Editing Sarah Bernhardt (section)

===Early life===
[[File:Sarah Bernhardt and her mother.jpg|thumb|Bernhardt with her mother]]

Henriette-Rosine Bernard<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/personnage/Henriette_Rosine_Bernard_dite_Sarah_Bernhardt/108572|title=Encyclopédie Larousse en ligne – Henriette Rosine Bernard dite Sarah Bernhardt| first=Éditions|last=Larousse|website=www.larousse.fr|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170527230343/http://larousse.fr/encyclopedie/personnage/Henriette_Rosine_Bernard_dite_Sarah_Bernhardt/108572|archive-date=27 May 2017}}</ref> was born at 5 rue de L'École-de-Médecine in the [[Latin Quarter, Paris|Latin Quarter]] of Paris on 22 October 1844.<ref group= "note">Some uncertainty exists about the date. See [https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sarah-Bernhardt ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' online Tierchant (2009), page 15 and Skinner (1967) page 1, and section below on birthdate] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180310044948/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sarah-Bernhardt |date=10 March 2018 }}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite Britannica|title=Sarah Bernhardt: French actress|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sarah-Bernhardt|access-date=14 February 2025}}</ref> She was the daughter of Judith Bernard (also known as Julie and in France as Youle), a Dutch Jewish [[courtesan]] with a wealthy or upper-class clientele.<ref>{{Cite news| url= https://www.nytimes.com/2000/10/07/style/sarah-bernhardt-and-the-divine-lie.html|title=Sarah Bernhardt and the Divine Lie|last=Blume|first=Mary|date=7 October 2000|work=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=23 June 2018}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web| url= http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20171214-sarah-bernhardt-was-she-the-first-a-list-actress|title=Sarah Bernhardt: Was she the first 'A-list' actress?|access-date=23 June 2018|date=15 December 2017|last=Williams|first=Holly|publisher=[[BBC]] Culture}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news| url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/features/sarah-bernhardt-goddess-with-a-golden-voice-347025.html| title=Sarah Bernhardt: Goddess with a golden voice| last= Koenig| first=Rhoda|date=22 February 2006| work=[[The Independent]] |location= London |access-date=23 June 2018}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web| url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/oct/24/sarah-bernhardt-robert-gottlieb-review|title=Sarah: The Life of Sarah Bernhardt by Robert Gottlieb| access-date=23 June 2018|date=24 October 2010| last= Laing| first= Olivia| work=[[The Guardian]] |location=London }}</ref> The name of her father was not recorded for a long time, but he is known now to have been an attorney in [[Le Havre]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.calameo.com/books/00731130058fdc2692eb4|title=Qui était le père de Sarah Bernhardt ?|website=calameo.com}}</ref> Bernhardt later wrote that her father's family paid for her education, insisted she be baptized as a [[Catholic]], and left a large sum to be paid when she came of age.{{Sfn|Tierchant|2009|pages=13–14}} Her mother traveled frequently, and saw little of her daughter. She placed Bernhardt with a nurse in [[Brittany]], then in a cottage in the Paris suburb of [[Neuilly-sur-Seine]].{{Sfn|Bernhardt|2000|pages=13–14}}

When Bernhardt was seven, her mother sent her to a boarding school for young ladies in the Paris suburb of [[Auteuil, Seine|Auteuil]], paid with funds from her father's family. There, she acted in her first theatrical performance in the play ''Clothilde'', where she held the [[Fairy Queen|Queen of the Fairies]] role and performed her first of many dramatic death scenes.{{Sfn|Bernhardt|2000|pages=13–14}} While in the boarding school, her mother rose to the top of Parisian courtesans, consorting with politicians, bankers, generals, and writers. Her patrons and friends included [[Charles de Morny, Duke of Morny]], the half-brother of Emperor [[Napoleon III]] and President of the French legislature.{{Sfn|Tierchant|2009|page=29}}

At the age of 10, with the sponsorship of Morny, Bernhardt was admitted to Grandchamp, an exclusive Augustine convent school near [[Versailles (city)|Versailles]].{{Sfn|Gold|Fizdale|1991|pages=17–20}} At the convent, she performed the part of the [[Archangel Raphael]] in a story based on the [[Book of Tobit]].{{Sfn|Tierchant|2009|pages=25–26}} She declared her intention to become a nun but did not always follow convent rules; she was accused of [[sacrilege]] when she arranged a Christian burial, with a procession and ceremony, for her pet lizard.{{Sfn|Tierchant|2009|page=28}} She received her first communion as a Roman Catholic in 1856 and was fervently religious after that. However, she never forgot her Jewish heritage. When asked years later by a reporter if she were a Christian, she replied: "No, I'm a Roman Catholic and a member of the great Jewish race. I'm waiting until Christians become better."{{Sfn|Skinner|1967|page=13}} That contrasted her answer, "No, never. I'm an atheist" to an earlier question by composer and compatriot [[Charles Gounod]] if she ever prayed.<ref>{{cite book|last = Allen Smith|first = Warren| title=Celebrities in Hell: A Guide to Hollywood's Atheists, Agnostics, Skeptics, Free Thinkers, and More |publisher= Barricade Books Inc.| year= 2002|isbn=1-56980-214-9|page=130}} Ira D. Cardiff's 1945 book ''What Great Men Think of Religion'' quoted Bernhardt's answer as "Me pray? Never! I'm an atheist."</ref> Regardless, she accepted the [[last rites]] shortly before her death.<ref>[[David W. Menefee|Menefee, David W.]] (2003) ''Sarah Bernhardt in the Theater of Films and Sound Recordings''. North Carolina: McFarland. {{ISBN|0-7864-1636-X}}</ref>

In 1857, Bernhardt learned that her father had died overseas.{{Sfn|Bernhardt|2000|page=68}} Her mother summoned a family council, including Morny, to decide what to do with her. Morny proposed that Bernhardt should become an actress. This idea horrified Bernhardt, as she had never been inside a theatre.{{Sfn|Bernhardt|2000|page=77}} Morny arranged for her to attend her first theatre performance at the [[Comédie Française]] in a party which included her mother, Morny, and his friend [[Alexandre Dumas]] ''père''. The play they attended was ''[[Britannicus (play)|Britannicus]]'', by [[Jean Racine]], followed by the classical comedy ''[[Amphitryon (Plautus play)|Amphitryon]]'' by [[Plautus]]. The play's emotion so moved Bernhardt that she began to sob loudly, disturbing the rest of the audience.{{Sfn|Bernhardt|2000|page=77}} Morny and others in their party were angry at her. They left, but Dumas comforted her and later told Morny that he believed she was destined for the stage. After the performance, Dumas called her "my little star".{{Sfn|Skinner|1967|pages=22–24}}

Morny used his influence with the composer [[Daniel Auber]], the head of the [[Paris Conservatory]], to arrange for Bernhardt to audition. She began preparing, as she described it in her memoirs, "with that vivid exaggeration with which I embrace any new enterprise."{{Sfn|Bernhardt|2000|pages=78–85}} Dumas coached her. The jury comprised Auber and five leading actors and actresses from the Comédie Française. She was supposed to recite verses from Racine, but no one had told her that she needed someone to give her cues as she recited. Bernhardt told the jury she would instead recite the fable of the Two Pigeons by [[La Fontaine]]. The jurors were skeptical, but the enthusiasm and pathos of her recitation won them over, and she was invited to become a student.{{Sfn|Skinner|1967|pages=25–30}}