Le Singe

A man forced into marriage with a young Corsican woman flees that very evening, on his wedding night. Eight years later, having fallen in love with another woman to whom he confides his past adventure, he discovers that she is none other than his abandoned young wife. The ending is a happy one: Hector, deeply moved, having previously spoken of his wife in less than flattering terms — comparing her face to that of a monkey — becomes attached to the very woman he had once fled: “Yes, my monkey! No! I no longer know what I am saying, my heart overflows with such joy. Octavie, my wife! Oh! How happy I am.”

Full of hope, Glatigny wrote to his friend and protector Théodore de Banville: “Le Singe, a rhymed comedy in one act, is to be copied out this week and sent to Ravel. I hope that this profoundly human work will meet with the success it deserves…”