Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1881-06-17
ADRlENNE LECOUvREUR.
Her Death I'm the Arms Of Vol
tRire and Burial 'sLike a
Dead Cat"

PArtOn Lie OF V0ltalre.l
In March, 1870, occurred the sud-
den death of the actress, Adrienne
Lecouvreur, aged twenty-eight. She
played for the last time, March 10, in
Voltaire's Kdipe, and played de-
spite her disorder, with much of her
accustomed force and brilliancy. In
accordance with the barbarous custom
Of the time, there was an afterpiece,
in which she also appeared and she
went home from the scene Of her tri-
jumps to die after four days ofanguish.
Voltaire hastenea to her bedside and
watched near her during her last
struggles for life, and when she was
seized with the convulsions that
preceded her death, he held her in his
arms and received her last breath.
Being an actress, and dying without
absolution, she was denied christian
burial, and the gates of every recog-
nized burial place in France was
closed against her wasted body, the
poor relics of gifted and bewitching
woman, whom all that was distln-
guished and splendid in the society of
her native land had loved to look up
on. At night her body was carried in
an old coach (facre) a little way out of
town, just beyond the paved streets,
to a spot near the Seine, now covered
by the house No. 109 Rue de Bour
gogne. The facre was followed by
one friend, two street porters and a
squad Of the city watch. There her
remains was buried, the grave was
filled up, and the spot remained unin-
closed and unmarked until the city
grew over it and concealed it from
view.
The brilliant world of which she had
been a part heard Of this unseemly
burial with such horror, such disgust,
such rage, such "stuper," as we can
with difficulty imagine, because all
these ties of tenderness and pride that
bind families and communities togeth-
er are more sensitive, if not stronger,
in France than with our ruder, more
robust race. The idea of not having
friendly and decorus burial, Of not ly-
ing down with kindred and fellow citi-
zens in place appointed for the dead,
of being taken out at night and buried
at corner OF a road like a dead cat,
was and is, utterly desolating to the
French people. Voltaire, for exam
nle. could never face it; he lived and
died dreadingit.
And the effect of the great actress
surreptitious burial was increased by
various circumstances. That gifted
woman possessed all the virtues ex.
cept virtue; and, unhappily, virtue
the gay world of Paris did not care
for. Nature and history pronounce
virtue, whether in man or woman, the
indispensable preliminary to well be-
ing and the church was right in so re.
garding it. But Paris loved rather tC
repeat that she had pledged all hei
Ijewels to help her lover Zone ofhel
Iovers) Maurice de SAKE, son of Au
gustus, King of Poland. Paris, re-
marked that, if she had not partaker
of the sacraments, she had at least left
one thousand franks to the poor of hel
| parish. The gay world dweltmuch upor
her noble disinterestedness in reius
ling to receive the addresses Of
| Count d Argentel, though that in
/ iatuated young man loved her to the
| point of being willing to saeritibe hi
career for to her. That she had borne
| two children to two lovers, that sht
had expended the precious treasure
| of her life and genius in a very few
| years of joyless excitement, that sh'
| had lived in utter disregard of tht
uncbangeabIe conditions Of human
welfare, as well as those of the highes
artistic excelltnce--who thought @
that? Who could think Of that il
connection with such an outrage upor
| her wasted remains. (
| Voltarie, who owed so much t
| this brilliant woman who owed 81
much TO him, was profoundly moved
| To the assembled company Of actors
her companions in glory apd shame
| he said: Announce to the world that
you will not exercise your profession
until you, the paid servant Of the
king, are treated like other servants
of the king 'sseEVica." They promised
him, but who was to maintain them il
the interval The chiefs of the com
papy only receive from a thousand tt
two thousand franc, a year. "The.
promised he ewrote thirty years after
''but did nothing further in the mat
ter They preferred dishonor witt
little money to honor, which woul,
! have been worth more to them"