CLAIRON, CLAIRE JOSIiI'llE LEVEN DE LA TUDE, a cele brated French actress, whose name frequently occurs iu the literary memoirs and correspondouce of her day, wail born near Condit, iu French Flanders, in 1723. She made her early appearances in the Flemish theatres and those of the neighbouring provinces of Frauce. In 1732 she was called to the Parisian Opera, and soon afterwards to the Com6die Francaise. Although her name is now seldom mentioned, no actress of any age or country appears to have boon the object of a reputation so wide and an admiration so intense. No one can read the letters of Voltaire and his contemporaries, or the memoirs of Marmentel and others, without being struck by the frequent recur rouco of her name, associated with enthusiastic eulogies. She was evidently a woman of vicious morals, yet she was proud and unbending in public; and Voltaire, who had obvious motives for esteeming her from her successful representation of several of his characters, speaks of her in his Candide as a person moving in so high and select a circle, that the boast of having met her in society is put into the mouth of an obscure braggart addicted to telling extravagant fictions. The
prevailing character of her acting was the natural, and in this she was distinguished from her rival Dumesnia who was considered the repre sentative of art. Mademoiselle Clairon quitted the Comadie-Francaiee in 1765. She lived for many years as mistress of the Margrave of Anspach, and died in 1803. Some memoirs relating to her were printed in 1799 by her pupil Mdlle. Raucourt, and there are many anecdotes of her in the memoirs of the Margravine of Anspach and the 'Llemoires de Floury' (the actor).