Portrait of Françoise de Graffigny writing Cénie by Pierre-Augustin Clavareau, Musée du Château des Lumières, Lunéville, France, inv. 2011.2.1.
Classed among the most popular plays of the eighteenth century, Cénie premiered at the Théâtre-Français in Paris on 25 June 1750, immediately becoming a smash hit (Figure 1). It was performed twenty-five times during the summer and winter runs that year, and drew 18,892 spectators who received it with thunderous applause and floods of tears — an unanticipated success that turned its author into a sought-after celebrity. On the advice of the retired actress and Bout-du-Banc hostess Jeanne Quinault, Graffigny had written the play in prose, which was deemed a more suitable and less perilous undertaking than verse for a female playwright
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Citation: Ionescu, Christina. "Cénie". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 27 January 2022 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=30475, accessed 21 November 2024.]
