41. Trépied. Sort of stool on three feet (Greek тρíπovs) on which the priestess of Apollo sat in the temple of Delphi when she delivered the oracles of the god. 42. Calderon, de la Barca (1601-1681). Spanish dramatic poet, author of La Vida es Sueño, El Mágico prodigioso, etc. 43. Mérimée, Prosper (1803-1870). Author of Lettres à une Inconnue and a series of novels, among them Carmen and Colomba. He is remarkable for the purity and clearness of his style. These two are taken as types of realism in literature, while Shakspere and Racine typify the ideal side of life. Sainte-Beuve remarks that this comparison between Calderon and Mérimée "passe toutes les bornes de la licence poétique en pareille matière,” Port. Cont. ii, p. 196. Page 16. 44. Et de sa plume d'or. Cf. the beautiful lines of Keats's sonnet : Give me a golden pen and let me lean On heaped up flowers, in regions clear, and far. To open the human heart with a pen is a mixed metaphor. 45. Hamlet tuera Clodius. Musset means Claudius, who murdered Hamlet's father, usurped the throne, and was killed by Hamlet himself. See Act v, Sc. 2. 46. Joad. Joad is the high-priest in Racine's Athalie. Mathan is an apostate priest, who is slain when Joas is proclaimed king. 47. Petit-Jean. A character in Racine's Plaideurs. 48. Man delights me not, sir, nor woman neither. Hamlet, Act ii, SC. 2. 49. Je ne sais trop, etc. The substance of the whole dedication is that Musset says he has followed no system, is not the poet of nature, or art, or politics. The only thing he is sure of is love. He prefers the ideal school to the realistic school, and finds in Racine and Shakspere the poets he admires most. LUCIE. Published May, 1835, in the same month as the Nuit de Mai. In this elegy Musset has taken the finest lines from an earlier poem called Le Saule, published in 1830. The latter is nearly twelve times the length of Lucie and is quite in the Byronic mood. Page 17. 1. Mes chers amis, etc. These touching lines are inscribed on Musset's modest tomb in the cemetery of Père Lachaise, in Paris. Cf. Ronsard, De l'élection de son sépulchre: Mais bien je veux qu'un arbre, M'ombrage en lieu d'un marbre, Tousjours de verd. 2. Nous écoutions la nuit, etc. Cf. these and the preceding lines, describing the subtle charm of a spring night, with the opening lines of the Nuit de Mai. Page 18. 3. Je n'aimais qu'elle au monde. Cf. La Nuit d'Octobre, p. 58, line 5. 4. Desdemona. Cf. Sonnet à George Sand: Comme Desdemona, t'inclinant sur ta lyre. Musset often refers to Desdemona; Othello seems to have been his favorite play of Shakspere. In Le Saule we learn that Georgina Smolen, the Lucie of the present piece, sang the Willow Song (apparently) from Rossini's opera Otello, first produced at Naples in 1816. Desdemona was one of the great parts of La Pasta and Malibran. See Musset's À la Malibran. poem, Page 19. 5. Qui fis hésiter Faust. Cf. Faust, Erster Theil, line 2329 ff. The pathetic story of Marguerite seems to have deeply impressed Musset. He often refers to her although it is doubtful if he ever read the original. The story was known to him probably from translations and pictures. He was very fond of Ary Scheffer's picture of Marguerite, and had an engraving of it in his bed-room. Cf. De Janzé, Études et Récits sur A. de Musset, p. 181. LA NUIT DE MAI. Published in May, 1835. One of the group of poems which show the disastrous effect of Musset's relations with George Sand. See pp. 144 145 of Paul de Musset's Biographie for an interesting account of the composition of this beautiful poem. Page 19. 1. Luth. Musical instrument something like the guitar. Used figuratively for poetic inspiration. Prends ton luth, cher Orphée, et montre à la déesse Combien ce doux espoir charme notre tristesse. Corneille, Toison d'Or, i, 5. 2. Le printemps naît ce soir, etc. These lines, so fraught with the charm of awakening spring, are worthy to be compared with the best of Keats's. Page 21. 3. Poète, prends ton luth, etc. The muse here endeavors to rouse the poet from the listlessness into which his sorrow has thrown him. She urges him to sing, and goes over all the subjects of poetry,— epic, lyric, pastoral, etc. 4. Comme un oiseau que sa couvée appelle. Cf. the exquisite lines of Dante : Quali colombe dal disio chiamate, Con l' ali alzate e ferme, al dolce nido As doves called by desire, With wings lifted and outspread, Fly to the sweet nest. Inf. v, 82-84. Dante evidently found the suggestion for these lines in Vergil, Aeneid, 6. Semblant de bonheur. Cf. La Nuit d'Octobre: Qui m'ont appris à maudire And L'Espoir en Dieu : Une apparence de bonheur. 7. L'univers est à nous. And, For me their tributary streams combine, Goldsmith, The Traveller. He looks abroad into the varied fields Calls the delightful scenery all his own. His are the mountains and the valleys his, 8. Argos. City and district of ancient Greece. Cowper. 9. Ptéléon. 1. A place in Elis Triphylia, Il. ii, 594. 2. A city of Thessaly, Il. ii. 697. 10. Messa. City and harbor of Laconia, I. ii, 582. Homer applies to it the epithet πολυτρήρωνα abounding in doves, which Musset translates agréable aux colombes. = 11. Pélion. A mountain in Thessaly, I. ii, 757. The expression, le front chevelu, is taken from the Homeric epithet, elvoσípuλλov, i.e., quivering with leaves. 12. Titarèse. A river of Thessaly, a branch of the Peneus, Il. ii, 751. Homer calls it iμepróv = lovely. 13. Oloossone. A city in Thessaly, Il. ii, 739; blanche is a translation of Homer's λεύκην. 14. Camyre. Greek Káμeipos, a city in the island of Rhodes, Il. ii, 656, called ȧpyivóevтa, i.e., bright-shining, from its lying on chalky hills. Cf. Horace, Rhodos clara. All the above names are quoted from the second Book of the Iliad. The influence of André Chénier is manifest. 16. Crierons-nous à Tarquin. Allusion to the Rape of Lucrece. See Shakspere's poem, Ariosto, O. F., canto xxix, 28, and the Roman d la Rose, lines 9361 ff. 17. Mènerons-nous la chèvre, etc. The reference is to pastoral poetry. Page 23. 18. Montrerons-nous le ciel, etc. Elegiac poetry. Cf. Milton, Il Penseroso: And looks commercing with the skies. Musset probably refers to Albert Dürer's highly poetic Melancholia, published in 1514, and one of the most perfect engravings of this master. 19. Sa bruyère l'attend, etc. These lines remind us of Ossian, whose influence was so great over Lamartine, Chateaubriand, and the other Romanticists. 20. Peindrons-nous une vierge, etc. Musset here refers to Romantic poetry. His earlier poetry, Don Paez, Portia, etc., are quite in this strain. Cf.: Le quatrième jour Suzon vint à confesse; Et derrière un pilier, caché dans l'ombre épaisse, Suzon. 21. Dirons-nous aux héros, etc. Reference to old epic poetry of France. In his youth Alfred de Musset had read deep in these old stories of Roland, Amadis, Huon de Bordeaux, etc. 22. Troubadours. One of the school of poets who flourished from the 11th to the end of the 13th century, chiefly in Provence. They invented and cultivated a kind of lyrical poetry characterized by intricacy of metre and rhyme, and usually of a romantic, amorous strain. 23. L'homme de Waterloo. Napoleon. Musset calls him "homme de Brumaire" in the Dédicace to La Coupe et les Lèvres. The 18th Brumaire marks Napoleon's rise to power and glory; Waterloo marks his fall. Cf. note 17, page 11. 24. Sur son tertre vert. St. Helena, where Napoleon died. 25. Satire. Musset has shown no mean powers in this direction in the Merle Blanc and the Ballade à la Lune. Page 24. Cf. Shelley: 26. Les plus désespérés, etc. Also Justinus Kerner: Poesie ist tiefes Schmerzen Und es kommt das echte Lied Einzig aus dem Menschenherzen, |