Produced by David Widger
CONFESSION OF A CHILD OF THE CENTURY
(Confession d'un Enfant du Siecle)
By ALFRED DE MUSSET
With a Preface by HENRI DE BORNIER, of the French Academy
ALFRED DE MUSSET
A poet has no right to play fast and loose with his genius. It does notbelong to him, it belongs to the Almighty; it belongs to the world andto a coming generation. At thirty De Musset was already an old man,seeking in artificial stimuli the youth that would not spring again.Coming from a literary family the zeal of his house had eaten him up;his passion had burned itself out and his heart with it. He had donehis work; it mattered little to him or to literature whether the curtainfell on his life's drama in 1841 or in 1857.
Alfred de Musset, by virtue of his genial, ironical temperament,eminently clear brain, and undying achievements, belongs to the greatpoets of the ages. We to-day do not approve the timbre of his epoch:that impertinent, somewhat irritant mask, that redundant rhetoric, thatoccasional disdain for the metre. Yet he remains the greatest poetede l'amour, the most spontaneous, the most sincere, the most emotionalsinger of the tender passion that modern times has produced.
Born of noble parentage on December 11, 1810--his full name being LouisCharles Alfred de Musset--the son of De Musset-Pathai, he received hiseducation at the College Henri IV, where, among others, the Duke ofOrleans was his schoolmate. When only eighteen he was introducedinto the Romantic 'cenacle' at Nodier's. His first work, 'Les Contesd'Espagne et d'Italie' (1829), shows reckless daring in the choice ofsubjects quite in the spirit of Le Sage, with a dash of the dandifiedimpertinence that mocked the foibles of the old Romanticists. However,he presently abandoned this style for the more subjective strain of 'LesVoeux Steyiles, Octave, Les Secretes Pensees de Rafael, Namouna, andRolla', the last two being very eloquent at times, though immature.Rolla (1833) is one of the strongest and most depressing of his works;the sceptic regrets the faith he has lost the power to regain, andrealizes in lurid flashes the desolate emptiness of his own heart. Atthis period the crisis of his life was reached. He accompanied GeorgeSand to Italy, a rupture between them occurred, and De Musset returnedto Paris alone in 1834.
More subdued sadness is found in 'Les Nuits' (1832-1837), and in 'Espoiren Dieu' (1838), etc., and his 'Lettre a Lamartine' belongs to the mostbeautiful pages of French literature. But henceforth his productiongrows more sparing and in form less romantic, although 'Le RhinAllemand', for example, shows that at times he can still gather up allhis powers. The poet becomes lazy and morose, his will is sapped by awild and reckless life, and one is more than once tempted to wish thathis lyre had ceased to sing.
De Musset's prose is more abundant than his lyrics or his dramas. It isof immense value, and owes its chief significance to the clearnesswith which it exhibits the progress of his ethical disintegration. In'Emmeline (1837) we have a rather dangerous juggling with thepsychology of love. Then follows a study of simultaneous love, 'LesDeux Mattresses' (1838), quite in the spirit of Jean Paul. He thenwrote three sympathetic depictions of Parisian Bohemia: 'Frederic etBernadette, Mimi Pinson, and Le Secret de Javotte', all in 1838. 'LeFils de Titien (1838) and Croiselles' (1839) are carefully elaboratedhistorical novelettes; the latter is considered one of his best works,overflowing with romantic spirit, and contrasting in this respectstrangely with 'La Mouche' (1853), one of the last flickerings of hisimagination. 'Maggot' (1838) bears marks of the influence of GeorgeSand; 'Le Merle Blanc' (1842) is a sort of allegory dealing withtheir quarrel. 'Pierre et Camille' is a pretty but slight tale of adeaf-mute's love. His greatest work, 'Confession d'un Enfant du Siecle',crowned with acclaim by the French Academy, and classic for all time,was written in 1836, when the poet, somewhat recovered from the shock,relates his unhappy Italian experience. It is an ambitious and deeplyinteresting work, and shows whither his dread of all moral compulsionand self-control was leading him.
De Musset also wrote some critical essays, witty and satirical in tone,in which his genius appears in another light. It is not generally knownthat he was the translator into French of De Quincey's 'Confessionsof an Opium Eater' (1828). He was also a prominent contributor to the'Revue des Deux Mondes.' In 1852 he was elected to the French Academy,but hardly ever appeared at the sessions. A confrere once made theremark: "De Musset frequently absents himself," whereupon it is saidanother Immortal answered, "And frequently absinthe's himself!"
While Brunetiere, Lemattre, and others consider De Musset a greatdramatist, Sainte-Beuve, singularly enough, does not appreciate him as aplaywright. Theophile Gautier says about 'Un Caprice' (1847): "Since thedays of Marivaux nothing has been produced in 'La Comedie Francaise'so fine, so delicate, so dainty, than this tender piece, thischef-d'oeuvre, long buried within the pages of a review; and we aregreatly indebted to the Russians of St. Petersburg, that snow-coveredAthens, for having dug up and revived it." Nevertheless, his bluette,'La Nuit Venetienne', was outrageously treated at the Odeon. Theopposition was exasperated by the recent success of Hugo's 'Hernani.'Musset was then in complete accord with the fundamental romanticconception that tragedy must mingle with comedy on the stage as well asin life, but he had too delicate a taste to yield to the extravaganceof Dumas and the lesser romanticists. All his plays, by the way, werewritten for the 'Revue des Deux Mondes' between 1833 and 1850, and theydid not win a definite place on the stage till the later years of theSecond Empire. In some comedies the dialogue is unequalled by any writersince the days of Beaumarchais. Taine says that De Musset has more realoriginality in some respects than Hugo, and possesses truer dramaticgenius. Two or three of his comedies will probably hold the stagelonger than any dramatic work of the romantic school. They contain thequintessence of romantic imaginative art; they show in full flow thatunchecked freedom of fancy which, joined to the spirit of realisticcomedy, produces the modern French drama. Yet De Musset's prose has ingreater measure the qualities that endure.
The Duke of Orleans created De Musset Librarian in the Department of theInterior. It was sometimes stated that there was no library at all. Itis certain that it was a sinecure, though the pay, 3,000 francs, wassmall. In 1848 the Duke had the bad taste to ask for his resignation,but the Empire repaired the injury. Alfred de Musset died in Paris, May2, 1857.
HENRI DE BORNIER de l'Academie Francaise.
THE CONFESSIONS OF A CHILD OF THE CENTURY
BOOK 1.
PART I