From the many verses written in her honor by her faithful friend, Voltaire, the following are selected:
Seule de la Nature elle a su le langage. Elle embellit son art, elle en changea les loix. L’esprit, le sentiment, le goût fut son partage, L’Amour fut dans ses yeux, et parla par sa voix.
The drama, _Adrienne Lecouvreur_, by Scribe and Legouvé, was written in 1848. Owing to the changing political conditions of the time, its presentation was delayed until the following year. During this period it is probable that certain alterations and additions were made in the play. In its completed form it was given for the first time at the Théâtre-Français, April 14, 1849. The celebrated actress Mlle. Rachel appeared in the title rôle.
It is a so-called _comédie-drame_--a play in which there is a mingling of comic and tragic elements. It ends in tragedy.
The play deals sympathetically with the love of the talented Adrienne Lecouvreur, of the Comédie-Française, and Maurice, comte de Saxe (1696-1750). It portrays in a vivid and interesting way the rivalry and hostility of the Princesse de Bouillon and the tragic death of Adrienne.
The close connection of the plot with the Comédie-Française, where the entire second act takes place,[A] and the many literary allusions add much to the interest.
[A] The idea of a play within a play may possibly have been suggested by the tragedy of _Saint Genest_ (1645) by Jean Rotrou (1609-1650).
The action takes place at Paris in the month of March, 1730.
_Adrienne Lecouvreur_ is a skillfully written play. Francisque Sarcey (1827-1899) calls it “une pièce bien faite et très bien faite.” (_Quarante ans de théâtre_, IV, 261.) In general construction it is a compromise between the conflicting ideas of the classicists and the romanticists. This is evident in the treatment of the three unities. Unity of action is maintained, although several subordinate intrigues are suggested. Unity of place, in the strict sense, is disregarded, since the five acts occur in five different places. However, all are at Paris. Unity of time is essentially preserved, although its limits are somewhat exceeded.
Moreover, the author has adapted the play to the spirit and conditions of his own time. It is an epitome of France in 1848. One of Scribe’s methods was to combine in his personages historic characters of the time of the action with others who were his own contemporaries. Thus the characters in his plays are often composite in origin, and the different elements are combined and modified with judgment and skill. Probably he has never been excelled in the unerring dexterity with which he gathered the delicate threads of reality and fiction and wove them into a dramatic texture. There are striking parallels between some of the leading characters in _Adrienne Lecouvreur_ and certain prominent persons of the middle of the nineteenth century. These resemblances are particularly marked between Adrienne and Mlle. Rachel (1820-1858), the actress who created this rôle in 1849; also between Maurice de Saxe and Napoléon III. Similar parallels could be shown between other contemporaries of Scribe and various personages of the play. These similarities have been carefully indicated by Mr. John Davis Batchelder in his interesting study: _Un Détail de Technique dans un Drame d’Eugène Scribe_ (_“Adrienne Lecouvreur” et les influences de 1848_), Paris, 1909.