mpelled to repulse lovers of the
highest nobility.

Her principal lovers were Voltaire, whom she nursed through smallpox,
spending many hours in reading to him, and Maurice of Saxony; she had
children of whom the latter was the father, and it was she who, by
selling her plate and jewelry, supplied him with forty thousand francs
in order to enable him to equip his soldiers when he proposed to
recover the principality of Courland. She was generous to prodigality;
but when she died, the Church refused to grant consecrated ground for
the reception of her remains, although it condescended to accept her
munificent gift of a hundred thousand francs to charity. Her death was
said to have been caused by her rival, the Duchesse de Bouillon,
by means of poisoned pastilles administered by a young abbe. In
the night, her body was carried by two street porters to the Rue de
Bourgogne, where it was buried. Voltaire, in great indignation at
such injustice, wrote his stinging poem _La Mort de Mademoiselle Le
Couvreur_, which was the cause of his being again obliged to leave
Paris.

The popularity of the Comedie Francaise declined after the deaths of
Baron and Adrienne Le Couvreur, until the appearance of Mlle. Clairon,
who was one of the greatest actresses of France. Born in Flanders in
1723, at a very early age she had wandered about the provinces, from
theatre to theatre, with itinerant troupes, winning a great reputation
at Rouen. In 1738 the leading actresses were Mlle. Quinault, who
had retired to enjoy her immense fortune in private life, and Mlle.
Dumesnil, the great _tragedienne_. When Mlle. Clairon received an
offer to play alternately with the favorite, Mlle. Dumesnil, she
selected as her opening part _Phedre_, the _role de triomphe_ of her
rival.

The appearance of a debutante was an event, and its announcement
brought out a large crowd; the presumption of a provincial artist
in selecting a role in which to rival a great favorite had excited
general ridicule, and an unusually large audience had assembled,
expecting to witness an ignominious failure. Mlle. Clairon's stately
figure, the dignity and grace of her carriage, "her finely chiselled
features, her noble brow, her air of command, her clear, deep,
impassioned voice," made an immediate impression upon the audience.
She was unanimously acknowledged as superior to Mlle. Dumesnil, and
the entire social and literary world hastened to do her homage.

Mlle. Clairon did as