Queens of the French Stage Part 21

In good truth, an object-lesson for the moralist to dilate upon!

Clairon, the haughty, the incomparable Clairon, the idol of town and theatre; Clairon, to have met whom in society was the proudest boast of the braggart in _Candide_; Clairon, for whose smiles a King (according to Grimm) had sighed in vain, and a Serene Highness--not in vain; Clairon, whose cla.s.sic features had been painted by Van Loo and sculptured by Lemoine; Clairon, in whose honour gold medals had been struck, and whose praises "bards sublime" had chanted--forced to beg her bread at the door of a Minister!

At the time when the above letter was written, the old actress had removed from Issy, and was living in the Rue de Lille with a Madame de la Rianderie,[215] the widow of an officer in the Gardes-Francaises.

Here she was visited by Lemontey, who describes her as a little, withered old woman, feeble and sickly, but still retaining something of her majestic manner, and who spoke to him in a voice which had lost but little of its power and sweetness. Observing a little boy who had accompanied the historian, she motioned him to approach, saying: "Make that child come here. He will be very pleased to be able to say one day that he has seen and spoken to Mlle. Clairon."

Another of her visitors was the English actor John Kemble, to whom she recited a scene from _Phedre_ with a majesty and fire truly astonis.h.i.+ng in one so old and frail.

Mlle. Clairon died on January 31, 1803, six days after completing her eightieth year.

Animated to the last by the pride which had dominated her whole life, Mlle. Clairon bequeathed to the nation her marble bust by Lemoine and the gold medal which Valbelle and Villepinte had caused to be struck in her honour; but, for some reason, these souvenirs were not accepted. The native town of the great actress showed itself less indifferent than the State, and placed a commemorative tablet on the house in which she had been born. In 1876, however, the house collapsed beneath the weight of years, and the tablet was buried under its ruins.[216]

The remains of Mlle. Clairon were interred in the cemetery of Vaugirard, where they remained until its suppression in April 1837, when, escorted by a deputation from the Comedie-Francaise, they were transferred to Pere-Lachaise, and there re-interred, Samson p.r.o.nouncing an _eloge_ over the grave. In 1889, at the solicitation of M. Caille, an inhabitant of Conde, the _societaires_ of the Comedie-Francaise decided that the tomb of the famous _tragedienne_ should be completely restored, and voted for that purpose a sum of one thousand francs.