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A^A
V
i^t^rt^FUXM-^^.
(Collected Edition in
Two
Volumes),
1902.
AUBREY BEARDSLEY.
1S98, 1905,
AND
MUSIC.
1899,
1903.
1903.
1904,
1905.
WILLIAM BLAKE.
CITIES OF ITALY.
1906.
1907.
1907.
IN ENGLISH POETRY.
1909.
1916.
1918,
COLOUR STUDIES
IN PARIS
1-1-
stjSphane
By
J.
-r
mallarm^
McN. Whistler.
[Frmitispiece.
COLOUR STUDIES
IN PARIS
ARTHUR SYMONS
LONDON
Ltd.
SS'
TO ISEULT GONNE
There is a iveary, salt, and hitter thing
That eats my heart. I know not what it
is.
CONTENTS
PAEIS
......
PA as
23
AND IDEAS
39
49
59
67
AT THE AJVIBASSADEURS
77
YVETTE GUILBERT
79
PARIS
LA MELINITE
MOULIN-ROUGE
LEON BLOY
93
91
105
115
A TRAGIC COMEDY
127
PETRUS BOREL
135
....
CONTENTS
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
STKPIIANE MALLARMl^, BY WHISTLER
Frontispiece
HAVEAi>
)r\s, AND
DE GOURMOXT, ARTHUR SYMOXS,
LOCK ELLIS
I?E?.rY
ARISTIDE BKUANT
COVER OF
'
LE MIRLITOX
'
YVETTE GUILBERT
YVETTE GUILBERT (cARICATURE)
FACSIMILE MS.
'
LA MI^IJXITE
'
GEORGE SAXD
PETRUS BOREL (mEDALLIOX)
PAUL VERLAIXE
FACSIMILE MS. STEPHANE MALLARME
FACSIMILE MS. PAUL VERLAIXE
: !!
PARIS
My
And
every
Or with
woman
rose's place
1894.
and craves of us
The tram
rolls
shme, on the
way
sun-
The sun
glow of a furnace
we are in the second week of May, and the
hour is between one and two in the afternoon.
beats on one's head like the
From
all
stalls,
fair
first,
little
booths,
then a
reached the
fair
Already the
itself.
with
lofty
inactivity
names
Tir
lead on to the
its
name
to the Foire
COLOUR STUDIES
au pain
depice.
each with
pillars,
IN PARIS
From between
its airy statue, we
can look
and
alleys of
the
two
it
parts.
is
up
women
behind
the
fair,
which
I saunter slowly
their
stalls,
the
men who
is
moment
in activity,
Monsieu?'
To
stroll
through the
fair just
now
is
to
The hour of
The heavy girl
on the ladder-staircase
of her " jivin wardo," her " living waggon," as
the gipsies call it, diligently mending, with the
sits
which
is
tamer in
his shirt-sleeves
is
lion-
queen
is
washing
And
gi'eat tub.
to lounge in the
last
week's tights in a
booths and
same
theatres
With
deshabille.
seem
their
stand, ugly
they
exposed by the
bleaux.
concert
international succeeds
Theatre Macketti
the
Here
Grande
artistique at
Juliano
one sou.
is
ta-
la Gaiete.
here the
its
et
There
est
hauteur
ici,
le
geant Soudanais
2m. 20 de
the giant.
COLOUR STUDIES
IN PARIS
habihments, holds a
palm of
his
little
side,
carefully
who
gendarme,
ex-
in
which the
by
perfect
side with
Musees
artistiques,
and
coloured
nymphs and
of the moment.
designed
freely
is
the
Highly
pictures
of
and
which
seductive
as this,
"
Le
recommendations
ingenious
I
copy textually.
cannot
par
le
Miles de VAir.
Nou-
professeur Julius.
Pou?'-
Eaux ?
et
son pouvoir
Eaux
En
belle
"par
ses
jeux
sveltes
et
et
Plein Theatre la
Nayade I charme
souples,
apparait en
et presentee par le
a chaque representation.
professeur Julius
du Vrais
et
du Peau,
there
is
And
an improbable
harem, with
accompaniment of performing
this tent 1 pause,
an undesirable
reptiles.
Before
its
announcement in the doorway sits a beautiful young girl of about sixteen, a Jewess,
with a face that Leonardo might have painted.
;
in
is
and she
sits there,
Monna
Fair.
II
It
is
cennes
half-past three,
is
a carnival of colours,
sounds and
10
COLOUR STUDIES
movements.
IN PARIS
la
along the
stalls
air
of a black-edged
or there
one
one's
is
point
back
every
a simultaneous
of
the
attraction
to
roundabouts
are
front
in
At
another.
squealing
there
is
all
close together.
all
at
Shrill or hoarse
moment, to be drowned
the next by the intolerable drums and corAs one moves slowly down the long
nets.
avenue, distracted by the cries, the sounds,
coming from both sides at once, it is quite
another aspect that is presented by those dingy
voices are heard for a
is
alive
with
human
11
man
voice in
and
howhng
in the
background, at a
opulent lady
sits
at the
little
table,
an
receipt of custom,
du
sionally there
indifferent
is
waltz,
a pas
at
seiil,
times
Occa-
more often an
an impromptu
is
to plunge
COLOUR STUDIES
12
IN PARIS
women wear
but
it
All the
varies,
is
intended to be flesh-
through
the shades,
all
red.
faces, as a rule,
restraint.
made up
There
is
one
man
who
there
is
the theatres.
it is
When
mostly engaged.
fixed
all
They stand
so
or
thirstingly
move
upon
as they are
and that
chanically, indifferently,
them.
told,
is all.
13
me-
Often,
pretty faces
as
There
well.
is
of the
As
INIiss
Angelina,
librist e et
like, as
sion), Julienne's
she
it
is
gymnasiarque equi-
artiste
and the
full
learning
(" rocks,"
" scissors,"
how
herself without
to do
it,
telling
and
movement
will practise
Ill
But
the
it is
fair
is
at its
best.
The painted
faces,
COLOUR STUDIES
14
IN PARIS
artificial
hght.
emerge
vividly.
one sees
from the
is
Outside the
moment by moment,
it
fire
As the
impenetrable leafage.
by the
dimly
visible, it
throws into
pointing
teeth,
wrinkle.
of one
among
tall
is
girl
at the
the warriors
or grimaces.
there
cruelly
at
At every return
;
it
of broken
every scar
and
she turns
man
and
lath,
in turn belaboured
is
15
then
bump down
in Louis
drum
XIV
black lettering.
melancholy lean
man
horn
his
Before
its
light
COLOUR STUDIES
16
whiskers.
Near by
IN PARIS
a theatre
is
where
tliey are
form
is
They turn
girls in tights.
falls
on pointed shoulder-
blades,
A man
of the spine.
dressed in a burlesque
with mincing
air,
airs,
The crowd
drum
stage.
crowd, two
mazurka
blind man,
a
sits
in the space
women
circle.
object
the light
falls
on
his
is
in
shadow.
fat
woman
by the
side of
and she
boxing
my Monna
Her show
17
is
is
She
only
I,
but the
little
professional lady,
who
tree
bill
I see
him
back, I can
still
and purple
under the
turning of those
human
lights,
dolls,
and pink,
the ceaseless
COLOUR STUDIES
18
IN PARIS
IV
It
for
is
half-past eleven,
One by one
the night.
extinguished
little
faint
and the
fair is
over
glimmers appear
in
the
sleeping-rooms
silhouettes cross
and re-cross
The gods of tableaux vivants, negmodern in attire, stroll off across the
draperies.
ligently
between
their
INlonna
fingers.
Lisa passes
And
ing basket.
it
is
a steady
movement
townwards
stopping, from time to time, to buy a great
gingerbread pig with Jean or Suzanne scrawled
Outside one
in great white letters across it.
booth, not yet closed, I am arrested by the
;
desolation of a
thin,
suffering,
crossed,
who
little
frail
painted
sits
face,
still
down
moving
pink legs
wearily at the
his
with a
cymbals that he
creature,
lights,
turn,
encircled
by
turn,
In
a
a thin
of
shadows.
black
little
wind
is
day of
heat,
will
rising
The sky
19
darkens,
be stormy.
And
still,
to
the waltz measure of the roundabouts, turning, turning frantically, the last lingerers defy
all
mind,
is
To
my
the English
what
always reminds
me
Paris precisely
The Rue de
least Parisian.
is
all
of Boulogne
Rivoli
the one
is
many and
it
their
may
intimate.
moments and
be admitted
As
for the
cities,
to
any
real
COLOUR STUDIES
24
They
that
are simply
great,
of people which
we
ing, in
down
IN PARIS
the Prado
in Venice,
in Berlin,
in Madrid, over
crowding of people
from
all
the ends
tourist likes to
meet
tourist,
mutual attraction
find
them.
What
city or in a nation
however
it,
really of interest in a
is
common
differentiated, in
nations and
in
is
cities,
it
has,
with other
is
unique
for in
vain elsewhere.
Now
And
the
Latin
Quartier
in
vain elsewhere,
and Montmartre.
English tourist, as a
fancying,
though
rule,
he
knows
least
about
25
d'Harcourt, on the
the
down
the street
imagine
vain, to
London.
No,
but always in
That
simply unthinkable.
to be the Strand
it
is
tried,
so to speak, in terms of
it,
it is
Piccadilly (or
have
or less
?)
will
approximate to the
that
it
civilised
will
city,
have
its
men have
I
it
have no doubt,
will
come.
is
is
But there
youth
vesces,
effervescence
and youth
or
in
only in one
never be a
will
It
and Suzanne.
simply the
that,
as impossible
is
The
Boul' Mich'
of
irrepressible
London never
man
here,
in
effer-
one
COLOUR STUDIES
26
woman
tells
British
morahst
we have
there.
us
it
is
IN PARIS
The
stern
we have
not,
a certain
thincf in
than
sense,
all
is
itself so
seri-
so self-convinced
persistent Puritan
conscience
real
the corresponding
Quarter
is
its
friendly gaiety,
terous sociabihty,
its
its
very bois-
extraordinary capacity
into
thirties.
the period
You may
of
beards and
say, if
you
like,
the past
that
it is
ridiculous, that
but
it is
and
all,
as a survival of youth,
it
The
and the
place
is
a very-
common quality.
moment where
27
what
the
shall I say
best
self,
are
hats, the
thing
is
as delightful
when
am
even as a Manet
and
consider that
Sunday
a part of
it
is
is
it.
Early in the
if
after-
Marcelle and
noon groups begin to form
Suzanne bring their sewing, or a book of
verses, for a pretence, and each has her little
;
about
circle
band-stand
little
her.
fill
The
gradually,
chairs
around
the
which
will
COLOUR STUDIES
28
IN PARIS
bhthely
within this fair,
This quiet church of leaves.
is
an outer, quite
different,
And
now
in
the band
Fmist
is
playing,
it is
beautiful, as things
beautifully in
between
two
poetry of the
shouts of
laughter,
moment they
;
feel
the
handkerchief.
which
trails
the chairs
And
is
throng which
no longer the
last
noisy, irrepressible
Up
at
Qu artier
Latin.
is
the
atmosphere, yet
typically Parisian
29
To
an April evening
I
am
fifty
minutes that
know.
It
it
is
books under
mount
the
We
Tou'rnon.
blossoming
out
candles,
we
as
stopping-place.
into
grow
windowfuls
Catholic,
of
After
we have
left
waxfirst
the broad,
under the
trees, so beautiful, I
always think,
COLOUR STUDIES
30
We
full.
start at full
that
IN PARIS
particular
Saints-Peres.
place,
The
down
street
is
the
Rue
des
close.
sewing
a table
it,
and the
a girl
lights
topping
it
several books.
drawn,
there are
looms up
We
now
as she
Pont
The heavy masonry of the Louvre
table,
in front
jolting
and rumbling
31
dingy
trees,
its
its
old houses,
At
seats.
its
and
is
way
square
its
we have
and we edge
last
our
little
fountain,
The boulevard
cabs.
is
not crowded,
and then
it
am
When we
turn up the
Rue Le
Peletier, out
we
sphere
the
first,
Chaussee
Montmartre.
that
ambiguous
d'Antin,
As we
toil
then
new atmoquarter
the
of
franker
COLOUR STUDIES
32
IN PARIS
their blinds.
wards,
if
get
end of the
at the other
street, across
the
They
it
tell
me
that
is
sails
of the Moulin-
Montmartre
not what
is
And
even in
my
have
its
trivial resurrection,
out
Concert
some of the
Still, if
glories of
unique.
IMontmartre
and
it
I recall
remains
anything
by night
it is
know
JNIontmartre chiefly
and
am
33
thinking of
is
When
you have
cHmbed as high as you can chmb, ending
almost with ladders, you reach a dreary little
strip of ground, in which a rough wooden
paling seems to hold you back from falling
the view of Paris by night.
Under a wild
like to see it, the city floats away
a vague, immense vision of forests
but
for the
below,
there
is
nothing but a
figure
which moves
in the far
faint,
distance,
reddish haze,
of Paris
smoked
to the skies.
Night
after
had
left
COLOUR STUDIES
34
behind
and
which
tion
IN PARIS
this
for
the
who
people
Aris-
knows
from
perhaps
La
wooden
the
to
paling, I
gifts of
am
sure enjoy
Perhaps
impressionistically.
this
is
Paris
one of the
more
Here at
Montmartre of
almost
in
this
course,
district.
and of
essentially,
it
the
really
Paris.
are
The
all
the
establishments
public balls,
in the
Berg^re
is
Champs-Elys^es
own
the Folies-
Paris,
Montmartre.
The
deurs
but amusing
itself,
goes to
its
special
character
35
become ordinary
but there is still the true ring of Montmartre
in the Carillon, that homely little place in the
Rue
de
la
is
off.
And
Rat Mort,
of which a
so fanciful a picture
perhaps,
not
prudently,
a moral."
but
with
PARIS
I
called
me
AND IDEAS
a book which has
book
is
called
set
The
American,
but in a
who
spirit
writes
somewhat
hysterically,
of generous appreciation.
It
is
are pretentious
that
and on behalf of
is
ideas.
to
say, innocently,
It all keeps
step,
hats, the
flat-
soft
perate light-heartedness.
89
COLOUR STUDIES
40
IN PARIS
more
likely to waste, as
book
siasts
they are
mv^h
called, whiitevv'^r
it is
whom
th'c
up before us are after all the enthuof ideas, and their follies bubble up out
calls
much
of a drunkenness at least as
Few
material.
of the idealists
that
spiritual as
have knoAvii
is
plan
of their
own
some of them
solid virtues to
question
have
still
especially
but
we
his
vague,
heated,
book of
his,
many
He
tells
us about
Schwob,
JNlaeterlinck,
PARIS
AND IDEAS
41
reader might,
it
true,
is
at
least
An
the
unwary
versation,
made up
indeed be beset by
pitfalls,
who have
The
reproduced from
Remy
admirable volumes of
portraits,
(mostly
de Gourmont's two
Le Livre
des Masques),
As I
more than
fifty portraits.
am
COLOUR STUDIES
42
my
in
head
is
out
the pictures of
The
IN PARIS
my own
many
in so
He
of them.
back in
lies
his
he drags on
my arm
we
as
he nods
as
he
book
up
sits
in
me on
see
that
exquisite
lectures
1 see
Maeterlinck in
all
manteaus
by
his
own
of Hamlet.
discussing the
JNIaurice
Barr^s
first
quarto
stands
before
on the lawn.
air,
thunders out a
poem
of his
by the
side of
his practical
Adolphe Rette
own
I find
to
myself
at a strange
PARIS
AND IDEAS
43
Merrill introduces
me
Stuart
to an editor at
the
English with an
under
his eye-glass.
know, or
like
whom
is
a varied company,
whom
do not
Verhaeren.
pitals,
It
the others
all
silent
is
those cafes,
consciously or
existence.
of
Mean-
any particular
men
of letters meet
a mutually
"
shop " ?
resolve not to talk
one
Ideas,
it
may
achievement
ment
with
another,
is
comfortable
quite another.
is
Yes, achieve-
sometimes be
clubs
left
may
how much
has been actually done by the younger men
but think how Maeterlinck
I have named
unprofitably.
It
is
COLOUR STUDIES
44
has brought a
new
IN PARIS
drama
has
?)
drama.
new law
full
is
place a
of infinite possibilities.
there, as I write, a
already
its
?),
still
**
Naturists
"
younger one
is
every
or,
all
it-
theories, they
solid,
piece of architecture.
in
France
as so
is
much
England,
The foundation
has
But
at least literature
it is
is
in
it is
AND IDEAS
PARIS
45
In Paris
in the
plays.
mere
perhaps preposterous
faithfulness to a
is
art,
the band
it
is
it
is
worth while to
worth, even
if
the
Where we have
embryo.
life will in
ment.
And
own
life,
accomplish-
are the
first
about to begin,
we must
still,
ideas,
1900.
germ of
wliich
for
stirrings of life
its
the
fail
Champ
de Mars
To
those
its
French "
typical
49
COLOUR STUDIES
50
Huysmans
of
has
it
IN PARIS
many
that
it
scarcely
is
knew
It
was
who saw
the picture,
enormous volume of
five
hundred
closely
printed pages.
The Comte de
none the
less a
late a
mundane
whom
more
told
may
divers in
reasons,
is
whom
all
legendary being, of
/(///
very likely be
Has
he,
inlay
it
back of the
tortoise,
it
Did he
and then
might crawl
orchestra of
its
Did he
really invent
perfumes, an
orchestra of
unwonted splendour?
an
burden of
51
liqueurs,
He
certainly at
apolo-
gising,
" but
it
it
takes
On
"
my
writer,
cians,
the
Comte de Montesquiou,
to find
along
my
friends.
Leconte de Lisle
a short one."
Pere Goiiot
only sent you
COLOUR STUDIES
52
Until
IN PARIS
Montesquiou indulged
in the
Comte de
hixury of enjoy-
it
doubt not
less
faultless
number, but no
tlian
All
original.
huge
volume of the Chauves-Sowis appeared, and
the reticent and mysterious poet was found
at
once
press-notices,
soliciting
recite
*'
dropped
his
Pavillion "
poems.
to
say what
They
apparently
rigid
but
is
thinks of
entirely
many
one
It
Tenebres
his
poems.
his
at
to
and buttonholing
Versailles,
thought of
difficult
the
paying actresses
little
these
to
an
unintelligible
divisions, of
which
ZaimpJi, Demi-Teintes
{Ijiterludes),
Betes
et
Lune
Chinoises),
53
Penombj'es
Office
Feu
{Co7'yphees)i Jets de
et
Eaux
d'Ai'tifice
du mystere nocturne," and a prose commentary, which certainly makes darkness more
visible, is
tells us,
permette a des
fil
de reconnaitre vite
le
labyrinthe,
expressement, d'apprecier
la
plus
et,
division
archi-
delirium of madness
book
certainly has
bilities
was
its
ever written
interest.
The
the
possi-
contorted,
and
interminable nonsense
have
these
two
stanzas
cull
at
random
COLOUR STUDIES
54
IN PARIS
Batrakhomyomakhycs,
Homerc
Meridarpax,
Volcur dc portionculc;
Tioxartes ct Pbikharpax,
:
Par qui
This
Peleioii rcculc.
is
bats
if,
of the
however,
Toutcs
It
is
in
to
it,
it.
the extraordinary
diligence that
produce
is
There
is
to
have
failed to
demand
labour.
when
ambling along
it
is
stolidly
air
At
its
best
of the AVhistler
it
it
is
child
55
of the
merely
Montesquiou-Fezensac.
1895.
real
rival
Comte Robert de
d^ A
^t*-<T^
[To fact p.
57.
fo^^-
%^^'co.^ yivfiu^
UyW^O^
To fact
p. 59.
is,
somewhat
ret
near what
martre
written, as
it
is,
that
is
in Paris,
pathos or pity.
real life of
COLOUR STUDIES
60
IN PARIS
real
typical
their
emotion or experience
as
moments
of
God and
die
"
and
Take,
up a Mazas, who
writes to
him
nil
his ^;7//'
pen
d'oseillc (a little
"oof")
Tu
Ics
planques
Et
Tu
Faut que
^.a
m'manques,
Mazas.
j'te
d'mande
ma
p'tit' Rose,
Malgre qu't'es pas bien avec eux.
Je n'sais rien de c'qui Icur arrive.
Vrai, c'est pas pour fair' du pallas,
Mais j'voudrais bien qu'moman m'ecrive,
A Mazas.
pri',
Then
there
is
who
les
the
blancs)
fois
to matters
of
and
assault
come
Ma
is
events he
all
to
tete
but
battery,
61
alle
the socialist
.
grave-digger,
Comm'
who
ends
all
J'les
Et
Et
mon
tour,
En
You may
people to be introduced
to,
and here
is
a book,
be
which
realistic,
it is
Bruant's
COLOUR STUDIES
62
IN PARIS
somewhat macabre
by
preference,
the darker
humour
side of these dark and shadowed hnes but if
taste lies in the direction of a
;
he gives us,
there
at
is
all
which
much
is
Compare,
professes to copy.
it
les
it
for instance,
Bruant
but
is
exact
human document,
observation
a bit of crude
Richepin
gives
us
sible persons.
the pseudo-philosophy,
not give
the pretentious
all
and
Blasphemes for
murder
pour el 'Tonquin,
crever I'casaquin
Riviere.
S'i'a'rait parti
I's's'rait fait
Comm'
Un
L'nom
So
resigned,
under
in
whatever
d'sa mierc.
so
desperate
fate
may
send,
resignation
are
these
CiNQOlilit
Le NoMtko:
ANKtE.
Ckktimh.
10
Le JOURNAL
Mirliton
ILLUSTRi
frt8aapl
Paris,
frJ's
irr#guli6romcul un
douwinede
in an: Ztt.
fois
par d.
Dip&rtements, nn
ulU
fr.
Directeur:
I/ES
Pit I
ARISTIDE
DOS
(D<?ESin
d' marzoit^.
COVER OF
'
BRUANT
de Jkan Culloo)
pics d'boullonl
LE MIRLITON
'
[To face
'p. 6-J
63
philosophers, in their
brutal
delights
if
also
without thank-
fulness.
affections,
;
all
drunken
gaieties,
Bruant has
these
obscene
realised
and
Dans
contemporary
as nothing else in
where that
life is
whole
most
interesting, in Paris,
Rue,
of the streets,
and
along the dreary sweep
life
la
typical, curious,
ago,
when
was
in Paris,
and used
to
read
it,
was
at a literary house,
and
overheard some-
he told me.
Finding
67
me
I
;
asked him
his brother,
enthusiastic,
he
COLOUR STUDIES
68
me
man
IN PARIS
new
quite a
Charles Cros as a
of science,
idea of
believe
brother luid
his
number
left
death in 1888
me
as a fantastic poet.
that his
of jMS. poems, at
possession, that he
known
own
little
nothing.
and
had almost
when, as
his book,
my
man
in l*aris on my
was unexpectedly
I was talking with
was
Spain, I
promise.
all
*'
:
but
when
a propos of nothing at
me
Why
she
was
said,
have you
you,
who have
from Verlaine
Cros
prise.
" I said,
"But
"
many things
But do you know Charles
translated so
**
forgetting to conceal
my
sur-
my
69
promised to translate
To-day
it
occurs to
me
to
promises.
made out
of
seem to find
myself at that moment in French literature
when the Parnasse was becoming not less
artificially naive and perverse at once.
It
belongs to the period of Les Amours Jamies
of Tristan Corbiere and the Rimes de Joie of
Theodore Hannon, both of which you will find
praised and defined in Huysmans' A Rebours ;
but it is more genuine, and more genuinely
poetical than either.
Learning much from
Gautier in his form, from Baudelaire for his
atmosphere, and, more than from either, from
sourires, fleurs, baiser's, essences, I
many
countries, he
seems
to anticipate Verlaine in
And
yet he has
satin,
still
COLOUR STUDIES
70
He
IN PARIS
be accepting every
seems at times to
commonplace of poetry, but the commonplaces turn diaphanous under his touch, and
come
like toys
in
tears,
or as
if
Dresden China
Ma
It
is
all
bcIlc
amie
est
morte
Et
En
En
terre, cc matin,
souliers de satin.
poetry
has
You might
real, or
poignant
sorrow.
wonderfully touching,
71
cadences.
cally ironical
il
child's surprise
and it is with
more macabre sense of the soiling
mystery of death, and the end of beauty, that
a poem called Wasted Words, which 1 have
translated for a specimen, sums up the attitude of the universe towards woman and of
it cries,
with a
a darker,
woman
falls
busy nest
in solitude.
COLOUR STUDIES
72
IN PARIS
You
listen
Too proud
For
That
characteristic enough, in
is
nity
aim at
but
it
is
effect,
touches
its
not unsuc-
its
in its fantastic
moder-
indeed
.at
times as
vague,
floating,
really
and at
songs,
perfumed
word
that rePerfume is indeed the
cries.
turns oftenest under one's pen as one tries to
times
daintily
disquieting,
little
is
a cabinet of scents,
all
its
other stuffs
modern
poets the suggestive value of perfumes, but no
one has ever used them with such constant
Exotic always, now
and elaborate felicity.
and
trinkets.
Chinese,
now
Ethiopian,
now
all
gipsy,
now
the
73
the pene-
lame
"
me
And is
" Je
tue a vouloir
all this
me
civi-
Parisian exoti-
At
all
events,
here, in
tender,
and
talities,
fantastic,
humorous Gi'ains
them
immor-
the
Hareng
tality of its
whom
it
is
little
by
Homme, which
anticipates Aristide
Bruant.
COLOUR STUDIES
74
IN PARIS
this
one's
is
equipment
as a poet
modern.
1891).
very
YVETTE GUILBERT
"-^^ y^M/u^<y
i-^z^
"^
^^
{To face p.
77.
AT THE AMBASSADEURS
To
/^,
YVETTE GUILBERT
That was
Yvette.
Glitters, this
And
chill shiver
takes
me
as she sings
77
YVETTE GUILBERT
She
is
thin,
tall,
angular,
little
most
awkward, as she
wanders on to the stage with an air of vague
Her shoulders droop, her arms
distraction.
She doubles forward in an
hang limply.
winningly
and
automatic
bow
girlishly
in
of child-like astonishment.
auburn,
rises
in
Her
hair, a bright
soft
pure forehead.
gloves.
is
The applause
a hush of suspense
stops suddenly
;
she
is
there
beginning to
sing.
And
with the
difference
first
all
COLOUR STUDIES
80
the
Andr^ RafFalovich
so subtly that
my
sonnet by Mr.
must quote
interpretation
If
of the world.
rest
IN PARIS
to help out
it
tawdry
And
She
sings,
You
Now
from
said
to
me
the
first
under
my
moment.
breath,
G alette,
and
shiver
cold
flesson
*'
as
stage.
Exquisite
first
She
run
down my
which no dramatic
art,
Sainte
I felt
back,
that
save that of
I had
was not quite this
was expecting, so poignant, so human.
song
"
saw her
sang
as I listened to the
it
YVETTE GUILBERT
81
made me
It
was wicked
that I
feel
I,
it.
to
But it
charm that she
lightly.
is
not
by
her
you, and
charm could be
personal
I
thrills
admit
called
in
It
gay.
deliciously
There
is
in
rapid flurry of
broken words
trills
and phrases,
is
in
and
essentially
one
sees
in
Forain's
is
the profoundly
serious
comedy which
It
marvellous
designs
People
call
is
call
That
ventional word.
The
art of
Yvette Guilbert
COLOUR STUDIES
82
of the pot-house
of
side
She brings
certainly
is
IN PARIS
life
life
behind
the
scenes
she
calls
But there
is
is
things
by
right
their
names.
what she
sings
personal,
dramatic
as others write
she
is
who
artist,
realism
sings
it.
Sainte
GaJette,
" Sainte
the
"Our
omnipotent
great
The
Galette."
powerful
is
Cash "
she
Quartier Breda,
Lady
by
verses
are
really
intensely pathetic.
And
as
Yvette Guil-
becomes
notes,
harsher,
for
effect,
in
the
lower
of "Sainte Galette,"
it
is
me
to
the
she
my
made me
eyes.
words are
shiver
She
cry
literally
shook
In
YVETTE GUILBERT
Guilbert
be
brings into
merely
83
what might
vulgar
so easily
of
representation
Her gamut
tions.
wide
in
is
is
chuckle, stutter
Her
unctuous even.
dry, ironical,
it
can
it
moan
can chirp,
or laugh,
Nowhere
be tipsy or distinguished.
is
she
ures,
pantomime
all
She
are
is
different,
all
are
a creature of con-
cloudless, that
pressionlessness
perfect,
and
of surprise.
perfect,
too,
Her
is
naivete
that
is
strange
COLOUR STUDIES
84
IN PARIS
great impersonal
artist,
depend-
power,
dramatic
her
for being
moved,
capabilities,
whom we
of those in
do not look
her
gift
emotions
for just
all
the
all,
fancies,
is
the slim,
who
bright-haired girl
whom
pleases to please
how
for
the
tragic
it
is
a secret which
she
herself has
never
fathomed.
The
difference
ii^
>
-.;. 'x\
;
\-^-t
5U
III
'A
\<V
'^/'w-
-^^-"JS^,
""^^^^
^>i>t^^^^^
y^
YVETTE GUILBERT
[To
face,
-p.
84.
YVETTE GUILBERT
85
is
the
woman who
comedy and
sings
meaning
in
sings
it
come
new
with genius.
variety of
The word
enough
regard to any new performance on
to have a casual
it is
an epithet of
simple justice.
way
tragic
the vices of
creation
it
the miserable
is
absolutely a
new
brings at once a
order of
manner of presentment
the comic repertoire, and it lifts the
high region of
art.
To
Curieuse,
phinee,
La
Terre,
Les Demoiselles a
toujours plaisir
range
is.
which
B Granger's
is
One
is
La
Petite
to realise
Lisette,
how wide
La
her
Terre,
COLOUR STUDIES
86
gave
me much more
de quinze ans."
phinee
sheer tragedy
is
clever, eccentric,
son,
of a
Moi'-
by that
a song
it is
IN PARIS
it tells
the horror
all
enslaved by morphine.
Words and
and the
-ex-
rise
je suis hallucinee,"
is
thrill-
is
is,
as a
expressive,
and
sordid,
horrible, crazed, as
is
La
and
Qli
tional,
Petite Curieuse
songs
slight,
more conven-
believe,
Yvette
Les
method
In what
it
says and
excessively piquant
distinctively
French
wit,
what
it
suggests
has
all
the fine
YVETTE GUILBERT
87
an even
finer,
siveness.
It
secret of
is
Yvette Guilbert
lies,
of the expressiveness
is,
attention to detail.
with making an
partly, a conscientious
effect, say,
women
make up my mind
always do
it.
I succeed."
if I
I try,
and
try,
and
try, until
artist spoke,
and
other qualities,
an
artist as
great, as
1900.
any
is
that she
is
a true artist,
on any
stage.
own way
as
JLiju^mJ^
^/m.^
^C^
cJ)c^^ rivu^u^
^cgtLt^ ^Au.t^
91
COLOUR STUDIES
92
flu
IN PARIS
in the Latin
in his
superb
Le
Jardin
found myself in
de Paris, where
Melinite.
her
perverse,
her
Melinite, to her
enigmatical
own image
93
beauty.
in the mirror
La
COLOUR STUDIES
94
A shadow smiling
Back to a shadow
as
she cadenced
IN PARIS
in the night
Olivier
Valse des
INletra's
Roses.
The
chahut,
is
the suc-
cessor,
of the cancan.
JNIabille,
The
effervescent
its
change
tiling,
dated Moulin de
la
way
in the estab-
But
it
made
its
is
is
d'armes
The
quadrille in
k port
to stay.
La
le
g?'and
Le port
air
le
grand
ecai't
sitting
on the
95
floor
absolutely horizontal.
is left
and to
it,
join,
so rapidly, here
floor, as
Of
all
the
stars
hung out
gallery.
is
is
La
Goulue.
cream
"
women
among
of the Moulin
Rouge
To dance
is,
it
with
infinite
is
that,
Grille-
COLOUR STUDIES
96
IN PARIS
She
interesting.
is
of
it,
not so
rival, is
and a professor
spirits,
La Goulue.
the
In
we
find, perhaps,
she
is
She
Her
almost ghastly
not young,
coarse, irregular
face
;
is
heavy eyebrows,
dark, ^\ith
features.
is
is
her roving
She has
But with
done, with what tireless
it is
"
with a sort of " learned fury
is
held rigid in
which
the air
is
97
There
is
She
interesting.
is tall,
decolletee in the
slit
air,
And
ambiguous.
then there
La Macarona
is
title
to
of her costume.
II
On my way
stopped
I
to
Nini-Patte-en-l' Air's
at a
of great repute.
I
SoUtudinis
read.
Then
went on to
Of
et Silenti.
at
random,
XX, De Amove
my
pocket and
Nini-Patte-en-l' Air's.
course,
had been
at
the Trafalgar
COLOUR STUDIES
98
Square Theatre
not
when the
two
IN PARIS
it
first
England.
of a
(juddrille
But now
see
what
would
fancied
in
naturaliste
was going,
from
to a special invitation
its
in response
Madame
interest
Nini, to
me
far
door.
the front
first,
knew
of a front
right.
that way,
I
went
if 1
upstairs,
home.
Nini
is
me
to
make myself
quite at
professional airs
stage,
and the
We
have
little,
all
plain, thick-set
woman
just the
off.
She
is
own kind
of
an individuality which
99
by a degree of accomplishment
which neither La Goulue nor Grille-
reinforced
to
d'Egout, neither
can for a
that she
is
who
has
as the
made an
only one
of her
difficulties
tant
once
at
talked of
art
faultless
many
brilliant.
thing, I of Paris
and she of
immense
me
We
of her triumph-
how
she conquered
experimented with
all
colours
but the
art,
chair in
she would
me
all
the technique
jump up from
sitting,
the arm-
shoot a sudden
the
air,
COLOUR STUDIES
100
into a corner,
when
came in.
I was introduced,
a big
woman
IN PARIS
to
firstly,
La
Tdn^breuse,
of long experience,
whom
handsome, dignified-looking
eyes and eyebrows
she
came
Epi-d'Or,
English
London.
little
little
They
sat
yet
in-
strong,
with
dark
second year,
America.
in
timid,
blonde,
school-girls,
in her
is
girl,
tall,
gay,
Then
rather
as
and when a
seat
And
It
tall girl
by the door.
floor,
sufficiently occupied.
When
Eglantine took
La
Ten^breuse,
when
at,
101
grand
almost on,
ecart, or
my
feet.
la
guitar e, in
is
hand
le
is
held
upright, one
boot
le
salut militaire
is
a slight variation
la
Jambe
is
do
le
croisement,
it
must be
to
is
on a
eyes
and
le
jump
or by a sudden
in
opened out by
their
own
weight.
It
was
all
COLOUR STUDIES
102
" Relinque
curiosa,"
But
pocket.
was
mood
said
IN PARIS
the
book
in
my
far
d'Or
as
Nini-Patte-en-l'Air giving
air
now more
discreet,
order;
so
sense.
a fashion,
comically
am
her
in
orders
fixed than
It
was
its
methodical
indiscreet,
in
all
so
another
tions
and
here, certainly,
que
plus somptiteux
le
temps, of
that he
whom
writer
whom Remy
is uii
ecrivain
de
notix
markable." In
Le Mendiant
lugrat, a journal
a sort of
" J'ai
vecu, sans vergogne, dans une extreme solitude, peuplee des ressentiments et des desirs
fauves que
enfantait,
mon
ecrivant ou vociferant ce
paraissait juste."
" Ecrivant
genius
is
at times
qui
me
ou vociferant,"
pamphleteer of
of rage or of disgust.
fond du gouifre," he
cries, in a letter to
Henry
his wife,
COLOUR STUDIES
lOG
IN PARIS
qui
me
je le sais bien.
du goufFre
Soit.
invites a friend to
Lieux
and
his
hjfs
sharpened
hunger
make
Communs ou Ton
which he
is
place pour
new book he
his es-
dine pour
deadly.
Bloy
tells
us that
lives entirely
mendiant
un mendiant,
ingrat
'
"
et,
un
surtout,
His journal
is
the
up his
voice against the rich man who has thrown
him the crumbs from his table. Here is no
anarchism, no political or social grievance it
is the outcry of a Catholic and an aristocrat
make
his
way
in the
self" to
man
any
it
gratitude to
of the
gift
That
taken
literally,
provide
will
almsgiving,
"
to live,
and to claim
spirit
Has
the right to
107
and
for
us.
in
of the
a fervent
is
God, he believes
Bible are to be
that, literally,
his
problem
the
is
"the Lord
Man,
servants.
in
is
unwilhng instrument, of God Bloy is therefore ready to receive help from his enemies
and to bastinade his friends, in perfect good
;
faith.
"by
his giving
me money."
He
is
the living
man on man,
is,
of
act only
is
in his
his insistence
is
planche.
he
common-
No.
says, ^a se
man^e
encore.
Quand
il
y en a
COLOUR STUDIES
108
t?'op,
fa ne se
mange pas
le
L\ PARIS
die touty
pain sur
fa devient dcs
la
planche des
le
proto-
7nartjjr.
But
it is
man
is
and
it is
is
God by
spoiling
gutters
of creation.
It
is
his
who might be
an employer who
cesspool of a friend
useful, or
the dunghill of
has
useful, materially,
criminal.
With
been
this
The
artist
may
He
109
message
is
a voice,
is
a wilful
lie.
own making.
bourgeois, after
and
it,
all,
Coinmuns
is
on a cross of the
Now
it
to
is
the
it is
as
With
sin.
is
bourgeois'
must always
him whatever
conviction,
is
lessly."
am
*'
thank-
and
bourgeois origin.
clearly
to recognise the
necessity,
or even
whom
affection,
benefits.
The
what is called a
and the prompt return of
conferring
favour, materially,
me
COLOUR STUDIES
110
change
IN PARIS
is
The demand
miser
an
is
others
it
idealist,
a kind
is
synonym
for being
say
necessary,
it
is
To
all
of mathematics, and a
You may
" respected."
almost as necessary as
Only
it.
will
for
ceive
of himself without
that
To
power.
is
human
right,
to that
mere human
that one
more
is
to assistance.
man
right,
one
in
is
is
the mere
right,
If,
to
addition
convinced
plainly evident,
and
if,
in addition,
one
111
That, I take
it,
is
the
argument of Bloy's conviction. It is a problem which I should like to set before Tolstoi.
I am not sure that the meekest and the most
arrogant enemy of our civilisation would not
join hands, Tolstoi's with a gift in
freely
freely
it,
offered
1902.
VICTOR
The
centenary of
from
literary
On
1816.
Mais
one of
Vie he
de religions
les fondateici^s
07it
The whole
of this book
analogies.
It
of a
ma
new
is
a vast exercise in
comes to us
revelation
ning to end
range
over
it
it
even argue
it
And
affirms.
Vimagination
memoir e
est la servante.
common
la
est
sense,
from begin-
the affirmations
U intelligence
the universe.
Vepouse,
of a witty
viatti'esse,
est
la
one affirmation.
is
another
Et
cest
toujours
de
116
toujours
inexplicable,
toujours
i?iconcevable,
tonjoui's incontestable,
humain.
elo(j[iient
like unin-
mad
it
mouth and
gaily,
deity.
floats
into space
certainly
by
mere
heart seems to
fulfil
ance
no longer a truism
there
is
itself
its
utter-
A B
une permission.
birds
mission,
And
these
When
may
little,
fly
hard,
scattered violently in
like fireworks,
they
all
the ocean
Cest
is
a per-
where they
please.
fall like
they
rise
comets, lighting
They
behind
it
When
Victor
Hugo
117
thinking,
articulate
murmur
that words
in-
make among
He
of their master.
genuity rather
than imagination
of
le
M. de
in-
Does
it
Regnier, a
Or take
this
line,
La
which
among
vie est
it
dentelle,
the
Tas de
characteristic of
Hugo
a line of poetry, or
itself
is
it
it
as
COLOUR STUDIES
118
IN PARIS
we have
quoted, an effort
Poem
poem,
follows
made
exterior,
out to vast
They
size.
the
for
puffs
One cannot
read
them without
one cannot
tion,
without
They
are
feel
either
interest
sympathy.
or
of a
same.
Poem
poem
repeats
like
an
echo
without
difficult to
penetrating
read a
instance, with
its
poem
it.
like Soh^
It
is
mind
really
dAvril, for
own
voice.
its
le
Among
119
Un
aveugle a
le
tact tres
fin, tres
Quel
flair
quel tact
aveugle.
!
quel gout
Oui,
mais
est
il
an
you
will
find
lies
more obviously
volume.
poetical,
poem which
is
poetical, if
ing
" is
passages
in
impresses
Du Haut
by
its
des 3on-
this
it,
only
inadequate, mechanical.
It begins
homme
Dieu.
histrion
COLOUR STUDIES
120
Then comes
IN PARIS
ct sombre de I'abime,
L'cntree ct la sortie etrange dc la nuit,
Le drame formidable
un pcuple s'evapore
n'cst pas,
geographical conclusion
there
not in
obvious, a
little
somethhig a
this
all
made up
Is
it
vision
is
not an effect
know
but
can be found in
how much
in
little
we
all
of his work, as in
volume of
it,
we
sincere rhetoric
because
it is
which
is
none the
less insincere
Here
is
Dernicre Gerhe,
poems
121
is
single
lines,
couplets
and stanzas
end of the volume are some disconnected scenes and speeches from one or
and
at the
two unfinished
plays,
line
Aventure de
Don
all
istic
of
Hugo
Le Rideau
at his best.
vrais, helas
more
Listen
Pourquoi Virgile
est-il
inferieur a
Homere ?
COLOUR STUDIES
122
IN PARIS
Eschyle?
Pourquoi Lysippe
Phidias
Pourquoi David
inferieur a
est-il
est-il
inferieur a
a Demosthcne?
There are eight more similar queries, and
there the series ends, but there is no reason
why it should ever have ended.
"
The
of his
myth-making character
imagination," says JNIr. Havelock Ellis,
primitive and
which
Hugo
shared
with
the
savage,
are
Which he
shared
^vith
the savage,
is
work of
and leaves
whom
who
sufficient,
the
the
is
at
is
yes,
it
his
the vast
hands
who makes
to others to explain
beauty,
it.
"Le
forme est
essentielle
des entrailles
memes de
"
Hugo.
absolue
et
123
I'idee."
La
elle
vient
To
work,
it is
Ideas
a separate picture.
ideas
come and
go, drift
ideas
picture.
There
is
beauty in
Hugo
thing that
this
wrote
book, as in everythere
is
the great
made
Hugo's
his prose
hearing.
oratorically
he
is
on
asleep
glimpses.
Le
a son suaire
Patmos.
spectre blanc
He
realise that
has
strange
et devient Pierrot.
Quant a
la
On
rit
endormi.
leap out
Ueclio
est la i^ime
an analogy,
de la nature.
Ce
COLOUR STUDIES
12J<
IN PARIS
commun
and
the
trumpets."
back,
it is
voice
*'
of
AVhen
as if
All
one
it
is
loud
is
antithesis
or
clamour, clangour,
uplifted
angel-
A TRAGIC COMEDY
GEORdE SAND
A TRAGIC COMEDY
In one of the letters now published in their
complete form for the first time, Alfred de
Musset writes
" La posterite repetera nos
noms comme ceux de ces amants immortels
qui n'en ont plus qu'un a eux deux, comme
:
Romeo
On
et Juliette,
comme
Heloise et Abelard.
name of George
Sand instinctively calls up the name of Alfred
de Musset, and that his name instinctively
It is true that the
I'autre."
lovers
the
of
name
company
This
or
name
third
Verona,
is
even
as
"
nun
it
repeats
And
Pagello
"
?
be said
127
COLOUR STUDIES
128
IN PARIS
in
as entire a condition as
scissors left
her,
it
them.
clear, as
is
and there
is
a justification of herself;
in her
own
them
through,
eyes.
It
possible to read
still
is
admitting
while
and,
justified her
Musset,
like
actually to
than with
take
her.
extravagance,
sympathise,
to
JNIusset's letters,
sentimentality,
and
with
George
Sand's
who
all their
literary
affec-
starts of feeling,
not
if
sides,
is
the
a spoilt
man who
letters
maternal,
are
affec-
the
woman who
man whom
que
certainly,
one
of
is
the
the
Tu
j'en ai trente-
and there,
much.
In
"
them
explanation of
first
letters
after
A TRAGIC COMEDY
129
*'
Peu importe
mon
frere,
"
de moi et
de
"
The
coming when
d^sormais
and,
woman
real
speaks there,
it
It expresses the
cette
veille?'
Betweea
sur
un
an instinct that
who
may
woman
of
writes
her
its
It
is
etais
fatigue.
steps
It
is
woman
But a very
in
present
when
the
lover to her
comme un
pere,
seem to be
is
in a
sake.
habituee
be heroism
comedy
of
et
iiourrii^
a great gulf.
is
harsh kind
s'est
etre souffrant
this instinct of
it is
of other interests.
it
A month
to the exclusion
after
he has
left
COLOUR STUDIES
130
il
IN PARIS
J'ai
me semble que
cela
rri'eUverait le coeur.
He
asks
readily
her
she
is
permission
writing
which
she
something
all,
else,
gives
not
or in
direction.
meet
but
letters
become more
exciting.
They
again,
his
Je suis perdu,
inonde d' amour ; je ne
rush
afraid in
Later in the
book the
is
si
plus
je suis noye,
si
je
viSy si
je
je respire, sijeparle; je
sais
que j'aime.
A TRAGIC COMEDY
love
him
131
then there
which these
letters end.
seems to
and the
suffer,
and
is
way
enfa?is,
mes
Such value
as the episode
may
is
have had to
to be found,
likely
Soisjiere,
was to
write a few songs and a few comedies which
were worth any '' expense of spirit " whatever
and if George Sand helped to make him the
man who was capable of writing these, she
negligible quantity.
did well.
JNlusset at least
Her own
sentimental education
Lucrezia
Floriani
the
more.
Musset
it
or
mattered
COLOUR STUDIES
132
little
to
her
interest to her
each
life,
or so to her work.
IN PARIS
added
an
appreciable
it
PETRUS borel
I'lrrUUS
EUKEL
[To face p. 135.
PETRUS BOREL
The name
a laughing-stock to
to the Bourgeois.
thrope,"
that
it
is
come to be
the Phihstine, a byword
His nickname,
remembered, but
was of
his
own
it
*'le
lycan-
forgotten
is
christening.
What
all
roi qui
"un
He
is
a figure
He
letters.
and a book of
verse.
135
None
of
them
are
COLOUR STUDIES
186
accessible,
IN PARIS
least remarkable,
which
have a copy.
done them
No
entire justice.
in
Mme.
of Gautier and
of Colonies at Mostaganem.
There he
Pensee."
'*
built
Haute
his
post,
Benoni
1859.
and died
in
misery in
the
year
P^TRUS BOREL
The jeune
self
et
by
187
exactitude
its
confirmed
is
all
One
its
character
chosen from
is
The former
The
clares
second, in the
name
Vous, dont
les
censures s'etendent
Ce
livre se
moque de
vous.
*'
Mon
thropie
it,
and
republicanisme,
!
"
The word
c'est
de
la
lycan-
caught, he recaptured
found among
COLOUR STUDIES
188
IN PARIS
The book
begins and
dreams,
and
beginninop
to
faction
poignard, and
the
'*
a tattered
skies,"
if
satis-
cloak,
Hugo
from
it
is
there.
way
and
was
What
in the air,
is
personal comes
is
in,
life
stanza
Chats de coulisse, endeves
Devant
la salle ebahie
Travcrsant, ridcaux leves,
Le Theatre de la vie.
And
there
is
throughout
his
whole work
P^TRUS BOREL
139
little
Champavert
hardly anti-
is
of dialogue, with
this,
however,
is
instant of drama.
its
in the interval,
is
curious
how many
Few
and we end
All
left as
an impetus
poem
Verlaine's
of what
which
called
Doleance and
there
not
is
lament.
May
a miraculous transposition
is
he needs
is
*'
is,
poem,
a personal
it
all
that
me
une main
frele "
come from
COLOUR STUDIES
140
tu?
IN PARIS
blanche,
Un beau
Dans de
doigt prisonnier
D'ivoire ct d'ebenier?
Of
a bitter, personal
"clavecin sonore"
has
Verlaine
mere
is
made
dream of music
twilight
no more than
piece.
But to him, as to
given the
in the Rapsodies,
to
Madame
others,
poem
It
its
was Pctrus
not to be found
is filled
it
with a grave
anticipates
is
conscious of
"
is
and
it
Pidiphar.
impulse.
first
in
but a master-
that,
and
vague,
scarcely heard
divine
who had
starting-point,
floating,
naked
Baudelaire,
Baudelaire was
merit,
self
sonorite
si
it
as,
eclatante
d'intensite."
The poem
given
and death.
the
first,
is
a cavalcade of three
The
picture of each
is
steel corslet
PlilTRUS
on
a
bony mule
BOREL
;
141
ces
mechants,
bataille,
Petrus
CJiampavert.
Bo7'el,
le
Coiites
Immoraux,
Lycanthrope.
The
pa?'
first
Champ-
The
rest of
COLOUR STUDIES
142
IN PARIS
sieur
CArgentitTe^
named
Mon-
Jaquez
rAccusateui\
and Chainpavcrt,
Each has
le
Lycanthrope
(Paris).
on
the fly-leaf of
its title,
Each
Musset.
number
own
story
is
more often
title,
in
These
seven
stories,
its
English, Spanish,
defiant
as
they
manner of the
the
human
and
iniquities
brain.
;
above
all,
Written by anyone
blood.
deeds
they would be
immense
which
no
is
self-pity
bitter,
in the
else
shedding of
they would be
detail of
pitiless
monstrous
and
at
times
They
are
up out of crumbling
BOREL
PJ^TRUS
143
and far-sought materials they are deliberatelyimprobable, and the persons who sin and suffer
in them are males all brain and females all
idols and ideals.
They are as far from reality
a world
as intention and style can make them
;
wires.
And
keeps us from
impulse
may well
suffering
fore us in
away, as our
turning
be, in
mere
disgust.
first
A man,
from some deadly misery, leaps beironical gymnastics, and comes down
That
is
an angry pathos.
Can the
tells
us that
it
can
" Car
il
y a dans
malheureux
est
avide
le
COLOUR STUDIES
144
comme
savoureuse
genius
Hugo had
Many
bonheur."
le
it,
IN PARIS
great
with
But
in
this
to
is
minute, and
dreams.
his
will
He
does not
number every
At
that scene
We
souls,
and then
almost insupportable
but we do not, as in a
story of Pierre Louys, sicken at the calm, deliberate cruelty of the writer.
horror
to
is
an obsession
become an
It
is
its
In Petrus Borel
danger
is
at times
absurdity.
BOREL
PlilTRUS
that
art,
he
we
pleased
it
absurd, he
is
him
her apathy
all
full
mon,
storax,
musk."
woman is
hardly know how
which
awakened
with the most
And
he
will
you
and
tell
is
irri-
"
;
this
form of
many
that
that a
I
all
benzoin
with vases
was half
Huysmans "Depraved
And
grief,
when
absurd intentionally.
is
by
145
English
He
has
varieties of dialogue
all
energy.
To be
as
delivered from
"un
lycanthrope."
who
"La
COLOUR STUDIES
146
IN PARIS
moi un loup
and the world to him was a thing
" sur leqiiel je crache, que je meprise, que je
repousse du pied." He reahsed that to think
feroce,"
life
was to be unhappy.
who goes
the man who
his stories
AVhat
is
logic there
summit
who wants
but
And
in
in the dialogue
is
often in
which reach
")
The bour-
geoisie itself
is
strange visitor
manner
"
mies que
j'ai
seulement,
who
addresses
him
after this
mes
le service
que
les
je vous prie de
moeurs."
original,
me
But the
sentence,
this strange
story,
"
P^TRUS BOREL
is
147
and
unparalleled
humour which
terrible,
macabre
has a
incidents,
is
if
you
but
will,
personal,
seen
murderous drunkard's
exact details of
Le Vin
action, in
tomber sur
de
la
un grand
elle,
margelle,"
"
effort,
une a une,
just
detache et
the
as
drunkard
I'ai jetee
au fond d'un
Huysmans
is
fit
in
puits,
sur elle
margelle.
in
such
bad weather, having gone on without intermission, he remained cloistered for a whole
month, surrounded perpetually by lamps, by
torches, flooded
light
by a splendid
artificial
day-
more
COLOUR STUDIES
148
IN Px\RIS
who came
very
not
readily, to shut himself up with him
crazed by the same delirium, the same suffering, the same desolation, but for the oddity
;
life
in
word
in
Is
it
characterising
it,
Rebours?
may
be com-
it
might be
is
some-
developing
it
horror of the
to the explicit
us of Poe.
Still
more does he
at times
How
suicide
by
is
the idea of
guillotine,
form of the
Petitions "
of Villiers
seem
letter
''
Dans un moment ou
la
nation
au
bretelles
pour solver
con-
P^TRUS BOREL
super-taxes,
re-taxes,
tre-taxes,
149
impots et contre-impots,
archi-taxes,
et
tailler
retailler,
un moment ou
votre
dans
monarchic oberee et
manche,
and so
"
To
ments.
est
il
citoyen,"
forth.
!
sing of love
It
"
is
Is this obsession
or the
evil,
this inability to
traries
le
see
only possible
way
of
expressing a
bitter
published
till
years
six
The mood
has
changes in
the course
pages
the style
he called
again
is
after
it,
was not
Champavert.
changed,
or
rather
of the interminable
COLOUR STUDIES
150
a
singular,
Madame
paradoxical
Piitiphar,
anticipations
is
The name,
nature to call up
effort.
of a
which are
IN PARIS
far
from being
grati-
fied.
meant to
refer to
accuracy
the
"
There
"where
where
are
manner of
certain
their
cases,"
Ave
treatment.
are
told,
air,
one
really
if
Deborah or Patrick
MacAVhyte the more saintly, the more heroic ?
It would be difficult to say, especially as, by
Is
moment
of
crisis,
to her husband.
" Veuillez
PETRUS BOREL
croire
que
"je ne
me
je
151
sais
suis
pour
prdsumer que
vous
eussiez
sans
ete
vos rapports
avec moi
homme
un malhonnete
il
liens,
ou vous
vous etes trouve, vous auriez pu preferer manquer al'exigence de vos vertueux principes,"
explicit
and perilous
Madame
trial
of his virtue by
who is meant
the Pompadour
Putiphar
book takes
its
name.
to typify
that the
Here, as elsewhere,
but vaunted
to be
up
ribbons,
vases,
damask,
lovely
voice,
rings,
woman
earrings, a
prologue to a condemnation.
COLOUR STUDIES
152
The
of Providence, as
man
IN PARIS
" If there
to God.
follow
to
There
is
in
own
virtue,
and
written by
state,
as,
it
a Providence,
is
ways
destined
ways of
to justify the
if
Thomas Hardy,
an image
like
so clearly does
one of
his
"
own, the
have often
made
amusement
man
of children
perhaps
it
for the
also
was
is
from
this
volume.
up
P^TRUS BOREL
direction,
and the
hundred
pages are
written from
"When I took
book my mind
point of view.
to write
last
153
this
new
this
up
was
But
my
pen
of
full
know
me on
the way.
self in
make
vice
of
my
everywhere
and good
have shown
the oppressed."
as
accumulated destinies
"There
God
suffers
action of
man.
pains to
lie.
is
tributed sin
all his
of Vengeance.
suffers,
And now, he
God
The
just
man,
and
or
" Croyez a
evil
is
he
if
at-
destroyed by the
in
I
COLOUR STUDIES
164
he
cries,
IN PARIS
enigma with-
his
secret,
man
vengeance in which
crushing
its
And
him
when
for
all
it
is
its fists.
weigh down
shall
In
sudden illumination,
this
ends a book
outburst, which
dissonances,
sincere,
nobility,
we
or
see
tending
certain
convictions underlying
and uncertain
full
absurdities,
errors,
noble
this prophetic
all
of clouds,
but always
blindly
brave
that
is
towards
and serious
contradictory
in a creature of passionate
eccentric imagination.
When
and
a people,
he
is
allowed to be logical.
A book
it
p:^trus
is
not
difficult to see
followed in
like
full
many
dungeon
borel
how
155
is
scenes, in particular,
which are
all is
darkness,
"All
flaming, caressing,
wavering, dusty."
identified
tween scenes
in which, equally,
horror to horror.
Devoile, ou
My
we grope from
copy of Le Despotism
is
preliminary Avertissement.
COLOUR STUDIES
156
Vincennes
Borel
as
calls
he
him
called
is
M. de Guyonnet,"
(" I'honnete
his successor,
"
IN PARIS
homme
as
delicat et honnete,"
by de Latude), of Rougemont,
who,
both narratives,
in
is
repre-
un
him,
air,
pince-maille,
in
is
"
un sot, un fat, un
un belitre," as Borel
The
both identical.
"un mauvais
magistrate,"
de
is
Latude,
seen at
who
en
charlatan
much
prints
manicre de
greater length in
perhaps
the
"de
Donjon de
N'incennes,
ou
la Bastille, et
oublier."
horrors of
Madame
Pompadour who
il
de
all
le
y a
I'y
the
Putiphar.
most
" II feroit a-
transferer au
terrible
by Borel
little
evil reputation
figures
I find, in
as
^ladame
the evidently
characterisation
which
is
concerned
PJ^TRUS BOREL
157
What
questions.
At the
my crime
"
frivolity.
de Latude
simply absurd,
displeased la Marquise de
whom
down
she shut
for
her
books,
in
scarcely less
moment
Borel and
impressive
vengeance
COLOUR STUDIES
158
would be
thought
set right at
de Latude
to
last
" I
by the law.
"
my
IN PARIS
Not even
the idea
came
refusal of mercy.
All
this,
pit
of a dungeon,
light,
suaded by
false tidings to
leave
him
to
his
part of a story,
document where
it
Not
of a story-teller.
artificial
way,
aux-Cerfs.
properly
is
comes
"
and "
aligousier."
in here as in other
Pedantry
as,
abyme, gryllons.
Pedantry passes
which
P]fiTRUS
whom
he
BOREL
159
calls to
pages.
pages, as
when
"
il
lui
all
last
the
fers,
eternal,
un hymen
indissoluble,
la
un hymen
mort."
There
aimait ferocement
same great
1907.
il
critic
les lettres,"
characterised him,
manner, in an adverb.
PAUL VERLAINE
THE ABSINTHE-DRINKER
Gently
Far
Far
The world
Linked
is
in a
Pans, 1890.
I'Al
I.
l.Kl.AI
M,
[JTu face p. ICO.
in
in
When
was in Paris in
1890 it was at the Fran9ois Premier that
Verlaine had taken up his headquarters,
possibly for no other reason than that it was
Fran9ois Premier.
The
is
situated high
frequented end
Rue Gay-Lussac.
friends the
It
is
up the boulevard,
just at
There
used to meet
my
an evening in
to half-past eleven.
May
I am
strolling along in
at the
effervescence
of
life
the
all this
noisy,
166
COLOUR STUDIES
night.
Suddenly
hind
me
Symons
"
IN PARIS
Comment
Jean
allez-vous,
Monsieur
IVIoreas.
turn,
"
It
is
he asks
me
to
Moreas
is
Greek, and
blue-black
features,
and
to the cafe.
hair,
and
half-savage,
modern Athenian.
jauntily
in
his
eye.
As we walk up
the
At
that time
a volume,
Moreas
Le
has
given
There
these
is
one
how some
began to
recite,
waving
had
him
He
his
arm and
all
the emphasis of
rolling
his
iron voice.
with a
fine dis-
167
Rue Gay-Lussac.
Voices
Charles
There we
Vignier, author of a book of
verses called
hail us
find
right.
his lips.
He
telling a
is
air
of remote-
He
Verlaine's.
is
incredibly
air
and thin
tall
already of exhaus-
tion, a tired
speaks in a
soft,
caressing,
he
feminine voice,
girl
he
fixes
large
commonplace, bourgeois
there are others,
men who
sort of person.
have only
written
And
printed and
verses.
The
COLOUR STUDIES
168
IN PARIS
know
all I
can
tell
Swinburne is well
and since then an admirable prose translation
of the Poems and Ballads has been
Mourey.
Gabriel
made by
know who
they want to
new
the
novelists
repeating to
may
them know
when
past
they
new
insist
that they
of
are the
finally
how
hear
English.
the door
appears, followed
is
sounds
it
poets,
on
my
poetry, so
for
none
men.
Verlaine
hat
is
is
When
into conversation.
prevailed
upon
talk about
to
sit
things
at last he can be
down, he too joins in the
English.
\^erlaine at
one
down by
some of
his side
Moreas
is
The
Vignier,
is
man who
lips,
sat
thundering out
with that grand
more
And now
ordered.
all
*'
bocks
"
around
169
are being
there
is
movement, a
It
"
closing time.
is
on
rattle of
ferme
the
slowly,
shouts
"
On
ferme,
the
gerant.
unwelcome warning
last to go,
Messieurs,
Slowly,
is
and we
we
stroll
after
down
the
obeyed.
file
left
out,
open
heated
interior.
walk
with
II
THE MAN
Not many
serious
now
are
critics
whom
beginning to speak
An
the
wisdom
Decadents and
venerate
to
Certain
independent
was
Sijinholistes
him
as
odd
had
master,
writers,
Huysmans
like
did
Lang
this
of
more
somely
Paris,
or less
presented
Jules
Then
the
Lemaitre,
Andrew
took
up
him
to
the
boulevards.
poet I have
called him,
and
171
and
Paroles
Sagesse.
remember
remember
very
Leconte de
rival.
own
all
way
different
" succeeded," as
it
is
all
who
poets
called
but
have
for
one
Brise,
new
note
the Odes
of
deftest
The
Fiinambulesques.
of
Verlaine's
is
in
art,
full
is
new
of reticence,
Hugo
His verse
the magic
those
one.
is
magical
It
is
stiff,
bent,
as lyri-
though
a twilight
of perfumed shadows.
COLOUR STUDIES
172
of
hushed
melodies.
It
IN PARIS
suggests,
giv^es
it
avoidance of any
The words
now
are
dently commonplace
words
of
the piano by a
of a scented
confi-
of the boudoir,
The
impressions are
as a
frail
room
now
words
the street
recherche,
circling
flight
of the
wooden
173
Doux vagabonds,
Filons en fleur,
Mes
chers,
mes bons
Fumons philosophiquement,
Promenons-nous
Paisiblement
Rien
The
faire est
doux.
the
work
is
almost
all
of the
work
of
is
exquisite
temperament
moment
towards
good, or towards
of
fire
at
Waterloo.
evil.
30,
his
Verlaine
spent his childhood at Montpellier, was educated at Paris, and, at the age of twentythree,
made
a sort of literary
COLOUR STUDIES
174
success with
in
tlie
honour of
happiness
all
first
and
year,
it
was
he published
La Bonne Chanson.
When,
Next
Fetes Galantes.
1870,
marriage at
in
IN PARIS
Romances sans
way
to
with a sort of
trailing
mad Bohemian
strange
companion,
gaiety was
the
young
office
of a Catholic publisher
Palme.
Verlaine's
genuine, but
it
able influence
faith
is
named
Victor
unquestionably
upon
misery, in penury,
his conduct.
now
in
Always
in
little
175
Naguere
represents
(1888), a
(1884), a
Amour
work.
ment (1889),
antithesis.
its
volume
Dedicaces (sonnets
privately printed
of
to his
a book of criticism,
new volume
tales in prose.
ness
who
who
strange
to
be chosen by one
as to crush
is
title
it
it
irony which
mark
was doubtless
of the
full
of
it,
or
in the grasp.
perfectly aware
little
of the
his
But
many
\^erlaine
touches of
it
word that he
poems Sagesse
significance of the
named a volume
Wisdom.
of
his
Ill
BONHEUR
Some
than
fession
two
criticism,
Paul
Verlaine
announced
ally,
of
his intention
parallel
series.
be
to
sections,
distinct
Sagesse,
published
in
Amour, Bonheur,
nature
would
Bonheur,
trilogy,
the
be fully and
third
part,
finally expressed.
completing
the
appeared in 1891.
Bonheur
is
written very
much
in the style
it
might be
176
177
Nor
space de-
is
mere
The
verse
courtesies
of literary friendship.
dandyism
"
the word
et
is
Verlaine's
lines
be considered a
that delicate
about
it
In
the
fleeting
to
the
sang
may
INIusic first
of
all
and before
Poetry
is
to be something
intangible, a
behind a
veil,
swarm
of clear stars in
COLOUR STUDIES
178
autumn sky
a cool
he makes
"
which
Now,
of poetical counsel, he
tells
first
of
which
in
is
IN PARIS
all,
lie
in
lui
qui
commends as
this new poem
it
the law;
mcs
meme.
L'art,
Foil!
fi
soi-
pose,
c'est
la
prose.
The
simple."
verse
Bonheur
in
There
is
poem
is
indeed
*'
addressed
Men
to
belle amitie,
"
has
ma
hardly
human
feeling, seek-
moi
I'cnvie,
foi.
if
179
he would
He
Elle verse a
Un
paisible sommeil,
"
plus,
la nuit transparente
Que de reves
De
dans
Remembrances
again"
how
lish
And
to be, and
hopes returned
Eng-
strained through
at
rises
Nous
quote
place in
this stanza
paix
sans seconde
poem
Alleluia.
expression
emotion but because
the
culminating
its
of
it
is
its
the
an
COLOUR STUDIES
180
IN PARIS
"
and
position
of
transposition
all
accents.
It
but
it is
useless
tributed
the
to
own
of
destruction
its
narrow
But how
perfection.
classical
limits,
had
great a gain
the
brainsick
both
Symbolistes,
claiming
school of
little
little
school
Verlaine
as
of
a
caricature.
In
arose about a
Paris,
factitious
clamour
person
who
talent
for verse,
at
which he wrote
in regular
than his
expect.
"
il
As one
repudie
pour
la
de
vers."
ses
From
these
181
ex-
and
an
in
article
who
reproach him, he
tells us,
" with
and rhymes
caesura,
Mon DieiW
'
he adds,
for the
sufficiently."
In Bonheur,
first
poem
at the
a concession to
is
one
these
difficult
see
any reason
of rhymes, but at
without disdain
Almost
personal
all
all
les
is
of penitence, confessions of
avec
It
gens et dans
''
I'ennui de vivre
With
one place
COLOUR STUDIES
182
IN PARIS
And
in its
there
are
analysis,
when
this
is
true
becomes
confession
work
is
God
of con-
One
tells
the story of
life
all lives
rise,
Towards
the
end
the
emotion
rises
in
183
femme
La haine
longue,
Vous qui
seriez le desespoir.
ranee,
I'affront
Et I'Esperance le pardon,
Et ce pardon une vengeance.
Mais quel voluptueux pardon.
Quelle savoureuse vengeance
Elsewhere he writes of
**
last
home
memory he
has
IV
EPIGRAMMES
In
there
is
new
charm of
exterior
things.
which
tiful
and fantastic
hospital, Saint-Louis,
lies,
like a
little
Martin.
quiet,
It
was
written
^NTitten in a
quietly,
as
and enter-
Canal Saint-
time of unusual
without excitement,
mem-
the senses.
calming
down,
as he
difference.
"
of the
past are to be
the wiles
fou de I'aurore
clairon
"
fade
into
fluting
tired,
185
Quand nous
Au bord
"
le
dim
simply
la voir,
de
la claire riviere,
.d'un
moment depayses
coeurs brises,
Dieu
se
This, then,
such a
du dernier sommeil
chargera du re veil.
mood
is
the
memory
and in
of certain quaint or
art,
comme un
" lourd
oiseau
"
:
comme un
crapaud, l^ger
COLOUR STUDIES
186
at
Amsterdam
IN PARIS
self,
book
frontispiece to the
of a barrel-organ
Bruit humain, fait dc
Dans
it
cris ct
de lentes souffranccs
Ic
is
Verlaine
evokes,
wrought
little
most
for the
And
verse.
poem on
in
series
of
delicately
part,
there
is
the ballet
much
of his later
And
pcle-mele
ou camaieu.
le joli
ballet turc
the poem,
if
we mistake
not,
is
a remini-
Alhambra, and
it
summed up
life
and
art
a personal
:
mieux
le ballet
CONFESSIONS
The
Confessions
Verlaine
of
1844,
the
autobiowhen
year
are
facts,
little
impressions
" nuances
presque
mes yeux,
leur im-
the
beaucoup en nuances."
this in
story of
And
"une
they
tell all
(as it
would
"
memory.
furent precoces
COLOUR STUDIES
188
pait de formes, de
me
jour
osite
du
couleurs, d'ombres.
que
fascinait et bien
dans robscurit6,
m'y
IN PARIS
j'^tais
poltron
une
la nuit m'attirait,
Le
curi-
du
nuances
peut-etre."
evasiveness
blanc,
gris,
des
pesantir,
tout
plus m'ap-
en choisissant,
trop m'y
simplement
elaguant, eludant
pas
voici," is
man who
has always
who
instinct,
who
qualities,
own
In
this
is
natural
way
in
and infirmities
and the rest.
And
which he speaks of
"
la
manie,
la
his follies
fureur de boire,"
which married
life
is
again
all
things.
189
in
at
La
written.
It
is
like
humanity and
more
its
nothing
virginal dehcacy.
disorderly side of a
we
admirably precise,
strained.
into the
Nor does
life
the
hear but
little
significant,
literature
Of
:
and
that
re-
how
the
fleurs de
Mai'^
VI
DEDICACES
Verlaine's
book of poems
latest
is
truly-
In
augmentee.
its
first,
privately
it
one of the
it
printed,
edition,
In
its
to be
for
it is
It
is
not
one expect
much
chosen for
own
sake.
In verse,
order, that
we
its
is,
at
the
more poignant
we
Galantes.
On
the contrary,
that
it
is
only natural
190
much
so
its
191
exag-
is
first
to discover.
For
surprises of his
is
manner of writing.
one of the
Here, only
rhymes
at the
of syllables.
for the
in this
form
are
malformations of rhyme-arrangement,
and
note with
(I
are without a
Yet, after
all
really excel-
COLOUR STUDIES
192
lent work,
and almost
all
IN PARIS
of it
is
of personal
full
What
medley of names
among
here
I find
" cabaretier
of the
Rodolphe
JMiiller "
miraculeux
La Com de
Un
And
some
there are
little
the
is
Chat-Noir,
Salis,
a musician, a painter
charming
"
then there
doctors, a sculptor,
London, with a
friends in
dans
Temple,
le
under discreet
initials,
women,
too, addressed
now with
little
homely
details, as in
Tu
"
II
repris, et cela
me
aurait peut-etre
mieux
fait sur
mon chapeau
"
!
"
^H*.^^
^>-b.-uA^'
-t*^t^
^^^t^uJ
<jJ^
-^
"Encore pour
desolate ending
Et
Et
193
je
And,
je t'aime.
the
first,
dead friend
one of them,
poem
in the
as
Tailhade
it is
Laurent
Le pretre
et sa chasuble
pieds
hieratic
scribe.
in
with
five
however,
work
others,
is
is
from Amour.
comparatively
in general,
which
rare
in
reprinted,
This note,
Verlaine's
COLOUR STUDIES
194
More
DMicaces.
IN PARIS
Fernand Langlois
Haut commc
Commc
is
the
sonnet
on
really characteristic
le solcil,
vagucment
pale
comme
la
lune,
proverbe espagnol,
II a presque la voix tendre du rossignol,
Tant son coeur fut clement h ma triste fortune.
And
dit
le
Ou
still
bacchiques
Bruissaient.
Des bonnes
It
is
this
beaux jours au
simpler,
more
life,
rire
easily
ardent
good-
without asking
much
too
becoming Verlaine's
is
195
final
made up of so
many irreconcilable elements, we get here
mainly the less poignant side not so much
final?)
Of
creed.
a nature
that
Moi, I'ombre du marquis de Sade, et ce, parmi
Parfois des airs naifs et faux de bon apotre,
but the
facile, childlike
with
Verlaine
we can count
only on
to
come
after
whole matter
Bah
here
is
Et
le loisir
de notre desir.
Nous donnerent
VII
"
INVECTIVES "
book of
this
why
it
regret than
Invectives,
of Verlaine.
do not see
if
the
petulance away.
some
sleepless
hour in
should
hospital,
it
should like
go further
first
and
am
it
know
But
to
further.
it
Vanier, and
to
go
know
197
them
Then
jest
of anything
And now
here
is
the book.
it,
will
"
Diable d'argent
Parut le Diable
Qui me dit " L'homme intelligent
sort,
Et raisonnable,
te voici, que me veux-tu?
Car tu m'evoques
Que
Et
vertu.
je
Que
dois-je
pour
ta sagesse
faire plaisir
L'impuissance ou bien
Croissant sans cesse
le
?
desir
COLOUR STUDIES
198
IN PARIS
ou bien I'abus?
que puis-je?"
L'indifference
Parle,
La femme trompe
et
rhomme
aussi,
Je suis malade,
JE
VEUX MOURIR."
Le Diable: "Si
C'est la I'aubade.
Qu
tu m'offres,
je rentre.
Tuer m'offusque.
Bon pour ton Dieu.
En
Bas.
Je ne suis pas
ce point brusque."
Me
le
Diable,
Irremediable.
In such a poem as
this
we have
the Verlaine
little
But what
M. Moreas,
the complaints
of
Here is
which must flame
M. Raoul Ponchon
devouring rage,
political
neither a
its
manner
itself out,
existence, as
its
coils.
too
furies,
brief,
much
surface, to be of
was a big
199
art.
He
most
part,
and
ill-health, poverty,
in spite of everything
interminable embarrass-
his
grumblings
And what
and man
them
How
French.
only, un-
down, and we
in sympathetic
injustice they
classical
amusement.
impossible
it
will be,
now
one to
whom
Verlaine
is
from
it,
for,
The poet
COLOUR STUDIES
200
are
IN PARIS
Paroles, Sagesse,
and
this
many
to,
man
book
others,
which
all eyes.
Romances sans
for
will
will,
will
have be-
come
Gilles
de Retz.
that
shadow of
he has
but
He
will
unknown
emerged.
latterly
refuse to believe
that
he was
People will
not always
des Esseintes,
saw
in
fictions
in
the
"
Des
d'un amour
it
They
only what
book of Huysmans,
reveries
clandestines,
des
Madone
And
they will
see,
siecle."
all
of himself:
problem
^^-
^^^^-t^-'^x*-?
C^^-o^/^
/^
FACSIMILR OF
M.S.
BY PAUL VERI.AINE
[To
/((C p. 200.
i^ yi^
cK'^.^
-^^'^Xt
-fA^,,,
^OTES ON PARIS
Un mot
perdu
ma
cela je ne puis
Que
je suis
201
Imaginary Portrait
which Walter Pater wrote in the form of
extracts from the diary of Watteau's neighis
in that
The family
Walter Pater
came from that part of Flanders, and was,
only
pupil.
of
the
painter,
went
For the
facts
to the carefully
of Watteau's Hfe he
from a MS.
new
we have
M.
the
life
of Watteau, by
biography,
in
In
Virgile Josz,
which
some new
205
facts
are
COLOUR STUDIES
206
IN PARIS
the
and
life
Fragonard
study of
previous
century
18th
of the
art
has
his
already
shown.
and it is everywhere
founded upon precise documents. He has
the art of weaving a narrative full of colour,
brilliant historical novel,
full
and
research
subtle
become part
criticism
No
of an unfatiguing entertainment.
serious
critic
and historian
of
art
really
at
the
mastery over
ing
this
study of
le
And,
his material.
minute,
learned,
plus grand,
le
plus mysterieux,
after read-
and sympathetic
siecle,
one
le
still
Painters, that
analysed,
all
praised
Watteau
is
faultlessly,
there, divined,
in
that hardly
imaginary portrait.
home
from
in the world.
one always
life like
unsatisfied
never really at
place to place, in
tranquil
obscurity,
207
the incessantly
in
in
which
From
youth
his
weary
was
he
of most
He
is
himself that
many
whom
of his pictures
or V Indif-
exquisite
woman
goes through
from too
life
in
He
most
modern painting, and
creates the
is
women.
The
His
brush
and no wit
its
comments on
Watteau
flesh or spirit.
is
was ever so
discreet in
life,
COLOUR STUDIES
208
who
IN PARIS
that
human comedy,
of the
conception
of
and by the
life,
For a
of his technique.
similar
gravity in
the
a similar
skill
distinction,
giving
in
the Italian
ballet
at
and what
play.
never cruel.
true in artificial
is
But
is
Watteau,
He
Degas,
unlike
is
morrow
temporary joys.
music, sees their
He
listens
hands and
he, as
he
sadly of the
to
the
lips join,
same
and is
209
whom
are
world
the
he seems
those,
to
Happy
unspoilt.
still
is
say,
who can be
happy.
do
that
Like music,
handle.
and
gaiety,
know how
not
his
bow and
painting
is
look
rarely
to hold
at
a sad
pictures
his
is
the
sob
strings
sometimes one
of Galluppi
music
till
There
is
and the
may
rustle,
and
Browning
come with your
cold
quills
say, as
" In you
says
a certain
chill in this
music of the
Finette were
is
alive.
The
colour of
Watteau
There
lines,
full
of active
women, themselves
languor.
like
And
delicate
in
his
his
music,
COLOUR STUDIES
210
there
IN PARIS
is
For Watteau
woman
the world
ful thing in
is
something of a toy,
fiisson
made woman.
desire,
with
But he
paints without
of tender, melancholy
a kind
him she is a
has made her
For
be loved.
loving to
fragile,
bibelot,
after his
own
He
heart.
paints
her cheek and her face with the same tenderness, the
same passionate
And
ecstasy.
he
and
retains.
The woman
and
civilised,
of
Watteau
woman
is
all
society.
his
through
whom
And
women,
his
life,
clothed
Born
an
in-
the people
parts, are
always
women
The Frenchwoman
at Hfe.
211
begins to exist in
his pictures,
to be.
promise
and*^
remain
free.
mystery which a
because he
is
He
was a devout
student of Rubens, and learnt from him
various secrets, a different but not lesser life
of the flesh, a more tempered but not less
French painting begins.
splendid
in
life
of the clothes.
elegance
creates a
may
it
as
new
not be
He
adds as
much
he omits in amplitude
thing,
said,
which
is
French.
he
And
In that year
his
work
had
an immense success.
an immediate
When
Frederick
his
and
the
COLOUR STUDIES
212
buy some of
answered " Tous
to
IN PARIS
his pictures,
les
his intendant
en
fait
un
cas
infini."
of
in
;
Holbein,
Rubens,
but
it is
new,
sensitive,
1903.
ODILON REDON
ODILON REDON
The name
of Odilon
Redon
is
known
still
to
fewer
who
art
Huysmans,
new
INIallarme,
gifts
Charles
to his
JMorice,
The work
that which
of Odilon
is
most
Redon
characteristic
215
of
him
COLOUR STUDIES
216
consists
all
IN PARIS
Bans
Reve,
le
La
Gustave
Mai.
plates
title,
Au
gible,
au
So, without an
countrymen,
album
after
Odilon
So
album.
produced that
it
Redon
brains
has
of his
out
sent
little effect
have they
sell
Dans
Reve.
le
"Reste I'exemplaire."
Odilon Redon
His sense
rather
for
for
a creator of nightmares.
is
pure beauty
normal
beauty
is
;
but
for
slight,
he
or
begets
of
terrifies,
beauty
beauty,
but which
all
which
is
the same.
astonishes,
which
is
not
ODILON REDON
beautiful at
all
He
ineffective.
what he
window which
without
sees,
and he
He
swarms
gtssent
toutes
sortes
animal
sees chaos,
The
him.
before
gulfs
its
through a
sees
voyages scarcely
realised,
peoples
he
stars.
not
worlds
a genuine visionary
is
paints
it
217
d'effroyable
and vegetable
life,
con-
which
abyss
betes ^ sur-
the germs
The
world and
gaze,
men become
become transformed
apparitions,
which
for
voila
He
tout!
dreams, especially
dedicated some
scarcely
his
can
he
give
paints
bad dreams.
its
no
He
its
has
to Poe, to Baudelaire
him
under
spectral
so
much
as
is
to
a starting-point.
as
author's
intention
has
legend the
for
" L'ceil,
comme un
in
the
casual
design which
words of Poe
ballon bizarre,
se
dirige
COLOUR STUDIES
218
We
vers rinfini."
actual balloon
The
see
LN PARIS
the thing
grotesque.
is
Odilon Redon
of
infinitude,
above
is,
all,
work of
a sensation of
visible.
A cunning
of lines
gives
tresses,
spiral
has to be done by
Redon
come
has
to
or
coils,
seem to reach
which
arrangement
And
out,
as all
and white,
more by mere
black
express
itself,
mare pressing
all
that,
closer
Death.
tainly his
dark
body
and
charm,
The
And, with
design.
masterpiece.
huge
closer.
sentiment of grace,
La
Mort,
is
cer-
The background
is
coils
the
ODILON REDON
upon themselves,
coils
The
irony.
vague poverty-stricken
glimmering under the
face,
of windy
tresses
as
head,
death's
yet
one of light
is
terror
roses
smoke
of living
into
219
is
passes
it
the
little
white,
faint,
of hair and
tendrils
which stream
roses
charm,
the
lines
running
out
from
separated
the
head
delicate
in
And
below,
by a blotch of
with a
glittering
Below, in
fine
to the
morbid
column,
frightful
its
flesh
the
continuation of the
of the
huge and
arm
skull.
body,
heavy
the black
coils,
which
et la
Chimere
illustrates
of
Redon's
work.
The
scene
of
COLOUR STUDIES
220
Ammonaria
is
Alexandria.
at
whom
IN PARIS
It
Christian
is
martyr
one
feels
suffering visibly.
"
!
mon
" Je songe et je
replies the
euse
"
and
it
is
discovers, looking at
it
spasm of ironic
laughter in the blots of blackness which are
its eyes, in the mouth that one divines, in
the curl and coil of the whole figure.
In the
calm gaze and heavy placid pose of the
Sphinx, lines of immeasurable age above
of the strange creature
its
eyes,
there
is
external.
the
a mockery, a menace,
it
ODILON REDON
the gulf in
ward those
its
"new
those
flowers,
and
eyes,
221
perfumes,
those
Chimera,
the
wings and
tail,
turns on
itself,
yeux
verts,
towiioie,
aboie.
les
The design
Ailes.
it
is
on
distending
its
la
chimere aux
More
is
cardinaux
terrible,
Le Diable
sous
ses
is
almost a maternal
face,
large
them
hands, under the shadow of
And
wings.
who
its
leaping
disquieting
Peches
sept
larger
from
fire
and
glittering
light
nostrils,
spitting
to-
which are
In another
pleasures,"
unfelt
men
draws
it
there
is
another
Satan,
in
his
val-
him,
figure
of
power
superb
in
revolt.
splendid
creature
seen
in
the
trampling
COLOUR STUDIES
222
IN PARIS
back by the
twilight
fall.
it,
of a vague
man who
is
and
hold
And
converse.
couched on pedestals
eyeballs,
which voyage
embryonic
formless
little
shapes,
"La
du bonheur
II
part,"
ODILON REDON
Flaubert,
says
dont
les
" des
figures
223
primorciiales,
series.
Death, the
irony
Life,
the
apparitions.
1903.
c^fW
AA
001