One Doesn't Joke with Love by Alfred de Musset

Extract

[...] It also tends towards purity with the character of Rosette. But, 'modern spider', Musset rejects imitation, he gives a radical modernity to his theater by making the sublime and the grotesque coexist. By diverting the religious lexicon to the benefit of an anti-clerical discourse, he makes love an absolute to escape the disenchantment of the world. Marivaudage is not futile, it is a tragic trap: the mask of language leads to the death of an innocent. If there is a spider's web, it's to kill and not to weigh 'eggs'. [...]

[...] The altar is not that of marriage, but that of burial. Religion has revealed its imposture: Musset replaces it with love, which, far from being a game, is sacralized. C ~ Love as the Absolute Love therefore replaces God, it becomes a quest for purity in a corrupted world. In II borrowing his words from George Sand, Perdican affirms: one loves, and when one is on the edge of one's grave, one turns back to look behind, and one says: I have suffered often, I have been mistaken sometimes; but I have loved. [...]

[...] Feigning simple curiosity, she takes control of the dialogue. It's a false ingénue would like to instruct?' as Perdican is a false libertine who hides an authentic sensitivity. With her questions she intends to highlight the fundamental trickery of Perdican and men in general. She resorts to intellectual detour, to rhetoric to make Perdican recognize that he will not remain faithful: CAMILLE - If the priest of your parish blew on a glass of water, and told you it was a glass of wine, would you drink it as such? [...]

[...] Doctor, I will love you as I can' (III, 3). Loving sincerely, she is devastated when she hears Camille tell Perdican the truth (III, myself; I did not go to seek out this unfortunate child in the depths of her hut, to make her a bait, a toy; I did not imprudently repeat before her burning words addressed to another; I did not pretend to scatter to the wind the memory of a cherished friendship She fainted then and, in III she dies of pain in realizing the love of Camille and Perdican. [...]

[...] Isn't that the case with Musset? A ~ No imitation and a new language The refusal to imitate the Ancients is manifested by the satire of the academic language and the classical jargon. With the ridiculous character of Bridaine, Musset mocks the pedantry of those who still use the ancient languages. When he exclaims: Ita, edepol, pardieu, if I know it » he lets out a burlesque pleonasm in immediately translating the Latin oath ( [...]