The great genius of the actor finally triumphed over the erratic dispositions of the man so far as to secure for him a call to that theatrical holy of holies, the stage of the Comedie Francaise. He made his debut at the theatre in the Rue Richelieu in _Fredegonde et Brunehaut_. The frigid array of respectable and scholarly old men who sit in solemn state in the orchestra-stalls of the Francaise, holding their seats from year to year by subscription, cabaled against Lemaitre, and endeavored to drive him from the stage. But the audience with a tumult of applause stifled the rancor of the classic phalanx of orchestra-ancients. Lemaitre afterward, in _Othello_, conquered even the prejudices of these stern stage-censors, and they applauded with the rest. The actor was in his place at the Comedie Francaise, because it is by common consent the leading theatre of the world; but the man was sadly out of his element there. In the "House of Moliere" there is an atmosphere of respectability as severe among the artists as that of the most dignified college in America, and the stage is bound round with a solemn network of dignified forms and sacred traditions, amid which Lemaitre chafed and fretted like a caged lion. His strolling-player instincts, his lack of self-respect, his bacchanalian habits and his irregularities generally unfitted him for association with the scholarly and correct-lived men who for the most part formed the company. Lemaitre felt ill at ease there, and conceived the idea that the _societaires_ did not respect him enough. The actors of the Comedie Francaise are of two bodies--the first and controlling one in the councils of the theatre being composed of men who are participators in the profits of the house as well as recipients of salaries. They are an extremely dignified body of artists, with the utmost reverence for the proprieties of life. For these _societaires_ Lemaitre entertained a profound dislike, and loved to sneer at them and ridicule their dignity. One day these artists were giving a grand dinner to some manager when a knock was heard at the door of the banquet-hall. "Who is there?" cried several voices.--"A man," answered Lemaitre outside, "who wishes to have some converse with you, and tell you once for all what he has on his heart." So saying, he entered, threw off his cloak, and appeared before the company dressed simply in a shirt-collar and a pair of stockings.