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Alfred de Musset (1810-1857) |
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French Romantic poet and playwright, remembered for his poetry. A love affair with the novelist George Sand between the years 1833 and 1835 inspired some of Musset's finest lyrics. Much influenced by Shakespeare and Schiller, Alfred de Musset wrote the first modern dramas in the French language. "Society, which does so much evil, resembles that serpent of the Indies whose home is the leaf of a plant which heals its bite; it almost always presents the remedy with the suffering that it has caused. A man, for example, who has his existence regulated, business at rising, visits at such an hour, work at such another, lover at such another, may without danger lose his mistress. His occupations and his thoughts are like those impassive soldiers ranged in battle on one and the same line: a shot carries off one, the neighbors close up, and he appears no more." (The Confession of a Child of the Century by Alfred de Musset, translated by T.F. Rogerson, etchnings by Eugene Abot and drawings nu Paul-Leon Jazet, Philadelphia: Printed for subscribers only by George Barrie & Sons, 1899, p. 46) Alfred de Musset was born in the middle of old Paris, in a house on the Rues des Noyers near the Hôtel de Cluny. Both of his parents were descended from distinguished families, and his father had written several historical and travel works. Musset entered the Collège Henry IV, where his schoolmater included the Duke or Orleans, and graduated with honors in 1827. After hesitating between many professions, Musset abandoned medicine because of his distaste of the dissecting room. Instead, he studied painting for six months in the Louvre. Musset began his career as a poet and dramatist in 1828 with the publication of a ballad called 'A Dream'. His early poems won the approval of Victor Hugo, who accepted Musset in his Romantic literary circle Cénacle. Musset's parodic collection of poems in Contes d'Espagne et d'Italie (1830) showed the influence of Lord Byron. In 1830, at the invitation of the director of the Théâtre de l'Odeon, Musset wrote La nuit vénitienne,
the first of his plays to be produced. After the humiliating failure on
the stage, Musset refused to allow his other plays than historical
tragedies and comedies to be performed. This decision partly liberated him from the thoughts of "technique" - he did not care whether the plays made an effect or no. At that time theatre, on the other hand, was for writers a good means to reach their audience. A theatre ticked was not so expensive than a book. Musset's relatively well-made books, which cost only 3.50 francs, still did not reach a public of petits-bourgeois, craftsmen, or workers, who earned little more than 4 francs per day. Musset's father died in 1832, leaving him the title of viscount. In
June 1833 Musset met George Sand, the daring author
of Indiana and Valentine,
who was carrying a gem-studded dagger. Their first meeting took place
possibly at a dinner party, or at the restaurant Trois Frères
Provençaux. The talked about the dagger. "Sometimes I dress like a man, but when
I don't I need protection," she explained. "This little plaything is
always at my beck and call, and advantageously replaces a cavalier servant, who would only bore me." (George Sand: A Biography by Curtis Cate, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1975, p. 256) When Sand sent him proof of her forthcoming novel Lélia,
Mussed replied: "You've gone and become George Sand; otherwise, you
would merely have been Madame so and so, scribbling away." He started
an intense relationship with her, which inspired the celebrated four
'Nuits' (1835-37). Both Sand and Musset recorded in notebooks their
disastrously ending relationship. It has been said that the Musset-Sand
liaison was the most "written" relationship of the nineteenth century. ('The Mnemonics of Musset's Confession' by Richard Terdiman, in Present Past: Modernity and the Memory Crisis, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1993, p. 75) Gamiani (1833), an erotic novella, which Musset published under the pseudonym Alcide, Baron de M***, tells of Countess Gamiani, who is frigid with men. At the end she poisons a young woman in a lesbian orgy and dies in ecstasy. According to a legend, Musset took up a challenge to write an obscene book without using obscene words and finished the work in two days. After Musset and Sand separated the story was read as Musset's revenge on her. In 1834 Musset
visited Venice with Sand. Stendhal predicted that Sand would find Italy
boring. This journey was a turning point in Musset's life. They both
became dangerously ill, but Sand was too sick to suffer
from boredom. She fell in love with her physician, Pietro Pagello,
and Musset returned alone and in despair to Paris, where he
resumed his old habit as a womanizer. Musset and Sand went together to
see Alfred de Vigny's Chatterton,
a major theatrical event,
but eventually she had had enough his behavior, drinking and insane jealousy. Musset's autobiographical work, La Confession d'un enfant du siècle
(1835), a fictionalized account of the affair written in the form of an
apologia, was a succès de scandale. Sand was cast as Brigitte Pierson,
the lover of the male protagonist, who treats him in motherly way. Musset made no attempt to defend his own conduct. They
part in the end. Sand wept after reading the book but she wanted no more to do with him. (George Sand: A Biography of the First Modern, Liberated Woman by Noel B. Gerson, London: Robert Hale & Company, 1973, p. 125) This work reflected the mal du siècle, the disillusioned moral atmosphere in the period of strife between liberals and monarchists. "Everything that was no longer exists; everything that is to be does not yet exists," Musset once said. Musset's emotionally stormy year of 1835 inspired also his plays On ne badine pas avec l'amour and Lorenzaccio, which is sometimes considered his finest drama; the 'Lettre a Lamartine' from this period is considered one of the most beautiful pages of French literature. Lorenzaccio, written in 1834 and produced in 1896, was based on the murder of the Florentine tyrant Alessandro de'Medici by his cousin Lorenzo, known as Lorenzaccio. Idealistic Lorenzo wins the confidence of Alessandro in order to assassinate the tyrant. In the process, he loses his believes that the rebellious faction led by the Strozzis is capable of declaring a republic. He proceeds with the original plan and Cosimo de'Medici is declared the new ruler of Florence. Defeated in his hopes for justice and freedom, Lorenzo is finally assassinated in turn. In 1837 Musset became engaged to Aimée d'Alton. The relationship faded within a year and was followed by brief affairs. Throughout his life, Musset also frequented prostitutes and used occasionally opium. His health began to fail and after 1840s Musset's literary production as a dramatist diminished. However, Poésies nouvelles (1836-52) included 'Les Nuits,' the series of lyrics for which Musset is best-known. Musset was appointed librarian of the Home Office by the Duke of
Orleans. The pay was small, 3,000 francs, and it has been said that
there was no library at all. From the late 1840s his plays, which were
recognized for their profound grasp of the psychology of love, started
to enjoy success on the French stage. Musset's later works include the
patriotic song 'Le Rhin Allemand', and the popular comedy Il faut qu'une porte soit ouverte ou fermée
(1845). As an acknowledgement to the role that Musset had played in the
French cultural sphere, he was named in 1845 a Chevalier of
the Legion of Honor. Moreover, Musset was elected in 1852 to the
French Academy. In the same
year he entered into a love affair with Louise Colet, the former
mistress of Gustave Flaubert. At that time he was already a
semi-invalid. He referred to Louise as "a Venus, a fury of hot marble"
and celebrated her in a sonnet, 'Une Promenade au jardin des plantes,'
inspired by their visit to a zoo: "Dark-eyed antelope, tell me, who is
my mistress?". . . . " (Rage and Fire: A Life of Louise Colet--Pioneer, Feminist, Literary Star, Flaubert's Muse by Francine Gray, New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 1994, p. 224) For the last two years of his life, Musset was confined to his
apartment near the Comédie-Française. His heart ailment, an unusual
vascular malfunction that became known to scientist as the Musset
symptom, was aggravated by drinking. (A study of old photographs has revealed, that Abraham Lincoln had de Musset's sign. Oxford Handbook of Clinical Examination and Practical Skills, edited by James Thomas & Tanya Monaghan, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014, p. 131) Alfred de Musset died in Paris on May 2, 1857.
His last words were: "Sleep! At last
I am to sleep." (quoted in Last Words of Notable People: Final Words of More Than 3500 Noteworthy People Throughout History, compiled by William B. Brahms, Haddonfield, N.J.: Reference Desk Press, 2010, p. 445) A monument was erected to him in Père Lachaise
cemetery in Paris. Nowadays Musset's popularity is considered second only to Racine and Moliere. "My glass is not big, but I drink out of my own glass," he once stated self-consciously. His influence is probably best seen in the plays of Jean Anouilh. Many of the titles for his works were taken from proverbs popular at the time. Claude Debussy (1862-1918) made his first known composition, a song called 'Madrid' (1879), to a poem by Musset. He picked up again a work by the poet in the song 'Rondeau' (1881). For the last time Debussy used Musset in the duet 'Chanson espagnole' (1883). For further reading: Documents littéraire: études et portraits by Émile Zola (1881); Les amants de Venise by Charles Maurras (1902); Life of Alfred de Musset by Arvède Barine (1906); Un grand amour romantique: George Sand et Alfred de Musset by Anatole Feugère (1927); Le romantisme de Musset by Pierre Gastinel (1933); La vie privée de Musset by André Villiers (1939); Musset: L'homme et l'oeuvre by Philippe van Teighem (1945); Alfred: The Passionate Life of Alfred de Musset by Charlotte Haldane (1961); Vues sur le théâtre de Musset by André Lebois (1966); The Dramatic Art of Musset by Herbert S. Gochberg (1967); Vie de Musset ou l'amour de la mort by Maurice Toesca (1970), A Stage for Poets: Studies in the Theatre of Hugo and Musset by Charles Affron (1971); The Poetry of Alfred De Musset: Styles and Genres by Lloyd Bishop (1987); Musset et Shakespeare: étude analytique de l'influence de Shakespeare sur le théâtre d'Alfred de Musset by Rex A. Barrell (1988); Paradigm and Parody: Images of Creativity in French Romanticism--Vigny, Hugo, Balzac, Gautier, Musset by Henry F. Majewski (1989); L'Esprit. Stylistique du mot d'esprit dans le Theatre de Musset by Jean-Jacques Didier (1992); The Romantic Art of Confession: De Quincey, Musset, Sand, Lamb, Hogg, Fremy, Soulie, Janin by Susan M. Levin (1998); The Young Romantics: Writers & Liaisons, Paris 1827-37 by Linda Kelly (2003); Envisioning the Modern Stage: a Performance-based Study of Victor Hugo, Alfred de Musset and Maurice Maeterlinck by Sandra Elizabeth Margaret McRobert (2014); Un lyrisme de la finitude: Musset et la poésie by Gisèle Séginger (2015); Alfred de Musset by Sylvain Ledda (2017) - Note: Diane Kurys's film Enfants du siècle (1999), starring Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel, depicted the love affair of Alfred de Musset and George Sand. - Suom.: Suomeksi Mussetilta on julkaistu mm. Novelleja (suom. Matti Vuori, 1907), Rakkauden tiet (suom. Jalmari Kekkonen, 1943), runoja teoksissa Ranskalaista laulurunoutta (suom. L. Onerva, 1912), Yöt ja muita runoja (suom. Yrjö Kaijärvi, 1949) ja Tuhat laulujen vuotta (toim. Aale Tynni, 1974), komedioita sekä elämäkerta V.A. Koskenniemen kirjoittamana. Selected works:
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