longtemps par le problème insoluble de la destinée de l'homme et du but final de la vie. Je le voyais souvent la tête dans ses mains, voulant à toute force pénétrer le mystère impénétrable, cherchant un trait de lumière dans l'immensité, dans le spectacle de la nature, dans son propre cœur, demandant des preuves, des indices à la science, à la philosophie, à toute la création, et ne trouvant que des systèmes, des rêveries, des négations, des conjectures, et au bout de tout cela, le doute.” (Biog.de A. de Musset, p. 193.) A. de Musset has similar thoughts in La confession d'un enfant du siècle, première partie, ch. x. It is interesting to recall that Tennyson's In Memoriam, published in 1850, was probably being composed at this time, since Hallam died in 1833.

Page 64.

he wrote this.

1. Encor plein de jeunesse. Musset was only 28 when

2. Épicure. Celebrated Greek philosopher, born 341 B.C., seven years after the death of Plato. He was a native of the island of Samos. He was frugal and chaste in his life and required the same virtues in his followers.

3. Je voudrais vivre, etc. Cf. these four lines with Faust, 1. Theil, lines 1411-1421. .

4. Malgré moi l'infini me tourmente. "J'ai toujours été tourmentée par l'infini."

G. Sand says somewhere,

5. Passer comme un troupeau. Cf. Dante: Uomini siate, e non pecore matte.

(Be men and not senseless animals.) And Longfellow : Be not like dumb, driven cattle.

Also Butler:

Like mortal cattle in a penfold.

Par. v, 80.

A Psalm of Life.

Hudibras, Pt. ii, canto 3, 197.

Musset probably remembered G. Salusti Crispi, Catilina, i: "Omnes homines, qui sese student praestare ceteris animalibus, summa ope niti decet, ne vitam silentio transeant veluti pecora, quae natura prona atque obedientia ventri finxit." This work is always read in French classes. 6. Et je ne puis m'enfuir, etc. Cf. Goethe:

Die schlechteste Gesellschaft lässt dich fühlen,
Dass du ein Mensch mit Menschen bist.

Also,

Faust, 1. Theil, 1283-1284.

Terence, Heaut. i, 1, 25.

Homo sum, humani nil a me alienum puto.

7. Jouis et meurs. Cf. St. Paul: "If after the manner of men I have fough+h beasts at Ephesus, what advantageth it me, if the dead

rise not? Let us eat and drink; for to-morrow we die." 1 Cor. xv: 32. Similar sentiments abound in the Latin poets.

Cf. also Isaiah xxii: 13. 8. Espère seulement.

Why art thou cast down, O my soul? And why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God." Psalms xlii : 5. 9. Le ciel veille sans cesse. Cf. "He that keepeth thee will not slumber." Psalms cxxi: 2.

Page 65. 10. Sous les yeux d'un témoin. Cf. Proverbs v: 21: "For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord."

Page 66.

11. Au fond des vains plaisirs, etc.

Medio de fonte leporum

Surgit amari aliquid, quod in ipsis floribus angat.

Lucretius, lib. 4, verses 1133-1134.

12. Je trouve un tel dégoût. This is very characteristic of Musset's whole life, - reckless dissipation and remorse. Can you see a worse sight," he once said, “than a libertine who repents?"

13. L'amour, le seul bien d'ici-bas.

This sentiment is repeated scores of times by Musset. It is the key-note of his life as well as his poetry. Cf. also Browning:

Shut them in

With their triumphs and their glories and the rest,

Love is best!

14. Astarté.

See note I, page 3.

15. Horace.

Love among the Ruins.

Famous Augustan poet (65-8 B.C.).

16. Lucrèce. Latin poet, author of De Natura Rerum (99–54 B.C.). 17. Épicure. See note 2, page 64.

18. Une immense espérance a traversé la terre. A fine line.

Page 67. 19. Où sont-ils, ces faiseurs de systèmes? In the following lines Musset runs over the various systems of philosophy, ancient and modern. Just before writing L'Espoir en Dieu, he had read a number of philosophical works. His knowledge of philosophy, however, was not very deep, his brother Paul to the contrary notwithstanding. Cf. what he says below, for instance, of the great German philosopher Kant. 20. L'un me montre, etc. The two opposing principles of Good and Evil among the ancient Persians.

21. Platon . . . Aristote. The former represents the poetic or ideal thinker, the latter the purely intellectual and scientific thinker.

22. Pythagore et Leibnitz. The poet alludes here probably to the doctrine of the transmigration of souls. In thus placing the German philosopher in connection with Pythagoras, Musset probably had in

270

mind Leibnitz's doctrine of Monadology, i.e., the universe is compose of an infinite number of soul-like units.

23. Descartes, René (1596-1650). Mathematician, geometrician, and especially philosopher; regarded as the father of modern philosophy on account of his Discours sur la Méthode. The allusion here is to his famous vortex theory of the movements of the universe and its origin from chaos. 24. Montaigne. French skeptic (1533-1592). The motto of his Essais is "Que sçais-je ?"

25. Pascal, Blaise (1623-1662). French scientist, philosopher, and theologian.

26. Pyrrhon. A philosopher of Elis, contemporary with Aristotle, and founder of the skeptical school.

27. Zénon. The founder of the Stoic school, a native of Citium in Cyprus.

28. Voltaire. See note 25, page 6.

29. Spinosa (1632-1677), born at Amsterdam. The poet here alludes to the pantheistic doctrines of Spinoza, "der Gott-betrunkene Mensch," as the Germans call him.

30. Sophiste anglais. Allusion to the materialistic psychology of English empiricism.

31. Rhéteur allemand. Musset refers here to Kant, though he could hardly have understood him, to speak of him in such terms. Kant by no means can be said to conclure au néant."

Page 68. 32. Ô toi que nul n'a pu connaître, Et n'a renié sans mentir. Cf. Tennyson:

Believing where we cannot prove.

In Memoriam.

Compare this whole prayer with Pope, The Universal Prayer, and Lamartine, La Prière.

SOUVENIR.

In general sentiment this poem may be classed with Gray's Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, Lamartine's Le Lac, and Musset's own Nuit d'Octobre. It was published in the Revue des Deux Mondes, the 15th of February, 1841, and the scene described is the forest of Fontainebleau, which the poet had visited in 1833. For the circumstances of its composition see Paul de Musset, Biographie de Alfred de Musset, pp. 261–262.

Page 72. I. Les voilà, etc. Compare the following three stanzas with the opening lines of Wordsworth's Tintern Abbey. 2. Et ces pas argentins sur le sable muet. Cf. Nuit d'Octobre:

Quand nous marchions ensemble

Le soir sur le sable argentin.

Page 73. 3. Voyez la lune monte à travers ces ombrages. Lamartine, whom Musset, consciously or unconsciously, imitates in this poem, almost always describes nature at the melancholy hour of twilight. As one cynical critic remarks of the Méditations, Cela repré

sente huit heures du soir en été."

4. Aussi calme, aussi pur, de mon âme attendrie Sort mon ancien Cf. Nuit d'Octobre:

amour.

Le mal dont j'ai souffert s'est enfui comme un rêve,

Je n'en puis comparer le lointain souvenir

Qu'à ces brouillards légers que l'aurore soulève,

Et qu'avec la rosée on voit s'évanouir.

...

5. Que sont-ils devenus, les chagrins de ma vie? Cf. Biographie, p. 256: "Pendant le trajet de Fontainebleau à Malesherbes, mon frère devint rêveur et sa mélancolie me gagna. Alfred sentait à chaque pas ses souvenirs de jeunesse se réveiller plus et plus vivaces. Le peu de mots qu'il m'en dit, je le retrouvai cinq mois après dans ces vers aujourd'hui si connus."

6. Ô puissance du temps! ô légères années! Cf.:

Eheu! fugaces,
Labuntur anni.

Horace, Carm. ii, 14, 1.

Page 74. 7. Dante, pourquoi dis-tu qu'il n'est pire misère, etc. These lines refer to the famous passage in the fifth canto of the Inferno,

where the unfortunate Francesca da Rimini prefaces her sad story with the following words :

Nessun maggior dolore,

Che ricordarsi del tempo felice

Nella miseria; e ciò sa 'l tuo dottore.

(No greater grief than to remember the happy time in wretchedness; and that knoweth thy master.) The dottore alluded to is Boëtius, who in his Consolatio Philosophiae wrote: "In omni adversitate fortunae infelicissimum genus infortunii est, fuisse felicem." Tennyson likewise refers to this passage in his Locksley Hall:

Comfort? Comfort scorned of devils! This is truth the poet sings,
That a sorrow's crown of sorrow is remembering happier things.

8. Françoise. Francesca da Rimini, the heroine of the famous passage in Dante alluded to above.

Page 76. 9. Mes yeux ont contemplé, etc. "J'ai prononcé ces mots-là seul, au milieu du silence de la nuit, et les voilà jetés en pâture aux badauds! Est-ce qu'il n'aurait pas été temps après ma mort ?” Biographie, p. 262.

10. Le toast à l'ange des ténèbres.

Here's to my love! O true apothecary!

Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die.

Romeo and Juliet, v, 3.

Page 77. 11. Un sépulcre blanchi. Cf. Matthew xxiii: 27: "For ye are like unto whited sepulchres." The poet's allusion is to George Sand. Page 78. 12. Je me dis seulement à cette heure, en ce lieu, Un jour je fus aimé.

Cf. Lamartine:

Que tout ce qu'on entend, l'on voit ou l'on respire,

Tout dise: Ils ont aimé."

Le Lac.

À QUOI RÊVENT LES JEUNES filles.

This charming comedy formed part of the Spectacle dans un Fauteuil, published in 1833. It has been produced on the stage only three times,

at the Comédie-Française November 29, 1880, at the Théâtre des Variétés, April 29, 1881, and at the Odéon, November 3, 1881. There are many reminiscential Shaksperian touches in it. Especially the character of Irus, who has something of Osric, something of Sir Andrew