Clarisse Miroy

Clarisse Miroy , or Clarisse for short , real name Clarisse Midroy (born April 24, 1820 in Saint-Dizier , † August 31, 1870 in Neuilly-sur-Seine ), was a French actress.

Education and career

At the age of 15 Miroy made his debut at the Gymnase enfantin in a pantomime. The Interior Minister at the time had only approved pantomimes for the gymnasium. So the spoken word was synchronized by the director with pathetic and exaggerated gestures. Miroy, who dreamed of a life as a real actress, ended the collaboration in 1835 and moved to the Théâtre Comte . When a few weeks after starting there, the actress who played Heloïse in the play Cotillion III by Émile Vanderburch fell ill, Miroy got the chance and was enthusiastic about her role. She was to play at the Comte for two more years.

This was followed by an engagement in Lisbon, which she quickly ended because the impresario there refused to give her the roles she had promised. Back in Paris she was able to start with a mediocre role at the Théâtre du Panthéon . Therefore, she changed again in 1838 to accept an engagement at the Théâtre de l'Ambigu-Comique . In 1840 she got an engagement at the Théâtre de la Gaîté , where she noticed Frédérick Lemaître , took her under his wing and gave her lessons.

Lemaître was deeply affected by the fact that Atala Beauchêne had just separated from him. To comfort himself, he entered into a liaison with Miroy , which was to last for 13 years. The relationship could not be kept secret for long either, but there was no public scandal.

Career

In the Théâtre de la Gaité, the young Miroy had the opportunity to try it out, until chance came to her aid again. The lead actress of the play Massacre of the Innocents by Julien de Mallian fell ill suddenly and Miroy jumped for them. In the new production of Cotillion III she got a leading role again, her old role as Heloïse , with which she had great success and showed her great comedic talent.

In 1843 she dissolved the contract with the Théâtre de la Gaîté by mutual agreement, with an agreement for a benefit performance in her favor. She was only seen on stage again the following year. Now at the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin , again alongside Lemaîtres. The role of the queen in Victor Hugo's Ruy Blas , which she played in 1846, moved Hugo to write a personal letter. He called Miroy a star in the sky of his soul and praised her great talent.

Lemaître used to go on tour touring, where he always took Miroy. In 1852 she again accepted a permanent position at the Théâtre des Variétés . There she played in various plays and for the first time a slightly more serious role as a vulgar market seller at the Parisian wholesale market Les Halles . From 1853 she wanted to switch completely to the serious subject, because at the age of 33 she was already suffering from considerable excess weight and she did not want people to laugh about her and her appearance instead of her performance. In addition, she suffered badly from the separation from Lemaître, which made it impossible for her to come across as weird on stage.

Lemaîtres passion for her had in the meantime waned, even if he still expressed his love for her, her corpulence had not escaped him. So she met a young actor for consolation, the now forgotten Jenneval, whom she had met on a provincial tour. Miroy and Lemaître had a joint engagement at the Théâtre de l'Ambigu-Comique at the time and were just giving the drama Bonne aventure by Paul Foucher . Before a performance, Lemaître was able to intercept a message to Miroy that left no doubt about her infidelity, and Lemaître canceled the performance. He raged for so long and didn't want to calm down until he was shown in front of the door. When he returned to their apartment, he found Miroy in tears. He didn't pardon, however, tore her clothes out of the cupboards and bade her never come under his eyes again.

Miroy tried to regain Lemaîtres love, but failed. Lemaître later claimed, after Miroy's death, that she had secretly put on his mask one evening when he, Lemaître, was on stage . There she mixed laudanum into the drink provided for him. However, he was warned that his former lover was there and therefore did not touch the drink.

Miroy continued the affair with Jenneval, but without much luck. He was only a passable actor, but he was in need of approval, which bothered her. He let Miroy put up with him. When Miroy found out that He had cheated on her, she became jealous and kept making scenes in public for him. When Miroy caught Jenneval red-handed during a stage rehearsal, she insulted him extremely badly, hit and kicked him. The word got around in the city and when Miroy met Lemaître one day in a café, he mocked her. That was too much for her, she left Paris and in 1855 accepted an engagement in Rouen . Lyon , Marseille, Geneva and Chambéry follow , but she longed for Paris so much that she accepted a role at the Cirque Olympique in 1861 . After the Cirque Olympic, like the entire north side of the Boulevard du Temple, fell victim to Baron Haussmann's urban redevelopment , it received an offer from the Théâtre du Châtelet .

The second career and relegation

She no longer played the flirtatious roles of lovers, but appeared as a mother or a kind fairy. It was reported that she cried bitterly behind the scenes because of her obesity, but when her cue came she wiped away her tears, put on a smile and went on stage. In retrospect, she argued that she only had a migraine or that she used similar excuses. You should also celebrate some successes by the end of your career.

Her professional decline came slowly. The big roles did not materialize. She then played in suburban theaters and inns until Miroy in 1870, in poor health, stopped performing. Friends from the good times were generous and financed her a room in a guesthouse. One evening they waited for her to appear for dinner, but she did not come. She was then found dead in her room.

The news of her death was completely lost due to the outcome of the Battle of Sedan and the gravity of this fact and went largely unnoticed.

literature

• Henry Lyonnet : Dictionnaire des comédiens français, ceux d'hier , 1912, pp. 434f., Digitized
• Louis Schneiter in Le Temps : Deux Amours de Frédérick Lemaître - II - Clarisse Miroy , edition of August 17, 1930, p. 3f. Digitized

Web links

• Picture Clarisse Miroys at past to present
• Information on Clarisse Miroy in the database of the Bibliothèque nationale de France .
• Literature by and about Clarisse Miroy in the WorldCat bibliographic database