Lacking the dignity and strength required to give adequate expression to the greater passions, she wisely refrained from attempting any important rôles in tragedy, and in Racine's _Alexandre_ and the _Attila_ of Corneille we find her allotted only minor parts. But at the Palais-Royal comedy was, of course, the staple fare, and in "_la rôles de femmes coquettes et satiriques_," which accorded so well with her own temperament, and also in those of _ingénues_, Armande had no superior in her day and probably very few since. Her acting is said to have been characterised by great judgment, while her by-play was remarkably effective. "If she but retouches her hair, or rearranges her ribbons or her jewellery, these little fashions conceal a satire judicious and natural, and throw ridicule upon the women she wishes to represent." Moreover, she had the rare gift of being able to change at will the character of her voice, and "had a different tone for every part she undertook." Molière's wise reluctance to allow his young wife to challenge the verdict of the public until he had done everything in his power to ensure her success, delayed Armande's first appearance on the stage for fifteen months after her marriage, when she made her _début_ as Élise in the _Critique de l'École des femmes_ (June 1, 1663), a reply to the attacks of Donneau de Visé and other critics upon the play produced at the Palais-Royal the previous December. The part allotted to her, which is that of a self-possessed young woman, with a good deal of shrewd common-sense, a turn for irony of a rather caustic brand, and not too much consideration for the feelings of others, suited her admirably--perhaps rather more so than poor Molière at that time imagined--and secured her a somewhat similar rôle in the delightful _Impromptu de Versailles_, played before the Court in the following October, where she figures in the cast as a "satirical wit." She did not play in the _Mariage forcé_ (January 29, 1664), as, ten days earlier, she had borne Molière a son, to whom, as we have mentioned, Louis XIV. and Henrietta of England stood sponsors; but in the following spring we find her in the first of her long list of important rôles.