Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 18 January 1845: 'Paul [de Kock] is the writer of farce, .. broad farce ..: and for impulsive gaiety, he has not his peer. I think the more of him just now, because they sent me, a few days since, by a mistake for another work, from the library, "Mon ami Piffard," which is not his best work, & yet set me laughing most cordially. It's a farce rolled out into the narrative form, -- neither more nor less-- A little nasty, of course, to mark, not exactly the [talics]hoof[end italics] of Paul, but his snout. -- But what particuarly struck me [...] was the impulse, the can't-help-myself joyousness of the book [...] I hope it isn't the indecency which I take so kindly in him'.