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Alexandre Dumas: The Man in the Iron MaskChapter 6: The Bee-Hive, the Bees, and the Honey. (continued)"Yes; you have an abominable habit, my friend, - a habit which will ever prevent your becoming a poet of the first order. You rhyme in a slovenly manner." "Oh, oh, you think so, do you, Pelisson?" "Yes, I do, indeed. Remember that a rhyme is never good so long as one can find a better." "Then I will never write anything again save in prose," said La Fontaine, who had taken up Pelisson's reproach in earnest. "Ah! I often suspected I was nothing but a rascally poet! Yes, 'tis the very truth." "Do not say so; your remark is too sweeping, and there is much that is good in your 'Fables.'" "And to begin," continued La Fontaine, following up his idea, "I will go and burn a hundred verses I have just made." "Where are your verses?" "In my head." "Well, if they are in your head you cannot burn them." "True," said La Fontaine; "but if I do not burn them - " "Well, what will happen if you do not burn them?" "They will remain in my mind, and I shall never forget them!" "The deuce!" cried Loret; "what a dangerous thing! One would go mad with it!" "The deuce! the deuce!" repeated La Fontaine; "what can I do?" "I have discovered the way," said Moliere, who had entered just at this point of the conversation. "What way?" "Write them first and burn them afterwards." Buy a copy of The Man in the Iron Mask at Amazon.com
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