The Arcades Project - Operi

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""He was the first . .. to show the woman in her bedroom in the midst not only of
her jewels and perfumes, but of ' her makeup, her lincns, her dresses, trying to
decide if she prefers a scalloped hem or a straight hem. He compares her . .. to
animals-to the elephant. the monkey, and the snake." John Charpentier, "La
Poesie britannique et Baudelaire," Mercure de France, 147 (May 1, 1921), p. 673.
[J43a,7]
On allegory: ""His greatest glory, wrote Theophile Gautier [in the preface to the
1863 edition of' Les Pleurs du mal], "will he to have introduced into the realm of
stylistic possibilities whole classes of objects, sensations, and effects left unnamed
by Adam, the great nomenclator.' He names . . . the hopes and regrets, the curiosities
and fears, that seethe in the darkness of the inner world." John Charpentier,
"La Poesie britannique et Baudelaire," Mercure de France, 14.7 (May 1, 1921),
p. 674. [J43a,8]
·'L'Invitation au voyage," translated into Russian by Merezhkovski, became a
gypsy romance entitled '·Holubka mola." (J43a,9]
In connection with ·'L'lrdmediable," Crepet (Les Fleurs du mal, ed. Jacques
Crepet [Paris , 1931], p. 449) cites the following passage from Les Soirees de Saint­
Petersbourg: "That river which one crosses but once; that pitcher of the
Danaides, always full and always empty; that liver of Tityus, always regenerated
under the beak of the vulture that always devolll's it anew, ... -these are so many
speaking hieroglyphs, about which it is impossible to be mistaken. "221 [J43a,lO]
Letter to Calonne, director of La Revue contemporaine, on February 11, 1859:
"The dance of death is not a person but an allegory, It seelllS to me that it should
not he capitalized. An extremely well-known allegory." Les Fleurs du mal, ed.
Crepet (Paris, 1931), p. 459.'22 [J44,1]
Regarding " L'Amour du mensonge" . From a letter to Alphonse de
Calonne: "'The word 'royal' will help the reader understand the metaphor, which
transforms memory into a crown of towers, like those that weigh down the brows
of the goddesses of maturity, of fertility, of wisdom." Flew's du mal, ed. Jacques
Crepet (Paris, 1931), p. 461.22:1 [J44,2]
Planned cycle of poems '·Oneirocritie" : "Symptoms of
ruin. Vast Pelasgic huildings, one on top of the other. Apartments, rooms, temples,
galleries, stairways, caeca, belvederes, lanterns, fountains, statues.-Fissures
and cracks, Dampness resulting from a reservoir situated near the sky.-How to
warn people and nations '? Let us whisper warnings into the ears of the most intelligent.
/ High up, a column cracks and its two ends shift. Nothing has collapsed as
yet. I can no longer find the way out. I go down, then climb back up. A tower.­
Labyrinth. I never succeeded in leaving. I live forever in a building on the point of
collapsing, a building undermined by a secret malady.-I reckon up in my mind,