Denied the last rites and Christian burial because she refused to renounce her profession, celebrated French actress Adrienne Lecouvreur (1692-1730) was disposed of in a most barbarous manner immediately after her death.
The controversial action ordered by the church and carried out by local officials, may be interpreted as the result of the centuries-old struggles between the monolithic church and the theatre. Though earlier struggles subsided somewhat, the church in France renewed hostilities following publication of Molière’s 1664 play Tartuffe or The Imposter, which satirized hypocrisy in the church.
Adrienne Lecouvreur with Comédie-Française
Born to a poor family of the name Couvreur in Damery, northern France, Adrienne’s natural acting talent became apparent when she performed as an amateur at age 14. Under the tutelage of actor-manager Paul Legrand, she made her first professional appearance on stage at Lille, and served a 10-year apprenticeship while touring the provinces.
In 1717, she debuted in Paris with the Comédie-Française in Prosper Jolyot Crébillon’s Électre. By presenting a more natural and unaffected delivery style uncharacteristic at the time, the charming, beautiful actress became extremely popular.
Celebrated actor-playwright Michel Baron, a friend of Molière, and member of Comédie-Française, returned from retirement to coach and to perform with her. Audiences’ delight with her courageous abandonment of her predecessors’ stilted elocution earned her great success with the company for 13 years.
Comte de Saxe Relationship
She aroused jealousies with her successful professional and her social life, which included participation in salons with members of the French intelligentsia. As church decrees and social laws kept actresses from marriage to men of higher status, she and numerous women of the stage accepted gifts and protection from admirers as the only means of supplementing income.
Mistress of Maurice, Comte de Saxe for about nine years, she devoted herself completely to him, and sold her jewellery and fine plate to provide funds to support him in his ill-fated campaign to be elected Duke of Courland.
In the eyes of the church, she overstepped the boundaries of her position as a woman of lower class birth by developing a circle of patrons including the nobility, the king, and the intelligentsia. Clerics feared any infiltration of performers into aristocratic circles, and the influence they may have on the most important members of their congregations.
Church Opposition
The church, strongly opposed to the theatre in general and performing females in particular, considered them equal only to prostitutes, and saw Lecouvreur’s personal drama as further cause for condemnation. As it controlled cemeteries, and would not allow her burial in sanctified ground, or in the unsanctified portion of the grounds, it sought what it believed would be a victory over the profession and the much-loved actress.
It wished to destroy what it perceived as a rival power – public worship of her performances. Removal and disposition of her body occurred during the night with officials’ desire to endure as little scandal as possible. Denial of a gravesite eliminated the possibility that individuals would visit the site and pay homage.
Voltaire’s Poignant Poem
The church failed in its attempt to make Lecouvreur disappear, as poets and playwrights repeatedly referred to her in their works. Lecouvreur’s long-time friend and admirer Voltaire wrote an elegy, Sur la mort de Mlle. Lecouvreur, and continued to call attention to the despicable act. Though banned by authorities, the widely circulated elegy was an “eloquent insistence upon Lecouvreur’s individual dignity”.
Charles-Augustin de Ferriol of Argental, executor of Lecouvreur’s Will, having previously ignored the need for such commemoration, erected a plaque in her honour at 115 rue de Grenelle in 1786.
Though reports that the actress was poisoned by a personal rival became widely circulated, an autopsy showed that she died of chronic inflammation. In 1849, Eugène Scribe and Ernest Legouvé exploited the sensational aspects of her life (including the possibility of poisoning) in their play Adrienne Lecouvreur. Francesco Cilea’s opera Adriana Lecouvreur based on the play, debuted in Milan in 1902.
Despite the church’s efforts, theatre survived and the story of Adrienne Lecouvreur lives on.
Sources
Jack Richtman, Adrienne Lecouvreur: The Actress and the Age, Prentice-Hall, 1971
Christine Courtland Mather Adrienne Lecouvreur’s Disputed Rites, 2001
Kathleen Airdrie - Kathleen has thirty years' freelance writing experience covering history, biographical profiles, environmental and social issues
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