Christine Antoinette Charlotte Desmares (1682 – 12 September 1753), professionally known as Mlle Desmares, was a French stage actress. Scion of a notable comic actor family, she had an active stage career that spanned three decades, performing with the Comédie-Française from 1699 until her retirement in 1721; she was also remembered as a mistress of Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, Regent of France.
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Life
She was born in Copenhagen to the comic actors Nicolas Desmares and Anne d'Ennebault and trained under her aunt la Champmeslé. She made her stage début aged sixteen with the Comédie-Française company on 30 January 1699 in Oreste et Pylade by Lagrange-Chancel. In only three months she became so successful that she was accepted as a sociétaire of the company to replace her aunt, who had left it in 1698. Succeeding her aunt as the company's leading actress, Desmares played tragic roles (such as Hermione in Andromaque by Jean Racine, Émilie in Cinna by Pierre Corneille, and Jocasta in Oedipus by Voltaire) as well as comedy ones (such as Lisette in Le Légataire universel by Regnard and Néréine in Le Curieux impertinent by Destouches); along with her company-mate and rival Mademoiselle Duclos, Desmares was a follower of high, formal and oratorical style of acting that defined the Comédie-Française in the early 18th century. In light of the younger actress Adrienne Lecouvreur's success that followed her Comédie-Française debut in 1717, Desmares retired in Spring 1721, giving occasional private performances in her retirement; in years to come, she was succeeded by Lecouvreur and, later, by Marie-Anne Botot Dangeville.