The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from A Prince of Bohemia by Honore de Balzac: in his resignation bravely in 1830, and ever since has written twice
as many plays to fill the deficit in his budget made by his noble
conduct. At that time du Bruel was forty years old; you know the story
of his life. Like many of his brethren, he bore a stage dancer an
affection hard to explain, but well known in the whole world of
letters. The woman, as you know, was Tullia, one of the /premiers
sujets/ of the Academie Royale de Musique. Tullia is merely a
pseudonym like du Bruel's name of de Cursy.
"For the ten years between 1817 and 1827 Tullia was in her glory on
the heights of the stage of the Opera. With more beauty than
education, a mediocre dancer with rather more sense than most of her
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