Part 6 (2/2)

He repeated this so often, and his manner appeared so strange, that his colleagues feared his mind had suddenly become affected. But, after a while, he recovered his usual cheerfulness, and invited his brother-in-law, Nicolas Desmares, and several others to dine with him at the tavern, in order to settle some dispute which had arisen between two of them. Scarcely, however, had they reached the door, than Champmesle staggered, put his hands to his forehead, and fell, face downwards, on the floor. When his friends raised him up, he was dead.

III

ADRIENNE LECOUVREUR

Although not the greatest, Adrienne Lecouvreur is perhaps the most interesting, and certainly the most sympathetic, figure in the history of the French stage. She was the first actress to enjoy not only renown in the theatre, but consideration in society; she was beloved by the greatest soldier of her time; she was on terms of the closest friends.h.i.+p with the greatest poet, and inspired him to a most touching elegy; while the terrible suspicion attaching to her death and the deplorable scandal connected with her burial have invested her with a halo of romance. She seems, moreover, to possess an attraction for French writers which is shared by no other actress. She has found a well-informed contemporary biographer in the dramatist d'Allainval; Sainte-Beuve has given her a place in his _Lundis_, and Michelet one in his _Histoire de France_; Lemontey p.r.o.nounced an eloquent _eloge_ of her before the Academy; Regnier has allotted her a chapter in his _Souvenirs et etudes du theatre_, and M. Larroumet has consecrated to her a fine study in his _etudes de litterature et d'art_. Finally, she has been made the subject of a famous tragedy,[61] in which the heroine was impersonated by the greatest French actress of the nineteenth century, Rachel.

Within recent years, interest in Adrienne Lecouvreur has been greatly stimulated owing to the publication by M. Georges Monval, the learned archivist of the Comedie-Francaise, of a collection of the actress's letters, preceded by an admirable biography, containing much information about the early part of her theatrical career, of which, up to that time, little or nothing was known. These letters, besides affording us a valuable insight into Adrienne's character, contain, in the opinion of eminent French critics, some truly exquisite pages, which ent.i.tle the writer to a place beside the Caylus, the Staals, the a.s.ses, and other mistresses of the language of her time.

Adrienne Lecouvreur was born on April 5, 1692, at Damery, a little town of Champagne, overlooking the smiling valley of the Marne. Her father was a journeyman hatter, named Robert Couvreur;[62] her mother's name was Marie Bouty. Soon after Adrienne was born, her parents removed to Fismes, between Rheims and Soissons, and, about the year 1702, migrated to Paris, where they resided in the Rue des Fosses-Saint-Germain-des-Pres, close to the Comedie-Francaise, the little girl being sent to the Couvent des Filles de l'Instruction Chretienne, Rue du Gindre, one of the convents at which a certain number of poor children received a free education.

Adrienne appears to have had a very unhappy childhood. In a letter in verse which she addressed, many years later, to her faithful friend d'Argental, she declares that a divinity ”furious and jealous” seated herself near her cradle and controlled her destiny from her earliest years. In the ”ruin” where she was born,--

”Residaient le misere et l'aigreur, L'emportement, la grossiere fureur.”

This last statement was probably true enough, as her father was a man of the most violent temper, who, after leading his family a sad life, finally became insane and had to be sent to the _maison de sante_ at Charleville. Here, Adrienne tells us, the unfortunate man distinguished himself by ”setting fire to the four corners of his room, and concealing himself in the chimney, which he had previously stopped up with the coverlet of his bed.” His intention apparently was to make his escape amid the confusion which would follow the discovery of the fire, but, in the result, he was nearly burned to death. In spite of all she seems to have suffered at her father's hands, Adrienne never ceased to love him, and saw in this calamity ”the chief of all her misfortunes.”

When Adrienne was thirteen, a chance circ.u.mstance revealed her vocation for the theatre. She and some other children of her quarter took it into their heads to perform some plays for their own amus.e.m.e.nt, and met to rehea.r.s.e at a grocer's shop in the Rue Ferou. The young people had the hardihood to attempt _Polyeucte_, Adrienne playing Pauline, one of the most touching of the great Corneille's heroines, and reciting the famous dramatist's verses with a fire and pathos which eclipsed Mlle. Duclos herself.

The news of their rehearsals reached the ears of a certain Madame du Gue, the wife of a President of the Parliament of Paris and a great patroness of the drama. Madame la Presidente invited the little players to give a representation in the courtyard of her hotel in the Rue Garanciere, where she had a stage erected, and asked a large and distinguished company to witness the performance. Struck by the novelty of the entertainment, a great many people came who had not been invited, and, despite the efforts of eight tall Swiss, the door was forced, and when the curtain--or whatever did duty for it--rose, the courtyard, large as it was, was inconveniently crowded.

It had been arranged that the performance should consist of Pierre Corneille's famous tragedy, to be followed by a lively little play, in one act, and in verse, called _Le Deuil_, the joint work of Hauteroche and Thomas Corneille. In those days, we may observe, a tragedy was almost invariably followed by a comedy, the idea presumably being to dissipate the sad impressions produced by the former, and send the audience home in good spirits.

In default of a costume suitable to the period in which the action of _Polyeucte_ pa.s.ses, Adrienne had borrowed a gown of fas.h.i.+onable make from Madame du Gue's waiting-woman, which, unfortunately, was very much too large for her. But the little actress's talent triumphed over sartorial disadvantages, and her impersonation of the faithful wife of Polyeucte struggling against the memory of her first love was perfectly extraordinary for one of her age. ”She charmed every one by a quite novel style of recitation, so natural and so true that it was the unanimous opinion that she had but a step to take to become the greatest actress ever seen upon the French stage.”

Adrienne's efforts were ably seconded by a lad named Menou, who played Severe, and entered so thoroughly into the spirit of his role that, as he uttered the words: ”_Soutiens-moi, ce coup de foudre est grand!_” he fell to the ground in a swoon, and had to be carried away and bled.

After which, he pluckily returned and finished his part.

_Polyeucte_ concluded, the little actors were about to begin their performance of _Le Deuil_, and every one was looking forward to see whether Adrienne would shape as well in comedy as she had in tragedy, when the archers of the Lieutenant of Police suddenly appeared on the scene. The members of the Comedie-Francaise had got wind of this entertainment, composed of two pieces from their own repertoire; and, indeed, several of them had a.s.sisted at it. The popularity of the national theatre was just then much weakened by the rivalry of the Opera and the unlicensed playhouses of the fairs in the neighbourhood of Paris, and they feared that by tolerating such performances as the present one their receipts would be still further diminished. They accordingly sent a deputation to d'Argenson, begging him to uphold the exclusive privileges conferred upon the Comedie-Francaise at its foundation, and to nip the enterprise of their youthful compet.i.tors in the bud.

The police informed Madame du Gue that they had come with orders from their chief to arrest the little players. But that good lady begged the _exempt_ in charge for a short respite, and despatched a messenger to d'Argenson, who consented to pardon the delinquents, on condition that the performances should cease. Madame la Presidente's guests, accordingly, were disappointed of their comedy; but it was performed none the less, for the Grand Prieur de Vendome, head of the Order of Malta, learning of what had occurred, invited Adrienne and her comrades to the Temple, which was outside the ordinary jurisdiction of the police; and here they gave several performances, in which the little girl confirmed the great impression she had made at Madame du Gue's.

”After which,” says d'Allainval, ”the party was entirely disbanded.”

Adrienne had an aunt, a laundress, who numbered among her customers an actor named Le Grand, who had recently been admitted a _societaire_ of the Comedie-Francaise, and was in the habit of increasing his professional income by training pupils for the stage. Le Grand was an amusing character. The son of a surgeon-major of the Invalides, he had received a fair education, and, after serving his apprentices.h.i.+p in the provinces, had left France to accept an engagement at the Polish Court, where he had remained for some years. He seems to have owed his admission to the Comedie-Francaise to the patronage of no less a person than the Grand Dauphin himself, for, though an excellent teacher, he was an actor of but moderate ability, and was, moreover, so singularly ill-favoured that for some time he could not appear on the stage without being exposed to bursts of derisive laughter. His ready wit and imperturbable good-humour, however, eventually gained him the favour of the public. One night when he was being unmercifully chaffed by the pit, he came to the front of the stage, and coolly addressed his persecutors as follows: ”Gentlemen, it will be easier for you to accustom yourselves to my face than for me to change it.”

From that moment, his popularity was a.s.sured, but, to the last, his ungainly figure and comical face proved a source of merriment to the less seriously disposed patrons of the theatre, especially when he happened to be undertaking an heroic part.

Le Grand's forte lay in the writing rather than the acting of plays. In this he was very successful, for, like Dancourt, he possessed the happy knack of giving dramatic form to the topics of the hour. Thus when, in October 1721, the notorious robber Cartouche was awaiting his trial, Le Grand made him the central figure of a comedy, called _Cartouche, ou les Voleurs_, and paid several visits to the Chatelet to study and converse with the prisoner. The play, as might be expected, drew crowded houses, and the grateful author sent Cartouche a hundred crowns as his share of the profits. But that worthy, whose vanity had at first been flattered by the idea of figuring as the hero of a play, now complained that the piece might prejudice his case, and, after the thirteenth performance, it was stopped by order of the Lieutenant of Police. Le Grand's best play was his _Roi de Cocagne_, a farcical comedy with interludes by Jean Baptiste Quinault, which had a great vogue, and is highly spoken of by August Wilhelm von Schlegel in his ”Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature.”

Proud of her little niece's talent, Adrienne's aunt mentioned her to Le Grand, who, after hearing the girl recite, at once perceived the great future which lay before her, and ”decided to become her second master, Nature having been her first.” He accordingly took her to live with him,[63] gave her lessons, and found her opportunities for acting in several amateur companies. Finally he persuaded Robert Couvreur, whose financial affairs had reached a very parlous state, to allow his daughter to make the stage her profession.

Knowing, from his own experience, that the provinces were the best school and the nursery for the Comedie-Francaise, Le Grand recommended Adrienne to an old colleague of his, a Mlle. Fonpre, whose husband had formerly been manager of the Brussels theatre, and who had just obtained from the magistrates of Lille a three years' monopoly of dramatic performances in that town. Before her the girl recited some scenes from the _Cid_, which so delighted Mlle. Fonpre that she engaged her on the spot, and gave her permission to bring her father with her to Flanders.

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