Considérations sur la monarchie et figures du roi dans l’œuvre d’Alfred de Musset

Scholars are well aware of Musset's apoliticism, thanks to the author’s reiterated contempt for public affairs. Several poems of circumstance praising the royal family and the power that reigned could however lead one to believe that the poet was a fervent supporter of Louis-Philippe. If we consider all of the texts that comment on the monarchy, we see that things are more complex: the post-revolutionary monarchy is often devalued in favor of a nostalgia for the past. What Musset proposes is nothing less than a philosophy of history, out of step with what Romantic historians generally develop. Representations of the king are equally original in his work, especially if compared to those of other contemporary playwrights: rather than degraded, Musset’s king is a timeless person, belonging to a world from the past that is imaginary and obsolete. (In French)