Gérard de NERVAL (1808-1855). L.A.S. "Gérard Labrunie", January 16, 1831, [to Ferdinand Papion Du Château]; 1 page in-8. About his play Le Prince des Sots, the text of which is now lost. Rejected in December 1830 by the Comédie Française, it was read at the Odéon and enthusiastically received by the reading committee; but its director Harel did not retain it in the end. The manuscript is lost] " My good friend, how much I regret not having been able to answer your kind invitation, but you cannot believe how I work these days; the little play you know I was to read at the Odeon was received by acclamation that very Saturday, and on the sole condition that I include a prologue to prepare the public for the innovations it contains. It was this prologue that overwhelmed me. Luckily it is now finished. I will read it tomorrow to the director and the day after tomorrow I am yours [...] and I hope to find you in better health. I ask you, however classical you may be, but as a friend, to support my work, which will soon be published, as well as the one I have at another theatre; one will push the other. ...] It is a long time since I heard your verses ...".