MUSSET, ALFRED DE. — French Romantic poet, b. 11 December 1810 in Paris, d. 2 May 1857. He identified love as the ideal of life and poetry, and, indifferent to every other concern—even the religious—he maintained an aloofness that, under varying influences, sometimes gave way to rhetorical panegyric.
In 1830 he published *Contes d'Espagne et d'Italie*, which, alongside a conventionalized Spain and Italy, broke with classical precept in its use of language and meter and rebelled against traditional Christian morality. From 1833 date his second volume of verse, *Un spectacle dans un fauteuil*; *André del Sarto*; *Fantasio*; and *Les caprices de Marianne* (prose comedies). They reveal his dramatic talent in *Lorenzaccio* (1834) and *On ne badine pas avec l'amour* (1834). In the other prose comedies—*La quenouille de Barberine* (1835) and *Il ne faut jurer de rien* (1836)—the Romantic element is tempered by grace, witty humor, and verve, which constitute the charm of Musset’s comedies, among which *Le chandelier* (1835) stands out as perfect. The novel *La confession d’un enfant du siècle* (1836), reflecting M.’s tempestuous love for George Sand, centers on the “Romantic malady” already outlined in the short poem *Rolla* (1833). Notable for deep humanity and effortless style are his tales and short stories in prose. His poetry, though often fluent, is generally smothered by bombast and rhetoric; yet in major works such as *La lettre à Lamartine* (1836), *Les Nuits* (1835–37), and the exquisite *Souvenir* (1841), the poet achieves moments of impassioned lyricism. Elsewhere his art is evident in lighter poems like *Le lever* (1829), *Madame la Marquise* (1829), *La chanson de Barberine* (1836), and *Rondeau* (1842), where fantasy, tenderness, and playfulness intertwine harmoniously.