Born: 5 April 1692, France
Died: 20 March 1730
Country most active: France
Also known as: Adrienne Couvreur, Adriana Lecouvreur
From Famous Women: An Outline of Feminine Achievement Through the Ages With Life Stories of Five Hundred Noted Women. Written by Joseph Adelman, published 1926 by Ellis M Lonow Company:
Adrienne Lecouvreur (1692-1726), a French actress. She was the daughter of a hatter who established himself in Paris in 1702, and her dramatic genius was evinced by her performances in private theatricals while she was employed as a laundress. For a number of years she journeyed with traveling companies from town to town, acquiring in this rude apprenticeship a thorough knowledge of her art. In 1717 she made her appearance at the Comédie Française and was soon recognized as the first French actress of her day, excelling both in tragedy and comedy. Among her lovers was Count Maurice of Saxony, and when he needed money to enable him to reconquer Courland, Adrienne raised for him 40,000 francs by selling her plate and jewelry.
She died suddenly, and was said to have been poisoned by the Duchess de Bouillon, another mistress of Maurice; but the truth of this statement has never been established. Burial in consecrated ground was refused to her remains, and Voltaire, in protest, wrote a poem which involved him in trouble, so that he was obliged to leave Paris.
Adrienne Lecouvreur is the most sympathetic figure in the history of the French stage,—as an actress with a delicate, refined style she brought soul to a brilliant but artificial theatre, while as a gentle, lovable woman, her short life and her sad end are filled with tender romance.
In 1849 Scribe and Legouve made her career the theme of a play, which achieved great celebrity from the representation by Rachel of the character of the heroine.
The following is excerpted from “400 Outstanding Women of the World and the Costumology of Their Time” by Minna Moscherosch Schmidt, published in 1933.
“Queen of comedians,” Adrienne Lecouvreur was, from 1717 to 1730, star of the Comedie Francaise, where she did honor to the French stage through her genius. She had a passionate love for her art, and this was probably the cause of her success. Equal to the greatest on the stage, she is remembered as a woman of exceptional character, whose charm captivated even the most fastidious. Her regard for Maurice de Saxe places her among the great lovers of history, and after her mysterious death, public opinion was that she had been poisoned, she wore a double halo of glory and of love.