Alfred de Musset (1810-1857) You Never Can Tell (written 1836; first performed 1848, year of the Spingtime of the Peoples) à Original title (in French): Il ne faut jurer de rien (literally: “You don’t have to swear to anything”) à Quotations from our translation of the play appear in bolded pink font.

About Alfred de Musset

¶ Four characters dominate You Never Can Tell (whose title is also commonly translated as Never Say Never):

Aristocratic Bourgeois

(Upper) Class (Middle/Merchant) Class Van Buck, a successful cloth merchant who Older Generation Baroness de Mantes emigrated to Paris, France, from Antwerp, Belgium Younger Cecile de Mantes, the Valentin, Van Buck’s 25-year-old nephew and Generation baroness’s daughter ward

¶ PLOT SUMMARY: Skeptical about women’s faithfulness in love, Valentin initially resists his uncle Van Buck’s urgent demands that he cease his partying lifestyle and secure a wife. Although he eventually agrees to attempt to woo Cecile, his efforts are reluctant. Slowly— and to their mutual surprise — Valentin and Cecile find that they like each other. In the end, the two agree to marry, effectively bringing together the middle classes and the upper classes. Reversing her prior attitude, Cecile’s snobbish mother reconciles to and even supports this outcome.

¶ Born and educated in Paris, the son of a bourgeois (i.e. middle-class) government official, Musset showed considerable academic promise but failed to commit to any of the college majors he attempted: medicine, law, art. Given his lack of a degree, he began his professional life as an office clerk for a heating contractor. ¶ Musset’s attempts to become a literary author yielded mixed results. Manifesting Romantic conventions and concerns, his debut work — a book of narrative poems titled Contes d’Espagne et d’Italie (1830; “Tales of Spain and Italy”) — received a positive reception, an encouraging outcome given that he was just 18 and 19 when he composed the poems. ¶ However, his first play, La nuit vénitienne (1830; “The Venetian Night”), failed miserably as a theatrical performance, prompting him to focus on closet dramas (i.e. plays intended to be read, not performed). In fact, several of his plays were eventually staged and enjoyed success. ¶ Towards the end of his relatively short life, Musset held librarianships at two French government ministries (Interior and Education). Furthermore, in 1852, he was elected to the Académie Française, the prestigious, Paris-based body that governs the French language. ¶ In 1878, writing in English, the American author Henry James included a study of Musset as the first chapter in his influential work of literary criticism, French Poets and Novelists. James noted that Musset “spent his whole life in Paris, and his friends lived in Paris near him.” ¶ Our focal play, You Never Can Tell, opens in Paris, although after Act 1, Scene 1 the action shifts to a rural castle —the Castle of Mantes — probably near Mantes-sur-Seine (now called Mantes-le-

1 Jolie), a town on the River Seine, around 30 miles west of Paris, famous for manufacturing woodwind instruments. ¶ We might say of the castle that it is in the countryside (or “the provinces”) but not of the countryside. By the end of the play, the baroness seems to be letting go of her big-city prejudices. The penultimate scene sees her not in the castle but “in the woods” as a “storm is passing,” a locale suggestive of the Natural Sublime. ¶ Henry James asserts that, across the arc of his adult life, Alfred de Musset “did nothing in the sterner sense of the word. He was inactive, indolent, idle” (emphasis original). He describes his early literary focus or “business” as “talk[ing] about love” so as “to proclaim its pleasures and pains with all possible eloquence.” ¶ Respecting Musset’s plays, James concludes, “They are thoroughly sentimental [i.e. centered on affectivity].” The American critic holds that such dramas as You Never Can Tell “[put] before us [i.e. the readers or audience-members] people [i.e. characters] who convince us that they really feel.” At one juncture in You Never Can Tell, Valentin praises a letter he has received from Cecile because it exhibits “feeling”: “Yes, there is feeling in those few lines, something … courageous.” ¶ Musset’s most acclaimed play remains Lorenzaccio (1834), a revenge tragedy inspired by an infamous event in Italian politics: the 1537 murder by Lorenzo of his cousin Alessandro, Duke of Florence. Both men were members of the Medici family. ¶ In Musset’s version of the story, Lorenzo becomes depraved; and some critics have drawn comparisons to how Musset developed a reputation for drinking and promiscuity. Henry James put a perhaps forgiving spin on Musset’s fast lifestyle: “It takes certainly a great deal of life to make a little art! In [Musset’s] case … that little [in the form of worthwhile literary works] is exquisite” ¶ In You Never Can Tell, Van Buck criticizes his nephew’s “damned poker games” and other “extravagances” that demonstrate a weak work-ethic. He deems the young man a “rake” — that is, an immorally licentious man. ¶ Musset was invited to contribute to the Revue des Deux Mondes (“Review of the Two Worlds”), a monthly magazine founded in 1829 and still published today. (Indeed, You Never Can Tell first appeared in print in its July 1, 1836, edition.) ¶ In 1833, at a dinner that the magazine organized, Musset met the highly influential female novelist and playwright George Sand, with whom he conducted a two-year romantic affair that scandalized Parisian society. Musset composed You Never Can Tell in 1836, shortly after breaking up with Sand. ¶ In general, Musset’s affairs with women were intense but short. Some biographers claim that a bad experience of being dumped by an older female lover when he was still a young man left him psychologically unwilling (or perhaps unable) to make long-term commitments to — or fully trust — women. As we shall see, in You Never Can Tell, the 25-year-old Valentin offers several narratives to his uncle about untrustworthy women: some from literature; one from his own life experience when “sixteen, just out of school.” ¶ Also in 1836, Musset released a semi-autobiographical novel, La Confession d’un enfant du siècle (“Confession of a Child of the Century”) seen as a commentary on the disillusionment and cynicism prevalent in French society after the demise of Napoleon.

1848: Springtime of the Peoples

¶ Napoleon’s regime ended in 1815, primarily as a result of his defeat at the Battle of Waterloo (June 18, 1815) by British forces under the Irish general Arthur Wellesley (the Duke of Wellington). After that, France experienced a distinctly unsettled political period. ¶ Since the French Revolution, which began in 1789, France’s bourgeoisie (middle classes) had been active in opposition to the country’s elite strata, especially the landowning aristocracy.

2 ¶ As increasing industrialization, mercantilism, and urbanization caused the bourgeoisie to expand in numbers and economic importance during the early nineteenth century (i.e. 1800s), that coterie became more and more frustrated by the aristocracy’s continuing to dominate the French political scene. ¶ Even by 1848, only landowners — who were largely aristocrats — were permitted to vote; they constituted just 1% or so of the overall French population. ¶ In 1848, bourgeois frustrations boiled over. In February of that year, a popular movement overthrew the then king of France, Louis Philippe I, and created the French Second Republic. Historians refer to this action as the February Revolution of 1848. ¶ The Second Republic proved insufficiently progressive for many, so in June 1848 members of the bourgeoisie (i.e. the middle classes) and the laboring classes joined together in Paris to stage an insurrection, known as the June Days Uprising, in which around 10,000 people were injured, some fatally. Estimates put bourgeois participation at around twice that of laborer participation. ¶ On June 22, 1848, the first ever night that You Never Can was presented as a stage play — at the Comédie Française theater in central Paris — the June Days Uprising began. No additional performances would be held for several years. ¶ Karl Marx wrote an article about the Uprising in which he claimed that it constituted the first time that the French bourgeoisie had genuinely “assailed the existing [aristocrat-dominated] order” — in other words, made a real impact vis-à-vis lessening the political power of the elite. ¶ In You Never Can Tell, the Van Buck family represents the bourgeoisie, while the Baroness of Mantes represents the aristocracy. ¶ After France’s February Revolution of 1848, which gave rise to the Second Republic, middle-class groups across much of Europe organized to produce revolutions and insurrections of various kinds in support of greater political power. In an unprecedented wave of activist protest — known as the Springtime of the Peoples, 1848 — they pushed for the goal of democratic rights under nation-state regimes. ¶ Multiple examples can be adduced, including uprisings in Prussia and several other microstates in what would become the German Empire. ¶ Successes achieved by 1848 uprisings included the introduction of representative democracy in the Netherlands; the abolition of absolute monarchy in Denmark; and the establishment of a federal nation-state out of the cantons (provinces) within Switzerland. ¶ Such changes in Europe would have a knock-on effect, especially as regards influencing political change in several South American countries. ¶ In You Never Can Tell (1836), Musset highlights the class tensions that, come February and June of 1848, were to erupt on the streets of Paris. For most of the play, the Baroness de Mantes exhibits a snooty attitude towards Van Buck (an immigrant, Paris-based cloth merchant) and his man-about-town nephew and ward, Valentin van Buck. However, the play uses the romance that — very, very slowly — blossoms between Valentin and Cecile de Mantes, the baroness’s daughter, to resolve those tensions, thus diffusing any potentially revolutionary pressures.

Literary Genres of Relevance to You Never Can Tell

The Dramatic Proverb

¶ Eventually, both the mother-and-daughter aristocratic Mantes family and the uncle-and-nephew bourgeois Van Buck family learn to respect each other. This unlikely outcome underscores the proverb, aphorism, or saying that constitutes the play’s title: You Never Can Tell (or, in some translations, “never say never”).

3 ¶ As it is both inspired by and reinforces a well-known proverb, You Never Can is classified as a dramatic proverb. ¶ To reiterate: A play built around a proverb, with the intention of demonstrating its meaning, is known as a dramatic proverb. This genre or type of literary text is especially associated with the French playwright and painter Louis Carmontelle (1717-1806). ¶ Many plays in the dramatic proverb genre feature as a supporting character a priest (or abbé) who should — but fails to— exemplify rejection of indulgence in worldly pleasures, such as food and gambling. Under the name of named the Curate, such an individual appears in You Never Can Tell.

The Novel

¶ Another literary genre of importance to You Never Can Tell is the novel. To a degree, Valentin and Cecile model their dating personae on characters they have encountered in novels. By contrast, while the Baroness has read at least one novel, she admits, “I don’t remember its title or its author.” ¶ When, in the woods towards the end of the play, Cecile asks Valentin, “Do you like novels?” he responds, “Sometimes,” even though he later owns up to “hav[ing] read lots of them.” For her part Cecile reveals that her agreeing to Valentin’s epistolary request (i.e. request sent by letter) for a private meeting in the woods was informed by how certain novels narrate dating strategies: “[I]t is true that I gave in to a desire to come here that is a little like in a novel.” ¶ As their conversation concludes, Valentin alludes to a novel “entitled Clarissa Harlowe.” This is a reference to one of the longest English-language novels, Clarissa; or, The History of a Young Lady, first published in 1748 and written by Samuel Richardson. ¶ In Clarissa, the title character’s parents forbid her from seeing Robert Lovelace, a libertine, because they want her to marry Roger Solmes, whom she dislikes. Having communicated with Lovelace by means of letters, she escapes with him; however, he essentially imprisons her, including in a brothel. ¶ Although Lovelace manages to drug and rape Clarissa, she never gives up resisting him. By the time the text concludes, both Clarissa and Lovelace are dead. ¶ When attempting to explain to Cecile the complex plot of the novel Clarissa, Valentin becomes very confused, although whether the confusion is genuine or an act is unclear. He concludes his garbled rehearsal of the details by declaring, “Lovelace is a fool and so am I, to have wanted to follow his example.” This statement indicates that Valentin may have been using Lovelace, an unsavory fictional character designed to advance the plot of a novel, as an example in his real-world dealings with young women in general and Cecile in particular.

The Pastoral

¶ In a kind of pleasure garden beside the Castle de Mantes, Valentin informs his uncle, Van Buck, that he is “going to sit under a tree, like a shepherd of olden times” in preparation for Cecile’s entering the space “with a book [perhaps a novel] in her hand.” ¶ The reference strongly suggests the convention in (and beyond) Classical Greek and Roman/Latin literature of depicting erotic desire in terms of interaction between idealized shepherds and shepherdesses. ¶ Pastoral farming is the raising of livestock, such as sheep; thus, the literary genre is called the pastoral. (The genre can also address non-erotic themes — for example, the contrast between rural and urban living.) ¶ A famous English-language example of erotic pastoral verse is Christopher Marlowe’s 1599 poem, “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love,” which includes such phrases as “Come live with me and be my love” and “I will make thee beds of roses.”

4 The Folk Tale

¶ When Cecile actually arrives into the garden, immediately after Valentin’s invocation of the shepherd, he addresses her, asking, “Are you up already, Mademoiselle? All alone in the woods so early?" ¶ To Musset’s original readers, the second question would have suggested the erotic subtext in the encounter between the wolf and Little Red Riding Hood in the folk tale that the French author Charles Perrault presented as part of his 1697 book Stories or Tales from Past Times, with Morals. ¶ In Perrault’s version, once the wolf devours the girl in bed, no happy ending follows. The moral that Perrault offers begins: “Children, especially attractive, well-bred young ladies, should never talk to strangers.” ¶ Clearly, Musset has absorbed Romanticism’s emphasis on the folktale, a key element of Volkstum (“folkdom”). Indeed, even Van Buck manifests awareness of folk literature, commenting disparagingly about how the “fairy tale” — a subset of folk tales — “work[s] to death” the narrative of men “seduc[ing]” young women.

Embourgeoisement • Dandyism

¶ A major concern in You Never Can Tell is embourgeoisement: that is, the rise of the bourgeoisie or middle classes. As already stated: While in the past, aristocrats such as the baroness (or, at least, her husband) would have been in political and economic control in France, the early nineteenth century saw the bourgeoisie become numerically and economically stronger, although they remained politically weak. ¶ Van Buck is well-developed character, not what in French drama is known as a fantouche (literally a puppet) or minor, irrelevant stock character. ¶ As his family name suggests, Van Buck is not a French native; instead, he emigrated to Paris from Antwerp, a port city (historically famous for diamond-trading) in the small nation of Belgium. Thus, not only is his class-status potentially problematic for the condescending baroness, so, too, is his status as an alien. ¶ After Napoleon’s defeat, Antwerp experienced economic and military stresses, which may have informed the decision to emigrate on the part of Van Buck, who is up-front about having “entered trade.” ¶ Van Buck’s hard work has advanced him from a vendor of “gingham,” an inexpensive striped or (more commonly) checkered cotton, to a merchant dealing in luxury fabrics, such as as ones patterned in “paisley,” an intricate teardrop design (of oriental origin) that necessitated the high-cost process of weaving multiple colors.

¶ Van Buck identifies with capitalism, warning his nephew against “becoming a Saint Simonian Socialist” — that is, a follower of ideas advanced by the Count of Saint-Simon, who (renouncing his inherited aristocratic title) argued that industrial, science-based societies should be meritocratic. Given that

5 circumstance, according to Saint-Simon, productive workers within industrial societies should be permitted to help shape and lead them. ¶ Inclusive of its immigrant dimension, Van Buck’s (literal) rags- to-riches story may put us in mind of the American designer Ralph Lauren, who was born — as Ralph Lifshitz — in the Bronx, New York, to Belarusian Jewish immigrants. Having begun by selling ties (which he branded “Polo”) out of a suitcase, he ended up creating a multibillion-dollar global clothing and lifestyle business. ¶ Before producing his Polo line of ties, Lauren worked as a salesman for a tie company called Beau Brummell, which had named itself after an English male style icon, George (“Beau”) Brummell, who died in 1840, four years after Musset wrote You Never Can Tell. ¶ A sportsman and army veteran, Brummell consequentially changed the sartorial (i.e. clothes/dress) universe for men, introducing the precursor of the suit-and-tie regime. He popularized dark jackets, full-length trousers, shirts, and knotted cravats (an early version of the tie). ¶ Given that You Never Can Tell is a French play, we should note that Brummell’s final years were spent in France, where he self-exiled due to gambling debts in England. For his part, Valentin Van Buck admits to “hav[ing] done nothing but gamble, drink, and smoke … since … [getting] my wisdom teeth.” ¶ The term dandy was applied to a man who adopted Brummell’s style. Early in You Never Can Tell, Van Buck criticizes his nephew, who wears “satin vests,” for mimicking that archetype while lacking solid employment to pay for it: “Who do you think you are fooling? It is very fine for you to dress like Beau Brummell … when you can’t pay your tailor.” ¶ As a dandy, Valentin “wear[s] his beard trimmed in a Vandyke” (i.e. mustache and goatee) and his “hair down to [his] shoulders.” Charles-Louis Napoléon Bonaparte, who was elected the first president of the Second Republic in 1848, wore a version of the Vandyke beard. ¶ Adhering to capitalism and never being too proud to do entry-level work (such as sell gingham), Van Buck has prospered. Valentin puts his uncle’s “income” at “sixty thousand pounds,” making him a millionaire (and then some) in today’s dollars. However, perhaps because of his focus on business, the older man has not married. ¶ Van Buck’s urging Valentin to shape up, get married (preferably to “Mademoiselle [Cecile] de Mantes”), and settle down constitutes an effort to ensure that the hard-earned Van Buck fortune can be passed down within the family, not squandered by Valentin’s “extravagances.” ¶ When Van Buck presses Valentin to marry or be disowned, the young man becomes frustrated and resorts to a racist threat. While an uncomfortable moment in the text, we need to acknowledge it. By examining instances of racism, we gain insights into the historical discourse that all of us are attempting to transcend through Black Lives Matter and similar initiatives. ¶ Specifically, Valentin indicates that if Van Buck forces the marriage issue, he will “marry an Ethiopian [i.e. African] and give you twenty-four grand nephews, black as ink.”

Valentin’s Misogyny

¶ As a 25-year-old man, why does Valentin resist married life? Responding to Van Buck, he confesses to fearing women’s unfaithfulness, which he believes to be inveterate. This judgmental attitude may be characterized as fundamentally anti-woman or misogynistic. The “gyn” in the latter term alludes to the Greek noun, gunē, meaning “woman.” ¶ Initially, Valentin invokes a literary example of a husband’s being cuckolded by his wife: the well-known tale of Helen of Troy. In Greek mythology (attributed to Homer), Helen abandons her husband, Menelaus,

6 king of the Greek city-state of Sparta, for an adulterous relationship with Paris, a prince of the city-state of Troy. The occurrence precipitates the Trojan War. ¶ In Valentin’s telling, after the war, Menelaus — “the most famous husband of ancient times” — “[takes] back the woman who had been so outrageously unfaithful to him.” ¶ As Van Buck is dismissive of Valentin’s literary example, the young man next reveals a personal anecdote concerning an incident that affected him profoundly, perhaps even causing him a degree of psycho-sexual trauma. ¶ Valentin recalls his 16-year-old self’s experiencing a sexual come-on. When visiting the home of a married couple, the wife surreptitiously conveyed a “womanly smile” to Valentin when her husband decided to “[go] out” for a while.” The wife’s preparedness to be unfaithful to her husband registered — and has remained — with Valentin as a tableau (or image), namely: the husband’s “two big, red hands struggling into [his] greenish [suede] gloves.” ¶ Arguably, the husband’s troubles with his big, red hands and the gloves represent his sexual failures vis- à-vis his wife. ¶ Furthermore, the greater tableau can be interpreted as a remembered “scene of trauma” for Valentine in the sense later described in the psychological and psychiatric theories of Sigmund Freud, whose professional inquiries into the human mind began in the early 1880s. Freud argued that our minds replay, over and over, traumatic or incapacitating events, preventing us from achieving success and fulfilment in a variety of arenas, such as sexual relationships. ¶ In our next lecture about Musset’s You Never Can Tell, we will begin by examining another aspect of Valentine’s sexual anxieties: questions about how secure he is in his masculinity. •••

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