The Arcades Project - Operi

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M
haschisch;' Oeuvres, vol. 1, pp. 249-250). As may be gathered from this prose
description of 1851, Baudelaire recognizes himself in the figure of the ragman.
The poem presents a fi.lrther affinity with the poet, immediately noted as such: "a
ragpicker stumbles past, wagging his head I and bumping into walls with a poet's
grace, I pouring out his heartfelt schemes to one I and all, including spies of the
police;'"'" [J68,4)
Much can be said on behalf of the supposition that "Le Vm des chiffonniers" was
written around the time of Baudelaire's espousal of "beautifi.ll utility;' (The
question ealIDot be settled with any certainty, because the poem first appeared in
the book edition of Les Fleurs du mal.-"Le Vin de l'assassin" was published for
the first time in 1848-in L'Echo des marchand> de vins!) The ragpicker poem
strenuously disavows the reactionary pronouncements of its author. The criticism
on Baudelaire has overlooked this poem. [J68a,l)
""Believe me, the wine of the barrieres has effectively preserved the shocks to
which governmental structures have been subject. " Edollard Foucaud, Paris inventeur:
Physiologie de l'industriefranaise (Paris, 1844), p. 10. [J68a,2)
Apropos of