1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Montfleury

MONTFLEURY (d. 1667), French actor, whose real name was Zacharie Jacob, was born in Anjou during the last years of the 16th century. He was enrolled as one of the pages to the duc de Guise, but he ran away to join some strolling players, assuming the name of Montfleury. About 1635 he was a valued member of the company at the Hôtel de Bourgogne, and he was in the original cast of the Cid (1636) and of Horace (1640). Richelieu thought highly of him, and when in 1638 Montfleury married the actress Jeanne de la Chalpe (d. 1683), the cardinal desired the ceremony to take place at his own country house at Rueil. Montfleury died in Paris from the rupture of a blood-vessel, while playing the part of Orestes in Andromaque, in December 1667. He was the author of a tragedy, La Mort d’Asdrobal, performed in 1647.