Chapitre 1892

32. LA MARSEILLAISE. 6. Beuillé, François-Claude Amour, marquis de (1739-1800), a devoted royalist, who planned the flight of Louis XVI. When the king was captured at Varennes he fled to England, where he died.

 

MARIE-ANDRÉ CHÉNIER.

 

1762-1794.

 

The most genuine poet of the eighteenth century. Born at Constantinople of a Greek mother, he knew Greek early and fed himself on the Greek poets, imbibing something of their spirit. His elegies, idyls, and odes are not mere repetitions of the conventional commonplaces, but new, original, and vigorous in idea and expression. He anticipated the Romanticists in breaking over the received rules of versification and in giving greater flexibility and variety to the Alexandrine line.

Works : Poésies, first published by H. de Latouche, 1819; later editions are by Becq de Fouquières, 1862 and 1872; G. de Chénier, with new material, 3 vols., 1874; by Louis Moland, 2 vols., 1878-79.

For reference: Sainte-Beuve, Portraits littéraires, vol. i; Portraits contemporains, vols, ii and v; Causeries du lundi, vol. iv; Nouveaux lundis, vol. iii; E. Faguet, le Dix-huitième siècle, 1890; E. Caro, la Fin du dix-huitième siècle, vol. ii, 1882; J. Haraszti, la Poésie d’André Chénier, 1892.

32. LA JEUNE CAPTIVE. This, as well as the Iambes following, was written in the Saint-Lazare prison shortly before Chénier was sent to the guillotine. The young captive was Mlle. Aimée de Coigny; she escaped the guillotine and afterwards married M. de Montrond; she died in 1820.

33. 18. PHILOMÈLE; Philomela was daughter of Pandion, king of Athens. Pursued by Tereus, king of Thrace, she was changed into a nightingale. The name is frequently employed in poetry for the nightingale.

34. 16. PALÈS, a Roman divinity of flocks and shepherds.

35. IAMBES. 23. BAVUS, a conventional name; it is not clear who was in the poet’s mind.

 

MARIE-JOSEPH CHENIER.

 

1764-1811.

 

A younger brother of André Chénier, enjoyed a great reputation as a dramatic poet and critic. Aside from the Chant du départ, which had a reputation approaching that of the Marseillaise, he is hardly to be considered as a lyric poet.

Works: Oeuvres complètes, 8 vols., 1823-1826; Poésies, 1844.

37. LE CHANT du DÉPART. 9. De BARRA, DE VIALA; Agricole Viala and François-Joseph Barra (properly Bara) were both young boys, thirteen and fourteen years of age, who fell fighting with the revolutionary armies, the former in the Vendée, the latter near Avignon. To both the Convention voted the honors of burial in the Pantheon. Their names are often coupled, as here.

 

ANTOINE-VINCENT ARNAULT.

 

1766-1834.

 

He wrote a number of tragedies and a collection of fables that were admired in their day, but his name is best preserved for the larger public by this brief elegy, which is found in most anthologies. The circumstances attending its composition, on the eve of his departure from France after his banishment in January, 1816, are related by Sainte-Beuve, Causeries du lundi, vol. vii, in the course of his notice of Arnault, which should be consulted.

 

FRANÇOIS-RENÉ, VICOMTE DE CHAUTEAUBRIAND.

 

1768-1848.

 

An enormous literary force at the beginning of this century; M. E. Faguet calls him the “greatest date in French letters since the Pleiad.” But the instrument of his power was prose. His attempts in verse were poor. Yet he exercised a direct influence towards the renewal of lyric poetry, as has been indicated in the introduction.

For reference: E. Faguet, Études littéraires sur le dix-neuvième siècle, 1887 ; F. Brunetière, l’Évolution de la poésie lyrique au dix-neuvième siècle, vol. i, 1894.

39. LE MONTAGNARD EXILÉ. Introduced into the prose tale, le Dernier des Abencérages (1807). “J’en avais composé les paroles pour un air des montagnes d’Auvergne remarquable par sa douceur et sa simplicité.” (Author’s note.) 24. la Dore, a rapid stream in the department Puy-de-Dôme, flowing into the Allier. 27. l’airain, i.e. the bell.

 

MARIE-ANTOINE DÉSAUGIERS.

 

1772-1827.

 

He represents a domain of the lyric that has always been industriously tilled in France, that of the chanson. The tradition of the song is distinctly bacchanalian, and rarely has it claimed serious consideration as literature. But Désaugiers now and then foreshadows the larger and more serious treatment the chanson was to receive at the hands of Béranger and Dupont.

Works: Chansons et Poésies diverses, 3 vols., 1808-1816; a Choix de chansons appeared in 1858; another in 1859, and others since.

For reference: Sainte-Beuve, Portraits contemporains, vol. v; George Saintsbury, Miscellaneous Essays, London, 1892.

 

CHARLES NODIER.

 

1780-1844.

 

Promoted the romantic movement by his personal contact with the group of young writers that he drew around him more than by what he himself wrote. He was one of those who felt and transmitted the influence of Germany. He is better known by his stories than by his verse.

Works : Essais d’un jeune barde, 1804 ; Poésies diverses, 1827.

For reference : Mme. Mennessier-Nodier, Charles Nodier, épisodes et souvenirs de sa vie, 1867 ; Sainte-Beuve, Portraits littéraires, vol. i.

 

PIERRE-JEAN DE BÉRANGER.

 

1780-1857.

 

The first in rank of the chansonniers. The chanson in his hands took on a breadth, a meaning, and a seriousness that it had never before possessed, and that make him secure of a place in the literature of his country. He used the song largely as a vehicle for his political opinions, even as a political weapon. The object of his attack was the monarchy of the restoration and the pre-revolutionary ideas which it tried to revive, and his weapon was formidable because it was so well fitted to be caught up and wielded by the masses of the people. Béranger was popular in the more original sense of the word. He appealed to the masses by his ideas, which were those of the average man, and by the form which he gave them and the efficient aid of the current airs to which he wedded them, so that his words not only reached the ears of an audience far wider than that of the readers of books, but found a lodgment in their memories. Works: The successive collections of Chansons appeared in 1815, 1821, 1825, 1828, 1833; Oevres posthumes, and Oeuvres complètes, 2 vols., 1857.

For reference: Saint-Beuve, Portraits contemporains, vol. i; Causeries du lundi, vols, ii, xv; Nouveaux lundis, vol. i; E. Caro, Poètes et romanciers, 1888; C. Coquelin in The Century, vol. xxiv, with portraits.

43. LE ROI D’YVETOT (May, 1813) is perhaps the most famous of his songs. Yvetot is a small town in Normandy, near Havre. The lords of Yvetot were given the title of king in the fifteenth century. The reference of the song to Napoleon is clear.

44. 11. BAN; lever le ban means to call out one’s vassals or subjects. 13. TIRER AU BLANC, to shoot at a target.

45. LE VILAIN. 30.LE LÉOPARD; the French heralds describe the device of the English coat of arms as a lion léopardé; so the French often use the leopard as a symbol for the English.

46. 3. LA LIGUE, the Catholic League, a union of Catholics between 1576 and 1596, principally to secure the supremacy of their religion; it became the partisan of the Duc de Guise against Henry I. and Henry IV., fomented civil strife, allied itself with Spain, and became guilty of cruel excesses. MON HABIT 20. Socrate: the poverty of Socrates is notorious. 27. FÊTE: a person’s fête is the day of the saint whose name he bears.

47. 17. DES RUBANS; little bits of ribbon are worn in the buttonhole by members of the Legion of Honor, established by Napoleon in 1802. Membership in it is a purely honorary distinction, conferred by the government for conspicuous services of any kind, civil as well as military, and usually much coveted. Béranger refused all such favors from the government. 26. METTRE POUR JAMAIS HABIT BAS, i.e. mourir.

48. LES ÉTOILES QUI FILENT, “shooting stars” (Jan., 1820). This poem is based upon the popular superstition that connects human destinies with the stars, and interprets a shooting star as the passing of a human life.

49. 2. C’ÉTAIT À QUI LE NOURRIRAIT, each strove to outdo the other in feeding him.

50. LES SOUVENIRS DU PEUPLE. This is one of the poems that contributed to increase the prestige of the name of Napoleon. 9. BIEN … QUE; the parts of the conjunction are sometimes thus separated.

51. 10. CHAMPAGNE, previous to the Revolution a political division of France, having Lorraine on the east and Burgundy on the south. Like most other provinces it belonged formerly to independent princes. It came to the kings of France by the marriage of Philip IV. in the last half of the thirteenth century. Since the Revolution all these historical divisions have been supplanted by the départements, new administrative districts intended to obliterate the old boundaries. But the old names are still familiarly used. Champagne was invaded in 1814 by an army of the powers allied against Napoléon. 18. S’ASSOIT, instead of the usual s’assied of cultivated speech, is in keeping with the unlettered condition and familar tone of the speaker.

52. LES FOUS. Perhaps the word “cranks” comes nearest to giving the force of the title. 22. SAUF À, reserving the privilege of.

53. 5. SAINT-SIMON; Claude-Henri, comte de Saint-Simon (1760-1825), was the founder of French socialism. He demanded the application of the principle of association to the production and distribution of wealth. 13. Francois-Marie-Charles FOURIER (1772-1837), the founder of Fourierism, advocated a social reform in the direction of communism, and proposed to reorganize society in large groups, or phalanxes, living together in a perfect community in one building, called a phalanstery. Such communities as Brook Farm were attempts at a practical application of Fourier’s ideas. See O. B. Frothingham’s Life of George Ripley. 21. Barthélemy-Prosper ENFANTIN (1796-1864) was a follower of Saint-Simon and developed his doctrines. His means for securing the emancipation and equality of woman was the abolition of marriage.

 

CHARLES-HUBERT MILLEVOYE.

 

1782-1816.

 

Author of several poetical tales of chivalry and a considerable number of elegies, is remembered for hardly anything but these celebrated lines:

Works: Oeuvres, 5 vols., 1814-16; a collection of his Poésies is published in one volume, with a notice by Sainte-Beuve.

54. LA CHUTE DES FEUILLES. 19. ÉPIDAURE; Epidaurus, a town in Argolis on the Saronic gulf, the chief seat of the worship of Aesculapius, the god of the healing art.

 

MADAME MARCELINE DESBORDES-VALMORE.

 

1786-1859.

 

Is still ranked well among the lyric poets of the first part of the century, though the celebrity that she enjoyed for a time has passed. Though her language still has a flavor of the eighteenth century, the note of emotion is direct and sincere. The theme that best inspired her was love—love betrayed and disappointed.

Works: Poésies, 1818; les Pleurs, 1833; Pauvres Fleurs, 1839; Contes en vers pour les enfants, Lyon, 1840; Bouquets et prières, 1843; there is a selection, with notice by Sainte-Beuve, with the title: Poésies de Madame Desbordes-Valmore.

For reference: Sainte-Beuve, Portraits contemporains, vol. ii; Causeries du lundi, vol. xiv; Nouveaux lundis, xii; these notices are collected in a volume: Madame Desbordes-Valmore, sa vie et sa correspondance; Montesquiou-Fezensac, Félicité, étude sur la poésie de Marceline Desbordes-Valmore, 1894.

57. LES ROSES DE SAADI. Saadi (1195-1296) was a Persian poet; one of his works is the Gulistan, or Garden of Roses.

 

ALPHONSE-MARIE-LOUIS DE LAMARTINE. 1790-1869

The first great poet of the century and still one of the greatest. He passed a quiet youth in the shelter of home influences on his father’s estate near Mâcon, receiving his most lasting impressions from his mother’s instruction, from the fields and woods, and from certain favorite books, among which were the Bible and Ossian. This education was supplemented by a visit to Italy in 1811-12, memorable for the episode of Graziella, and a short service in the royal guards. His first volume, the Méditations poétiques (1820), was something entirely new in French letters and made him famous at once. These poems were saturated with the poet’s personality and informed with his emotions; and to communicate his pervading melancholy he found the secret of lines which, while they did not yet have the color, brilliancy, and variety that the Romanticists presently gave to verse, charmed the ear with a harmony and a music unattained before. His long poems, with more or less of philosophical intention, especially Jocelyn (1836), are important works, but it was as a lyric poet that he made his chief impression.

Works: Méditations poétiques, 1820; Nouvelles Méditations, 1823; Harmonies poétiques et religieuses, 1830; Recueillements poétiques, 1839; Poésies inédites, 1839; Poésies inédites, 1873; republished under the same names in various collected editions of his Oeuvres since 1860.

For reference: Faguet, Études littéraires sur le dix-neuvième siècle, 1887; Sainte-Beuve,_ Premiers lundis_, vol. i; Portraits contemporains, vol. i; F. Brunetière, Évolution de la poésie lyrique, vol. i; Histoire et littérature, vol. iii, 1892; F. Reyssié, la Jeunesse de Lamartine, 1891; E. Deschanel, Lamartine, 2 vols., 1893; J. Lemaître, les Contemporains, vol. vi, 1896; E. Zyromski, Lamartine poète lyrique, 1898.

58. LE LAC. Written September 17-23, 1817; from les Méditations poétiques. The lake here celebrated is Lake Bourget in Savoy. Here the poet met in 1816 Mme. Charles, wife of the well known physicist, with whom he fell very much in love and who is immortalized by him under the names Julie and Elvire. She died Dec. 18, 1817. Cf. Anatole France, l’Elvire de Lamartine, 1893. When this poem was written Lamartine already knew that she was hopelessly ill. This experience of his colors many poems of his first two volumes. Le Lac has often been set to music; most successfully by the Swiss composer Niedermeyer (1802-1861). For interesting variants in the text see Reyssié, la Jeunesse de Lamartine, p. 201.

L’AUTOMNE. November, 1819; from les Méditations poétiques.

61. 9. PEUT ÊTRE L’AVENIR, etc.; “allusion à l’attachement sérieux que le poète avait conçu pour une jeune Anglaise qui fut depuis la compagne de sa vie.” (Commentaire de l’auteur.) LE SOIR. Spring of 1819; from les Méditations poétiques.

63. LE VALLON. Summer of 1819; from les Méditations poétiques. “Ce vallon est situé dans les montagnes du Dauphiné.” (Commentaire de l’auteur.)

65 9. PYTHAGORE; Pythagoras, a Greek philosopher of the sixth century B.C., who is said to have taught the doctrine that the “organization of the universe is an harmonious system of numerical ratios.” L’ISOLEMENT. September, 1818; from

les Méditations poétiques. Reyssié in the work above cited gives interesting variants for this poem.

67 LE CRUCIFIX. 1818? From les Nouvelles Méditations. “Mon ami M. de V(irieu), qui assistait aux derniers moments de Julie, me rapporta, de sa part, le crucifix qui avait reposé sur ses lèvres dans son agonie … J’écrivis, après une année de silence et de deuil, cette élégie.” (Commentaire de l’auteur.) Compare with this note the eleventh stanza of the poem, which points back to the time of the Graziella affair. See below.

70. ADIEU A GRAZIELLA. From les Nouvelles Méditations. Graziella, whose heart Lamartine won during his visit to Naples in the winter of 1811-12 and whom he abandoned, was the daughter of a Neapolitan fisherman. She died soon afterward. Later the poet idealized her and his relation to her and immortalized her memory in his works. Cf. le Premier regret below.

71. LES PRÉLUDES. 1822; from les Nouvelles Méditations. This poem, addressed to Victor Hugo, consists of several divisions, in different meters, only the last of which is here given. It inspired the symphonic poem of Liszt by the same name.

73. HYMNE DE L’ENFANT À SON RÉVEIL. From les Harmonies poétiques et religieuses.

76. LE PREMIER REGRET. From les Harmonies poétiques et religieuses. It was inspired by the memory of Graziella. 7. MER DE SORRENTO, bay of Naples; Sorrento is a small town on the bay, southeast of Naples.

77. 27. NÉMI; the lake is in the hollow of an extinct volcano, in the Alban mountains, a few miles southeast of Rome.

81. STANCES. From les Nouvelles Méditations. 18. MEMNON, son of Tithonus and Eos, king of the Ethiopians, slain by Achilles. The Greeks connected with Memnon various ancient monuments and buildings, especially the great temple at Thebes and one of the colossi of Amenophis III., currently called the statue of Memnon; legend reported of it that when touched by the first rays of the dawn it gave forth a musical sound.

83. LES RÉVOLUTIONS. From les Harmonies poétiques et religieuses. Only the last of the three divisions of the poem is given here.

84. 20. SIBYLLES ANTIQUES; concerning the sibyls, sibylline books, and sibylline leaves consult a classical dictionary. 23. VERBE; used currently for the second person of the Trinity; here it goes back to a passage in the first division of the poem, where speaking of God’s process of creation; he says:

“Son Verbe court sur le néant! Il court, et la Nature à ce Verbe qui vole Le suit en chancelant de parole en parole, Jamais, jamais demain ce qu’elle est aujourd’hui! Et la création, toujours, toujours nouvelle, Monte éternellement la symbolique échelle Que Jacob rêva devant lui! “

85. 8. LES NOEUDS, knots of nautical reckoning.

 

ALFRED DE VIGNY.

 

1797-1863.

 

One of the great poets of the century. He surpassed most, if not all, of his fellow Romanticists in the intellectual quality of his verse. His lyrics are not merely the product of a moment of passion or of a passing emotion; the strings of his lyre were not set vibrating by every breeze that blew. The personal emotion from which the lyric springs was with him subjected to the action of an intellectual solvent, was generalized and made almost impersonal before it was given form and expression. For this reason partly the bulk of his poetry is small, not exceeding the limits of one small volume. But there are few poems that one would be content to lose. One should read, besides the two given here, Moïse, la Maison du Berger and la Mort du loup. De Vigny’s influence on the poetry of the latter half of the century has been considerable.

Works: Poèmes, 1822; Poèmes antiques et modernes, 1826; les Destinées, 1864; in the Oeuvres complètes_, of which several editions have appeared, the Poésies make one volume.

For reference : Sainte-Beuve, Portraits contemporains, vol. II; E. Caro, Poètes et romanciers, 1888 ; E. Faguet, Études littéraires sur le dix-neuvième siècle, 1887 ; F.Brunetière, Évolution de la poésie lyrique, vol. ii ; Dorison, Alfred de Vigny, poète philosophe, 1891 ; M. Paléologue, Alfred de Vigny, 1891.

86. LE COR. 1828. The story of the surprise of the rearguard of Charlemagne by the Moors and of the death of Roland (Orlando in the Italian poems) is told in the Chanson de Roland (end of the eleventh century), the finest of the old French heroic poems. 19. FRAZONA ; this name is not found on ordinary maps or in descriptions of this region. MARBORÉ, a mountain of the Pyrenees. 21. GAVES, name given in the Pyrenees to streams that descend from the mountains.

87. 11. RONCEVAUX, a Spanish village at the entrance to one of the passes of the Pyrenees. 14. OLIVIER, Oli-ver, like Roland and Turpin mentioned later, one of the twelve peers of Charlemagne, standard figures in the old French poems that deal with Charlemagne.

88. 4. LUZ, ARGELÈS, villages in the department of Hautes-Pyrénées. 6. ADOUR, a river of France rising in the Pyrenees and flowing into the Bay of Biscay. 15. SAINT Denis is the patron saint of France. 24. Obéron, king of the fairies in mediaeval folk-lore; cf. A Midsummernight’s Dream.

89. LA BOUTEILLE À LA MER, 1853. Bears the sub-title: Conseil à un jeune homme inconnu. 19. Chatterton (1752-1770), the precocious English poet who, failing to get recognition for his talents, was reduced to destitution and ended his life by poison. Wordsworth wrote of him in

The Leech-Gatherer:

“I thought of Chatterton, the marvellous Boy, The sleepless Soul that perished in his pride.”

For de Vigny he stood almost as the type of the poet; he used his career as literary material in the narrative Stello (1832) and in the drama Chatterton (1835). Gilbert, see p. 320. He is also brought into Stello. MALFILÂTRE (1732-1767), a French poet who was tempted by the praise given to his ode, le Soleil fixe au milieu des planètes, to try a literary career at Paris and died in great poverty. He has passed wrongly for an unappreciated genius.

9O. 27. TERRE-DE-FEU, Terra del Fuego.

91. 6. CES PICS NOIRS, les pics San-Diego, San-Ildefonso. (Author’s note.) 13. Reims, a city in Champagne, the center of the champagne trade. 25. Aï, a town in Champagne, near Reims, noted for its wine; the name is also applied to the wine.

8. DES FLORIDES; in speaking of both coasts of Florida the French formerly used the plural.

 

VICTOR HUGO.

 

1802-1885.

 

The foremost literary figure of the century in France. His commanding influence as the chief of the Romantic school and the champion of a revolution in literary doctrine and practice has led to his being generally considered in connection with the movement to which he gave such a powerful impulse. But he was not merely a great party chief and a great influence. He was also a great poet, and a great lyric poet. He was that by reason of the breadth and variety of his lyric performance, the surprising mastery of form that he showed, the new capacities for picturesque expression that he discovered in the language or created for it, the new possibilities of rhythm and melody that he opened to it, and the range, power, and sincerity of many of the thoughts and feelings to which he gave so sonorous and musical a body. No doubt in a large part of his early work, as les Orientales, the body was more to him than the spirit that it lodged. Poetry to him was an art that had its technical side, like any other. The development of its technical resources had a charm of its own, and he had the artist’s delight in skillful and exquisite workmanship. The

mastery that he attained was so perfect, he seemed so fully to exhibit the utmost capacities of the language for the most various effects of rhythm and harmony, that Théodore de Banville said of la Légende des siècles that it must be the Bible and the Gospel of every writer of French verse. But he did not stop with the dexterity and virtuosity of the craftsman. More and more he used the mastery that he had achieved not for the mere pleasure of practicing or exhibiting it, but to give fitting and adequate expression to feelings and to thoughts. The domestic affections, the love of country, and the mystery of death had the deepest hold upon him, and whenever he approaches these themes he is almost sure to be genuine and sincere. His pity for the poor and unfortunate was very tender, and was the real spring of a great deal of his democracy, and he had a fine gift of wrathful indignation, which was called into exercise especially by Napoleon III. No part of his lyrical production is more spontaneous and genuine than many poems of Les Châtiments. There was from the first a bent towards philosophical reflection observable in him, and in the latter part of his life, beginning with les Contemplations and la Légende des siècles, it preponderated more and more over the lyrical impulse, though the latter was never reduced to silence for long.

Works: Odes et Poésies diverses, 1822; Nouvelles Odes, 1824; Odes et Ballades, 1826, 1828; les Orientales, 1829; les Feuilles d’Automne, 1831; les Chants du crépuscule, 1835; les Voix intérieures, 1837; les Rayons et les ombres, 1840; les Châtiments, 1853; les Contemplations, 1856; la Légende des siècles, 1859, 1876, 1883; les Chansons des rues et des bois, 1865; l’Année terrible, 1872; l’Art d’être grandpère, 1876; les Quatre Vents de l’esprit, 1881; Toute la lyre, 1889, 1893. The most convenient form in which they are now to be found is the ne varietur edition of Hetzel-Quantin in 16mo, at two francs a volume; the volumes correspond to those given above, except that the first three are all included in the one Odes et Ballades.

For reference: Sainte-Beuve, Portraits contemporains, vol. i; E. Caro, Poètes et romanciers, 1888; A. Barbou, Victor Hugo, 1882; E. Dupuy, Victor Hugo, l’homme et le poète, 1887; L. Mabilleau, Victor Hugo, 1893 ; E. Biré, Victor Hugo avant 1830, 1883; Victor Hugo après 1830, 2 vols., 1891; Victor Hugo après 1852, 1894; A. C. Swinburne, Victor Hugo, London, 1886; C. Renouvier, Victor Hugo, le poète, 1893; E. Dowden, Studies in Literature, London, 1878; E. Faguet, le Dix-neuvième siècle, 1887; F. Brunetière, Évolution de la poésie lyrique, 2 vols., 1894.

95. LES DJINNS. August, 1828; from les Orientales. The poem is especially noteworthy from a technical point of view. The quiet before the descent of the spirits, their approach, their fury, their receding, and the quiet that follows, are suggested by the movement of the lines. The motto is from Dante’s Inferno, Canto v, 46-49; he is describing the tormented spirits of the carnal malefactors “Who reason subjugate to appetite.” Djinns are spirits of Mohammedan popular belief, created of fire, and both good and evil. The vowel is not nasal.

97. 25. PROPHÈTE, Mohammed.

99. ATTENTE. 1828; from les Orientales. The motto is Spanish, “I was waiting in despair.”

100. EXTASE. November, 1828; from les Orientales. The motto is from the Bible, Rev. i, 10. LORSQUE L’ENFANT PARAÎT. May 18, 1830; from les Feuilles d’Automne. Les Feuilles d’Automne were largely the reflection of the domestic affections of the poet. He had been married in 1822, and had at this time three children, Léopoldine, Charles, and Victor.

102. 17. ENNEMIS; the reference is doubtless to the literary opponents of Hugo; the struggle between the champion of tradition and the Romanticists brought many personal bitternesses. DANS L’ALCÔVE SOMBRE. Nov. 10, 1831; from les Feuilles d’Automne. The motto is from a poem, la Veillée, addressed by Sainte-Beuve to Hugo on the birth of his son François-Victor, Oct. 21, 1828.

103. 19. lys, lis; this spelling is usual with Victor Hugo and frequent in this century, especially with later writers.

1O4. 27. CHIMÈRE has here more the force of cauchemar. NOUVELLE CHANSON SUR UN VIEIL AIR. Feb. 18, 1834; from les Chants du crépuscule.

106. “PUISQU’ICI-BAS.” May 19, 1836; from les Voix intérieures.

108. OCEANO NOX. July, 1836; from les Rayons et les ombres. The title is from Vergil, Aen. ii, 250: Vertitur interea caelum et ruit Oceano nox.

110. NUITS DE JUIN. 1837; from les Rayons et les ombres. “LA TOMBE DIT À LA ROSE.” June 3, 1837; from les Voix intérieures. TRISTESSE D’OLYMPIO. October, 1837; from les Rayons et les ombres. See the discussion of this poem in Brunetière, Évolution de la poésie lyrique, i, 200 ff. His view is indicated in the following extract: “Ces grands thèmes, les plus riches de tous,—la Nature, l’Amour et la Mort,—dans le développement desquels nous sommes convenus de chercher et de vérifier la mesure du pouvoir lyrique, Hugo les mêle ou les fond ensemble, il les enchevêtre, il les complique, il les multiplie les uns par les autres, et de cette complication, admirez les effets qu’il tire…. C’est en effet ici qu’éclate, à mon avis, la supériorité de la Tristesse d’Olympio sur le Lac de Lamartine ou sur le Souvenir de Musset, qu’on lui a si souvent, et à tort, préférés. Non pas du tout, vous le pensez bien, que je veuille nier le charme pur et pénétrant du Lac, ou la douloureuse et poignante éloquence du Souvenir! Incomparable élégie, le Lac de Lamartine a pour lui la discrétion même, l’élégance, l’idéale mélancolie, la caresse ou la volupté de sa plainte; et, dans le Souvenir de Musset, nous le verrons bientôt, c’est la passion même qui parle toute pure. Mais, dans la Tristesse d’Olympio, de même que les voix des instruments se marient dans l’orchestre, la note aiguë, déchirante et prolongée du violon à la lamentation plus profonde et plus grave de l’alto, le tumulte éclatant des cuivres aux sons plus perçants de la flûte, tandis qu’au-dessus d’eux la voix humaine continue son chant d’amour ou de colère, de haine ou d’adoration, c’est ainsi que la mélodie très simple et comme élémentaire du souvenir s’enrichit, s’augmente, se renforce, et se soutient chez Hugo d’un accompagnement d’une prodigieuse richesse, ou tout concourt ensemble, toute la nature et tout l’homme, toute la poésie de l’amour, toute celle des bois et des plaines, toute la poésie de la mort.”

116. “A QUOI BON ENTENDRE.” July, 1838; from the drama Ruy Blas, act ii, scene I.

117. CHANSON. “SI VOUS N’AVEZ RIEN À ME DIRE.” May, 18—; from les Contemplations.

118. “QUAND NOUS HABITIONS TOUS ENSEMBLE.” Sept. 4, 1844; from les Contemplations. The poet’s daughter Léopoldine had married Charles Vacquerie in the summer of 1843. On the fourth of September of the same year she was drowned, together with her husband, in the Seine near Villequier. Her death was a great shock to Hugo, and the few verses that we have from these years are full of the bitterness of loss sweetened by remembrance of happy earlier days. Her memory is everywhere present in the Contemplations; compare the following poems.

119. 5. SI JEUNE ENCORE; jeune refers of course to the subject; Hugo was twenty-two when Léopoldine was born. “O SOUVENIRS! PRINTEMPS! AURORE!” Villequier, Sept. 4, 1846; from les Contemplations. Notice the date.

120. 2. MONTLIGNON, Saint-Leu, small places just out of Paris to the north.

121. ARIOSTE, Ariosto (1474-1533), a famous Italian poet, author of Orlando Furioso. “DEMAIN, DÈS L’AUBE.” Sept. 3, 1847; from les Contemplations. Notice the date. 21. DEMAIN, i.e. the anniversary of his daughter’s death.

122. 2. HARFLEUR, a small town on the Channel coast, a few miles from Havre, near the mouth of the Seine. VENI, VIDI, VIXI. April, 1848; from les Contemplations.

123. LE CHANT DE CEUX QUI S’EN VONT SUR MER. Dated: En mer, 1er août, 1852. This and the next following poems, from les Châtiments, are the expression of the poet’s hatred for Napoleon III. This volume was the direct fruit of his exile in consequence of his determined opposition to the imperial ambitions of Napoleon. He had been active in trying to organize resistance after the coup d’état, and with difficulty had evaded arrest and escaped to Brussels. After the publication of his denunciatory volume, Napoléon le Petit, the Belgian government expelled him. and he took refuge first in England, whence he passed immediately to the island of Jersey, where he arrived on the fifth of August, 1852. In 1855 residence in Jersey was forbidden him and he removed to Guernsey, where he continued to reside till the downfall of Napoleon I.

124. LUNA. July, 1853. 23. L’AN QUATRE-VINGT-ONZE, 1791, the beginning of the French Revolution.

126. LE CHASSEUR NOIR. September, 1853. 27. SAINT ANTOINE; Saint Anthony (250-356) was a native of Upper Egypt, withdrew to the desert, and gave his life up to ascetic devotion in solitude and voluntary poverty. Legend represents him as beset by tempting demons.

128. LUX. December, 1853. 9. Capets; the kings of France from the accession of Hugh Capet in 987 to that of the house of Valois with Philip VI. in 1328 were Capets.

129. ULTIMA VERBA. December, 1853. 4. Mandrin, a notorious bandit, executed in 1755.

130. 3. Louvre, see note p. 318. 22. Sylla, see note p. 319. CHANSON. “Proscrit, regarde les roses.” May, 1854; from les Quatre Vents de l’esprit, livre lyrique. Concerning the inexact rhyme semai: mai, rare with Hugo, see Revue politique et littéraire, July 16, 1881.

132. EXIL. Between 1868 and 1881; from les Quatre Vents de l’esprit, livre lyrique. 5. COLOMBE, his daughter Léopoldine. 6. ET TOI, MÈRE; Mme Victor Hugo died in 1868. SAISON DES SEMAILLES. LE SOIR. From les_ Chansons des rues et des bois_. The poem is not dated; the volume appeared in 1865.

133. 2. LABOURS, plowed fields. This seems almost to have been written for the well-known painting of “The Sower” by Millet, exhibited in 1850. However, Millet’s sower is a young man. UN HYMNE HARMONIEUX. From les Quatre Vents de l’esprit, the poem bears no date.

134. PROMENADE DANS LES ROCHERS. From les Quatre Vents de l’esprit; not dated.

 

AUGUSTE BRIZEUX.

 

1803-1858.

 

He is remembered for his simple and touching poems, full of the landscape and of the rural life of his native Brittany. He also translated Dante’s Divine Comedy.

Works: Marie, 1835; les Ternaires, 1841 (the title of this collection was later changed to la Fleur d’or); les Bretons, 1845; Histoires poétiques, 1855; Oeuvres complètes, 1861, 2 vols.; Oeuvres, 4 vols., 1879-84.

For reference: Sainte-Beuve, Portraits contemporains, vols, ii and iii; Lecigne, Brizeux, sa vie et ses oeuvres, Lille, 1898.

 

AUGUSTE BARBIER.

 

1805-1880.

 

He secured immediate fame by the vigorous satire of his first work, Iambes, and he is probably still best remembered for this, though later volumes, especially Il Pianto, contain work of more perfect finish.

Works: Iambes, 1831; La Popularité, 1831; Lazare, 1833; Il Pianto, 1833 (these are now included in one volume, Iambes et poèmes); Nouvelles Satires, 1837; Chants civils et religieux, 1841; Rimes héroïques, 1843; Sylves, 1865.

For reference: Sainte-Beuve, Portraits contemporains, vol. ii.

138. L’IDOLE. May, 1831. The whole poem consists of five parts.

 

2. MESSIDOR, one of the months of the revolutionary calender, beginning with the nineteenth of June. It was the first of the summer months.

 

MADAME D’AGOULT.

 

1806-1876.

 

Marie-Sophie Catherine de Flavigny, comtesse d’Agoult, wrote under the pseudonym Daniel Stern. Her work is mainly in prose, in history, criticism and fiction, but she wrote a few lyrics marked by deep and true sentiment. A biographical notice by L. de Ronchand will be found in the second edition of her Esquisses morales, 1880.

 

FÉLIX ARVERS.

 

1806-1851.

 

He wrote mainly for the stage, and left but one volume of poems, Mes Heures perdues, which are all forgotten save this famous sonnet. The lady who inspired it is said to have been the daughter of Charles Nodier, afterwards Mme. Mennessier-Nodier. Mes Heures perdues was reprinted in 1878, with a notice of Arvers by Th. de Banville.

 

GÉRARD DE NERVAL.

 

1808-1855.

 

Gérard Labrunie, known in letters as Gérard de Nerval, was one of the group of young Romanticists who gathered around Hugo. Symptoms of insanity developed early, and at different times he was an inmate of an asylum. He finally committed suicide. He felt profoundly the influence of German literature, and his lyrics show something of this in the spiritual quality of their sentiment.

Works: Élégies nationales et satires politiques, 1827; translation of Goethe’s Faust, 1828; la Bohême galante, 1856; Oeuvres completes, 5 vols., 1868.

For reference: Th. Gautier, Histoire du romantisme; Portraits et souvenirs littéraires; Arvède Barine, Névrosés, 1898.

140. FANTAISIE. Gioacchino Antonio ROSSINI (1792-1868), one of the foremost Italian composers of the century, author of William Tell (1829), and other well-known operas. Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART was a native of Austria, and one of the greatest musical geniuses that ever lived. Among his works are the operas Le Nozze di Figaro (1786), Don Giovanni (1787), Die Zauberflöte (1791); the famous Requiem; the symphony in G minor, etc. Karl Maria von WEBER (1786-1826), one of the founders of German as opposed to Italian opera. Der Freischütz is his most famous work.

 

HÉGÉSIPPE MOREAU.

 

1810-1838.

 

In his short and unhappy struggle with poverty and illness he produced a few graceful short stories and a thin volume of verse, le Myosotis (1838), that reveals a genuine, though not remarkable, lyric gift. See Sainte-Beuve, Causeries du lundi, vol. iv. The poems of le Myosotis, and some others, now make vol. ii. of his Oeuvres complètes, 2 vols., 1890-91.

141. LA FERMIÈRE. This poem was sent as a New Year’s gift to Madame Guérard, who had taken the poet in and entertained him when ill.

142. 31. FILS DE LA VIERGE, “débris de toiles d’araignée que le vent emporte”; air-thread, gossamer.

 

ALFRED DE MUSSET.

 

1810-1857.

 

A lyric poet of a comparatively narrow range, but within it surpassingly genuine and spontaneous. Almost his only theme was the passion of love, in some form or degree. But what he lacked in breadth he made up in the directness and intensity of his accent, and these eminently lyric qualities give his lyrics a distinction among those of his country. He began as a Romanticist, but soon grew away from the school of Hugo as it developed. With his negligence of form and his surrender to the passion of the moment, he is the opposite of Gautier; and the poets of the later school which derives from Gautier have neglected and depreciated him.

Works: Contes d’Espagne et d’Italie, 1830; le Spectacle dans un fauteuil, 1833; after this most of his poems appeared in the Revue des Deux Mondes; they are now collected in Premières poésies, 1 vol., containing the poems of the first two volumes and a few others, and Poésies nouvelles, 1 vol., containing the Nuits, and the later poems.

For reference: P. de Musset, Biographie d’Alfred de Musset 1877 (naturally partial); A. Barine, Alfred de Musset, 1893; Spoelberch de Lovenjoul, la Véritable histoire de “Elle et Lui” 1897; Sainte-Beuve, _Portraits contemporains, vol. ii; Causeries du lundi, vols, i and xiii; E. Montégut, Nos Morts contemporains, 1883; E. Faguet, le Dix-neuvième siècle, 1887; F. Brunetière, Évolution de la poésie lyrique, vol. i, 1894; M. Clouard, Bibliographie des oeuvres d’Alfred de Musset, 1883; O. L. Kuhns, Sélections from de Musset, Boston, 1895, for the sympathetic and interesting introduction.

143. Au LECTEUR. This sonnet was prefixed in 1840 to a new edition of his poems.

145. STANCES. 1828; from Contes d’Espagne et d’Italie. 3. VESPRÉES; see note on 7, 10. LA NUIT DE MAI. May 1835. The poet’s liaison with the novelist George Sand, begun in 1833, and culminating in the Italian journey of 1834, with its successions of passion, violent ruptures, and penitent reconciliations, was the profoundest experience of his life, and the inspiration of many of his poems, including the famous Nuits of May, August, October and December.

146. 21. PARESSEUX ENFANT; the charge of indolence had often already been brought against Musset; cf. ton oisiveté, 150. 3.

147. 29. ARGOS, the capital of Argolis, in the Peloponnesus. PTÉLEON, Pteleum, an ancient town of Thessaly (Iliad ii, 697.) 30. MESSA, city and harbor of Laconia (Iliad ii, 582); Homer’s epithet is “abounding in doves.” 31. PÉLION, a mountain in Thessaly ; Homer (Iliad ii, 757) calls it “quivering with leaves.”

148. 1. TITARÈSE, a river in Thessaly. Homer’s epithet (Iliad ii, 751) is “lovely”. 3. OLOOSSONE, a city in Thessaly, called “white” also by Homer (Iliad ii, 739). Camyre, no doubt Homer’s Kameiros (Iliad ii, 656), which he calls “shining.” It was situated on the island of Rhodes; Musset neglects the geographical fact in bringing it into connection with Oloossone.

149. 6. SON TERTRE VERT, St. Helena.

150. 13. LORSQUE LE PÉLICAN; this passage is one of the most famous of French poetry. Compare Ronsard’s reference to the pelican, p. 8, 1. 19. With this view of the poet’s lot and mission compare that expressed in les Montreurs of Leconte de Lisle, p. 199, and in l’Art of Gautier, p. 190. The fable of the pelican giving his blood to his young is current in the literature of the middle ages.

152. LA NUIT DE DÉCEMBRE. November, 1835. 18. ÉGLANTINE; a wild rose was one of the prizes given the victors in the poetical contests called the Jeux Floraux held at Toulouse; it symbolizes distinction in poetry.

153. 11. UN HAILLON DE OURPRE EN LAMBEAU symbolizes the power of youth wasted in debauchery. 12. MYRTE; the myrtle was sacred to Venus.

154. 10. PISE, Pisa. 14. BRIGUES, a small town in the Rhone valley in Switzerland, at the foot of the Simplon pass. 16. GÊNES, Genoa. 17. VEVAY, a town on Lake Geneva. 19. LIDO, an island between Venice and the sea, a favorite resort of the inhabitants of the city. Musset calls it affreux, because with it he associated his quarrel with George Sand.

159. STANCES À LA MALIBRAN. October, 1836. 11. MARIA FELICITÀ, daughter and pupil of Manuel Garcia, afterwards Madame Malibran, by which name she is remembered, was a remarkable singer (1808-1836).

24. PARTHÉNON: the Parthenon, completed in 438 B.C., was built under the direction of Phidias, who was also the sculptor of the colossal statue of Athena within the temple. The most famous work of Praxiteles Was the statue of Aphrodite of Cnidus, not extant, but represented in the Venus of the Capitol and the Venus de Medicis.

160. 26. CORILLA, a character in one of Rossini’s operas. 27. ROSINA, heroine of Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Seviglia (1816). 29. LE SAULE, the song of “The Willow” in Rossini’s Otello (1816); cf. Shakspere’s Othello, iv, 3.

161. 9. LONDRE, usually spelled Londres; the s is omitted here for the metre. 21. GÊRICAULT, an important French painter (1790-1824); his most famous picture is Le Radeau de la Méduse, now in the Louvre. CUVIER, a great

French naturalist (1769-1852).

162. 3. ROBERT, Léopold (1794-1835), a French painter of merit. BELLINI, Vincenzo (1802-1835), an Italian composer of operas; among his works are La Somnambula (1831), Norma (1831), and I Puritani (1835). 5. CARREL, Armand (1800-1836), a French publicist, fatally wounded in a duel with Émile de Girardin.

163. 18. LA PASTA; Giuditta Pasta (1798-1865) was one of the famous sopranos of her day; for her Bellini wrote La Somnambula and Norma.

164. CHANSON DE BARBERINE. From the comedy Barberine (1836).

165. CHANSON DE FORTUNIO. From le Chandelier ( 1836), where it is sung by a character named Fortunio. 25. MA MIE, instead of m’amie; this is a remnant of what was the regular practice in the earliest period of French, the use of the feminine forms, ma, ta, sa, with elision of the vowel, before nouns beginning with a vowel; the substitution of the masculine forms in such cases begins in the twelfth century.

166. 167. TRISTESSE. June 14, 1840. “RAPPELLE-TOI.” 1842. SOUVENIR. February, 1841. This poem is of the same order of thought as le Lac of Lamartine and the Tristesse d’Olympia of Victor Hugo; see note on the latter poem.

169. 17. DANTE, POURQUOI DIS-TU; the passage referred to is in the Inferno, canto v, 1. 121 ; Francesca da Rimini (in French Françoise) begins the short and immortal story of her love for Paolo with these words :

“There is no greater sorrow Than to be mindful of the happy time In misery.”

170. 24. PIÉ, an old spelling of pied, used here to satisfy the rules of rhyme. Cf. following page, 1. 26.

172.17. MA SEULE AMIE. George Sand. The latest revelations from the correspondence of George Sand and Musset give us a more favorable view of her part in their unhappy affair and fail to justify the terms in which he refers to her here. See the volume of Vicomte de Spoelberch de Lovenjoul cited among the works for reference.

174. SUR UNE MORTE. October, 1842; the lady referred to was the Princess Belgiojoso (1808-1871), who after the unsuccessful movement for Italian liberty in 1831 left Italy and resided in Paris, where Musset came often to her salon, i. LA NUIT, one of the famous allegorical statues made by Michaelangelo for the tombs of Giuliano and Lorenzo de Medici.

175 A M. VICTOR HUGO. April. 26, 1843. CHANSON. “ADIEU, SUZON.” 1844.

 

THÉOPHILE GAUTIER.

 

1811-1872.

 

One of the most important poets of the century, though he can not be called in any large sense one of the greatest. His importance is due to the emphasis that he placed on the element of form both by his precept and by his practice. The directness and sincerity of the emotional cry are lost sight of in the pursuit of exquisite and perfect workmanship in the representation of outward beauty. L’Art, p. 190, sums up his poetic art. Later poetry has been profoundly influenced by this doctrine. His natural gifts adapted him perfectly to the rôle that he played, for, while he was without great intellectual depth or emotional intensity, he had a rare power of seeing the forms and colors of things.

Works: Poésies, 1830; Albertus, 1833; la Comédie de la mort, 1838; the preceding were republished in one volume with additions in 1845; Émaux et Camées, 1852; Poésies nouvelles, 1863; in the edition of his Oeuvres complètes the Poésies complètes make two volumes, Emaux et Camées, one.

For reference : E. Bergerat, Théophile Gautier, 1879; M. Du Camp, Théophile Gautier, 1890; Vicomte Spoelberch de Lovenjoul, Histoire des oeuvres de Th. Gautier, 2 vols., 1887; Sainte-Beuve, Premiers lundis, ii; Portraits contemporains, ii, v; Nouveaux lundis, vi; E, Faguet, XIXe siècle, 1887; Brunetière, Évolution de la poésie lyrique, vol. ii.

177. VOYAGE. From the Poésies of 1830. The line of the motto from La Fontaine is from the one-act comedy Clymene, line 35. Catullus 87-47 B.c.) was a Latin poet whose lyrics show intensity of feeling and rare grace of expression. The lines here quoted are from the Carmina, xlvi. The idea of the poem is quite characteristic of Gautier, who delighted especially in the picturesque aspects of travel, as his famous descriptions of foreign lands show (_Voyage en Espagne, Voyage en Russie, Voyage en Italie,_ etc.).

178. 17. ENRAYE, puts on the brakes. Of the other poems of Gautier here given all but CHOC DE CAVALIERS, LES COLOMBES, LAMENTO, TRISTESSE, and LA CARAVANE are from Émaux et Camées; these five will be found in vol. i of the Poésies completes under the title Poésies diverses.

186. PREMIER SOURIRE DU PRINTEMPS. 15. HOUPPE DE CYGNE, powder puff.

188. L’AVEUGLE, i. LES PUITS DE VENISE; the dungeons of Venice are famous.

189. LE MERLE. 18. The Arve joins the Rhone just after the latter issues from Lake Geneva. The water of the Rhone is very clear and blue, while that of the Arve, especially when swollen by rain and melted snow, is muddy and grayish-yellow.

19O. 4. mettre en démeure, to summon by legal process.

191. L’ART, i. CARRARE, PAROS, marbles especially fine and white and adapted for statuary, the former from Carrara, Italy, the latter from Paros, an island in the Aegean Sea. 21. NIMBE TRILOBE; the Virgin was often represented in early paintings with a halo of three rounded lobes, in the shape of a trefoil, symbolizing the Trinity.

 

VICTOR DE LAPRADE.

 

1812-1883.

 

A poet of elevation and purity, whose worth is rather greater than his reputation, which has been somewhat eclipsed by that of his greater contemporaries.

Works: Psyché, 1840; Odes et Poèmes, 1844; Pointes évangéliques, 1852; Symphonies, 1855; Idylles héroïques, 1858; Pernette, 1868; Poèmes civiques, 1873; le Livre d’un père, 1878; collected edition, Oeuvres poétiques, 4 vols., 1886-89.

For reference: E. Biré, Victor de Laprade, sa vie et ses oeuvres, 1886; Sainte-Beuve, Nouveaux lundis, vol. i; E. Caro, Poètes et romanciers, 1888.

193. A UN GRAND ARBRE. 1840; from Odes et Poèmes. 5. CYBÈLE, or Rhea, goddess of the earth. LE DROIT D’AÎNESSE. 1875; from le Livre d’un père. 15. ÉCHERRA, from échoir.

 

MME. ACKERMANN.

 

1813-1890.

 

Louise-Victorine Choquet, who became Mme. Paul Ackermann by her marriage in 1844 and was left a widow

in 1846, lived a life of great retirement and seclusion. Her work, the fruit of long solitude, bears the impress of a strong, reflective mind. It is deeply linged with pessimism.

Works: Contes et poésies, 1863; Poésies philosophiques, 1874; collected in one volume, Poésies, 1877.

For reference: Comte d’Haussonville, Mme. Ackermann, d’après des lettres et des papiers inédits, 1891.

 

CHARLES-MARIE LECONTE DE LISLE.

 

1818-1894.

 

Born on the island of Bourbon, the tropical landscape that was familiar to his boyhood recurs constantly in his poems. Coming to France to complete his studies and to reside, he became the master spirit among the poets of the middle of the century and the recognized leader of the Parnassiens. From the beginning he protested vigorously against the Romanticists of 1830, not only as making an immodest and on the whole vulgar display of self (cf. les Montreurs, p. 199), but also as inevitably falling short of artistic perfection because, being possessed, or at least moved, by the emotion they were expressing, they could not be wholly masters of the instrument of expression. To be thus wholly master of the resources of poetic art one must be quite untroubled by one’s own personal joys and sorrows, have the brain clear and free. This call to the poet to rid himself of the personal element was emphasized by the reflection that individual emotions are of little importance or interest, being dwarfed by the collective life of humanity in general, which in turn is overshadowed by the vast phenomenon of life as a whole, while this again is but a transient vapor on the face of the immense universe. So the poetic creed of an impersonal and impassive art was more or less blended with a materialism pervaded with a buddhistic pessimism that is vexed and wearied with the vain motions of this human world, and longs for the rest of Nirvana; and this vexation and weariness frequently rise to a poignant intensity. However far he may then be thought to be from the impassive impersonality of his doctrine, there is but one opinion as to his rare command of form and the exquisite perfection of his art, which have won for him the epithet impeccable.

Works: Poèmes antiques, 1853; Poèmes et poésies, 1855; Poésies complètes, 1858 (contains the two previous collections); Poèmes barbares, 1862; Poèmes tragiques, 1884; Derniers poèmes, 1894. He was also an industrious translator of the Greek poets and of Horace.

For reference: P. Bourget, Nouveaux essais de psychologie contemporaine, 1885; J. Lemaître, les Contemporains, vol. ii, 1887; F. Brunetière, Évolution de la poésie lyrique, vol. ii, 1894; also in Contemporary Review, vol. lxvi.

199. LES MONTREURS. From Poèmes barbares. MIDI and NOX are from the Poèmes antiques. The poems from L’ECCLÉSIASTE to REQUIES inclusive, and also LE MANCHY, are from the Poèmes barbares. The rest, except the last, are from the Poèmes tragiques.

203. LA VERANDAH, I. HÛKA, oriental pipe.

215. SI L’AURORE. 10. PITONS, mountain peaks; the word is used in the French colonies. 21. VARANGUE, a kind of porch, cf. verandah.

LE MANCHY. A manchy is a kind of sedan-chair, or litter.

217. LE FRAIS MATIN DORAIT. 28. LETCHIS, a tropical plant.

218. TRE FILA D’ORO. The words of the title, which is Italian, are found in the final line of each stanza, trois fils d’or.

 

CHARLES BAUDELAIRE.

 

1821-1867.

 

His was a perverse nature, endowed with rare gifts which he persistently abused. Pure physical sensation supplied a large part of the material for his poetry, and among the senses it was especially the one that has the remotest association with ideas that he drew upon most constantly—the sense of smell. In his desperate search for new and strange sensations he went the round of violent and exhausting dissipations, and as his senses flagged he spurred them with all sorts of stimulants. Meanwhile he observed himself curiously ; the result in his poems is an impression of peculiarly wilful depravity. They reflect his physical and mental experience, are always without sobriety, often lacking in sanity. The title, les Fleurs du mal, is both appropriate and suggestive; they invite no epithets so much as “unhealthy” and “unwholesome.”

He was extremely fond of Edgar A. Poe, and translated his works.

Works: les Fleurs du mal, 1857, new edition, 1861; Oeuvres posthumes, 1887.

For reference : Gautier, Portraits et souvenirs littéraires; E. Crépet, Oeuvres posthumes et correspondance inédite de Ch. Baudelaire, précédées d’une étude biographique, 1887; Bourget, Essais de psychologie contemporaine, 1883, F. Brunetière in Revue des Deux Mondes, Sept. 1st, 1892; Henry James, French Poets and Novelists, London, 1884; George Saintsbury, Miscellaneous Essays, London, 1892.

The poems given here are all from les Fleurs du mal.

221. 19. BOUCHER; François Boucher (1703-1770) was a painter of pastoral and genre subjects.

 

PIERRE DUPONT.

 

1821-1870.

 

He enjoyed a moment of great popularity about 1848, paid for since by being too much forgotten. His chansons are simple, sincere, and sweet, breathing a delight in rural life and sympathy with the lot of the poor. Works: Chansons, 1860; Chansons et poésies is the title of the current edition of his poems.

For reference: Sainte-Beuve, Causeries du lundi, vol. iv.

 

ANDRÉ LEMOYNE.