LOUIS ARSENE

See also:

• DELAUNAY, ELIE (1828-1891)
• LOUIS ARSENE DELAUNAY (1826-1903)

DELAUNAY (1826-1903)  , French actor, was born in Paris, the son of a wine-seller . He studied at the Conservatoire, and made his first formal appearance on the stage in 1845, in Tartuffe at the Odeon . After three years at this house he made his debut at the Comedie Francaise as Dorante in Corneille's Le Menteur, and began a long and brilliant career in young lover parts . He continued to act as jeune premier until he was sixty, his grace, marvellous diction and passion enchanting his audiences . It was especially in the plays of Alfred de Musset that his gifts found their happiest expression . In the thirty-seven years during which he was a member of the Comedic Francaise, Delaunay took or created nearly two hundred parts . He retired in 1887, having been made a chevalier of the Legion of Honour in 1883 . ' " Delatores, genus hominum publico exitio repertum . . . per uraemia eliciebantur " (Tacitus, Annals, iv . 30) .