In his youth, some 25 years before, when he was living as the protégé of Mme de Warrens, his masturbation had been so obvious that she, alarmed at his habits, took him to her bad. He reacted to this change in their relationship “with an invincible sadness which poisoned the charm”(1:197). His autobiographical writings place the origins of the problem of whether it was better to masturbate or to enter into a real affair with a woman during those years. It was at this time, probably around 1729, while he was living at the home of Mme de Warrens, that Rousseau wrote his first play: Narcisse.