Page:The life and writings of Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870) (IA lifewritingsofal00spurrich).pdf/92

 with it, and had failed. Harel then came to Dumas, who, according to his own account, which I for one believe, entirely remodelled it, and made of it one of the most impressive melodramas ever put on the stage. He had previously written a somewhat imprudently self-effacing letter to the young author, who, instead of being grateful, was furious at having, as he said, a collaborator thrust upon him, and ended by writing to the papers to assert that he was the sole author of the piece.

"The matter went through all kinds of intricacies into which it would be tedious to go; but the last word which ought to be said about it is found in a letter written by Gaillardet in 1861 to the manager of the Porte St Martin theatre. The letter runs thus:

A judgment of the courts in 1832 decreed that the "Tour de Nesle" should be printed and announced under my name alone; and this was done up to the date of its being forbidden by the censorship in 1851.

Now that you are going to put it on the stage again, I give you permission—nay, more, I beg you to join to my name that of Alexandre Dumas, my collaborator. I wish to prove to him that I have forgotten our old quarrel, and that I remember only our later pleasant relations, and the great share which his incomparable talent had in the success of the "Tour de Nesle."