Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1909-02-11
STORIES OF C0QUEL|N
How Frances Famous Comedian
Developed From a Baker.
LOVED TO PLAY DEATH ROLES

iNove' S'''"a~ VI d trying Experience
That Greatly Amused an Audience
How He Became a Member of a Fa.
nous Club Through His Wit.
By common consent Benoit Constant
C%oquelin, the French actor who recent.
" died at his home in Port-aux-Dames
hear Paris, was the foremost comedian
Of France. Many of his own country
men regarded him as the artistic heir
Of Moliere, whose characters he repre-.
sented better than any other French
actor and in whose house, the Theatre
Francois, he made his start and Won
many of his greatest early successes.
Coquelin, the son of a baker at Bou-
logne-sur-Mer. was born Jan. %, 1871.
lt was intended that he should con-
tinue in his fathers business, but re-
markable aptitude for the stage mani
tested itself in him when he was still
n small boy.
When the little Coquelins, Constant
md Cadet, were boys their father kent
q boulangerie, and as a good baker and
good pere de famille he sent his bows
to learn the rudiments to "le pere Ia
VERNE" who kept an exceedingly elc-
mentary school. He considered his
further duty done by them when he
had clothed them in white drilling, put
little white bakers caps on them and
set them respectively to watching the
oven or trotting through the streets
with baskets of cakes on their heads
or long meters Of French bread under
their arms.
1t was soon to be observed, however.
that Constant, the elder, was a youth
of most unfortunate %proclivities for one
destined for the bakers profession.
Like Rostand's cuisinicr poete, he let
the bread burn for verses, but in de-
claiming, not composing, them. The
boys would not have been boys if they
had not organized some sort of barn
circus" in their case amateur theatric-
ais played in an old abandoned thea
ter.
Il am organizing for this week a
grand representation extraordinaire,"
said the elder Coquelin one day to his
dQlllflnS NIUE DfOtler.
"What role shall you play?' asked
Cadet, awestruck.
Il shall play all the roles" was the
answer, and that might almost be talk
ell as the watchword of Coquelin's ca
reer.
He had not boasted over his 'repre-
%sentation extraordinaire.' He played
the leading character in four roles, one
tragic. one bouffe, one serious, n
sentimental, and so worked himself
up in the last that he tainted away
as he left the stage.
Cadet, pale and excited, conducted
his brother home, and the father. evil
IDENTIFY feeling that the hand of des-
tiny was too strong for him, a senti-
ment somewhat assisted by a general
complaint of burned brooches among
the bakery's buyers, yielded to these
signs of vocation and sent his son off
to Paris with an income of 1900
francs Il year.
Coquelin was Il natural mimic and
uncommonly apt in recitation.
In the days OF his youth NJ. Coque-
lin was ambitious. and the parts he
loved best to play were those in which
he died. in full view of an apprecia-
tive audience. for his art. He had
II of these roles one evening at the
Boulogne theater and played it splen-
didly, getting a ringing round of ap-
plause as he fell dead upon the stage.
Then his troubles started.
The audiences applause woke up a
mosquito. which applied itself to M.
Coquelin with so much assiduity that
or scratch. Another actor. who played
a general in the corps of which the
dead NJ. Coquelin was a young ensign,
was standing near the body and had
to say: See, then. how sad a thing
is war! But now this youth was liv-
ing. Now he is dead-motionless for
all time! Nothing save a miracle can
give him life again."
But nj. Coquelin could hold out no
longer. The mosquito was still biting
busily, and Coquelin had to sit up and
slap his leg. The miracle has hap
pened." cried the general, while the
audience laughed until it cried at this
too lively corpse.
One of the most famous of the
Latin quarter clubs in Paris is the
Sub Rosa. Coquelin was present one
night at the clubs weekly late supper,
and, having heard that there was a
vacancy in the role, the great actor
applied for membership. Now, the
only rules of the Sub Rosa men are:
Think much. Write little. Be as 81
lent as you AN" The presiding Off
Ger, with this last rule in mind, an
swered the applicant by placing before
him a tumbler filled so full Of water
that another drop would have caused
1t to run over. Coquelin understood.
He had evidently been misinformed
about a vacancy; the club member
ship was obviously full.
Over the table was suspended a rose,
the club emblem. While the glass still
stood before him Coquelin broke a
petal from the flower and laid it so
oantlv on tho wotar thot NOT n Gin p1o