LECOUVREUR, ADRIENNE (1692-1730), French ac tress, was born on April 5, 1692, at Damery, Marne, the daugh ter of a hatter, Robert Couvreur. She showed a natural talent for declamation and was instructed by La Grand, societaire of the Comedie Francaise. After a long apprenticeship, she made her Paris debut in 1717, as Electre, in Crebillon's tragedy of that name, and Angelique in Moliere's Georges Dandin. She was im mediately received into the Comedie Francaise, and for 13 years she was the queen of tragedy there, attaining a popularity never before accorded an actress. She is said to have played no fewer than 1,184 times in a hundred roles, of which she created 22. Adrienne Lecouvreur abandoned the stilted style of elocution of her predecessors for a naturalness of delivery and a touching simplicity of pathos that delighted and moved her public. In Baron, who returned to the stage at the age of 67, she had an able and powerful coadjutor in changing the stage traditions of genera tions. The jealousy she aroused was partly due to her social suc cess; she was on visiting and dining terms with half the court, and her salon was frequented by Voltaire and all the other notables and men of letters. She was the mistress of Maurice de Saxe from
1721, and sold her plate and jewels to supply him with funds for his ill-starred adventure as duke of Courland. Adrienne Le couvreur died on March 3o, 1730, and it was believed that she was poisoned by a jealous rival mistress of de Saxe. She was denied the last rites of the Church, and her remains were refused burial in consecrated ground. Voltaire, in a fine poem on her death, expressed his indignation at the barbarous treatment accorded to the woman whose "friend, admirer, lover" he was.