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A Note on La Champmeslé and Mlle Desmares

In our article ‘Neglected evidence about the actor Michel Baron (1653–1729)’, which appeared in Theatre Research International, 18, 3 (1993), 173–76, we quoted a letter from Madame to Baron Von Hading (foot of p. 174). Madame refers to the actress Mlle Desmares, a prominent member of the French company in the early eighteenth century. The first part of the quotation was as follows: He did not think of it after the death of the king, but la Desmares [an actress of the Comédie-Française], perceiving that no one was going to see them any more, came to the conclusion that they would fare better if Baron were back in the company, and she persuaded him. The king died in 1715, and the incident described occurred in, or shortly before, 1720. After the proofs were corrected and returned, an error crept in which dismayed us greatly. Our parenthesis, ‘an actress of the Comedie-Française’ was replaced by another: ‘better known as la Champmesle’. We did not sanction this amendment, and it is wrong. So much so, in fact, that it looks like carelessness and ignorance on our part, the apprehension of which may tell against acceptance of our findings and objective critical appreciation of our conclusions. We are therefore most grateful to the Editor for allowing us to insert this correction, which we believe to be important. The actress known as La Champmeslé, Marie Desmares, died in 1698. She was the wife of the actor Champmeslé, whose name she took, and she was probably the greatest actress of her generation; she was also the celebrated mistress of Racine.