LIFE AND WRITINGS OF MUSSET. 5 mother ; he would bring out one more volume of poetry, and if that did not seem to promise provision for the future he would enlist in the Hussars or Lancers. The volume, called Un Spectacle dans un Fauteuil, was dated 1833, but actually appeared before the e"nd of 1832. It contained, amongst other fine pieces of work, the wild and beautiful drama, La Coupe et les Levres, in the central figure of which, Frank, one may trace some resemblance to the poet himself in one aspect of his character, with his restless longings and im- possible aspirations. The circle of friends to whom Musset read this drama and the comedy A quoi revent les jeunes filles before the publication of the volume, received them in solemn silence. Only Me’rime’e came up to the poet and congratulated him on having made, as indeed he had, enor- mous progress. Sainte-Beuve, after the work appeared, wrote an appreciative article in the Revue des Deux Mondes ; other critics accused the poet of imitation and of having no con- victions, which last reproach was an odd one enough. Sainte- Beuve’s criticism led to Musset’s writing for the Revue, in the pages of which, in the spring of 1833, appeared Andre del Sarto, included afterwards under the general heading of CoinMes et Proverbes. This work is, in fact, a terrible and moving tragedy. As in all Musset’s dramatic work, so in this, there is a Shakespearian directness and fulness of life ; but it has less of the other Shakespearian quality, the close mingling and interweaving on the stage as in actual life of the tragic and the comic which may be discerned in many others of the Comedies et Proverbes. The grim last words of the play, however, ’La veuve d’ Andre" del Sarto peut epouser Cordiani,’ and the manner of their delivery, are singularly typical of Musset’s method. For the rest, it will be found interesting to compare his treatment of the principal character with that adopted by Mr. Browning. Six weeks after Andre del Sarto, Les Caprices de Marianne came out in the Revue. In this we have precisely the close interweaving of the comic and the tragic which has been referred to above, and there is a peculiarly Shakespearean quality in the ludicrous and yet terrifying figure of Claudio. Attention may also be called once more to the fact that in the personages of Octave and
