Part 16 (1/2)
In the spring of 1742, La Noue, whose tenancy of the Rouen theatre had not been attended with the success he had antic.i.p.ated, and whom the outbreak of the Austrian Succession War had compelled to relinquish a project of taking a company to Berlin, returned to Paris, to make his _debut_ at the Comedie-Francaise. His troupe was in consequence dispersed, and Mlle. Clairon, finding herself without employment, joined a travelling company which had been engaged to perform at Ghent, then the headquarters of the English army. Here, she tells us, she was received with enthusiastic applause, and ”my lord” Marlborough[157] laid his immense fortune at her feet. But Mlle. Clairon was, above all things, a patriot, and ”my lord” and his immense fortune had no attractions for her. ”The contempt which the English nation affected for mine,” she says, ”rendered every individual belonging to it insupportable to me. It was impossible for me to listen to them without expressing my dislike.” So strong indeed was her aversion to the enemies of her country that it was only with the greatest difficulty that she could be prevailed upon to contribute to their entertainment. Finally, she could endure the situation no longer, and, in spite of the efforts of her comrades to detain her, procured a pa.s.sport and escaped to Dunquerque.
After a short stay at Dunquerque, Mlle. Clairon proceeded to Paris.
According to her own account, she had while there received an order from the Gentlemen of the Chamber directing her to make her _debut_ at the Opera. From La Janiere's report, however, it appears that ”conscious that her talents were too sublime for the provinces, and that she was destined to s.h.i.+ne in a greater sphere,” she came on her own initiative to the capital, where she was for some months without employment.
Ultimately, continues the report, she ”accepted the propositions” of the wealthy farmer-general, La Popeliniere, who posed as a patron of the arts, and, through his influence, mounted the stage of the Palais-Royal.
However that may be, to the Opera she was admitted, and there, in March 1743, made her _debut_ in the role of Venus, in _Hesione_. In her _Memoires_, she admits that though she had ”a prodigious extent of voice,” she was but an indifferent musician, and notwithstanding the fact that the _Mercure_ of the following May contained a poem in which the writer declared that, so long as Clairon remained on earth, he was content to renounce his hopes of Heaven, her reception by the public seems to have left a good deal to be desired. We also gather that she was dissatisfied with the treatment she received from her colleagues--a fact which can hardly occasion surprise if there be any truth in the story that, immediately upon entering the Opera, she had publicly announced her intention of soundly boxing the ears of any lady who dared to address her by the odious name of ”Fretillon,”--and soon determined to seek fame and fortune on another stage. ”I had,” she says, ”the good fortune to succeed, but I found that so little talent was required in this theatre, in order to appear possessed of the highest abilities, there seemed to me to be so little merit in merely following the modulations of the musicians, the manners of the performers were so distasteful to me, and the smallness of the salary was so absolutely degrading, that, at the end of four months, I signified my intention of resigning.”
From the Opera, Mlle. Clairon pa.s.sed to the Comedie-Francaise, but not without encountering many obstacles by the way. Virtue counted for very little at the Academie Royale de Musique, except as a marketable commodity; it counted for a very great deal among the Comediens du Roi, or rather they chose to pretend that it did, which came to much the same thing where the admission of a damsel of questionable reputation was concerned. Led by her old employer, La Noue, and Mlle. Gaussin, several members of the troupe banded themselves together to oppose the admission of the now notorious ”Fretillon” by every means in their power. The latter, on her side, did not lack for supporters, and, for some weeks, a war of pamphlets raged, in which the characters of the different combatants were torn to shreds, to the great delight of the town.
Finally, the King's new mistress, Madame de Chateauroux, and her sister, Madame de Lauraguais, intervened on behalf of the young actress, who made so favourable an impression upon the old Duc de Gesvres, at an interview which, in his capacity as First Gentleman of the Chamber, he had very reluctantly accorded her, that, a few days later, she received the coveted _ordre de debut_:--
”We, Duc de Gesvres, _pair de France_, First Gentleman of the King's Chamber, direct the troupe of his Majesty's French players to cause the demoiselle Clairon to forthwith make her _debut_ in order that we may be able to judge of her abilities as an actress.
”(Signed) THE DUC DE GESVRES.
”_Executed at Versailles, September 10, 1743._”[158]
In the provinces, Mlle. Clairon's _emploi_ had been that of a _soubrette_, and her experience of tragedy was as yet very slight; for, though she was acquainted with some half-dozen of the leading tragic roles, she had never played any of them more than twice. The _semainiers_, as a number of players who governed the Comedie in rotation were called, were, therefore, not a little surprised when the young lady informed them that it was her intention to make her first appearance as a votary of Melpomene. But their surprise gave way to profound astonishment, when, after they had consented and suggested to her the parts of Constance in _Ines de Castro_ or Aricie in _Phedre_, the _debutante_ replied, with a smile of disdain, that such parts were too small for her, and that it was her wish to play Phedre herself--Phedre, the most difficult character in the whole tragic repertoire; Phedre, one of the most celebrated roles of Mlle. Dumesnil!
”My proposal,” she tells us, ”made every one smile; they a.s.sured me that the public would not suffer me to finish the first act. I became hot with indignation, but pride sustained me, and I replied as quietly and as majestically as I could: 'Messieurs, you will allow me to play it, or you will not. I have the right to make my choice. I will either play Phedre or nothing.'”
In the end, she was permitted to have her way. According to her own account, she disdained to rehea.r.s.e her part, and, on the fateful evening, September 19, 1743, did not arrive at the theatre until just before the curtain rose. The house was crowded, chiefly with persons who had come thither in the confident antic.i.p.ation of enjoying a hearty laugh at what they were pleased to consider the absurd pretensions of little ”Fretillon.” They came to laugh and perhaps to hiss; they remained to applaud, and to applaud enthusiastically, for, long before the first act was over, it was apparent to all that a great _tragedienne_ was before them. ”It was Phedre herself in all her sovereign splendour, in all the majesty of pa.s.sion,” and seldom indeed has that immortal queen of sorrow met with so worthy a representative.
”The 19th of this month,” says the _Mercure_, ”the players have revived at the theatre Racine's tragedy of _Phedre_, in which Mlle. Clairon, a new actress, has made her _debut_. She represented the princ.i.p.al personage amidst general applause. She is a young woman of much intelligence, who expresses with a very charming voice the sentiments which she has the art to understand. One may say that Nature has lavished upon her talents of the happiest order to enable her to fill all the characters suited to her youth, the agreeableness of her person, and her voice.”
A little brochure, ent.i.tled _Lettre a Madame la Marquise V. de G---- sur le debut de Mademoiselle Clairon a la Comedie-Francaise_, supplies us with an interesting portrait of the actress:--
”Mademoiselle Clairon is about twenty-two or twenty-three years of age.
She is exceedingly fair; her head is well set. Her eyes are fine, full of fire, and sparkle with voluptuousness. Her mouth is furnished with beautiful teeth; her bosom is well formed. One gains in examining her a pleasure which the other senses share with the sight. Her figure is shapely, she carries herself very gracefully. A modest and pleasing manner interests one in her favour. Although she is not a finished beauty, one must resemble her to be charming. Her wit is sparkling, her conversation sweet and engaging. Musician and actress, lover of the arts and their pupil, she is qualified for everything, and, without making any effort, she becomes naturally whatever she wishes to be.”[159]
Mlle. Clairon continued her _debuts_ with success. On the following evening, she gave an admirable rendering of the part of Zen.o.bie, and this was succeeded by further triumphs as Ariane, electre, and the Atalide of _Bajazet_. She played also several important roles in comedy, among them the Dorine of _Tartuffe_. But her acting here was distinctly inferior to her performances in tragedy; a circ.u.mstance which is not a little singular when we remember that the reputation she had brought with her from the provinces had been gained entirely in the former _genre_. Possibly, recognising that her true vocation was tragedy, she was now somewhat careless of the impression she might make in other roles.
On October 29, 1743, an order from the Duc de Gesvres conferred on the young _debutante_ a _demi-part_ in the troupe of the Comedie-Francaise.
In the following December, she was accorded a further quarter share, and, exactly a year later, obtained a full part.
The middle of the eighteenth century was the golden era of the Comedie-Francaise. What a galaxy of talent do we find there!
Mesdemoiselles Clairon, Dumesnil, Gaussin, and Dangeville; Grandval, Mole, Lekain, Preville, and Brizard! Never before and never since have so many celebrated players appeared together upon one stage. And of this brilliant band, Mlle. Clairon was the ruler; ruling not so much by force of talent, for Mlle. Dumesnil had greater natural talent, nor by beauty, for Mlle. Gaussin was more beautiful, but by her remarkable intelligence, her unwearying industry, and her strength of will. Only Mlle. Dumesnil could compare with her upon the stage; off it, Mlle.
Clairon reigned supreme.
For nearly twenty-two years, Mlle. Clairon disputed the dramatic sceptre with her celebrated rival, inferior to the latter in parts which required the combination of tragic force with pathos and tenderness, but incomparably her superior in characters of the sterner type, especially those into which dignity and an element of lofty and inflexible pride entered.[160] The methods of the two great actresses could hardly have been more dissimilar. ”The one was all temperament,” says Edmond de Goncourt, ”the other all study and art.” Mlle. Dumesnil frequently came upon the stage with no very definite idea as to the tone or att.i.tude she would a.s.sume in certain pa.s.sages, trusting to a happy inspiration, which, it must be acknowledged, seldom failed her.[161] With Mlle.
Clairon, who made her art the subject of the most profound and unremitting study, every tone and every gesture had been carefully rehea.r.s.ed beforehand, and the character elaborated in its minutest details. So numerous indeed were her private rehearsals that she insensibly carried with her her theatrical air into private life, and her friends laughingly declared that she called for her fan and her coach in the tone of Agrippina, and spoke to her lackey like a queen addressing the captain of her guards.[162] But this artificiality was so dexterously concealed, she possessed in such a supreme degree the art of concealing art, so dignified and graceful were her movements, and so marvellous her command of facial expression, that even the warmest admirers of Mlle. Dumesnil and her school of acting and the most captious of critics were compelled to acknowledge her charm, while the ordinary playgoer was ”transported with enthusiasm.”