W———, to whom Dumas was presented (as he tells us in "Le Testament de M. Chauvelin ") at the house of her father-in-law, the bibliophile Villenave, in 1827. The conquest of a lady of position and of some pretentions to learning evidently flattered the young man's vanity—"there was something of the air of Villers-Cotterets about him still" and the young lover vowed, cursed, adored, despaired, and rhapsodised for three years. Then "Antony" was written; the intimacy had unconsciously fulfilled its purpose, and came to an end accordingly. Meanwhile this amorous heart, overflowing with passion, had found opportunity to fall in love with another Melanie (the mother of Marie-Alexandre Dumas), with Marie Dorval, and others. The need for love had for the time possessed this ardent nature as with a fever.
It was of this experiment-in-love, in which he took himself and his passion in such tragic earnest, that Dumas was thinking when he wrote these verses, with which he prefaced "Antony":—
Que de fois tu m'as dit, aux heures du délire,
Quand mon front tout à coup devenait souci eux:
"Sur ta bouche pourquoi cet effrayant sourire?
Pourquoi ces larmes dans tes yeux?"
Pourquoi? C'est que mon cœur, au milieu des délices,
D'un souvenir jaloux constamment oppressé,
Froid au bonheur présent, va chercher ses supplices,
Dans l'avenir et le passé.
