An elegy written upon the day of the funeral of General Foy. Self-published.
From A Bibliography of Alexandre Dumas père by Frank Wild Reed: Thirteen irregular stanzas, comprising 208 lines, divided into four parts, respectively entitled :—
L'Apparition
54 lines
L'Hymne
84 "
Le Convoi
53 "
Epilogue
17 "
First appeared as "Élégie sur la Mort du Général Foy," by Alex. Dumas; .Paris, Sétier, imprimeur-libraire, et Lemoine, libraire, 1825,16 pp., 8vo.
It was next issued, but only in part, in the "Journée du 30 Novembre 1825, ou Récit des derniers moments et des Funérailles du Général Foy"; Paris, Mongie aîne, Aimé André, Lugan et Ponthieu, 1825, III pages, 8vo. In this work Jouy, Amédée Vatry, T. Triant and A. Chambure piously collected, among other documents, the pieces of verse composed upon the death of General Foy. Following the extract from those by Dumas is this remark : "With sentiments so noble and so pure, we can predict that this new muse will always be like that of Béranger and Lavigne : 'Virgin gold and power.' "
In 1826 appeared the "Couronne Poétique du Général Foy," issued by J. D. Magalon, Paris, Chaumerot Jeune, No. 189 Palais Royal, of which the twenty-first piece is Dumas' "Élégie," occupying pp. 63 to 71, and here printed in full as in the original publication.
It was used to form the first piece in the MS. album written out by Dumas for Mme. Mélanie Waldor (1), of which it occupies pp. 5 to 22. It is there merely entitled "Foy," and lacks the dedication, bearing in its place the following epigraph :—
Il est venu mourir au sein de nos murailles,
Comme ces vieux Romains pauvres et triomphants,
Dont les concitoyens adoptaient les enfants,
Et dont l'État payait les funérailles.
Finally Glinel published the original text in full in his "Alexandre Dumas et Son Œuvre," pp. 135 to 141.
In his MS. collection M. Glinel records a number of variants between the different texts.
(1) Refer to page 34.
