, when any particularly notorious criminal was to be executed in the Place de Grève. Thus, there were no performances on July 17, 1676, the day on which Madame de Brinvilliers, the poisoner, paid the penalty of her crimes. The play began at four o'clock and was always over before seven. Early in the century, the curtain, in winter, seems to have risen at two o'clock, in order to allow of the audience reaching their homes before the footpads were abroad.

[31] Grimarest places Molière's income as high as 30,000 livres, a sum, according to M. Larroumet's computation, equal to 150,000 francs to-day.

[32] Cited by M. Gaston Maugras, Les Comédiens hors la loi, p. 122.

[33] Under the term actor, the early Fathers seem to have included not only actors in the modern acceptation of the word, but mimes, jugglers, acrobats, gladiators, chariot-drivers, and, in fact, almost all public performers.

[34] M. Gaston Maugras, Les Comédiens hors la loi, passim.

[35] M. Gaston Maugras, Les Comédiens hors la loi, p. 124.

[36] "It is true that the loss of Molière is irreparable," writes the Comte de Limoges to Bussy-Rabutin on March 3, 1673. "I believe that no one will be less affected than his wife; she acted in comedy yesterday." And Bussy answers: "So far as I can see, her mourning will not cost her much."

[37] It was the "orator's" duty to come before the curtain to make announcements or crave the indulgence of the audience in a neat little speech, flowered with compliments and sparkling with witty allusions. It was a very important post and was always filled by an actor of distinction. Thus Bellerose and Floridor were the orators of the Hôtel de Bourgogne, Mondory of the Marais, while Molière was for some years his own bellman. La Grange, however, appears to have excelled them all. "Although," says Chappuzeau, "he is but of middle height, his presence is good, and his air easy and elegant. You are charmed before he opens his lips. As he has a great deal of fire and of the decent boldness an orator should have, it is a pleasure to listen to him when he comes on to speak the compliment. That one with which he regaled his audience at the opening of the theatre of the Troupe du Roi (Hôtel Guénégaud) was in the best imaginable taste. What he had excellently contrived he spoke with marvellous grace."

[38] Guichard was convicted of the charge of attempted poisoning, declared "infamous," and sentenced to the amende honorable and to pay a heavy fine, while the printers of the memoir in which he had libelled Armande and others were also punished. He appealed against the sentence, which, in the following year, was quashed, a result undoubtedly due to the fact that he had powerful protectors at Court.

[39] An epigram ran:—

[40] M. Larroumet, La Comédie de Molière, p. 174.

[41] No. 11 Rue des Pierres. See Arsène Houssaye's interesting account of a visit paid to it, in his beautifully illustrated work, Molière: sa femme et sa fille (Paris: Dentu, 1880), p. 129 et seq.

[42] Paul Foucher, Les Coulisses du Passé.

[43] And not of a marchana des rubans, of the Pont-au-Change, as so many writers state, so that the epigram of Le Noble:—

loses its point.

[44] It was performed twenty-one times, and the average receipts were 680 livres. But for twenty-four representations of Molière's comedy, the Bourgeois gentilhomme, which was played concurrently with Tite et Bérénice, the average takings were 1000 livres. Corneille received 2000 livres for his play, the same amount as Molière had paid him for Attila.

[45] See p. 108 infra.

[46] Letter of January 13, 1673.

[47] Letter of March 1673.

[48] Letter of April 1673.

[49] Letter of February 24, 1673.

[50] Les divertissements de Versailles donnez par le roy à toute sa cour, au rétour de la conqueste de la Franche-Comté, en l'anneé 1674: Paris, 1676, folio. A copy of this very rare and valuable work, with its beautiful engravings by La Paute and Chauveau, is in the possession of the British Museum.

[51] Hawkins, "Annals of the French Stage," ii. 116.

[52] M. J. Noury, La Champmeslé, p. 193.

[53] Letter of Madame de Sévigné to Madame de Grignan, March 13, 1671.

[54] "You know," he wrote to his son, Louis Racine, "what I have said to you about operas and plays; there will probably be some performances at Marly; the King and the Court are aware of the scruples which I entertain about attending them, and they will have a poor opinion of you, if you show so little regard for my sentiments. I know that you will not be dishonoured before men should you go to the play, but do you count it nothing to be dishonoured before God?"

[55] Charles Boileau, Abbé of Beaulieu, and a member of the Academy.

[56] Here is the renunciation: "In the presence of M. Claude Botte de la Barondière, priest, doctor of theology of the Sorbonne, curé of the church and parish of Saint-Sulpice, at Paris, and the witnesses hereinafter named, Guillaume Marconnau de Brécourt has declared that, having formerly followed the profession of an actor, he renounces it, and promises, with a true and sincere heart, to exercise it no more, even if restored to full and complete health."—Extract from the Register of Saint-Sulpice, cited by M. Gaston Maugras, Les Comédiens hors la loi, p. 154 note.

It appears also to have been customary in the case of an actor to pin to the register of deaths the following paper: "The said person was not absolved and received into holy ground until after having publicly renounced the profession he had formerly exercised, by an act before the notaries."

[57] Among Bossuet's supporters was Père Lebrun, of the Oratory, who published a Discours sur la comédie. One of this good father's chief objections to the theatre was "because it is perpetually turning into Ridicule parents who strive to prevent their children from contracting love-matches."

[58] According to Saint-Simon, the immediate cause of their expulsion was the representation of a licentious comedy, called La Fausse Prude, in which character Madame de Maintenon was easily recognised.

[59] In 1696, the French actors, desirous of testing the legality of the attitude of the Church towards them, addressed a petition to Innocent XII., in which, after representing that they performed in Paris "none but honest plays, purged of all obscenities, and more calculated to influence the faithful for good than for evil, and inspire them with a horror of vice and a love of virtue," they besought him to inform them if the bishops had the right to excommunicate them. The Holy See, however, unwilling to provoke a conflict with the independent French bishops, who, it well knew, would not hesitate to resist its orders, if it took the part of the actors, referred the petitioners to the Archbishop of Paris, "that they might be treated according to the law." A similar fate awaited a second appeal to Clement XI. in 1701.

[60] M. Gaston Maugras, Les Comédiens hors la loi, p. 154 et seq.

[61] Adrienne Lecouvreur, by Eugène Scribe and Ernest Legouvé, first represented at the Théâtre de la République, April 1849.

[62] It was only when she became an actress that Adrienne prefaced her patronymic by the article "Le," in order to give it a more artistic sound. For a long time she wrote her name as two words.

[63] Several writers have stated that she was his mistress, but this is incorrect. It was her cousin, the laundress's daughter, who occupied that position.

[64] Études de littérature et d'art: Adrienne Lecouvreur, p. 124.

[65] Le Mercure de France, March 1730.

[66] Profils de Femmes: Adrienne Lecouvreur.

[67] Note the change from the familiar and affectionate "ton" of the previous letter to the formal "votre."

[68] Causeries du Lundi, I. 161.

[69] Lemontey, Notice sur Adrienne Lecouvreur.

[70] Cited by M. Georges Monval, Lettres d'Adrienne Lecouvreur.

[71] There were, at this period, four members of the Quinault family in the troupe of the Comédie-Française: two brothers, Jean Baptiste Quinault and Abraham Alexis Quinault-Dufresne, and two sisters, Marie-Anne Quinault and Jeanne Françoise Quinault.

[72] Mercure de France, March 1730.

[73] In Thomas Corneille's tragedy, Le Comte d'Essex.

[74] According to another version of this affair, it was the challenge, and not the quarrel, which took place in Adrienne's dressing-room.

[75] Études du littérature et d'art: Adrienne Lecouvreur, p. 141.

[76] Lettres d'Adrienne Lecouvreur, by M. Georges Monval, p. 252.

[77] The acceptance of this charge must have required some little courage on the good councillor's part, since rumour credited him with being something more than a friend to the actress, which is perhaps not altogether a matter for surprise, seeing that he was so frequent a visitor in the Rue des Marais that he "passed for the master of the house, and was addressed by the servants as 'Monsieur' only, without the addition of his name."

[78] M. Paléologue, Profils de femmes: Adrienne Lecouvreur.

[79] For a specimen of Maurice's orthography, see page 240, note, infra.

[80] And not £30,000, as Carlyle and so many writers have stated.

[81] Carlyle's "History of Frederick the Great," ii. 160.

[82] Louise Henriette Françoise of Lorraine (Mlle. de Guise), daughter of the Prince and Princesse d'Harcourt, and fourth wife of Emmanuel Théodose de la Tour d'Auvergne, Duc de Bouillon, whom she married in 1725. Here is a contemporary portrait of her: "Very pretty; rather tall than short; neither stout nor slender; an oval face; a broad forehead; black eyes and eyebrows; brown hair; very wide mouth and very red lips."

[83] She numbered among her lovers the Comte de Clermont, a Prince of the Blood, the actors Quinault-Dufresne and Grandval of the Comédie-Française, and a singer of the Opera, named Tribou.

[84] The real obstacle was probably an Opera girl named Cartou, of whom Maurice was desperately enamoured. According to Grimm, this young lady followed her lover to the famous Camp of Mühlberg, in Saxony, where she had the honour of supping with two kings, Augustus II. of Poland and Frederick William of Prussia, and two future kings, Augustus III. and Frederick the Great.

[85] His name was Bouret, and he was the son of a government official at Metz. He was at this time nineteen years of age, and had come to Paris, some months before, to study painting.

[86] The Duchesse and her stepson's wife, the Princesse de Bouillon (Marie Charlotte Sobieska), wife of Charles Godefroi de la Tour d'Auvergne, Prince de Bouillon, whom she married in 1724. Several writers have confounded the two ladies, and Scribe and Legouvé, in their tragedy, Adrienne Lecouvreur, make the princess, and not the duchess, the rival and murderess of the heroine.

[87] Lettres de Mademoiselle d' Aïssé à Madame Calandrini (edit. 1846), p. 230 et seq.

[88] The points in which Mlle. Aïssé's story and Bouret's evidence differ are as follows:—

(1) Bouret was acquainted with the Duchesse de Bouillon prior to his adventure, having been employed by her to paint her portrait. (2) He had not one, but several interviews with her two emissaries, who, he stated, wore masks. (3) He received the suspicious lozenges after, and not before, warning Adrienne. (4) It was not the Lieutenant of Police, Hérault, but the Chemist Geoffroy, of the Académie des Sciences, who made the experiment on the dog. He reported that some of the lozenges appeared suspicious, but that their number was insufficient to permit of his conducting experiments and forming a definite opinion. This, as M. Larroumet remarks, is the language of a man who is unwilling to compromise himself.

[89] Scribe and Legouvé make this incident one of the principal scenes of their tragedy.

[90] Lettres d'Adrienne Lecouvreur, p. 51.

[91] Cited M. Georges Monval, Lettres d'Adrienne Lecouvreur, p. 57.

[92] Marie-Anne Mancini, Racine's enemy.

[93] Marie Magdeleine de la Vieuville, Comtesse de Parabère (1693-1750). On her husband's death, in 1716, she became maîtresse en tître of the Regent d'Orléans, which exalted position she occupied for five years, when the prince, wearying of her caprices, replaced her by Madame Ferrand d'Averne.

[94] That of Hortense. According to Titon du Tillet, Adrienne had never been surpassed in this character.

[95] This is not the case.

[96] Lettres de Mademoiselle d'Aissé à Madame Calandrini, p. 234 et seq.

[97] Voltaire wrote and signed the following note: "She died in my arms of an inflammation of the intestines, and it was I who caused an autopsy to be performed. All that Mlle. Aïssé says on the subject are only popular rumours which have no foundation."—Cited by M. Monval.

[98] Sainte-Beuve, Causeries du Lundi, i. 174. This letter formed part of the last dossier.

[99] The spot where Adrienne was buried was discovered, in 1786, by d'Argental. It was at the south-east angle of the Rues de Grenelle and de Bourgogne, on ground now occupied by No. 115 in the former street. The old man erected a marble tablet, inscribed with some rather indifferent verses of his own composition, to the memory of the actress on an adjoining wall. "This tablet," says M. Monval, "is still preserved by Madame Jouvencel, the present (1892) owner of No. 115 Rue de Grenelle."

[100] Two years before Adrienne's old teacher, Le Grand, had died, also without renouncing his profession. He was, of course, denied Christian burial, but no objection was raised by the curé of Saint-Sulpice to his interment in the unconsecrated portion of the cemetery.

[101] Lettres d'Adrienne Lecouvreur, by M. Georges Monval, p. 67.

[102] La Danse et des Ballets, p. 190.

[103] Her shoemaker, one Choisy by name, found himself on a sudden overwhelmed with customers. All the ladies of the Court and the town wanted to be shod by the man who made such divine little shoes.

[104] Gaboriau, Les Comédiennes adorées, p. 128.

[105] Correspondance littéraire, vi. 42.

[106] Gaboriau, Les Comédiennes adorées, p. 131.

[107] "While Mlle. de Camargo delighted the Parisians with her dancing, her uncle, Don Juan, employed his time in causing Jews and sorcerers to be burned. Don Juan de Camargo, Bishop of Pampeluna, succeeded Don Diego d'Astorga y Cespedes on July 18, 1720, and was the thirty-fifth Inquisitor-General in Spain."—Castil-Blaze, La Danse et les Ballets, p. 196.

[108] This is no doubt a slip of the pen. Mlle. de Camargo had only been two years on the Paris stage.

[109] Revue rétrospective, Série I. tom. 1. (1833), p. 401. The original letter was, at this time, in the possession of Beffara.

[110] Journal de Barbier, ii. 416.

[111] She was then living in the Rue Neuve-des-Petits-Champs.

[112] Les Comédiennes adorées, p. 144.

[113] Collé, Journal (edit. 1868), i. 317. We fear that Collé, who is very severe upon the lady, is hardly an impartial witness, as elsewhere, in his Journal, we read that Mlle. le Duc "meddled with everything, and prevented the Count using his influence except on behalf of herself and her base vassals." As the dramatist was a protégé of Clermont, this would seem to point to some private grievance against her.

[114] The Tenebrae service at the Abbey of Longchamps on Wednesdays and Thursdays in Holy Week was a fashionable function at this period. Its popularity dated from 1727, when the famous singer, Mlle. Lemaure, took the veil, and transferred her services from the stage of the Opera to the abbey choir.

[115] See p. 180, note, supra.

[116] Cited by Jules Cousin, Le Comte de Clermont, sa cour et ses maîtresses.

[117] Catalogue of the Wallace Collection.

[118] Favart is said to have claimed that he had invented the bun. But, as several learned writers assert that it was in vogue in the time of the Crusades, he probably only meant that he had perfected it. See Desnoiresterres, Épicuriens et Lettrés, p. 182.

[119] We are not told the name of the farmer-general. In Favart's Mémoires he is referred to merely as M. B***.

[120] Justine's portraits, the most pleasing of which is perhaps Flipart's engraving of the drawing by Charles Nicolas Cochin fils, reproduced in this volume, show us a pretty and vivacious-looking young woman, but with features somewhat too irregular for beauty. It is probable, however, that the attraction which she possessed for her contemporaries was, like that of Mlle. Molière, of the kind in which Nature plays the lesser part, and the desire to please the greater.

[121] A document found in the Bastille on its capture in July 1789, written by one Meusnier, an inspector of police who was employed by Maurice de Saxe in his persecution of the Favarts, and published the same year, under the title of Manuscrit trouvé à la Bastille (signé Meusnier) concernant deux lettres-de-cachet lâchées contre Mlle. de Chantilly et M. Favart par le Maréchal de Saxe, asserts that for some time Justine lived with Favart, as his mistress, in a house in the Rue de Buci. But in the opinion of Desnoiresterres, the best informed of the poet's biographers, this charge is sufficiently controverted by the following letter written by Favart to his fiancée: "Take care of your health; remember that mine is involved in it. You will take more care of yourself, if you have any regard for me, who love you more than life; though do not take offence, for my very sentiments are your eulogy. Your talents seduce me, but your virtue binds me. If your thoughts were in contradiction to your actions, you would be worthy neither of my esteem nor my love.... I am speaking to you against the interests of my heart; but I, at the same time, prove to you that I am the sincerest and the best of your friends."—Favart, Mémoires et correspondance littéraire (edit. 1808), i. 20. Desnoiresterres, Épicuriens et Lettrés, p. 196 et seq.

[122] Madame Favart et le Maréchal de Saxe.

[123] Mémoires et Correspondance (edit. 1808), i. 25.

[124] Marie Rinteau, the great-grandmother of George Sand.

[125] Desnoiresterres, Épicuriens et Lettrés, p. 215.

[126] " ...Je vous dires en outre que je suis amoureu depuis trois ans d'une petite Gelan(?) qui me joue des mauves tour et qui ma penses faire tourner la servelle; je vous en ay écrit quelque chosse lanée passé, elle ait possede du démon de l'amour conjugal.... J'ay etes tente deux ou trois foy de la noier."—Letter of Maurice de Saxe to his sister, the Princess von Holstein, March 10, 1747. We hesitate to produce the remainder of this letter, of which, as Desnoiresterres very justly remarks, the orthography is the least enormity, even in the original; but the curious reader will find it in Les Lettres du Maréchal de Saxe à la Princesse de Holstein (p. 20), published by the Société des Bibliophiles Français in 1831. A copy, presented by T. J. Dibdin to the Hon. Thomas Grenville, is in the possession of the British Museum.

[127] This is really very amusing. These pretty verses had been addressed, many years before, by Voltaire, to Adrienne Lecouvreur; and the Marshal not only coolly appropriates them, but adds insult to injury by calling them "rhymed prose"! One can imagine the indignation of the poet had this letter, by any chance, fallen into his hands. This was not the first time, however, that Voltaire's verses had been purloined by an unscrupulous lover. The charming lines, in English, which he addressed to Lady Hervey, beginning—

were subsequently transcribed by the lover of a Mrs. Harley, the wife of a London merchant, and formed part of the evidence on which her husband based his claim for a divorce.

[128] Nouveaux Lundis (1869), xi. 106-108.

[129] Manuscrit trouvé à la Bastille (1789), p. 5.

[130] We might add the testimony of Marmontel, who, from his very intimate relations with two prominent members of Maurice's seraglio, Mlles. Navarre and de Verrières, was without doubt well informed in regard to the Marshal's love-affairs. "He (Maurice de Saxe) always kept an opéra comique in his camp. Two performers belonging to this theatre, called Chantilly and Beaumenard, were his favourite mistresses; and he declared that their rivalry and caprices plagued him more than the Queen of Hungary's Hussars. I have read these words in one of his letters. For them it was that he neglected Mlle. Navarre."

[131] This was, of course, incorrect.

[132] Favart, Mémoires et Correspondance (edit. 1808), i. 30.

[133] A military surgeon at Brussels.

[134] The Marquis Dumesnil, afterwards Lieutenant-General of Dauphiné.

[135] Correspondance littéraire, vii. 464, cited by Desnoiresterres.

[136] Manuscrit trouvé à la Bastille (1789), p. 6.

[137] Collé, Journal et Mémoires (edit. 1868), i. 99. Collé, like Grimm, shows himself very severe on Justine, whom almost all other contemporary writers agree in representing as a charming woman and an actress of remarkable talent. He describes her as "an impudent creature, without intelligence or skill, who sings vaudevilles with repulsive indecency, and dances with movements which seem suggestive and disgusting to persons of the smallest delicacy."

[138] Manuscrit trouvé à la Bastille (1789) p. 8.

[139] Mlle. Rivière, one of Maurice's numerous mistresses.

[140] The Marquis de Paulmy, son of the Marquis d'Argenson, and afterwards Minister for War.

[141] Without doubt, Maurice de Saxe.

[142] Letter of December 6, 1749; Manuscrit trouvé à la Bastille, p. 36 et seq.

[143] Allusion to Justine's stage name of Chantilly, which the Marshal spelt Jantilly.

[144] Cited by Desnoiresterres, Épicuriens et lettrés, p. 253.

[145] Manuscrit trouvé à la Bastille (1789), p. 15.

[146] Œuvres de l'Abbe de Voisenon (edit. 1781), iv. 70.

[147] According to the official version, of a malignant fever: according to local rumour, of wounds received in a duel with the Prince de Conti, with whom he had a long-standing quarrel. The Marshal's biographer, M. Saint-René Taillandier, inclines, we observe, to the latter view; but the evidence he adduces does not seem to us altogether satisfactory.

[148] Compardon, Les Comédiens du Roi de la Troupe italienne, ii. 210.

[149] Desnoiresterres, Épicuriens et Lettrés, p. 315.

[150] Cited by Gueullette, Acteurs et Actrices du Temps passé, p. 260.

[151] Hawkins, "The French Stage in the Eighteenth Century," i. 355.

[152] Edmund de Goncourt, Mademoiselle Clairon, p. 4.

[153] Mémoires de Mademoiselle Clairon (edit. 1799), p. 235.

[154] Mémoires de Mademoiselle Clairon, p. 166 et seq.

[155] Mlle. Balicourt played queens and princesses, and had probably impersonated the Queen Elizabeth of Thomas Corneille's play on the evening when Clairon visited the Comédie. She made her début in 1727, and retired in 1738, on account of ill-health.

[156] Ravaisson, Archives de la Bastille, xii. 348.

"Mlle. Clairon contrived, during the early part of her career, to have three lovers at a time constantly in her train—one whom she deceived, one whom she received à la derobée, and one who lived on sighs."—"Memoirs of the Margravine of Anspach," i. 220.

[157] Charles Spencer, third Duke of Marlborough, and fifth Earl of Sunderland (1706-1758). He was, at this time, colonel of the 28th Foot, and, the following year, commanded a brigade at the battle of Dettingen. The name is written Mar*** in the French edition of Mlle. Clairon's Memoirs, but in full in the German.

[158] Cited by Campardon, Les Comédiens du Roi de la Troupe française.

[159] Cited by Edmond de Goncourt.

[160] Hawkins, "The French Stage in the Eighteenth Century," i. 375.

[161] If Marmontel and Bachaumont are to be believed, this inspiration was as often as not aided by wine, and a servant, glass and bottle in hand, was always in attendance in the wings.

[162] Edmond de Goncourt, Mademoiselle Clairon, p. 134.

[163] See p. 334 infra.

[164] See p. 322 infra.

[165] "Journal et Mémoires," ii. 33.

[166] In Le Franc de Pompignan's Didon.

[167] Madame Vestris, when a girl, was taken to visit Mlle. Clairon, who appeared to her "a little woman about forty years of age, who had once been pretty." Some days later, she went to the Comédie-Française to witness a performance of Andromaque, and, when she saw the celebrated actress in the part of Hermione, cried in astonishment: "That is not Mlle. Clairon!" She was assured that it was, but flatly refused to believe, saying: "See how tall that actress is! I have seen Mlle. Clairon at her house; she is a very little woman." It was Mlle. Clairon none the less.—Edmond de Goncourt, Mademoiselle Clairon, p. 171.

[168] "Private Correspondence of David Garrick," i. 356.

[169] "Private Correspondence of David Garrick," ii. 359.

[170] Cited by Adolphe Jullien, L'Histoire du costume au Théâtre.

[171] In her Mémoires, Mlle. Clairon has the effrontery to declare that she never had any cause to be ashamed of her love-affairs, and defies any one to name "a single man who had purchased her favours."

[172] Ravaisson, Archives de la Bastille, xii. 348.

[173] Edmond de Goncourt, Mademoiselle Clairon, p. 43 et seq.

[174] Ravaisson, Archives de la Bastille, xii. 292 et seq.

[175] Ravaisson, Archives de la Bastille, xii. 295. From the same report we learn that the Prince of Würtemberg, then on a visit to Paris, had fallen violently in love with Mlle. Gaussin, "et qu'il a commencé par lui faire un présent de 200 louis pour souper avec elle." Mlle. Clairon was probably no worse than the other divinities of the Comédie.

[176] Archives, xii. 295.

[177] This was not the only occasion upon which Marmontel trespassed upon Maurice's preserves. He took a similar liberty with the heart of Mlle. de Verrières, "on learning which the Marshal fell into a passion unworthy of so great a man."

[178] Mémoires de Marmontel (edit. 1804), i. 266.

[179] Marmontel tells us that Mlle. Clairon made "a very desirable mistress." "She had," says he, "all the charms of an agreeable character without any mixture of caprice; while her only desire, her most delicate attentions, were directed towards rendering her lover happy. So long as she loved, no one could be more faithful or more tender than she.... I left her charming, I found her equally, and, if possible, still more charming. What a pity that with so seductive a character so much levity should be joined, and that love so sincere, and even so faithful, should not have been more constant!"

[180] Mémoires de Marmontel (edit. 1804), ii. 41 et seq.

[181] Lekain had made his début at the Comédie-Française on September 14, 1750, as Titus in the Brutus of Voltaire. His admission into the company was bitterly opposed by Mlle. Clairon, who gave no other reason for her hostility than that his personal appearance—he was a remarkably plain man, short and thick-set, with a harsh voice and rough manners—was displeasing to her. Lekain retaliated by giving publicity to certain episodes in the lady's private life which did not redound to her credit. To which Mlle. Clairon rejoined by addressing him before the assembled company as follows: "I was well aware, Monsieur, that you were a man of repulsive appearance, but I did not know that you possessed a soul a thousand times more hideous than your person." Lekain left the theatre in a towering passion, and, with the assistance of another enemy of Mlle. Clairon, the Chevalier de la Morlière, composed a letter, "the most insulting, the most atrocious, that it was possible to conceive," which he sent to the actress. For this he was expelled from the Comédie, but subsequently, on writing another letter, this time of apology, reinstated. Soon after this affair, which was common knowledge, Lekain happened to be playing Æneas to the Dido of Mlle. Clairon, in Le Franc de Pompignan's tragedy. In one of the most touching passages of the play, the ill-fated queen, addressing her faithless lover, exclaims:—

"Je devrais te haïr, ingrat! Et je t'adore."

No sooner were the words out of her mouth, than the whole pit burst into such peals of merriment that it was fully five minutes before the performance could be continued.

[182] See p. 294 supra.

[183] Grimm says that Voltaire surrendered to the players his share of the profits, in order to help them to defray the expense of the costumes.

[184] Journal et Mémoires, ii. 33.

[185] Grimm, Correspondance littéraire, cited by Edmond de Goncourt, Mademoiselle Clairon, 131 et seq.

[186] "Report of Meunier to the Lieutenant of Police;" Ravaisson, Archives de la Bastille, xii. 367.

[187] Grimm, Correspondance littéraire, i. 377.

[188] Report of Meunier to Berryer, Lieutenant of Police, Archives de la Bastille, xii.

[189] Edmond de Goncourt, Mademoiselle Clairon, p. 170.

[190] We read in Mlle. Clairon's Mémoires: "'The walls alone of this house,' I said to myself, 'ought to make me feel the sublimity of the poet, and enable me to attain the talent of the actress. It is in this sanctuary that I ought to live and die.'" We fear that the sanctuary was, on occasion, somewhat profaned, since the lady was in the habit of entertaining here not only dames of high degree, but some of the most dissolute members of Paris society.

[191] "M. Carle Van Loo's picture, in which Mlle. Clairon is painted as Medea, had a great reputation while it was still unfinished. Hardly had the artist opened his studio, than all Paris crowded to admire his chef d'œuvre. Never did work obtain more unanimous praise."—Le Tableau de Mlle. Clairon, par M. Carle Vanloo, a manuscript document cited by Edmond de Goncourt. When it was nearly completed, Louis XV. expressed a wish to see it, and came to Van Loo's studio, while the actress was sitting to him. "You are indeed fortunate," said he to the painter, "to have been inspired by such a model;" and, turning to the lady, added: "And you, Mademoiselle, have reason to congratulate yourself on being immortalised by such an artist." He then announced his intention of defraying the cost of the frame, which came to 5000 livres.

[192] Forty thousand francs a year, a house, a coach, and a table for six persons.

[193] Mémoires de Mademoiselle Clairon (edit. 1799), 307 et seq.

[194] In reference to the arrangement of these names, Monnet wrote to Garrick: "The drawing you gave Mlle. Clairon is engraved; it is now on sale, and M. de Crébillon is annoyed because they have placed his father after Voltaire, that is to say, below him: it is the last of the volumes on which Mlle. Clairon is leaning. I have thrown the blame on M. Gravelot, telling him that you held too high an opinion of his father's talent to commit such an error."—"Private Correspondence of David Garrick," ii. 442.

[195] Collé, Journal et Mémoires, iii. 6. Collé was himself intensely disgusted by the conduct of Mlle. Clairon's fanatical admirers, and declares that if medals were to be struck in honour of an actress, who, after all, was nothing but a parrot, then statues—nay, pyramids—ought to be raised to the authors whose works she interpreted.

[196] She refused first, the protection, and, afterwards, the hand of the Marquis de Gouffier, the latter on the ground that "while esteeming herself too much to be his mistress, she esteemed herself too little to be his wife." On her retirement from the stage in 1783, Louis XVI. granted her a special pension, "as if to show that virtue under his reign was as profitable as vice had been under his predecessor."—Hawkins, "The French Stage in the Eighteenth Century," ii. 107 and 299.

[197] L' Année Littéraire par M. Fréron, Lettre V. Janvier 17, cited by Edmond de Goncourt.

[198] To which institution women of loose character who had misbehaved themselves were sent.

[199] Collé, Mémoires et Journal, iii. 27 et seq.

[200] Collé, Mémoires et Journal, iii. 31.

[201] "Private Correspondence of David Garrick," ii. 432. Soon after this, Garrick very generously offered Mlle. Clairon a loan of 500 guineas, which, however, was not accepted.

[202] It seems to have been as a kind of return for the homage paid her at Ferney, that, towards the end of 1772, Mlle. Clairon organised, at her house in Paris, the apotheosis of Voltaire, "in which she displayed all the riches of her imagination." "The bust of Voltaire," says Bachaumont, "was placed pompously in the midst of the assembly, when M. Marmontel, the coryphée of the house, presented an ode, composed by himself, in honour of the new god of Pindar. Mlle. Clairon, habited as a priestess of Apollo, placed a crown of laurel on the bust, and recited the ode with the most vehement enthusiasm. The assembly applauded loudly." This piece of adulation, grotesque though it was, seems to have been far from displeasing to the Patriarch, who returned thanks in a letter in verse, wherein he assured the lady that "his glory was entirely her work."—Gueullette, Acteurs et Actrices du Temps passé, p. 316.

[203] Mlle. Clairon had demanded a pension of 1500 livres, though thirty years' service was required to entitle her to this. It is probable, however, that her request would have been granted, but for the opposition of Lekain, who had not forgiven her for her treatment of him in years gone by.

[204] The takings, at a louis a head, amounted to 24,000 livres, which sum, if we are to believe Bachaumont, was spent by Molé, not in paying his debts, but in buying diamonds for his mistress.

[205] Correspondance littéraire, vi. 75.

[206] Letter of Madame Riccoboni to Garrick, January 29, 1767.

[207] "During this time, Mlle. Clairon was living at the Margrave's expense, with four French servants in livery, Madame Senay, her femme-de-chambre, and a lackey, besides a French cook. The Margrave supplied her with the best wines from his cellar. Her expenses were enormous, and all paid from the Chamber of Finances of Anspach. These facts I had from the Maréchaux of the Court."—"Memoirs of Elizabeth Berkeley, Margravine of Anspach," i. 210.

[208] Horace Walpole to Sir Horace Mann, March 7, 1785.

[209] Edmond de Goncourt, Mademoiselle Clairon, p. 385.

[210] Souvenirs de Madame Vigée Lebrun, i. 83.

[211] Its effect was less terrifying upon "an amorous and jealous intendant," who mistook the ghostly visitant's cry for that of a lover in the flesh, and had the bad taste to remark to Mlle. Clairon that "the signals of her rendezvous were somewhat too noisy." And this after the poor lady had just recovered from a swoon lasting nearly a quarter of an hour!

[212] Mémoires de Mademoiselle Clairon (edit. 1799), p. 1 et seq.

[213] Edmond de Goncourt, Mademoiselle Clairon, p. 466.

[214] Gueullette, Acteurs et Actrices du Temps passé, p. 320.

[215] Marie Pauline Ménard. Mlle. Clairon had adopted her when a little girl and provided her dot, which led to a widespread belief that she was her natural daughter. This, however, was not the case.

[216] Gueullette, Acteurs et Actrices du Temps passé, p. 321.