SOURCE: Luce, Louise Fiber. “The Mask of Language in Alfred de Musset's Proverbes.” Romance Notes 17, no. 3 (spring 1977): 272-80.

In the following essay, Luce studies Musset's skilled application of language as a medium of disguise, deception, and equivocation in his short theatrical pieces, or proverbes.

An appropriate arena to observe the problematic role of language in Musset's theater is with that group of plays belonging to the subgenre, the proverbe. According to its formal rules, dialogue itself holds center stage in the proverbe; language is the “main character.” The plot, what little there is, serves merely as a foil for a dazzling display of repartee, for discourse characterized by wit, refinement and elegance. Yet the dramatic tradition we find in Musset's proverbes, with their liberal dose of the précieux conventions, veils more serious considerations. The verbal dialectic between speaker and receiver, where words can serve as obstacle or...