Her career at the Comédie-Française began on the 27th of March, 1717. On May 14th she appeared in the _Électre_ (1708) of Crébillon (1674-1762) and as Angélique in _Georges Dandin_ (1668) by Molière (1622-1673). Her success was complete, and it was freely acknowledged that she was beginning as the greatest actresses ordinarily finish. The actress whose memory was then most popular was Mme. Champmeslé (1642-1698), who had won renown in the theater of Racine. At the time of Mlle. Lecouvreur’s début at Paris, her principal rivals were Mlle. Desmares (retired in 1721), a niece of Mme. Champmeslé; and Mlle. Du Clos (1670-1748). The style of speech on the stage had been too declamatory and somewhat stilted and unnatural. It was, in contrast to this, the directness and simplicity of the elocution of Adrienne, in a word the _sincerity_ and _naturalness_ of her work, which especially appealed to the public, and enabled her, as the leading exponent of something better in the art of the stage, to hold her own against all rivals and intrigues. Her répertoire was very large and her activity very great. In ten months she played 139 times. Among the leading rôles in which she appeared in various years were the following: (1) in plays by Pierre Corneille (1606-1684)--Pauline in _Polyeucte_, Chimène in _Le Cid_, and Cornélie in _Pompée_; (2) in plays by Jean Racine (1630-1699)--the title rôles in _Iphigénie_, _Bérénice_, and _Phèdre_, Atalide in _Bajazet_, Zarès in _Esther_, and Antigone in _La Thébaïde_; (3) in other plays--Électre in _Électre_ and Éricie in _Pyrrhus_ by Crébillon; Agathe in _Les Folies amoureuses_ by Regnard (1655-1709); Angélique in _Les Fils ingrats_ by Piron (1689-1773); Constance in _Inès de Castro_ by La Motte-Houdard (1672-1731); and Jocaste in the _Œdipe_ of Voltaire (1694-1778). After seeing Mlle. Lecouvreur in the rôle of Constance in the interesting tragedy _Inès de Castro_, Voltaire is said to have thus expressed his appreciation: “Mlle. Le Couvreur a joué le rôle de Constance avec dignité et délicatesse.... Où le sentiment domine... elle est au-dessus de tout ce que j’ai jamais entendu.” Among the numerous admirers of Adrienne was the count Maurice de Saxe (see Notes), who, after various love affairs and scandals, was attracted to this eminent young actress on his second visit to Paris, in 1721. Their love was mutual and the friendship continued for several years. When, in 1725, he wrote to France for money, to enable him to secure the duchy of Courlande, Adrienne sold her jewels and silver plate and thus raised for him the sum of 40,000 francs. Nevertheless, he failed in this enterprise and, after years of absence, he returned to Paris, October 23d, 1728. Differences in taste and especially the infidelity of the count caused an estrangement.