Page:The life and writings of Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870) (IA lifewritingsofal00spurrich).pdf/128

 Whilst the journalist worked, the dramatist was not idle. No less than four pieces were produced in 1854,—"Romulus," a one-act play, at the Comédie Française; "La Jeunesse de Louis XIV.," a comedy, full of Molière and Louis's first love Marie de Mancini (played at Brussels); "Le Marbrier," a powerful play (at the Vaudeville), and "Conscience," at the Odéon. Of the two dramas, highly moral, not to say didactic, in tone, the latter was dedicated to Hugo. It was a daring act, but Dumas was as imprudent in this friendship as in all others.

To M. Blaze de Bury we are indebted for a vivid sketch of "Dumas chez lui," about this time, which he compares with the mournful home of Heine who was then also living in Paris:—

"You passed," he writes, "from the shades of death to the brilliant light of day; to loud voices and all the stir and bustle of a manufactory! The air was filled with voices in debate; you trampled upon bon mots, in the progress of your conversation. Then, in the brief intervals of silence, you heard a pen quietly, lightly, scratch the paper: it was Dumas, seated at his daily work. Without pausing in his writing, he held out his left hand to you with a smile. No tumult disturbed him; and a word thrown into the discourse here and there told you that he was taking part in it."

"Twenty times interrupted in one morning," adds