Marc-Antoine Legrand

'''Marc-Antoine Legrand''' or Le Grand (30 January 1673, Paris – 7 January 1728) was a 17th–18th-century French actor and playwright.

== Biography == The son of a surgeon at the Hôtel des Invalides, Legrand started very early his acting career, first in Lyon in 1692 in the company of Marshall de Villeroy and made a first attempt at the Comédie-Française 19 March 1694 but was not received. After a stay in Warsaw at the court of John III Sobieski, he returned to the Comédie-Française 21 March 1702 and was received 18 October.

Disgraced by nature, he one day harangued the audience by throwing "Gentlemen, it is easier for you to accustom yourself to my face, that for me to change it."

If he never gave up the stage (he even played the role of Maître Robert in his last play ''Les Amazones modernes'' in 1727, written in collaboration with Louis Fuzelier), he devoted part of his time to writing theater plays (forty in all), sometimes to the Comédie française, sometimes to the Comedie Italienne, and once even for a Théâtre de la foire, the opéra comique, ''Les Animaux raisonnables'', 1717. ''Le Roi de Cocagne'' (1718) is usually considered to be his masterpiece.

While he was composing the play ''Cartouche ou les voleurs'' (1721), he pushed the sake of realism as far as visiting in prison the famous brigand to document the argot.<ref>[http://dossiersgrihl.revues.org/document327.html Claudine Nédélec, "Marc-Antoine Legrand : Cartouche, ou les Voleurs (1721) : analyse et étude de l’argot", in ''Les dossiers du Grihl'']</ref>

== References == {{Reflist}}

== Bibliography ==

=== Studies on Legrand === * Burnet, Mary Scott, ''Marc-Antoine Legrand, acteur et auteur comique'', Paris, Droz, 1938. * Lauro, Carlo, '''Foire' et utopia nel teatro di M.-A. Legrand'', Schena editore, 1985.

=== Plays by Legrand === * ''Œuvres de Le Grand, comédien du roi'', Paris, Libraires associés, 1770 (4 vol.) * ''Œdipe travesti'' et ''Agnès de Chaillot'' (en collaboration avec Pierre-François Biancolelli, dit Dominique) dans ''Parodies du nouveau Théâtre-Italien'', Paris, Briasson, 1738 (vol. 1).

=== External links === * [http://data.bnf.fr/11996101/marc-antoine_legrand/ Marc-Antione Legrand] on data.bnf.fr * [https://web.archive.org/web/20071010050931/http://cesar.org.uk/cesar2/people/people.php?fct=edit&person_UOID=100352 List of his plays] on [http://cesar.org.uk CÉSAR] * [https://archive.today/20121223222220/http://cesar.org.uk/cesar2////books/leris/view_entry.php?id=4036 biographical notice] in ''Dictionnaire portatif historique et littéraire des théâtres'' by Antoine de Léris {{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Legrand, Marc-Antoine}} Category:18th-century French male actors

Category:18th-century French dramatists and playwrights Category:18th-century French male writers Category:French male dramatists and playwrights Category:Sociétaires of the Comédie-Française Category:Male actors from Paris Category:1673 births Category:1728 deaths