In comedy Adrienne appears to have fallen very far short of the high standard she attained as a _tragédienne_. "She only played and shone in a few rôles," says the _Mercure_. The registers of the Comédie-Française show that she attempted Célimène, "the touchstone of _grandes coquettes_," and Elmire in _Tartuffe_; but, as she only figures nine times in the former character and four times in the latter, we may presume that her rendering of them could not have been more than moderately successful. She gave, however, a very pleasing interpretation of Alcmène in _Amphitryon_, and Hortense in _Le Florentin_, in which character she made her last appearance on the stage, and, as Angélique, had a large share in the success of Piron's _Fils ingrats_; while to her acting in the part of the heroine, Voltaire was much indebted for the favourable reception accorded to his little comedy _l'Indiscret_. On the other hand, as the Marquise, in Marivaux's _Surprise de l'amour_, she seems to have come very near to an absolute failure, the critics accusing her of giving to what the author intended to be a gay and frivolous character an air of solemnity and dignity more befitting a tragedy queen. Several writers have asserted that Adrienne, not content with introducing a more natural mode of enunciation, was the pioneer of reform in theatrical costume. This is only partially true. Adrienne possessed excellent taste in dress, and was keenly alive to the absurdity of clothing the heroes and heroines of antiquity in the costume of the eighteenth century. But her attempts in the direction of archæological truth do not appear to have been very bold or to have met with much success; and the first important transformation in this respect was due to the efforts of Mlle. Clairon and Lekain. She played, however, Queen Elizabeth, in the _Comte d'Essex_, "in an English Court costume decorated with the blue riband of the Garter," and the inventory of her wardrobe, published by M. Georges Monval, in his edition of her letters, comprise "_douze habits à la romaine_"--or what were believed to be such--of which two were of white damask, two of crimson velvet, one of yellow satin, one of blue velvet, two of white satin, and one of crimson damask, probably that worn by Cornélie in the _Mort de Pompée_. Several of these costumes were very richly wrought and realised prices varying from eight hundred to a thousand livres, equivalent, of course, to much larger sums in money of to-day. The full description of one of them may not be without interest: "Item, another costume _à la romaine_ of cherry-coloured velvet, composed of a train trimmed with Spanish point and with bunches of flowers in the train; a petticoat of the same velvet trimmed with silver Spanish point; the body of the dress of the same material trimmed with silver Spanish point, and shoulder-knots likewise trimmed with Spanish point; silver fringes encircling the