This etext was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net>
[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of thefile for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making anentire meal of them. D.W.]
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
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 and toa coming generation. At thirty De Musset was already an old man, seekingin artificial stimuli the youth that would not spring again. Coming froma literary family the zeal of his house had eaten him up; his passion hadburned itself out and his heart with it. He had done his work; itmattered little to him or to literature whether the curtain fell on hislife'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 poete del'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 introduced intothe 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 returned toParis 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 clearness withwhich it exhibits the progress of his ethical disintegration. In'Emmeline (1837) we have a rather dangerous juggling with the psychologyof love. Then follows a study of simultaneous love, 'Les DeuxMattresses' (1838), quite in the spirit of Jean Paul. He then wrotethree sympathetic depictions of Parisian Bohemia: 'Frederic etBernadette, Mimi Pinson, an