Mademoiselle Mars

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Mademoiselle Mars, (Anne Francoise Hyppolyte Boutet) (February 9, 1779-March 20, 1847), French actress, was born in Paris, the natural daughter of the actor-author named Monvel (Jacques Marie Boutet), 1745-1812, and Mlle Mars Salvetat, an actress whose southern accent had made her Paris debut a failure. Mlle Mars began her stage career in children's parts, and by 1799, after the rehabilitation of the Comédie-Française, she and her sister (Mars aînée) joined that company, of which she remained an active member for thirty-three years. Her beauty and talents soon placed her at the top of her profession. She was incomparable in ingenue parts, and equally charming as the coquette. Molière, Manvaux, Michel-Jean Sedaine, and Pierre Beaumarchais had no more accomplished interpreter, and in her career of half a century, besides many comedy roles of the older repertoire, she created fully a hundred parts in plays which owed success largely to her. For her farewell performance she selected Elmire in Tartuffe, and Silvia in Jeu de l'amour et du hasard, two of her most popular roles; and for her benefit, a few days after, Climne in Le Misanthrope and Araminthe in Les Femmes savantes. She retired following 1841, and died in Paris on the 20th of March 1847.