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.
It was especially for Mlle. Rachel and even at her request that Adrienne Lecouvreur was written. Moreover, it was well known in Paris that Rachel was to portray in the title rôle many details of her own life and triumphs. She rehearsed her part repeatedly under the personal direction of Scribe. She was then at the height of her fame and enjoyed the friendship and protection of Napoléon III.
Among the historic facts in Scribe’s portrayal of Adrienne Lecouvreur are: the love of Adrienne and Maurice de Saxe, the sale of her jewels to provide money for the equipment of his troops, the rivalry and enmity of the Duchesse de Bouillon, the public vengeance of Adrienne against her rival, the attempted poisoning of Adrienne by the Duchess, the professional rivalry and conventional declamation of Mlle. Du Clos, the simple and natural style of Adrienne, and the hostility of the clergy toward the latter.
Many alterations in the historic background have been introduced, only a few of which are here mentioned. The Princesse de Bouillon, a woman of Polish descent, has been given the rôle of the Duchesse de Bouillon, a native Frenchwoman. It was the latter who was the rival of Adrienne for the love of Maurice de Saxe and who is thought to have attempted the poisoning. It was at a public presentation of Phèdre at the Comédie-Française, not at the home of the Princesse de Bouillon, that Mlle. Lecouvreur denounced her rival. The attempted poisoning had occurred in 1729, not 1730, and thenceforth Mlle. Lecouvreur was not received at the homes of the Bouillons. She scrupulously avoided the members of the Bouillon family. Moreover, the love of Maurice de Saxe and Mlle. Lecouvreur was ended before 1730. After having accepted all her fortune to pursue his expeditions in Poland in 1725, he had cruelly abandoned the actress for her rival, the Duchesse de Bouillon (Michelet: Louis XV, pp. 91-94.) Nor did Mlle. Lecouvreur receive the Comte de Saxe during this later period. It is evident that Scribe has ameliorated the conduct of Maurice de Saxe toward Adrienne, in order that he may retain the interest of the spectator. For in the play he is always the principal hero and, though his loyalty is for a time in doubt, he regains at the last the confidence of the audience and the trust and love of Adrienne.
CONTENTS
| PAGE | |
| Introduction | [v] |
| Personages | [2] |
| Notes | [181] |