On ne badine pas avec la muse: Lamartine et le rire

There is good reason to believe in the sincerity of Lamartine's negative attitude in regard to any kind of humor. The sensitive child who grew up in extremely difficult times, and later on the cheerless husband, the frustrated politician, and the indigent literary critic never really knew what happiness meant. As a writer, he "smiled" only in the Epîtres written to his brother-in-law (1820s), in the épigramme addressed to Nadaud, for which he promptly apologized (1862), and, as a literary critic, he indulged in a few sarcastic remarks about Chateaubriand (1860s). Elsewhere, he is consistent in his profound distaste for those – especially poets – who resort to badinage and satire in their writings. For Lamartine – a Romanticist and a moralist – these writers are profaners of the cult of Beauty, which implies Vertue and God. (In French) (MH-M)