SOURCE: Sices, David. Introduction to Historical Dramas of Alfred de Musset, translated by David Sices, pp. 1-6. New York: Peter Lang, 1997.

In the following excerpted introduction to his translations of Musset's historical tragedies, Sices briefly summarizes the contexts and content of Lorenzaccio and Andrea del Sarto.

FILIPPO

Would you deny the history of the entire world? … 

LORENZO

I don't deny history. I just wasn't there. 

Lorenzaccio, V, 2

Alfred de Musset's literary work abounds in contradictions: his abiding reputation as one of the major French Romanticists, vs. his attack on the romantic æsthetic in the name of classical tradition, constitutes only the most pervasive of them. But another significant contradiction can be found in his historical tragedies. It is true that he managed to complete only two of them, quite early in his career; but one of those—Lorenzaccio—is probably the most successful and enduring of the entire...