[In the following essay, Tappan explicates the thematic function of the rose in Musset's “La nuit de mai,” linking it with the poem's representation of fecundity and procreative union.]

La rose, vierge encor, se referme jalouse
Sur le frelon nacré qu'elle enivre en mourant.

This image from the second speech of the Muse in the early lines of “La Nuit de mai” has been the subject of several explanatory footnotes by editors of texts destined for students. Most agree that it is the “frelon” who is dying. Steinhauer and Walter, for example, in their anthology translate the second line: “on the pearly drone which it intoxicates as he dies.”¹ French editors generally agree with the interpretation; Chassang and Senninger explain “en mourant” as “tandis qu'il meurt.”² Others justify it by attempting to explain away the “unusual” grammatical structure. Thus Lagarde and Michard inform the student that “en mourant” “se rapporte à frelon (construction archaïque),”³ and the editor of the Classiques Larousse selections explains: “Dès le XVIII^e siècle, le gérondif ne peut plus se rapporter qu'au sujet. Or, ici, c'est bien le frelon qui meurt. Archaïsme ou solécisme.”⁴ Morris Bishop offers the same interpretation but with some reservations as to the acceptability of the meaning: “while [the hornet] dies. (This murderous behavior of the rose is very surprising.).”⁵ François Denoeu, for grammatical reasons, proposes to the contrary that the rose dies: “which she enraptures as she dies; as he dies, referring to le frelon, makes as much sense but runs counter to the phrasing.”⁶

We may agree with Bishop that the rose as murderess is indeed “surprising,” and we may doubt Denoeu's assertion that a dying hornet “makes as much sense” as a dying rose in the situation. Not only is it grammatically indefensible to read “en mourant” as modifying the direct object “que [le frelon],” but such a reading results in a preposterous picture, while the syntactically accurate death of the rose produces a richly suggestive image in perfect harmony with the tone and content of the passage.

From the very first line of the poem, “Poète, prends ton luth, et me donne un baiser,” an equation is set up between the process of artistic creation and the act of love, of procreation. Referring to the surging life forces all about them on a spring evening (“sent ses bourgeons éclore; le printemps naît; les vents vont s'embraser; aux premiers buissons verts”), the Muse repeats her double invitation at line 6. As the poet remains oblivious to her presence, the Muse becomes increasingly more fervent in tone and more lavish, even bold, in her allusions to fecundity. Just after the image of the rose, she says:

Ce soir, tout va fleurir: l'immortelle nature
Se remplit de parfums, d'amour et de murmure,
Comme le lit joyeux de deux jeunes époux.

(vv. 21-23)

As the poet, with awakening consciousness, experiences a vague uneasiness in body and soul, the Muse's invitation becomes overt and blatantly erotic:

Poète, prends ton luth; le vin de la jeunesse
Fermente cette nuit dans les veines de Dieu.
Mon sein est inquiet, la volupté l'oppresse,
Et les vents altérés m'ont mis la lèvre en feu.
O paresseux enfant! regarde, je suis belle.

(vv. 34-38)

Upon close scrutiny, the image of the rose is revealed as the aspect of the May evening which most directly introduces the theme of procreation and leads into the Muse's further allusions to fecundity. The phrase “vierge encor” immediately suggests sexuality. The rose welcomes the hornet's presence within her petals; she has desired him and jealously seeks to detain him: “se referme jalouse / Sur le frelon nacré.” He will be the agent of fertilization, of the desired end to her virginity, of the fulfillment of her function as a flower. In a mutual satisfaction of sensual appetites, she “intoxicates” him with the nectar he has come to gather as he plays his inadvertent role in the process of pollination. The rose, as a blossom, dies, not tragically, but simply because her role in the cycle of life has been played. After the consummation brought about by the visit of the hornet, she will cease to be a flower and take new form as a fruit, bearing the seeds that assure the continuity of life. The rose undergoes a metamorphosis rather than death. Read in this way, the image can be seen as entirely consistent with the ambiguous theme of productive union with which Musset begins “La Nuit de mai.”

Notes

1. Harry Steinhauer and Felix Walter, Omnibus of French Literature (New York, 1941), II, 325.

2. A. Chassang and Ch. Senninger, Recueil de textes littéraires français: XIX^eSiècle (Paris, 1966), p. 214.

3. André Lagarde and Laurent Michard, XIX^eSiècle (Paris, 1965), p. 213.

4. Bernard Lalande, ed., Pages choisies: Poésie, par A. de Musset (Paris, n.d.), I, 54.

5. Morris Bishop, A Survey of French Literature (New York, 1965), II, 64.

6. François Denœu, Sommets littéraires français (Boston, 1957), p. 324.