Marie Vernier or ''Venier'' (
fl. 1590 – fl.1627), was a French stage actress, known also as Mlle La Porte. She is commonly thought to be the first French actress to be known by name.
Life
Vernier was from
Sens, where her father was ''procureur au bailliage''.
A 1602 contract indicates Marie's marriage to Mathieu Lefebvre, a native of La Roche-Bernard in Brittany. Lefebvre, who was born in 1574, performed under the stage-name of La Porte in Paris between 1594 and 1609. At this time, Vernier was a ''fille majure'', meaning that she was over the age of 25 and of free from guardianship.
Two other legal documents offer some insight into the lives of the Vernier and La Porte.
In December 1622, Marie Venière petitioned for and was granted separation of property from her husband. In June 1624, Mathieu Lefebvre, “desirous of retiring into some private place to live there the rest of his days,” gave all his property, real and personal, to his wife in return for an annual pension of 150 livres.
A petition for separation was an action available only to women and “depended legally on a husband’s failure to maintain his wife.”
These petitions could also be motivated by the need to protect the household from creditors; perhaps that was the case here, since Lefebvre later donated all of his property to his wife.
By 1627 Mary Venière was remarried to a lawyer, Jean Rémond, who practiced at the
Parlement de Paris
The Parliament of Paris (french: Parlement de Paris) was the oldest ''parlement'' in the Kingdom of France, formed in the 14th century. It was fixed in Paris by Philip IV of France in 1302. The Parliament of Paris would hold sessions inside the ...
, France's highest court.
Isaac de Laffemas sued Marie Vernier for defamation in 1627.
Career
Vernier was the leading lady and co-director of
Valleran-Lecomte's theatre company, which performed in
Hôtel de Bourgogne in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
and toured the country and the
Spanish Netherlands
Spanish Netherlands (Spanish: Países Bajos Españoles; Dutch: Spaanse Nederlanden; French: Pays-Bas espagnols; German: Spanische Niederlande.) (historically in Spanish: ''Flandes'', the name "Flanders" was used as a ''pars pro toto'') was the H ...
.
Vernier is confirmed to have performed in Paris from at least 1604 onwards. She was foremost a tragedienne.
Marie Vernier was the first Parisian actress to be known by name.
After her marriage, she became known as Mlle La Porte (Mademoiselle also used by married women at the time, since the title Madame was mostly used for upper class women at the time): her sister was known as Mlle Montfleury after marriage.
While professional French actresses were reportedly active in France in the second half of the 16th century, they are seldom mentioned by name and normally only very briefly. Nine contemporary actresses beside her are briefly mentioned: Jeanne Crevé, Judith Le Messier, Elisabeth Diye, Mlle Dufresne, Isabelle Paquette Le Gendre, Francoise Petit, Marguerite Dugoy, Renée Berenger and
Rachel Trepeau, but only Marie Vernier and Rachel Trepeau are documented to any large degree.
References
The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre , 1996 , PHYLLIS HARTNOLL and PETER FOUND Transnational exchange in early modern theater By Robert Henke, Eric NicholsonElizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art: The Dinner Party: Heritage Floor: Marie Venier
Citations
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vernier, Marie
16th-century French actresses
17th-century French actresses
French theatre directors
French stage actresses
16th-century births
17th-century deaths
People from Sens
17th-century theatre managers
17th-century French businesswomen