Marie Champmeslé

By 1669 they were playing in Paris at the Theatre du Marais, her first appearance there being as Venus in Boyer's Fête de Vénus.

The next year, as Hermione in Jean Racine's Andromaque, she had a great success at the Hotel de Bourgogne.

Some of his finest tragedies were written for her, but her repertoire was not confined to them, and many an indifferent play - like Thomas Corneille's Ariane and Comte d'Essex - owed its success to her natural manner of acting, and her pathetic rendering of the hapless heroine.

Here, with Madame Guerin as the leading comedy actress, she played the great tragic love parts for more than thirty years.

[1] During her career, "La Champmeslé" created a large number of famous roles.