that he used for his _Ouverture des Francs-Juges_ and for the _Symphonie
fantastique_ airs and phrases of quintets which he had written when
twelve years old (see _Mémoires_, I, 16-18).]

He forgot to eat and drink; he was like a man in a frenzy. A
performance of _Iphigénie en Tauride_ finished him. He studied under
Lesueur and then at the Conservatoire. The following year, 1827, he
composed _Les Francs-Juges_; two years afterwards the _Huit scènes de
Faust_, which was the nucleus of the future _Damnation_;[56] three years
afterwards, the _Symphonie fantastique_ (commenced in 1830).[57] And he
had not yet got the _Prix de Rome_! Add to this that in 1828 he had
already ideas for _Roméo et Juliette_, and that he had written a part of
_Lelio_ in 1829. Can one find elsewhere a more dazzling musical debut?
Compare that of Wagner who, at the same age, was shyly writing _Les
Fées, Défense d'aimer_, and _Rienzi_.

[Footnote 56: The _Huit scènes de Faust_ are taken from Goethe's
tragedy, translated by _Gérard de Nerval_, and they include: (1) _Chants
de la fête de Pâques_; (2) _Paysans sous les tilleuls_; (3) _Concert des
Sylphes_; (4 and 5) _Taverne d'Auerbach_, with the two songs of the Rat
and the Flea; (6) _Chanson du roi de Thulé_; (7) _Romance de
Marguerite_, "D'amour, l'ardente flamme," and _Choeur de soldats_; (8)
_Sérénade de Méphistophélès_--that is to say, the most celebrated and
characteristic pages of the _Damnation_ (see M. Prudhomme's essays on
_Le Cycle de Berlioz_).]

[Footnote 57: One could hardly find a better manifestation of the soul
of a youthful musical genius than that in certain letters written at
this time; in particular the letter written to Ferrand on 28 June, 1828,
with its feverish postscript. What a life of rich and overflowing