much for the theatre as did Adrienne Le Couvreur,
especially in discarding, in her _Phedre_, the plumes, spangles, the
panier, the frippery, which had been the customary equipments of that
role. She and Lecain, the prominent actor of the day, introduced the
custom of wearing the proper costume of the characters represented.
The grace and dignity of her stage presence caused her to be sought
by the great ladies, who took lessons in her famous courtesy _grande
reverence_, which was later supplanted by the courtesy of Mme. de
Pompadour.

Mlle. Clairon became the recipient of great favors and honors, her
most prominent slave being Marmontel, to whom she had given a room in
her hotel after Mme. Geoffrin had withdrawn from him the privilege of
occupying an apartment in her spacious establishment. She contributed
largely to the success of his plays, as well as to those of Voltaire,
whom she visited at Ferney, performing in his private theatre. Her
success was uninterrupted until she declined to play, in the _Siege de
Calais_, with an actor who had been guilty of dishonesty; she was then
thrown into prison, and refused to reappear. When about fifty years of
age she became the mistress of the Margrave of Ansbach, at whose court
she resided for eighteen years. In 1791 she returned to Paris, where,
poor and forgotten, she died in 1803.

An actress or a singer who left a greater reputation through her wit,
the promptness and malignity of her repartee, and her extravagance,
than through her voice was Sophie Arnould, the pupil of Mlle. Clairon.
She was the daughter of an innkeeper; her first success was won
through her charming figure and her flexible voice. Some of the ladies
attached to the court of Louis XV., having heard her sing at evening
service during Passion week, had induced the royal chapel master to
employ her in the choir. There, and by the warm eulogies of Marmontel
during one of his toilette visits to Mme. de Pompadour, the attention
of the _maitresse-en-titre_ was called to her beauty and vocal charm.

Her debut was made with unusual success, but she afterward eloped with
the Comte de Lauraguais, who had made a wager that he could win the
beautiful artist. After her reappearance at Paris her career became a
long series of dissipations and unprecedented extravagances. She was
as witty as she was licentious, and many of her _bons mots_ have been
collected. It was she who characterized the great Necker and Choiseul,