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LECOUVREUR, ADRIENNE (1692-1730)

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Originally appearing in Volume V16, Page 357 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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LECOUVREUR, ADRIENNE (1692-1730) , See also:French actress, was See also:born on the 5th of See also:April 1692, at Damery, See also:Marne, the daughter of a hatter, See also:Robert Couvreur. She had an unhappy childhood in See also:Paris. She showed a natural See also:talent for declamation and was instructed by La See also:Grand, societaire of the Comedie Francaise, and with his help she obtained a provincial engagement. It was not until 1717, after a See also:long See also:apprenticeship, that she made her Paris debut as Electre, in See also:Crebillon's tragedy of that name, and Angelique in See also:Moliere's See also:George Dandin. Her success was so See also:great that she was immediately received into the Comedie Frangaise, and for thirteen years she was the See also:queen of tragedy there, attaining a popularity never before accorded an actress. She is said to have played no fewer than 1184 times in a See also:hundred roles, of which she created twenty-two. She owed her success largely to her courage in abandoning the See also:stilted See also:style of elocution of her predecessors for a naturalness of delivery and a touching simplicity of pathos that delighted and moved her public. In See also:Baron, who returned to the See also:stage at the See also:age of sixty-seven, she had an able and powerful coadjutor in changing the stage traditions of generations. The See also:jealousy she aroused was partly due to her social successes, which were many, in spite of the notorious freedom of her manner of See also:life. She was on visiting and dining terms with See also:half the See also:court, and her See also:salon was frequented by See also:Voltaire and all the other notables and men of letters. She was the See also:mistress of See also:Maurice de See also:Saxe from 1721, and sold her See also:plate and jewels to See also:supply him with funds for his See also:ill-starred adventures as See also:duke of See also:Courland. By him she had a daughter, her third, who was grandmother of the See also:father of George See also:Sand.

Adrienne Lecouvreur died on the loth of See also:

March 1730. She was denied the last See also:rites of the See also:Church, and her remains were refused See also:burial in consecrated ground. Voltaire, in a See also:fine poem on her See also:death, expressed his indignation at the barbarous treatment accorded to the woman whose " friend, admirer, See also:lover " he was. Her life formed the subject of the well-known tragedy (1849), by See also:Eugene See also:Scribe and Ernest See also:Legouve. LE CREUSOT, a See also:town of See also:east-central See also:France in the See also:department of See also:Saone-et-See also:Loire, 55 M. S.W. of See also:Dijon on the Paris-See also:Lyon railway. Pop. (1906), town, 22,535; See also:commune, 33,437• Situated at the See also:foot of lofty hills in a See also:district See also:rich in See also:coal and See also:iron, it has the most extensive iron See also:works in France. The coal See also:bed of Le Creusot was discovered in the 13th See also:century; but it was not till 17/4 that the first workshops were founded there. The royal crystal works were transferred from Sevres to Le Creusot in 1787, but this See also:industry came to an end in 1831. Meanwhile two or three enterprises for the manufacture of See also:metal had ended in failure, and it was only in 1836 that the See also:foundation of iron works by Adolphe and Eugene See also:Schneider definitely inaugurated the See also:industrial prosperity of the See also:place. The works supplied large quantities of See also:war material to the French armies during the See also:Crimean and Franco-See also:German See also:wars.

Since that See also:

time they have continuously enlarged the See also:scope of their operations, which now embrace the manufacture of See also:steel, See also:armour-plate, guns, See also:ordnance-stores, locomotives, See also:electrical machinery and See also:engineering material of every description. A See also:net-See also:work of See also:railways about 37 M. in length connects the various branches of the works with each other and with the neighbouring See also:Canal du Centre. See also:Special See also:attention is paid to the welfare of the workers who, not including the miners, number about 12,000, and See also:good See also:schools have been established. In 1897 the ordnance-manufacture of the Societe See also:des Forges et Chantiers de la Mediterranee at See also:Havre was acquired by the See also:Company, which also has important branches at Chalon-sur-Saone, where See also:ship-See also:building and See also:bridge-construction is carried on. and at See also:Cette (See also:Herault).

End of Article: LECOUVREUR, ADRIENNE (1692-1730)

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