It is the custom, too, to pity these two unfortunates, who suffered so much. At the risk of being taken for a very heartless man, I must own that I do not pity them much. The two lovers wished for this suffering, they wanted to experience the incomparable sensations of it, and they got enjoyment and profit from this.
They knew that they were working for posterity. "Posterity will repeat our names like those of the immortal lovers whose two names are only one at present, like Romeo and Juliette, like Heloise and Abelard. People will never speak of one of us without speaking of the other."Juliette died at the age of fifteen and Heloise entered a convent.
The Venice lovers did not have to pay for their celebrity as dearly as that. They wanted to give an example, to light a torch on the road of humanity. "People shall know my story," writes George Sand.
"I will write it. . . . Those who follow along the path I trod will see where it leads." _Et nunc erudimini_. Let us see for ourselves, and learn.
Their_ liaison_ dates from August, 1833.
George Sand was twenty-nine years of age. It was the time of her greatest charm. We must try to imagine the enchantress as she then was. She was not tall and she was delightfully slender, with an extraordinary-looking face of dark, warm colouring.
Her thick hair was very dark, and her eyes, her large eyes, haunted Musset for years after.
"_Ote-moi, memoire importune_, _Ote-moi ces yeux que je vois toujours!_"he writes.
And this woman, who could have been loved passionately, merely for her charm as a woman, was a celebrity! She was a woman of genius!
Alfred de Musset was twenty-three years old. He was elegant, witty, a flirt, and when he liked he could be irresistible. He had won his reputation by that explosion of gaiety and imagination, _Les Contes d'Espagne el d'Italle_. He had written some fine poetry, dreamy, disturbing and daring. He had also given _Les Caprices de Marianne_, in which he figures twice over himself, for he was both Octave the sceptic, the disillusioned man, and Coelio, the affectionate, candid Coelio. He imagined himself Rolla. It was he, and he alone, who should have been styled the sublime boy.
And so here they both are. We might call them Lelia and Stenio, but _Lelia_ was written before the Venice adventure. She was not the reflection of it, but rather the presentiment. This is worthy of notice, but not at all surprising. Literature sometimes imitates reality, but how much more often reality is modelled on literature!
It was as though George Sand had foreseen her destiny, for she had feared to meet Musset. On the 11th of March, she writes as follows to Sainte-Beuve: "On second thoughts, I do not want you to bring Alfred de Musset. He is a great dandy. We should not suit each other, and I was really more curious to see him than interested in him."A little later on, though, at a dinner at the _Freres provencaux_, to which Buloz invited his collaborators, George Sand found herself next Alfred de Musset. She invited him to call on her, and when _Lelia_was published she sent him a copy, with the following dedication written in the first volume: _A Monsieur mon gamin d'Allred_;and in the second volume: _A Monsieur le vicomte Allred de Musset, hommage respectueux de son devoue serviteur George Sand_.
Musset replied by giving his opinion of the new book. Among the letters which followed, there is one that begins with these words:
"My dear George, I have something silly and ridiculous to tell you.
I am foolishly writing, instead of telling you, as I ought to have done, after our walk. I am heartbroken to-night that Idid not tell you. You will laugh at me, and you will take me for a man who simply talks nonsense. You will show me the door, and fancy that I am not speaking the truth. . . . I am in love with you. . . ."She did not laugh at him, though, and she did not show him the door.
Things did not drag on long, evidently, as she writes to her confessor, Sainte-Beuve, on the 25th of August: "I have fallen in love, and very seriously this time, with Alfred de Musset." How long was this to last? She had no idea, but for the time being she declared that she was absolutely happy.
"I have found a candour, a loyalty and an affection which delight me.
It is the love of a young man and the friendship of a comrade."There was a honeymoon in the little flat looking on the Quay Malaquals.
Their friends shared the joy of the happy couple, as we see by Musset's frolicsome lines _George est dans sa chambrette, Entre deux pots de fleurs, Fumiant sa cigarette, Les yeux baignes de pleurs.
Buloz assis par terre Lui fait de doux serments, Solange par derriere Gribouille ses romans.__Plante commme une borne_, _Boucoiran tout crott_, _Contemple d'un oeil morne__Musset tout debraille, etc._
It is evident that, as poetry, this does not equal the _Nuits._In the autumn they went for a honeymoon trip to Fontainebleau.
It was there that the strange scene took place which is mentioned in _Elle et Lui_. One evening when they were in the forest, Musset had an extraordinary hallucination, which he has himself described:
_Dans tin bois, sur une bruyere, Au pied d'un arbre vint s'asseoir Un jeune homme vetu de noir Qui me ressemnblail comme un frere. le lui demandais mon chemin, Il tenait un luth d'ue main, De l'autre un bouquet d'eglantine.
Il me fit tin salut d'ami Et, se detournant a demu, Me montra du doigt la colline._He really saw this "double," dressed in black, which was to visit him again later on. His _Nuit de decembre_ was written from it.
They now wanted to see Italy together. Musset had already written on Venice; he now wanted to go there. Madame de Musset objected to this, but George Sand promised so sincerely that she would be a mother to the young man that finally his own mother gave her consent.
