From A Bibliography of Alexandre Dumas père by Frank Wild Reed: On the 30th of April, 1836, Dumas had performed at the Porte Saint Martin Théâtre "Don Juan de Marana, a Mystery in Five Acts and Nine Tableaux." The third tableau, in Act II., consists of one scene only, wholly in verse. First come four stanzas addressed by the Good Angel to the Virgin ; next two verses of reply by the Virgin ; then a, further ten by the Good Angel ; and finally eight more forming a dialogue between the two. All save the final stanza consist of alternate long and short lines, rhyming alternately. The final verse has also four lines, but all are long; it, too, rhymes alternately like the preceding ones.
"Le Mousquetaire" for January 24th, 1855, published a single eight-line stanza, entitled "Hymne à la Vierge." This proves to be the combined first and fourth verses of the above-mentioned scene combined into one whole.
Under the title of "L'Ange de Marana," "Le Ménestrel" (Hugel et Cie.), published a "Prière" poem by Alexandre Dumas, with music by J. B. Wekerlin, dedicated to Mme. Pauline Lauters (1868). This consists of three eight-line stanzas, each consisting of two of those in the scene from "Don Juan de Marana." Stanza I. is the first and second strophes of the Good Angel's prayer; Stanza II. is similarly the third and fourth ; while Stanza III. consists of the fifteenth and sixteenth strophes of the scene, which are, in fact, the two final ones of the Good Angel's second speaking part.
Entitling it "Prière à la Vierge," Dumas wrote the first four strophes, each of four lines, and signed them. This occurred in the king's cabinet at Brussels, on either the 17th of April or on the 27th of August, 1838 (there is some uncertainty as to the date).
This last selection was also written in the autograph album of the Princesse de Ligne, née Lubomirska. M. Glinel notes several variants among these different texts.
