Chapter 19
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.
1822.
Has achieved especial success by his poetic descriptions of nature, which proceed from a close and loving observation and a quick responsiveness to her moods. Works: _Stella Maris.--Ecce Homo_, etc., 1860; _les Roses d'Antan_, 1865; _les Charmeuses_, 1867; _Légendes des Bois et Chansons marines_, 1871; _Fleurs des ruines_, 1888; _Fleurs du soir_, 1893.
232. 12. CHANSON MARINE. CAP FRÈHEL, on the north coast of Brittany, just south of the Channel Islands. 24. GRANVILLE and AVRANCHES are small towns on the Channel coast, between St. Malo and Cherbourg. 26. The ORNE and VIRE are small streams flowing northward into the Channel in the same region.
THEODORE DE BANVILLE.
1823-1891.