[180] Mémoires de Marmontel (edit. 1804), ii. 41 et seq.
[181] Lekain had made his début at the Comédie-Française on September 14, 1750, as Titus in the Brutus of Voltaire. His admission into the company was bitterly opposed by Mlle. Clairon, who gave no other reason for her hostility than that his personal appearance—he was a remarkably plain man, short and thick-set, with a harsh voice and rough manners—was displeasing to her. Lekain retaliated by giving publicity to certain episodes in the lady's private life which did not redound to her credit. To which Mlle. Clairon rejoined by addressing him before the assembled company as follows: "I was well aware, Monsieur, that you were a man of repulsive appearance, but I did not know that you possessed a soul a thousand times more hideous than your person." Lekain left the theatre in a towering passion, and, with the assistance of another enemy of Mlle. Clairon, the Chevalier de la Morlière, composed a letter, "the most insulting, the most atrocious, that it was possible to conceive," which he sent to the actress. For this he was expelled from the Comédie, but subsequently, on writing another letter, this time of apology, reinstated. Soon after this affair, which was common knowledge, Lekain happened to be playing Æneas to the Dido of Mlle. Clairon, in Le Franc de Pompignan's tragedy. In one of the most touching passages of the play, the ill-fated queen, addressing her faithless lover, exclaims:—
"Je devrais te haïr, ingrat! Et je t'adore."
No sooner were the words out of her mouth, than the whole pit burst into such peals of merriment that it was fully five minutes before the performance could be continued.
[182] See p. 294 supra.
[183] Grimm says that Voltaire surrendered to the players his share of the profits, in order to help them to defray the expense of the costumes.
[184] Journal et Mémoires, ii. 33.
[185] Grimm, Correspondance littéraire, cited by Edmond de Goncourt, Mademoiselle Clairon, 131 et seq.
[186] "Report of Meunier to the Lieutenant of Police;" Ravaisson, Archives de la Bastille, xii. 367.
[187] Grimm, Correspondance littéraire, i. 377.