From A Bibliography of Alexandre Dumas père by Frank Wild Reed: Five stanzas of unequal length, comprising in all 70 lines, rhyming throughout in couplets.
First published in "La France Littéraire" for 1832, Vol. IV., pp. 203 to 205.
It then appeared in " Le Livre," for October 10th, 1886, pp. 296 and 297.
It is also one of the pieces selected for reproduction in the "Souvenirs Poétiques de l'École Romantique : 1825-1840," by Édouard Fournier (pp. 132 to 134); Paris, Laplace, Sanchez et Cie., 1880.
The twelve lines comprising the last strophe but one formed the epigraph for Dumas' "Théâtre" edition Charpentier, 1834, but with two small variations. They still hold that position in the standard edition of Calmann-Lévy.
Dumas used these said twelve lines for the final fly-leaf of his MS. "Préludes Poétiques" presented to Mme. Mélanie Waldor, and apparently used them not infrequently as presentation lines. The Reed Dumas Collection contains one such, in fine and ornate writing, on thick and large sized paper.
