Page:The life and writings of Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870) (IA lifewritingsofal00spurrich).pdf/76

 to the would-be politician, when he wrote his next play "Napoléon," which, if we may believe the "Mémoires," was produced under novel and comic circumstances. For some time Harel, the manager of the Odéon theatre, had been pressing Dumas to write him a play on this subject; but the young republican could not give his mind to desk-work, and moreover, the theme did not appeal to him. One night, after a première at the Odéon, Dumas and several other guests went to sup with Harel, and after the feast Mademoiselle Georges led the unsuspecting playwright into another room, "to show him something." On their return Dumas found that the guests had disappeared, and the smiling Harel informed his coy young author that he was a prisoner. Dumas was startled, but took his imprisonment in good part. He was fed sumptuously and treated like a lord; all the books which he required to consult were at his elbow, and in eight days this enormous play was ready. Its author confesses frankly that it is a bad piece of work; but under the circumstances the blanie can scarcely be laid upon him, for with him the quality of his work depended entirely upon his inspiration, which in turn was a matter of his own initiative.

One of the causes of the failure of "Napoléon" as a work of stagecraft was possibly the author's preoccupation, for his mind was full of the prospects