Little Poems in Prose

shakes in the same proportion, and that with- out taking the precaution of buying gloves. To kill time during a shower I ran up to the rooms of an acrobat who begged me to design for her a costume as Vénustre. I paid court to a thea- tre manager who said, on saying good-bye: “You would do well perhaps to address yourself to Z.; he is the dullest, the most foolish and the most celebrated of all my authors; with him you might perhaps arrive at some ar- rangement. See him, and then we shall see.” I bragged (Why?) of several dirty actions that I have never done, and cowardly denied several other misdeeds that I joyfully performed; thus committing the fault of boasting and the crime of respecting man. I refused to a friend an easy kindness, and gave a written recommen- dation to a perfect ass. There! is that enough? Discontented with everybody and with my- self, I should like to rehabilitate myself and re- gain my pride a little in the silence and solitude of the night. Souls of those whom I have loved, souls of those whom I have sung, strengthen me, sustain me, drive far from me falsehood and the corrupting vapours of the world, and Thou, O Lord my God, grant me Thy favour that I may make some good verses to prove to myself that I am not the meanest