The Arcades Project - Operi

"The hypothesis of Baudelaire s P. G. has persisted for half a
century and still reigns in certain quarters. Nevertheless it is based on a gross and
demonstrable error and is without any foundation in fact. ... Baudelaire did not
die from P. G. but from softening of the brain the consequence of a stroke . .. and
of a hardening of the cerebral arteries." Louis-Antoine-Justine Caubert La
NflVrose de Baudelaire (Bordeaux, 1930), pp. 42-43. The argument against general
paralysis is made, likewise in a treatise by Raymond Trial, La Maladie de
Baudelaire (Paris, 1926) p. 69. But he sees the brain disorder as a consequence of
syphilis, whereas Caubert believes that syphilis has not been conclusively established
in Baudelaire's case (see p. 46); he cites Remond and Voivenel, Le Genie
litteraire (Paris, 1912) p. 41: Baudelaire was . . the victim of sclerosis of the
cerebral arteries." [J17a,4]
In his essay "Le Sadisme chez Baudelaire," published in La Chronique medicale of
November 15, 1902, Cabanes defends the thesis that Baudelaire was a 'sadistic
madman" (p. 727). [JIB, I]
Du Camp on Baudelaire's voyage "to the Indies": "He arranged supplies of livestock
for the English army . . . , and rode about on elephants while composing
verse. ' Du Camp adds in a note: "I have been told that this anecdote is spurious; I
have it from Baudelaire himself, and I have no reason to doubt its veracity though
it may perhaps be faulted for a surplus of imagination." Maxime Du Camp, Souvenirs
litteraires, vol. 2 (Paris, 1906), p. 60. [JIB,2]
Indicative of the reputation that preceded Baudelaire before he had published
anything of importance is this remark by Gautier: "I fear that with Baudelaire it
will be as it once was with Petrus Borel. In our younger days we used to say: Hugo
has only to sit and wait; as soon as Petrus publishes something, he will disappear
. ... Today, the name of Baudelaire is brandished before us; we are told that
when he publishes his poems, Musset, Laprade, and I will dissolve into thin air. 1
don't believe it for a moment. Baudelaire will burn out just as Petrus did." Cited
in Maxime Du Camp, Souvenirs litteraires, vol. 2 (Paris, 1906), pp. 61-62.
[JIB,3]
"As a writer, Baudelaire had one great defect, of which he had no inkling: he was
ignorant. What he knew, he knew well; but he knew very little. History, physiology,
archaeology, philosophy all eluded him . ... The external world scarcely interested
him; he saw it perhaps, but assuredly he never studied it." Maxime Du
Camp, Souvenirs litteraires, vol. 2 (Paris, 1906), p. 65. (J18,4]
From the evaluations of Baudelaire by his teachers at the Lycee Louis-Ie-Grand:
"Ready mind. A few lapses in taste" (in Rhetoric). Conduct sometimes rather
unruly. This student, as he himself admits, seems convinced that history is perfectly
useless" (in History).-Letter of August 11, 1839, to his stepfather, after
earning his baccalaureate: "I did rather poorly in my examinations, except for