FLAUBERT Gustave (1821-1880). L.A.S. " Gve Flaubert ", Croisset Tuesday evening 25 [November 1879, to Maurice MONTÉGUT]; 1 1/2 pages in-8. Congratulations to a colleague. [Maurice MONTÉGUT (1855-1911), poet and novelist, had just published Lady Tempest, tragic legend]. "My dear fellow-member, Lady Tempest pleases me infinitely. & warms my old romantic heart. The memory (or better, the inspiration) of Shakespeare is evident. One swims with you in the middle of poetry. You have done me good, I thank you for it. It seems to me (as far as a humble prose writer can judge) that you already have a great experience of verse. I have noticed many excellent ones. Verses all of a sudden, simple, firm & sound. Verses stuck on the idea - bravo! But if you want to succeed, you'll have to do something less lofty, which, incidentally, I don't want you to do. However there is perhaps a way to apply your poetic faculties, which are eminent, to subjects more flattering to the vulgum pecus? You have now enough dexterity to do what you like"... Correspondence (Pléiade), t. V, p. 749.