LIFE AND WRITINGS OF MUSSET. . "] pleased to regard with admiration. In 1836 there also ap- peared the Lett re a Lamartine, II ne faut jurer de rien, an exquisite comedy with just a touch of pathos, the Nuitd’Aoiit, and the ever-delightful letters of Dupuis and Cotonet on the subject of Romanticism. In 1837 came out Un Caprice, a charming little piece of comedy, which attracted, however, but little attention at the time, and two prose romances, Emmeline and Les Deux Mattresses. These, like the works of 1836 mentioned just above, appeared in the Revue des Deux Mondes, as did Le Fits du Titien, another prose romance, and probably the author’s best work in this kind. This appeared on May 1, 1838, and was followed in October by M argot, also a prose stoiy. The next month produced an admirable study on Rachel and tragedy in general. In January 1839 the poet finished another prose story, Croisilles, and, showing the last pages to his brother Paul, exclaimed ’ Finis Prosae !’ notwith- standing which some months afterwards he suddenly resolved to take up prose again, and actually made an engagement to furnish three short stories to the Revue. But his mood changed, he took a well-founded disgust to the kind of prose story that was then coming into vogue in the form oifeuille- tons, and the engagement was not carried out. Of one prose work which he began, Le Po’ete Dechu, some extraordinarily interesting fragments are preserved by Paul de Musset in his life of his brother. At the end of the year came out a brilliant criticism of Pauline Garcia, and in January 1840 the poem of Silvia. Illness prevented the poet from doing much during this year. Paul de Musset quotes some very curious and singularly fine reflections, which, nearly at the end of the year, Alfred wrote down on a sheet of paper under the heading A Trente Ans.
841 was remarkable for the appearance in the Revue des
Deux Mondes of the celebrated answer to Becker, Le Rliiii Allemand. This fine chant of scornful defiance was described by Lamartine as a chanson du cabaret; but then, Musset wrote it because he thought Lamartine’s Marseillaise de la Paix a quite insufficient answer to Becker. Between 1841 and 1845 Musset produced little beyond the
