Jacques Marie Boutet

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Jacques Marie Boutet (March 25, 1745 - 1812) was a French actor and comic dramatist from Lunéville. His pseudonym was Monvel. He was a small, thin man without good looks or voice, and yet he became one of the greatest comedians of his time. After some years of apprenticeship in the provinces, he made his debut in 1770 at the Comédie-Française in Merope and Zenaide; he was received socitaire in 1772. For some unknown reason, Monvel secretly left Paris for Sweden around 1781, and became reader to the king, a post which he held for several years. At the French Revolution he returned to Paris, embraced its principles with ardour, and joined the theatre in the rue Richelieu (the rival of the Comédie-Française), which, under Talma, with Dugazon, his sister Mme Vestris, Grandmesnil (1737-1816) and Mme Desgarcins, was soon to become the Théatre de la République.

After the Revolution, Monvel returned to the reconstituted Comédie-Française with all his old companions, but retired in 1807. Monvel was made a member of the Institute in 1795. He wrote six plays (four of them performed at the Comédie Francaise), two comedies, and fifteen comic operas, seven with music by N. Dezde (1740-1792), eight by Nicolas Dalayrac (1753-1809). He also published an historical novel, Fredgonde et Brunehaut (1776). He was professor of elocution at the Conservatoire. Monvel's two daughters, Mademoiselle Mars and Mars ainée, were well-known actresses.

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• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain. }