The Arcades Project - Operi

fluttered like the sleeves of a clerical frock. He developed his subject with an
almost evangelical unctuousness, proclaiming his veneration for a literary master
in the liturgical tones of a bishop announcing a mandate. To himself, no doubt, he
was celebrating a Mass full of glorious images; he had the grave beauty of a cardinal
of letters officiating at the altar of the Ideal. His smooth, pale visage was
shaded in the halftone of the lamplight. I watched his eyes move like black suns.
His mouth had a life of its own within the life and expressions of his face; it was
thin and quivering with a delicate vibrancy tmder the drawn bow of his words.
And from its haughty height the head commanded the attention of the intimidated
audience." Cited in Socho, La Vie des Fleurs du mal (1928), p. 68. [J25,7]
Baudelaire transferred his application for the playwright Scribe's seat in the
Acadtmne Frant;aise to that of the Catholic priest Lacordaire. [J25a,1 J
Gautier: r.'Baudelaire loves ample polysyllabic words, and with three or four of
these words he sometimes fashions lines of verse that seem immense, lines that
resonate in such a way as to lengthen the meter." Cited in A. Seche, La Vie des
Fleurs du mal « Amiens,) 1928), p. 195. [J25a,2]
Gautier: r.To the extent that it was possihle, he banished eloquence in poetry."
Cited in A. Soch., La Vie des Flew's du mal (1928), p. 197. [J25a,3]
E. Faguet in an article in La Revue: "Since 1857, the neurasthenia among us has
scarcely abated; one could even say that it has been on the rise. Hence, "there is no
cause for wonder,' as Ronsard once said, that Baudelaire still has his followers
. ... " Cited in Alphonse Seche, La Vie des Fleurs du mal (1928), p. 207.
[J25a,4]
Le Figaro publishes (date?) an article by Gustave Bourdin that was written at the
instigation of Interior Minister Billaut. The latter had shortly before, as judge or
public prosecutor, suffered a setback with the acquittal of Flaubert in the trial
against Madame Bovary. A few days later came Thierry's article in Le Moniteur.
'"Why did Sainte-Benve . .. leave it to Thierry to tell readers of Le Moniteur about
Les Fleurs du mal? Sainte-Beuve doubtless refused to write about Baudelaire's
book because he deemed it more prudent to efface the ill effect his article on
Madame Bovary had had in the inner circles of the government." Alphonse Seche,
La Vie des Fleurs du mal (1928), pp. 156-157.1'7 [J25a,5]
The denunciation in Bourdin's article is treacherously disguised as praise for
precisely those poems singled out in the indictment. Nter a disgusted enumeration
of Baudelaire's topics, he writes: ''And in the middle of it all, four poems-oLe
Reniement de Saint Pierre; then 'Lesbos; and two entitled 'Fenunes danmees'four
masterpieces of passion, of art, and of poetry. It is understandable that a poet
of twenty might be led by his imagination to treat these subjects, but nothing