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The Arcades Project - Operi

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<strong>The</strong>ophile Gautier, 1854·1855. Photo by Nadar. Musee d'Orsay,<br />

Paris; photo copyright © RMN. SeeJ7a,5.<br />

that I am your devoted . .. Ch. Baudelaire. " 57 Henri Cordier, Notules sur Baudelaire<br />

(Paris, 1900), pp. 5-7. <strong>The</strong> middle section of the letter polemicizes against<br />

Toussenel's faith in progress and Ins denunciation of de Maistre. [JS]<br />

'''Origin of the name Baudelaire. Here is what M. Georges Barral has written on<br />

this subject in the La Revue des curiosites revolutionnaires: Baudelaire explained<br />

the etymology of his name, which, he said, came not from bel or beau. hut from<br />

band or bald. "My name is something terrible,' he declared. 'As a matter of fact,<br />

the badelaire was a sahel' with a short, broad blade and a convex cutting edge,<br />

hooked at the tip . ... It was introduced into France after the Crusades and used<br />

in Paris until around 1560 for executing criminals . Some years ago, in 1861, during<br />

excavations carried out near the Pont-au-Change, they recovered the badelaire<br />

used by the executioner at the Grand Chat. elet in the twelfth century. It was<br />

deposited in the Musee de Cluny. Go and have a look. It is frightening to see. I<br />

shudder to think how the profile of my face approximates the profile of this bade-

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