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| François Gérard Portrait of Mademoiselle Duchesnois, sociétaire de la Comédie Française ca. 1812 oil on canvas Musée Carnavalet, Paris |
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| Aimé Morot Portrait of Jules Laroche, sociétaire de la Comédie Française 1875 oil on panel Musée Carnavalet, Paris |
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| Joseph Blanc Adeline Dudlay as the Tragic Muse, sociétaire de la Comédie Française ca. 1885 oil on canvas Musée Carnavalet, Paris |
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| François-André Vincent Portrait of the actor known as Dazincourt (Joseph Albouy, sociétaire de la Comédie Française) 1792 oil on canvas Musée des Beaux-Arts de Marseille |
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| Louise Abbéma Portrait of Jeanne Samaury, sociétaire de la Comédie Française 1879 oil on canvas Musée Carnavalet, Paris |
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| Louise Abbéma Portrait of Renée Delmas, sociétaire de la Comédie Française 1877 oil on canvas Musée des Beaux-Arts de Reims |
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| Anonymous British Artist Portrait of actor David Garrick ca. 1775 oil on canvas Huntington Library and Art Museum, San Marino, California |
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| Ørnulf Salicath Portrait of actor David Knudsen ca. 1920-30 oil on canvas Stortingets Kunstsamling, Oslo |
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| Kalle Løchen Portrait of the actor B.K. 1886 oil on canvas Nasjonalmuseet, Oslo |
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| Alexandre Falguière Portrait of dancer Cléo de Mérode ca. 1900-1903 marble Musée des Beaux-Arts de Reims |
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| Edgar Degas Seated Dancer ca. 1879 pastel on paper Ordrupgaard Art Museum, Copenhagen |
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| Anonymous German Designer White Oak Dance Project Mikhail Baryshnikov ca. 1995 poster Museum Folkwang, Essen |
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| Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun Portrait of contralto Giuseppina Grassini 1803 oil on canvas Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen |
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| Max Beckmann Variety Show with Dancer and Magician 1942 oil on canvas Von der Heydt Museum, Wuppertal |
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| Abraham Bosse Scene from a Play staged at the Hôtel de Bourgogne, Paris ca. 1633-34 drawing Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin |
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| Leonaert Bramer Group of Actors seen by Lantern Light ca. 1616-27 drawing Morgan Library, New York |
– mercredi 28ᵉ septembre, 1689
Nous avons ici un abbé de Francheville, qui a bien de l'esprit, agréable, naturel, savant sans orgueil. Montreuil le connoît. Il a passé sa vie à Paris, il vous a vue deux fois, vous êtes demeurée dans son cerveau comme une divinité: il est grand cartésien; c'est le maître de Mlle Descartes; elle lui a montré votre lettre, il l'a admirée et votre esprit tout lumineux; le sien me plaît et me divertit infiniment: il y a longtemps que je ne m'étois trouvée en si bonne compagnie. Il appelle mon fils nate dea, et il me trouve aussi une espèce de divinité, non de la plebe degli Dei: pour moi, je ne me crois qu'une divinité de campagne; mais voulant rassurer M. de Grignan, qui peut craindre que je ne l'épouse, je l'avertis qu'une autre veuve, jeune, riche, d'un bon nom, l'a épousé depuis deux ans, touchée de son esprit et de son mérite, ayant refusé des présidents à mortier, c'est tout dire; et lui, après avoir été recherché de cette veuve comme il devoit la rechercher, a enfin cédé à l'âge de soixante ans, et a quitté son abbaye pour n'avoir plus d'autre emploi que d'être un philosophe chrétien et cartésien, et le plus honnête homme de cette province.
– Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sévigné (from Lettres á sa fille)
There is here an Abbe of Francheville, who has a great deal of wit, and is agreeable, natural, and learned, without ostentation; Montreuil is acquainted with him. He has passed his life at Paris, he has seen you twice, and you have made an impression on his memory, like a divinity; he is a great Cartesian, and is Mademoiselle Descartes' master; she shewed him your letter; he admired it and your enlightened understanding; his wit pleases and diverts me infinitely; it is a long time since I have been in such good company. He calls my son nate dea, and thinks me also a kind of divinity, not of the plebe degli Dei; as for my part, I consider myself only as a sylvan divinity; but to satisfy M. de Grignan, who may be apprehensive that I shall marry him, I inform him that another widow, young, rich, and of good family, has been married to him for these two years, struck with his wit and merit, after even refusing Presidents a mortier, what more need be said? as to him, after being sought for by this widow, whom he ought to have sought for, at length yielded at the age of sixty, quitted his abbey, to have no other employment than that of a Christian and a Cartesian philosopher, and be the cleverest man in this province.
– translated by Mary Duclaux (1927)