Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 14.djvu/232

MtrSSET. 194 MUSTAPHA. poem, yamouna, and two short plays in a manner peculiarly his own. La coupe ct tcs livics and A. giioi revciil les jcuncs fillcs. He had already produced on the stage a comedy. La niiit vciii- iieniic (1830), a failure. In 1833 he followed the dramatic vein in two tra^'i-coinedies, Andre del tiarto and Les ctiprices dc Mariuniie, possibly his best. Holla, too, belongs to this year, and was once thought the French Childe Harold, though now less admired. This sudden flowering of JIusset's genius was internijited by a reckless passion for George Sand Iq.v. ), whom he first met in the summer of 1833, and accompanied in 1834 to Italy as her 'secretary.' He suircred acutely in this new relation from disillusidniiient and self-deception. He "was a child all his life and a .spoiled child," never more so than in the inevitable estrangement (1835) that cost (icorge Sand few pangs, but marks a cardinal point in Musset's career. He returned sick, experienced another unhappy love and a series of sordid en- tanglements, and worked intensely and admir- ably, at intervals interspersed with periods of ile- pression. Through the patronage of the Due d'( )r- iCans he received a position as librarian in 1S3S. Musset's work after tlie sei)aration from George Sand (Les niiitx. Ode a la Malihran. Lettre a La- martine. Espoir en Dieu) shows at its best a sad, yet in the main sober, resignation. But during this period he was more occupied with drama and with prose iietion. Of the ComMies et proverbes, Fanlnsio and On ne hndine pas avec I'amoiir belong to 1831, Le chandelier to 183.5, II ne fauf jiirer de ricn to 1830. Lorenzaccin, an historical drama (1834), had no success. These, as Lcmaitre points out in his preface to Jouaust's Theatre d'Alfred de Mussel, show the most genuine and original dramatic talent of all the Romantic School. Tragedy mingles here with comedy, not as with Hugo by juxtaposition, but by interpenetration, for JIusset had too true a taste to yield to the extravagances of Ihinias or Hugo. In an essay />o traiiedie (1838) he refuses allegi- ance alike to French romantic or classic prin- ciples, but he combines the outward appearance of restraint with the new liberty to associate the weird and terrible in Iniman life with its higher comic aspects. Tluis he succeeded in pre- senting complex characters better than any of his contemporaries or predecessors in French drama. His wit in dialogue had not been equaled since Beaumarchais. None of these plays was acted in France before 1848, and their influence is hardly noticeable before 18fi.>. but they contain the quintessence of romantic imaginative art. They sliow most and best the imcliecked freedom of fancy that joined with the spirit of realistic comedy in Ponsard. Dmnas. and .ugier to pro- duce the modern French drama. Jlusset's prose fiction begins with Les ccjnfessions d'un en- fant du siicle (1836), which in spirit at least is autobiographic. This was followed by nine C'ontcs ( 1837-44), of which Vroisilles is best, and a tenth. La mouche (18.')1), one of the last llick- erings of his genius. These are interesting chielly in exhibiting the progress of ethical disinti'^rra- tion. Marijiil and Lc merle hianc have aumblo- graphic elements. So perhaps has Minii I'insun, a "proH! de grisette' ( 1S4.">). In this story .Mus- set antiiipales liv some six years a type of llie French working girl portrayed by Henri Murger. Jlinii has few eiothes, but she looks as tidy as »he can, and has the pretty manners, the recklessness as to the future, and the easy moral- ity of the ffrisclte. ^lusset's critical essays are also worthy of remark, especially the witty Let- tres dc Dupuis et Votonet, satirizing modern marriage, journalists, novelists, and, above all, the critics of thoroughbred Komanticism. Mus- set's closing years were marked by dejection and by comparative inactivity. In 1841 he Hung at the Germans his fierj' war song, Le lihhi alle- mand. In 1845 appeared 11 faut qu'une porte soit ouverte ou fermee, a prurerbe. In 1847 L'n caprice (1837), a little tragedy with a cho- rus to utter platitiules in Greek style, was ])er- f(irmed at the Theatre Francais. Between 1848 and 1851 liettine was played, and Caruwsine was written, but they are scarcely worthy of their author. Musset died of an affection of the heart. May 2, 1857. His works were pviblished in ten volumes in 1865. Consult: Sainte-Beuve, Portraits contctnpo- rains, vol. ii., and also his Vauserics du lundi, vols, i., xiii.: George Sand, L'llc et lui (Paris, 1859) : Paul de Jlussct, Lui et die (ib., 1800) ; id., Biographic d'Alfred de Musset (ib., 1877); .Taubert, Sourenir» (ib., 1881); Faguet, Etudes litleraires sur le XlXeme siecle (ib., 1887) : Le- maitre. Introduction au theatre de Musset (ib., 1885-89); Palgrave, Oxford Fssaiis (Oxford, 1855) : Lindau, Alfred de Musset (Berlin, 187") ; Spoelbergh de Lovenjoul, Etude critique et hibli- Cfiraphique sur les orui-rcs d'Alfred de Musset (Paris, 1867); Barine, Alfred de Musset (ib., 1803). MUS'SEY, Reuben DiMOND (1780-1860). An American surgeon, born at Pelhani, N. H. He graduated at Dartmouth in 1803, and received the degree of M.D. from the University of Pennsyl- vania in 1800. He held me<lical professorships at Dartmouth, Cincinnati, and Jliami Medical College, and gained a high reputation as a bold and skillful operator. He was the first to tie both carotid arteries, and the first to remove completely the shoulder blade (1837) ; and was unusually succcssfiil in lithotomy and operations for strangulated hernia. He wrote Bealth: Its Friends iind Its Furs (1802). MUS'SULMAN. See Moslkm. MUSTAGH (miTT.-stag') MOUNTAINS. A miiinitain range in Kashmir. Sif KahakoRI'M Mdl .XTAINS. MUSTAPHA, moo'sta-fii. Tlie name of four Ottoman sultans. The first (1501-1030), a son of Mohanime<l III., succeeded .Xchnict I. in 1017, was deposed after three months, came to the throne again in 1022, and was again deposed (1023). He was feeble-minded. — Mf.sTAriiA II. (1004-1704) came to the throne in 1005, and at the Peace of Carlowitz signed away the ^lorca, the Ukraine, Hungary between the Danube and Theiss, and .s;ov. He was deposed by a rising of the .Janizaries in 1703. — ^IrsTAi'iiA 111. (1717- 741 ruled from 1757 mitil his death. He ijuar- reled with Knssia and Poland and involved the icMMitrv in war which lasted through his reign. His internal reforms were no more succe-jsful than his foreign policy. — MfSTAPiiA IV. (1770- 1808) Avas made Sultan by the .Tanizjiries. who rclx'lled against Selim III. in 1807. and was de- posed and killed in the next year. MUSTAPHA, Kara. kJi'rA. A Turkish grand vizier. .See Kara Mustapiia. I