From A Bibliography of Alexandre Dumas père by Frank Wild Reed: Five regular six-line stanzas, rhyming a, a. b, c, c, b. (In one case, see below, a sixth stanza was included.)
This piece has been published in facsimile of the autograph of Alexandre Dumas, with two designs and a tinted scroll border decoration. One design, at the top of the page, represents the Mosque of Cordova, and is by A. Dauzats, with the date, 1838 ; the other, at the bottom of the sheet, portrays a caravan, and is signed D. G. The framework is signed "Druaux, mot., N. Desmardry, lit."
It also appeared, in type, in the "Ne M'oubliez pas Keepsake," choice fragments of contemporary literature ; Paris, Louis Janet, 59 Rue Saint Jacques, 18mo., no date (1837). To this collection Dumas supplied, on pp. 107 and 108, "Le Conseil du Mauvais Ange," which is no other than "La Coquette," with an additional strophe inserted between the second and third verses, as commonly seen. The following is the added, and little known, stanza :—
"Vois cette taille légère,
Que l'on croirait étrangère
À la terre des rivants :
C'est celle d'une sylphide,
Qui sur ton aile rapide
S'amuse à passer les vents."
It must be confessed that this piece reads better with five stanzas than with six ; that which was added does not fit too harmoniously into the scheme of the piece.
"Le Conseil du Mauvais Ange" is taken from Act II., Tab. II., Scene iv. of Dumas' play, "Don Juan de Marana," where it consists of the five stanzas only. Since this drama was first performed in 1836, it is to that year that the verses must be ascribed.
