Moreover, the author has adapted the play to the spirit and conditions of his own time. It is an epitome of France in 1848. One of Scribe’s methods was to combine in his personages historic characters of the time of the action with others who were his own contemporaries. Thus the characters in his plays are often composite in origin, and the different elements are combined and modified with judgment and skill. Probably he has never been excelled in the unerring dexterity with which he gathered the delicate threads of reality and fiction and wove them into a dramatic texture. There are striking parallels between some of the leading characters in _Adrienne Lecouvreur_ and certain prominent persons of the middle of the nineteenth century. These resemblances are particularly marked between Adrienne and Mlle. Rachel (1820-1858), the actress who created this rôle in 1849; also between Maurice de Saxe and Napoléon III. Similar parallels could be shown between other contemporaries of Scribe and various personages of the play. These similarities have been carefully indicated by Mr. John Davis Batchelder in his interesting study: _Un Détail de Technique dans un Drame d’Eugène Scribe_ (_“Adrienne Lecouvreur” et les influences de 1848_), Paris, 1909. It was especially for Mlle. Rachel and even at her request that _Adrienne Lecouvreur_ was written. Moreover, it was well known in Paris that Rachel was to portray in the title rôle many details of her own life and triumphs. She rehearsed her part repeatedly under the personal direction of Scribe. She was then at the height of her fame and enjoyed the friendship and protection of Napoléon III. Among the historic facts in Scribe’s portrayal of Adrienne Lecouvreur are: the love of Adrienne and Maurice de Saxe, the sale of her jewels to provide money for the equipment of his troops, the rivalry and enmity of the Duchesse de Bouillon, the public vengeance of Adrienne against her rival, the attempted poisoning of Adrienne by the Duchess, the professional rivalry and conventional declamation of Mlle. Du Clos, the simple and natural style of Adrienne, and the hostility of the clergy toward the latter.