Page:The life and writings of Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870) (IA lifewritingsofal00spurrich).pdf/41

 was exciting the ambition of his friend, another comrade, Amedée de la Ponce, assisted to equip Dumas for the coming fight, by teaching him Italian, so that he might read Dante and Ariosto in the original, and German, enough to read Schiller. Better still, he gave him this priceless advice, which Dumas gratefully records:—"Be sure that there is something else in life besides pleasure, love, sport, dancing, and all the wild dreams of youth. There is Work: learn to work—learn, that is, to be happy."

Dumas's blood and parentage had important influences on his character; and a third factor to be remembered is the atmosphere of the times into which he was born. Even in his village seclusion, young Dumas could, as it were, feel the hot breath of Romanticism on his brow. The literary-political revolution was then commencing: a moderate "Romantic" like Casimir Delavigne was conquering Paris with his "Vêpres Siciliennes"; Béranger was thrilling France with his songs; and the popular feeling against the Bourbons—the old Republican spirit modified—expressed itself now in songs, plays, squibs and pamphlets. These Dumas read greedily, and the seed fell on fertile ground. Furthermore, de Leuven condescended to collaborate with the young clerk in some vaudevilles and other plays, and when the aristocrat returned with his father to