REMY DE G O U R M O N T

In trod u ction It is a difficult thing to characterise a clothes and bonds. All of which has only a casual bearing
to th e fir s t literary evolution at a moment when its upon the syllables of the word— for it ought not to be
B ook o f fruits are still uncertain, when the insinuated that this symbolism is nothing more than a
M ask s blossom has yet to spread throughout the transformation of the old allegorism or the art o f merely
orchard. Precocious trees, late-blooming personifying an idea in a human being, a landscape or a
trees, questionable trees and those that we even now hesitate story. Such an art is total art, primordial and eternal art, and
to call sterile: the orchard is very diverse, very rich— too a literature released from this concern would be
rich; the dose-packed leaves engender shadows and shadows unspeakable; it would be null and void, its aesthetic
discolour the flowers and make the fmits seem pale. significance suited to the clucking o f guinea hens and the
W e shall go walking through this opulent and shadowy braying of a wild ass.
orchard, pausing now and then to sit at the foot of the Literature in fact is nothing less than the artistic devel­
strongest, most beautiful or most agreeable o f the trees. opment of an idea, the symbolising o f the idea by means o f
W hen they m erit it owing to their importance, their the imaginary hero. These heroes, or these men (for every
necessity, their suitability, these literary evolutions receive a man is a hero in his own sphere) are only sketched out by
name; this name very often has no precise significance, but it life; it is art which completes them by giving them, in
is useful: it serves as a rallying point to those who receive it, exchange for their poor sick souls, the treasure o f an
and a target for those who bestow it; thus battles rage over a immortal idea, and the most humble o f men can be called to
purely verbal banner. W h at does Romanticism mean? It is this participation, if he is chosen by a great poet.
easier to feel this than to explain it. W hat does Symbolism Humble men like Aeneas, burdened by V irgil w ith all the
mean? I f we take it in a narrow and etymological sense, weight of serving as the idea o f Roman might, and Don
hardly anything; if we go beyond that, it can mean Quixote, on whom Cervantes imposed the frightful load o f
individualism in art, the abandonment o f handed-down being at once the mad Roland, the four sons o f Aymon,
formulas, tendencies toward that which is new, strange and Amadis, Palmerin, Tristan and all o f the knights o f the
even bizarre; it can also mean idealism, disdain for social Round Table! A history of symbolism would be a history o f
anecdotes, anti-naturalism, a tendency to snatch from life man himself, since man is unable to assimilate ideas, except
only its most characteristic details, to pay attention only to in a symbolised form. This point must be insisted upon or
the acts by which a man distinguishes himself from other we might otherwise think the young devotees o f symbolism
men, to wish to realize only results, only the essential; in are unaware o f the Vita Nuova and the character o f Beatrice,
short, symbolism, for poets, seems bound up with free, that whose frail and pure shoulders nevertheless remain unbowed
is to say unswaddled, verse, whose youthful limbs can caper beneath the complex load of symbols with which the poet
comfortably, freed from the impediments o f swaddling overwhelms her. Wbere, then, has this illusion come from,

REMY DE GOURMONT
 that the symbolising o f an idea is a novelty ? Here is the to the most exacting practice, a universal principle of
answer. emancipation for all men capable of understanding it It ^
W e have been gifted, in recent years, with a very solemn revolutionised riot only aesthetics; but we are speaking onl new writ
literary tome, a study based upon contempt for the idea and of aesthetics. too has t
scorn for the symbol. W e know about the theory, which They still offer a definition of the beautiful in hand­ impose t
seems culinary: take one slice of life, etc. Monsieur Zola, books; they go farther still: th ey present formulas by which pare an :
the artist can arrive at an expression of the beautiful. There taking n
having invented the recipe, neglected to avail himself of it.
indicate,
H is ‘slices o f life” are awkward poems with a muddy and are institutions in which these principles are taught,
but how
tumultuous lyricism, popular romanticism, democratic principles which are only the average and the resume of breathe,
symbolism, but always filled with an idea, always heavy with ideas of previous appreciations. Aesthetic theories being This
allegorical significance, G erm inalthe Mine, the Mob, the generally obscure, examples are added to them , the ideal not, men
Strike. Still the idealist revolt was mounted not against type, th e m od el to follow. In these institutions (and the nique be
the works (unless against the nightsoil-works aspect ) of civilised world its elf is but a vast Institution) all novelties are without
naturalism, but against its theory or rather against its pre­ held to be blasphemous, and every personal affirmation this flov
tensions; returning to the prior necessities, the eternals, of becomes an act of dementia. Monsieur Nordau , who, with seed, its
art, those in revolt believed they were affirming new, and a strange patience, has read all of contemporary literature, their fat
even surprising, truths, in professing the wish to reintegrate propagated this villainously d estru ctive idea that all Adam,'
ideas into literature; they not only rekindled the torch, but, intellectual individualism is “non-conformist” and a capital love the
all about them, lit up a great many ancillary smaller candles crime in a writer. We d iffer violen tly in this regard. ishness
Conformism, imitativeness, submission to rules and to more a
besides.
teachings is the writer’s capital crime. The work of a writer And h;
A new truth, and such a one has recen tly co m e into our
must be not only the reflection, but the larger reflection of Now, i
literature and art, is en tirely metaphysical and a priori (in
his personality. The only excuse that a man has for writing is these]
i appearance), it is quite young since it has come about in this
nor ac
I century, and truly new, since it has not yet served in any to write about himself, to reveal to others the sort of world
evens
aesthetic order. This truth, evangelical and marvellous, that is mirrored in his own glass; his only excuse is to be
broug
liberating and renovating, is the p rin ciple o f th e ideality of original; he must speak of things not yet spoken of in a form
frame
the world. In relation to man, the thinking subject, the not yet formulated. He must create his own aesthetics—and
selves
world, everythin g that is exterior to the ego, exists on ly we must admit as many aesthetics as there are original spirits
plete
accordin g to th e idea that it has become. We know only the and judge them for what they are, not for what they aren’t. rlainr
phenomena, we reason o n ly about appearances; all truth in Let us admit that symbolism is indeed excessive, indeed with
itself escapes us; the essence is unassailable. This is what unseasonable, indeed pretentious, the expression of F
Schopenhauer has popularised in that formula, so simple individualism in art. kno’
and so clear: The w orld is m y representation. I do not see This definition, unduly simple, but clear, will suffice us figu
what is; what is, is what I see. So many thinking men, so provisionally. In the course of the following portraits, or ap t
many diverse and perhaps d ifferen t w orlds. T his doctrine, perhaps later, we will doubtless have occasion to complete ligh
w hich Kant left unfinished to rush to the rescue o f a ship­ it; still its principle will serve to guide us, and by spurring us wh<
wrecked ethics, is so beautiful and so supple that we can to seek out not what ought to have been wrought, according
transpose it, without offence, from the liberal lo g ic o f theory to terrible rules, according to tyrannical traditions, by these

T HE B O O K OF MASKS 14
f
t. It has
new writers, but what they have wished to create. Aesthetics
ng only In tro d u ction Should the reader feel the need to
too has become a personal talent; no one has the right to
impose them ready-made upon others. W c can only com­ to the seco n d understand the general method which has
id - Book o f guided the author o f this second series o f
pare an artist to himself, but there is a profit and a justice in
which taking notice o f the dissimilarities: we shall endeavour to M asks "Masks," he should consult the pages
There indicate, not how these "newcomers” resemble each other, *** placed at the head o f the first volume,
but how they differ, which is to say, how they live and Goethe reflected:
of breathe, for to exist is to differ. “When one fails to speak o f things with a partiality that
:in g This is not being written in order to claim that there arc is filled with love, the words spoken aren't worth repeating/'
leal not, inevitably, obvious similarities o f thought and tech­ Perhaps that goes too far. Negative criticism is necessary;
:he nique between them, but such inevitabilities as these arc there aren’t enough pedestals within the human memory to
:lties are without interest. N or must it be insinuated any longer that accommodate all the idols: perhaps it is still necessary to
on this flowering is spontaneous; before the flower, there is the smash and hurl a few unjustified and overly insolent bronzes
d, with seed, itself fallen from a flower; these young people have into the melting pot. But that's a dreary chore; one need not
Lture, their fathers and their masters: Baudelaire, Villicrs de l’lsle- casually invite the crowd to the execution. W h en we shall
Adam, Verlaine, Mallarm6 and others. Living or dead, they call out to them, it will be for them to participate in a feast
love them, they read them, they listen to them. W hat fool­ o f glory.
capital
ishness to think that we despise them nowl W ho has a heart Certain critics always have the demeanour o f judges who,
more admiring and affectionate than Stephane Mallarm£? having handed down their sentences, hasten to attend the
o
And has Villiers been forgotten? Or Verlaine forsaken? execution.
writer
Now, something ought to be said about the order in which "Hop-lal The headsman! W e ’ve made a cheery fire, let’s
on o f
these portraits are presented, neither completely arbitrary dance around the ashes o f our loves!”
riting is nor according to any classifications or prize-lists. There are There’s no further need o f butchers fo r all the worthless
vorld even some notable absentees from the gallery who shall be books; the flames in fireplaces are good enough.
oe brought back on some other occasion; there are empty The following pages are not criticism but psychological
i form frames and empty places as well; as for the portraits them­ and literary analysis. W e no longer have principles and there
—and selves, i f anyone judges them to be too sketchy and incom­ are no more models; a writer creates his ow n aesthetic and
pirits plete, we shall respond that we wanted them that way; laying his own works: we are reduced to appealing to sensation
n’t. claim only to offer directions, merely to indicate the way rather than judgement.
•ed with a wave o f our arm. In literature, as in all else, the reign o f abstract words
Finally, in order to reunite yesterday with today, well- must cease. A work o f art exists only fo r the emotion it gives
known faces have been interpolated amongst the new us; it will suffice to determine and characterise the nature o f
is figures: and, in such cases, rather than re-tracing the lines o f this emotion; that will suit anything from the metaphysics o f
a physiognomy familiar to many, we have sought to throw sensuality to the pure idea o f physical pleasure.
e light upon some more obscure point in preference to the There are enough chords in the human lyre! It's already a
us whole. chore to count all o f them.

4 15 REMY DE GOURMONT
 “Yes.”
M auve Pauline was passing a very agreeable half hour at “Very well, and now as to caresses: were
confessional. As the heavy fruits o f sin were ^natutjjy.
dropped one by one the lightened tree straightened its “Alas!”
"Did he caress you over your entire body?"
“Y ou are no beet
bow ed branches and resumed its springtime symmetry. “Y es” -ohr
“It is also/' she was thinking to herself, “like having “For long?” “O nly demons r<
Amelie wash my hair. T he more the cool stream pours over “Yes.” “I am blushing n
m y head the lighter it feels, as though it had washed away a “And what did you do?” “Did you yield ti
heavy veil— the crepe o f care.” “I did the same with him.” perament?”

And then she felt ashamed for having allowed her “And it was then that you experienced the extreme *>W
“And always wit
thoughts to wander, when they should have been devoted to tuous sensation?” "Yes, I loved it."
contrition and the impulse o f repentance urged by the “Sometimes.” “And you neglec
indulgent questioning o f the priest. “W ell, this is a serious matter. Was it with your full exercises?”
“But it is lovely, really,” she mused, "and this feeling of consent, or against your will?” “I am doing so d
w ell-being proves that the sacrament has acted upon the "Oh!” “H ow did he era
“You permitted it, then?” “I cannot tell exai
sinner.”
“D id you strugg
She then related, without exultation, but also without "Yes."
“This is terrible. You merit the fires of helL" “I loved him."
reticence, everything that had happened to her during two “Is it over now?'
years. “But, Father, I have repented. I have repented greatly"
"Yes."
“I have sinned against chastity.” “Go on. Was any effort usually made to avoid pro­
“Y o u w ill not s<
“W a s it by yourself?” creation?” “Never.”
“N o.” “V ery well, go t
“W ith your husband?” “You satisfied your passion without thought of anything And they proce
“Oh, no!” else, as the beasts do— to quote the words of St. Paul the idleness, lying, anc
“W ell, go on.” Aposde?” their furious feast:
“I have sinned in my thoughts, in my speech, and in my her lover, the com
deeds.” “You mingled your flesh thoughdessly, without any other husband. It was a
“W as he a steady lover? Was there only one, or several?" reason than bestial pleasure?” began to cry.
“Only one.” “Oh!” “Since your re
“Did you have a passionate desire to see your accomplice, "Without considering your conduct, without one regret, tion, though it m
did you long to embrace him and to yield yourself to him?” without one thought of the precepts of the Holy Church?" tears wipe out m;
“Y es" . 4 "Alas!” the depths o f yo\
“Often?” "Without shame?” H im .”
“All the time.” H er emotion
"I am ashamed now.”
one after anothe
“And when you were together, did you indulge in un­ "Then continue. Both of you were naked, entirely
mauve hat that i
seemly speech with him?” naked?” colour though c
“Oh, no!" "Yes.” W hen the ce
Unseemly sentiments,— that is to say endearing words?” “Unblushingly?”
hey natural?"
"Alas!” slightest embarrassment to the priest, whom she recognised.
“You are no better than a demon.” They chatted for a moment about the latest charity affair
“Oh!” and its marvellous success, and the poor man was powerless
“Only demons refuse to blush for their nakedness.” to abstain from considering— without desire, o f course, but
"I am blushing now.” with a certain complaisance that was surprising— this
' Did you yield to the force o f a very amorous tem­ charming young woman, refined and pretty, who no doubt
perament?” knew more about the inmost secrets o f voluptuousness than
(I 99
the most cunning casuist.
extreme volup. “And always with passion?” “Oh, Woman! Woman! Here she is with two little
“Yes, I loved it.” children as pretty as the angels, whom she takes to mass and
“And you neglected to resort to the sacraments, to pious whose catechism she conducts herself. Her husband
your full exercises? preached a holy war, and her lover has abandoned her for
“I am doing so now.” Madame de Ruel, who tells everybody: ‘I am madly in love
“How did he entice you?” with God!’ Oh, Woman! W om an!”
“I cannot tell exacdy. By his glances, his smiles, his words ...” Pauline, returning to her carriage, thought o f the wonder­
"Did you struggle against your desires?” ful orchids which a hand she knew well had brought her that
“I loved him.” very morning.
"Is it over now?” “I am all pure, without a stain— what a com fort! This
ed greatly.” "Yes." orchid, with its little rosy tail like a corkscrew, is like love! It
oid pro- "You will not see him again?” is he, assuredly, it is he. Six o’clock already! Oh, I hope he is
“Never.” not there ahead o f me! Goodness! Isn’t religion a lovely
"Very well, go on.” thing! I am so happy!”
t o f anything And they proceeded to review the other sins: gluttony, ----Translated by F. R. Ashfield.
. Paul the idleness, lying, and Pauline recalled the delicacies eaten after
their furious feasts o f love, the falling asleep in the arms o f
her lover, the complicated stories they invented to fool her R G.
ut any other husband. It was a dream! It was nothing but a dream! She
began to cry.
“Since your repentance is sincere, I will give you absolu­ G reen After having remained silent for eight days, after
tion, though it might be advisable to postpone it; however, having disdainfully resisted all the tortures o f
ne regret,
tears wipe out many things. Ask God to forgive you from solitary confinement and all the strategies and endless ques­
’hurch?”
the depths o f your heart, for you have grievously offended tionings o f the third degree, Catherine, who was accused o f
Him.” having poisoned Madame W , her mistress, suddenly gave
Her emotion was redoubled while the Latin words fell way and said:
one after another upon her blonde head, through a jaunty "Oh, well, I might as well admit that I did it, but I am not
mauve hat that matched her dress, which was o f the same to blame. I lived alone with her and she was o f such an
colour though o f a lighter shade. unbearable disposition that no one could remain with her
When the ceremony was ended, she bowed without the for more than a couple o f hours, and then only in the

17 REMY DE GOURMONT
 morning. There is no one else to accuse except m yself; I have But Catherine, k n ow in g w ell w hat was going on in
thought it over and realise that. Until now , I had thought to m ind, and co n s cio u s o f h er e f f e c t as a woman, macfeh
save myself by keeping silent, by appearing mute and un­ even more fem in in e.
moved before you and all other judges; but I realise n o w that “T w o yea rs a g o I e n tered th e serv ice o f Madame
my silence has condemned me. It o n ly became clear to me the ca p a city o f a co m p a n io n , b u t I s o o n perceived that]
when I woke up this morning; until then I seem ed to be w o u ld b e c o m p e lle d t o d e v o te th e grea ter part of my time
living in an impenetrable night, and I dream ed that i f I re­ h u m b ler du ties. M aids se ld o m sta yed m o re than a w eel^
m ained hidden there I w ould b e forgotten . W hen yo u bick erings, th e su sp icio u s and co n sta n t bad humour o f ^
ordered me brought before you, I heard your w ords w ithou t m istress, d isco u ra g ed th em . A nd h avin g had m y fill offa
understanding a single one, but I smiled I think, because sam e s o r t o f trea tm en t, I h a d o ft e n thought of leaving, but
your voice was pleasing. And so, last night, I thought it all when I n o tice d that s h e w as a little afraid o f m e and that
out, and have decid ed to tell you just h ow it happened and with a little skill I w o u ld b e a b le t o manage her, I deter­
w h y I am not to blame.” mined to stay. T o w a rd th e en d , I u sed to call in a poor
Catherine seem ed out of place; there was n oth in g o f the neighbour to d o th e h ea v y w ork , and in this way I kept the
coarseness usually to be looked for in o n e in h er equivocal w h o le h o u se w ith o u t th e h e lp o f a n y servants. Thus I ob­
situation. Her position had been something between a lady tained some p e a ce a nd q u iet a n d w as a b le to sm ile despite
companion and a servant. She had formerly been a govemessM th e su rly w a y in w h ich s h e spoke t o m e. S he never addressed
and came from a poor but respectable family. She was tall, m e in a n yth in g b u t an arrogant a n d insolent manner, butI
and her face was pale under her dark-brown hair, which had d isrega rd ed it and le t th in gs pass. I was able to endure this
a tawny tinge, while her eyes were green. When she raised life so long, because I u s e d to go out frequently..."
her head defiandy, the judge regarded her green eyes some­ "D id y o u g o t o y o u r lo v e r ?”
what fearfully. "Yes, sir. I went to my lo v e r e v e r y day, and I will go again
"She has green eyes," he said to himself, "the eyes of a to him every day, i f y o u w ill le t me . . .”
cat, of a monster!" H er g re en e y e s became so tender a nd at th e same time so
She lowered her eyes and awaited a response; and then ardent that the ju d g e could not endure their brilliance. He
raised them questioningly. lo w ered his h ea d a nd said:
"They are green, but what a beautiful green—so soft and "Go on, please.”
profound," thought the judge, "the eyes of a passionate He was toying with a pencil, scribbling at random upona
woman. It is evident that there is a man in the case. She is large sheet o f paper.
trying to shield her lover. Her eyes proclaim that she is in "I w ill speak,” went on Catherine, tranquilly, "about her
love and her beauty vouches that she must be loved. What suspicions. The meals were brought in to us, and it was
misery justice causes; and what difference does it make to natural for me to serve them; t h e y passed through my hands
the world i f an old woman has been done away with, i f it has and I was responsible for them. As we d id n o t have the same
brought happiness to those eyes? How beautifully they must tastes, she let me cook separate d ish es f o r m yself. This was
glow when they grow mad with passion.'. he mused. "But the cause o f my trouble, and also hers," a d d ed Catherine
I, myself, seemto be going mpr} #. /'
viciou sly.
He frowned and merely said;
I amlistening." "In what way?”
"Ehf Because she began to be afraid— a fra id . . "

T H E B O O K OF MASKS 18
'ping o n in his
an, m a d e herself
"She feared something that was going to happen?" She covered her face with her hands and burst into tears.
dadam e W in "Yes, sir, she began to fear that which was fated to ‘ Your lover waits for you," said the judge, his voice
happen, that which she had brought on herself—not with trembling slightly.
reived that I
her hands, perhaps, but with her words at least. She would "Would I be crying," said Catherine, "if a lover were
rt o f m y time to waiting for me?"
suddenly push her plate away, and cry; ‘Catherine, are you
fian a w eek; the trying to poison me?’ And I would reply calmly: ‘Why, "Then I am free to love you! W ould you like me to love
um our o f their Madame, the idea has never entered my mind, as you well you?"
ray fill o f the know.’ She would keep it up and say: ‘Then taste this.’ And I "Can I prevent it?”
~leavin g, but had to resign myself to take a morsel from the rejected plate. "Thank you; but could you love me?”
e an d that Then she would be satisfied and go on with her repast, "I? . . . I? . . . Perhaps I might love you, if you were to
-, I d eter- , murmuring to herself: ‘W ell, it will not happen today, at any sentence me from jealousy, so that I might be parted from a
i a poor rate.’ These words, so often repeated, acted upon me like a lover/’J S i
p I k ep t the command. I would hear them at night in my dreams, and "But I already know that you no longer have a lover.
’h u s I ob­ sometimes even when I was awake. I should have gone away, Judges have knowledge o f many things.”
'/e d esp ite but, alas, I stayed on. And then, about the same time I suf­ "He is dead, and his death proved that he was false to me
fered a grievous disappointment. M y lover fell ill and was ... Leave me, please leave me to myself...”
rr a d d ressed I
compelled to leave Paris. I went out o f my mind— if an "I will see you another time, and then you can tell me the
ner, b u t I
obsession be insanity— and one morning I found myself rest of the story. But here,” he continued in a whisper, “not
idure this
repeating, like a litany: ‘It is going to happen today! It is another word. You w ill be given the address o f a house
going to happen today!’ ” where you will be expected tomorrow."
The judge looked at his watch and got up hastily. The judge became the possessor of the smile of those eyes
11 g o again “We will take this up later. Calm yourself. Do not say which had enchanted him, and the white, slim body of
another w ord ." Catherine, with its rosy flowers and russet shadows. She was
e tim e so T w o hours later, the judge was alone with Catherine in an agreeable mistress, but so melancholy that at times she
ice. H e her cell, and was saying to her: seemed like a statue in a dream. Then suddenly awakening,
"My child, there are no other proofs against you except she would catch hold of the hand that lay upon her shoulder
the admissions you might possibly have made. Therefore I and kiss it.
1 uponi shall not question you further. Some other time, you can tell The matter of her story’s ending never came up between
me the rest.” them. The judge knew it; he knew that the poison had been
>ut h e r "Some other time?" exclaimed Catherine. “Do you think poured out, that the crime was the consequence of a word
as that we will ever meet again?" like a command which must not be mentioned.
hands "I w ou ld like to see you. Haven't I been kind to you? My One day he asked for a drink.
e sa m e child, I have no right to say it, but I will not only save you “Never,” said Catherine, “shall you eat or drink here.
>was from death, but probably from prison and certainly from Never.”
ne disgrace. Do I not deserve your friendship?” “Don’t you love me?” asked the judge.
"My life,” said Catherine, “is worth so little! And now? “Perhaps I do not love you enough to believe in your
The prison frightened me— but now I am afraid of free­ love.”
dom." “What would you have me do then, my child?”

19 REMY DE G O U R M O N T
 Forget... Do you wish to drink now.” infinite terror: "Z am in Hell?’ Ratbod, king of the Fri,
He did not answer. emerged from the bottom of the abyss, tried to shake
You see?" said Catherine. handcuffs of red-hot iron right in front of the surprise^ T1
— Translated by F.R. Ashfield. officers. Likewise, Count O rloff, released for an i“wtant expec
from his gehenna, thanks to his strange presence in slippy surge

if c. and dressing gown, demonstrated the truth of an inferno birth

St
denied by general incredulousness. And the others, how
many others, momentarily rejected by the abyss, marked
upon the living, upon their furnishings, upon their
H ell In his humble cell, traversed by strange glimmers tapestries, the carbonised tracings o f their fiery fingers, or
** which came neither from the nascent dawn nor else, with a joviality truly dem onic, amused themselves-^
the moribund lamp, the illustrious Heretic wrote. that famous damned one of whom Pierre the Venerable, E arli
At the head of his fleet Monitory, he had set down this Abbot of Cluny, spoke—by returning to sprinkle upon Joys
undeniable aphorism, basis for all truly serious morals: innocent creatures a liquid m ore corrosive than piss, crying
out in voices not devoid o f a certain irony: Behold the coldwafer
HELL EXISTS.
that refreshes us in Hell.
Now, in the red-glowing retorts, he distilled foul sulphurs, o f cc
stirred up in devils' pots, soups of pitch, sauces cooked from Clouds covered the heavens; the humble cell was Coo]
bitumens, measured out rations of boiling oils, drenched in traversed by glimmers which came from neither the veiled ofm
resin, for the birthday illuminations, the blonde hair o f the sun nor the dead lamp. hidd
Well-Beloveds and the beards of Lovers; he poured out vast The illustrious H eretic had leaned his meditating head
upon the table; now suddenly he roused himself and seized o fd
pools o f alcohol where, like lemon slices in a punch,
mor
demoniacs floated, surmounted by green flames; he basted with dolorous cackles, he uttered a few syllables:
seer
skulls rebellious to the eternal Word with molten lead, and
I, TOO, SHALL BE IN HELL
the devoured flesh regenerated magically to sizzle beneath
the immortal rain of fire yet again; here, a terrible chopper ...And hearts fell beneath the infernal millstone, pressed
chopped at the hands o f liars; there, a scraper with a even as grains of wheat.
superhuman mechanism scraped the sterile flesh o f the
foolish virgins from their groaning bones—and their hearts Prt
fell beneath an infernal millstone pressing them even as m c. al
grains of wheat.
hai
The illustrious Heretic, not forgetting the souls, had
hai
burnished, with utmost care, the pitchforks of fear, the Prescience She opened her window: pr<
arrows of remorse, the collars o f anxiety, the hammers of It was a springtime landscape, young, not yet cai
terror, the chains o f shame, the pincers o f desolation. exhausted, a landscape of lingering dawn and expectant
Next, he brought forth proofs. glimmerings—of skies palely blossomed, the reverse ofa sa<
He evoked the sinister damned, the lamentable cadavers brocaded silk, an embroidery of young leafs upon mauve wc
Apearing suddenly and speaking with eyes filled with an tulle...

THE BOOK OF MASKS 20

 P
There was a pause, before the certain exaltation o f a great calmness o f tone and with It-can’t-be-helped-what-
expected glimmerings. Some clarifying thing was about to d’you-expect gestures, there were sobs enough there, though
surge into an impending benediction. The mystic Star gave not quite moving enough to rise to the occasion o f
birth to the Sun o f Love... assaulting his paltry heart...
She closed her window, saying: You should also know that she said, after a silence: “N ow
“And I await The One who will never arrive." I’m all alone. It remains to p ull oneself together, to arrange
one’s life,” and that, so saying, she contorted her arms into
unwonted poses— oh! still beautiful and even relatively
R G. haughty, relatively so as regards inconstant yo uth — her arms
widowed o f the so dearly loved neck she w o uld have had so
much joy in strangling so that it m ight never again subm it to
Earliest W h at do you want with me, shadow of my
the embrace o f arms other— oh, yes! it m igh t be said — than
Joys early Joys, and why do you return to obsess
her own!
me after so many years at this very hour, at the
You should also know th at there w as a real, deep sorrow
final hour?
in her pantomime o f obligatory pretences because, alone
...Perfumes o f lindens and scattered mignonettes, the spell
or not alone, isn’t that the same thing, eh?— an d th at, h ad
of columbines in their mourning colours, fringes of ferns!
she been alone, she would have w allow ed o n th e carpet,
Coolness o f the clear brook beneath the jealous alder trees,
would have got drunk on bitter tears, and w ith “O h G od!”
of mint where the angelic frog with its gentle eyes lies
every other second, and “W h a t’s going to becom e o f me?” in
hidden!...
the intervals, and then, because she’s go t relig io n , w ith
“All that,” the Shade said, “is to remind you of the odour
“Blessed V irgin M ary, bring h im b ack to m e!”
o f the hemlock also, and the supreme hemlock cut off in its
There remains nothing else to k now , save th is, th a t the
morning verdure; to remind you o f the hemlock and its
Poet had plenty o f talent, and th at he m ade verses, verses,
scent... exceptional... criminal...”
“Ah! M y sweet! Such verses! O h! W h a t grace! W h a t charm !
In short, adm it it, they’re good. C aresses, yes really,
R G . inexpressible, caresses, such caresses...”
“T hink,” said the Poet, “th in k o f the p ale abandon...”
And the not-so-young and scarcely p retty w o m an becam e
Prose f o r “T hink,” said the Poet, “think of the pale quite graciously pale at last— lik e a sky glo w in g w ith the
a Poet abandon...” precursors o f tw iligh t w hich fade aw ay to w ards th e pale
2*» You should know that she wasn’t young and tints o f the day’s dying— perfectly, p erfectly w h ite...
hardly pretty— am id the artificial blonde glazing o f the fine Ah! beware o f consoling poets; bew are o f the W o rd , o f
hairs, white streaks were set as in a sky inflamed with the the m agic o f realisations; bew are o f W o rd s th a t rise up and
precursors o f tw ilight, primroses dying amid incandescent live, o f im provised evocations, o f creative in can tatio n s;
cares. beware the logic o f Eloquence; not a ll syllab les are
You should know all that the Poet knew: only this, that a ineffectual.
sad fancy was leaving that no longer young and hardly pretty T h e Poet said:
woman abandoned: “H e no longer loved her!” Ah! even with "T h in k o f the pale abandon o f o ld and s o litary lilies.”

21 REMY DE GOURMONT
 F ro m GFfynj o f f e r tfy * S o r b t l f * f j o l n r a u a t n f t J ^ i r

G o d e s c h a lk s h o M g w f f n l e n e a a , t l j n a r d j a a t e an & ? l p g a n %

In C om m uni a f c n r n e h t i i r g i n a t u ljo I f a u e r i j n a n t Q H jria t f o r

V ir g in u m t l j n r im m n r ta l a p m ia r . — (0 m a r r ia g ? n f f e lir itg

** n n a p n t t e b , m itljn n t tl)e g r a u e p a in a o f r lji liu

b i r t f y , r o it f y n n t a n i j g n - b e t m e e n , a n y t i r r a n m e r o e t - n n r a e .

— Ityen Otyriat leauea tljnr befta, angela, guardian angHa,

rnrlnae tfyem, for fear tfyat inreat intrniiure tta pnllntinn, atth
armei* mitlj nakefc auinrba, roarft nff tlje impure. —JTor it ia
in tfyeae befoa, it ia roitlf tfye Birgina tljat (Elyriat rnmea to
aleep, Ifajjpij Bleep tljat refrealjeB tffe faithful Hirgin rlaapeh in
tlje arma nf tfye irtuine &pnnae... —(Elntljeh in mfjite linen,
rlntlyefo in Purple, in tfyetr left fyani liliea, in tljeir rigljt Ijanh
roars... — Jflomera in mljidf % ffiamb foeliglfta, floroera ilia
only foofc... — 2IJ|r ffiamb plaga anh rnnaf anh Ije Irapa in
tlyeir mi&at, — anb mitfy tljem \\t reata in tlfe mihhag’a feruent
— 3fe (t?a fcoron, at mtdbag, nn tlfeBe Hirgin’a boaoma,
— 3fr makes fyia nest between tlje Hirgin’s breasts, — for, a
uirgin, born of a uirgin, — fye loues anh seeks aboue all
uirginal laps, —mb it is sweet to Ifim to rest Ijis Ijeah on
breasts— so pur* tlyat nothing blemishes or stains His fleere.
— Styis ia tffe rantirle iieMrateh to tl|? bistinguisljeh rollege of
iieuout Birgina; — mag onr fceuotion make of it a furttjer
ornament for tlfe temple of tJ|e S ori.

THE B O O K OF MASKS
 M onsieur Paul Adam is doubtless a precocious talent but
are limits to precocity, above all in an author destined to tell *
life as he sees it and as hefee ls it. It is necessary that the ^
education o f the senses should have the time to perfect itself arij
Paul Adam (1862-1920). Adam’s first,
experience havefortified the spirit in the art o f comparisons ^
naturalist, novel Chair Molle (Soft Flesh) was choices} the association and dissociation o f ideas. A novelist st{H
prosecuted for immorality and earned him a
heavy fine and a suspended prison sentence. has need o f a large erudition and o f ideas o f every sort; which art
Soon after he changed his allegiance to
Symbolism and wrote two books in acquired in a reliableform only slowly\ by chance} by the
collaboration with Moreas, the selection here
being from the First Le Thi cbtz Miranda (Tea at
goodwill o f circumstances and the kindness o f events.
Miranda's) published in 1886. As one of the ...Ill-informed literati have long thought that Adam}s novels
first books of the new movement it was
critically dismissed as the work of madmen (a were like everyone else s. They are quite different. Different in
verdict with which de Gourmont agreed), but
proved influential nevertheless. Two years later style: Paul Adam uses a vigorous language, compact,filled with
Adam pseudonymously compiled a dictionary
of Decadent and Symbolist terminology which images, its novelty even extends to its establishing new syntactical
derived much amusement from the arcane and
obscure vocabulary that he and Moreas had
form s. In observation: his keen eye penetrates things and souls
done so much to promote. His move from like the sting o f a wasp; it reads throughflesh and caskets like
rather socialist beginnings towards the political
right occurred during the next decade and those new photographs.* His imagination allows him to evoke
Eliminated in a spasm of patriotism during
World War I. His literary output increased and bring to life the most diverse, characteristic and personalised
during this period, but his later works are of
little interest. individuals; like Balzac, he has a genius f o r giving these beings
Tea at Miranda’s is d ivid ed up into
"evenings": each begins with a prose poem not ju st a life but also a personality, to make them real
| rather like an overture, printed in italics (here,
He Hague... by Adam) which is followed by a individuals, endowed with a particular soul all their o w n ...
story from each author, here Adam's At the
Railway Station and Moreas' l a Faenza (La Fatruea
Different, lastly, in their inventiveness, an inventiveness not
being the first of these two stories in the
novel).These three texts constitute the novel's
merely linear and neatly laid out asfu rrow s, but an
second evening.
inventiveness which makes even the least o f his works significant.
th<er e
PAUL ADAM
m

ln d
The The Hague, pearl-grey, where closed-upfacades violet spots, with a purple so little violet it is almost mauve. Andthe
and reddish houses peer through thefram es of their blank windows as if
Hague, merge. At the zenith, the white incandescence o f a
K ill through two quadrangular eyes, eyes o f a statue, without pupils.
pearl-grey... pierrot sun has a dusty look. Beside the mirror-
moire o f the lake, heart o f the city, the houses, lined Beneath a glass-case, the Limoges enamels and their electric
:h a r e
up perpendicularly, taper towards the watery depths. wanness, and their stormy skies with the tones o f ruined ink;further
Helmeted with leather, his roundfa ce swarthy and close shaven, off, some historical gentleman’s cane with a Dresden-china handle.
exceptfo r the unique goatee like a paintbrush, afisherman offers live Rembrandt: a yellowish-brown ray that glistens in afantastically
seals to the corpulent tradeswomen. And there, in the hampers, are the brown temple, a yellowish-brown ray in which the hand o f the high
els oblong beasts with their oily sheen; he points out their mouse-coloured priest emergesfrom a dalmatic o f orphrey, where the Virgin appears
in coats and their soft littlefrightened eyes, andfeline moustaches. in azure habit, and SaintJoseph, bearer o f doves.

vith In the depths o f thegreenish-blue landau, dreamy Miranda, out­

stretched, reclines: slender, sexlessforms. She allows one of her hands
The dunes. HiUy, undulating yellownesses; crouching and round
like the croups o f fa t cattle; and squeezed together like a great herd;
ctica l in long chamois gloves to hang outside; the other unravels the last lock innumerable.
o f her blonde plait, blonde as newly-threshed hemp. And the plait The sea. Naked immensity; and it slobbers. Emerald mottling
curves toward her neck, close to her little bloodless ear, where nary a sprawls across its silver skin, like meadows; or sometimes surgesfrom
jewel darts its gleams. But two sapphiresfasten the stiff collar o f her soapy crests that go and overflow.
plush, iron-coloured dress. And, in thefold s o f the pleats, the material And thefirmament curves in above,forever there, a white page
gives o ff glimmers o f clear steely light which encase her like an armour always uncommenced.
ed asfa r as her enigmatic ebumean countenance. Her feet are not visible Miranda alights. She leans upon the arms o f her initiated dear
beneath the brown-bear skin that covers herfrom the knees down. ones, and her rosy lips delight in the rustlingfreshness c f the air; and
Outside the town. Theyouthful birches stand up white upon the her bushy eyebrows, pale,fro w n at the briny slap in thefa ce o f the
red carpet o f the lawns. Afoliage powderises coquettishly on high, and spray. She speaks. Her Elsewhere voice, very low, dominates the
seems to see, and quivers. A sort o f boudoir with multiple white roaring sea.
columns, with red velvet-pile carpets. Without birds. Silently. “...It pleases me that this suits us and that our eyes indulge them­
Inside. The Vyverberg. Its massive trees, which the leafy branches selves to contemplate this mad boiling that wishes always to issue
unite. There, the sun is sifted, drops down, blots the ground with from itself, strives and cannot be... human! Meanwhile yo u read me
the tales in the white Eucholcgy. See how I have invited yo u to the

25 P AU L AD AM
symphony o f the northern “whitenesses” At the Still four minutes.
And this is the white transfiguration o f things. An illuminant Railway The sergeant slipped his ^
risesfrom thefarthest reach o f the waves; and spreads. It blends into Station under his jacket; the other %
° h«
,
and appears through every colour. Even the pearl-grey mists towards **
,
up, swingingto andfro withthe * or.
;
the city it watercolours with lactescent whitenesses. Thefoam of the of the train, forced to steady himself against the
waves seems like splashes <fchalk, and the white glimmers play over cushions o f the compartment. To the accused, P1
the cambered sides o f the tarred ships, the roundnesses of theyards and Professor Lucien Tordel, that announcement of^ be
the masts. They hang heavily upon the sailors’starchedpennants; they approaching station was a relief. Douai, the courtof
dull the silver that shinesfa r away, laid out on the tablecloth of the assizes; that would mean the end of his detentionmu
sunlit sea. remand, and o f his anxieties. Inwardly he goes o v ^ ^
Among the wooden weekend cottages, set in the dunes, whose speech for the defence, repeating to himself the key u
scanty little gardens are wasting away behind the straw matting that sentences that will be his benchmarks. Fully-roun^ w
protects themfro m the sands, there stands a small dwelling with a periods in the manner o f Bossuet, they will resonate ai
peristyle. with power beneath the sonorous ceiling of the
Miranda pushes the wrought-bronzegate open, and bestows a courtroom. They will tell, to begin with, of a mad °
pitying glance on the withering blooms in the minusculeflowerbed. passion for Alice, the wealthy student, the bold hops ^
The interior o f the one large room, all in varnished deal that of the poor private tutor, his deferential timidity. Tim, ^
gleams like lacquer. Frozen dark mirror, with twilight perspectives in the thrust of the narrative will soften with plenty of
which individuals’profiles shrink. tenderness in the substantives, and emotion in the
Some whitefurs, white andgrey of polar monsters, conceal the epithets after the manner o f Zola in his The Sin ofFdtr
floor. Footsteps sink into them. A door-curtain o f white velvet Mouret phase. Lucien Tordel imagines himself already
spangled with silverfalls in pleatsfilled with shadows that shade into declaiming them: pale, righteous in his severe frock-
blue. coat grown grey with wear and tear. And, for the
On the side looking out onto the sea, there is only a plate-glass benefit of the ladies, he will let this slow gesture stray
window,fram ed in snow-white silk. And on some trestles of towards the audience.
varnished deal,furs again, beds o f fu r fo r resting on. As for the jurors, upstairs, self-made men, they too
Miranda removes hergloves, whichfall like slaughtered birds; and will sympathise with the miserable pedagogue's
lie there.
obligatory humility at that point; a dollop of gall, two
or three mordant assertions in the style of Valles.
—And not too much about the abduction. In a few
very simple, concise words he will acknowledge his
¥ guilt: he will ironically stress the technical charge of
“seduction of a minor,” like a man who considers

THE BOOK OF M A SK S 26
human justice a stupidity, inevitable as sudden showers blond side-whiskers rushes forward, grips his friend’s
or... the nonsensical falling o f a tile upon a new hat. hand, crying out:
__For the rest, the conclusion o f his speech, some “Excellent news, dear fellow, charges dismissed."
Proudhon, from any o f his works. This passage will “Eh?"
begin with a masterly rough sketch o f contemporary “Ah, yes. Little Alice had been sleeping with
society: “a mouldiness." He will brand the hypocritical Bergelette, and Bovardy too, you know, the cavalry
reprobation o f free loves; and then he will bring up the lieutenant, the dandy o f dandies. In the search certain
grandiose personification o f Prostitution and Adultery. torrid letters came to light, really hot stuff! You ve no
And the whole thing will conclude with a dilemma, a idea..."
triumphal dilemma posed with hoarseness in his throat, And he related all o f the steps he had taken to obtain
while bringing the handkerchief to his lips with an that search. He went on and on, proud o f his success.
automatic, all but somnambulistic gesture. Lucien Tordel smiled to put a good face on it.
Most certainly, Tordel will not allow old Peyrebrune At the first words that were destroying the order o f
to take charge o f his defence. That talentless, petti- his life, his unique passion, he felt himself outside o f
fogging advocate would stammer out a mass o f obscure things, far removed from everything. Abandoned. The
quibbles. Besides, a condemnation would be profitable: advocate's verbose tittle-tattle concerning his mistress'
the affair would be noised abroad, the press would escapades stupefied him, killed the future for him.
reprint his defence; he would enter into journalism From time to time he protested: “Surely not!" at the
through the front door. Superb prospects. And he more improbable debauches. And soon he was no
would finish Les Veules , his poems. This book will longer listening, the words o f his friend seemed to be
admit him, will make him richer. Alice will share the addressed to someone else. Meanwhile in his breast,
glory with him, the easy life, she who has sacrificed through all his members a nervous tension was rapidly
everything, family, reputation, for his love. Perhaps it becoming aggravated. Close to rage, he spat out:
will be a painful bondage: to trail that woman about “Bloody whore!"
everywhere with oneself) — But no; she has proven And a spasm shook him from his feet to his jaws,
herself intelligent and devoted. — How long before the lodging itself there, in the teeth that he kept clenched.
delights o f their first reunions and the infinite Tordel was broken-hearted at these words and at the
quiverings o f their naked flesh?... wasted effort; and then: despair. After such a scandal,
After a succession o f muffled shuddering shocks, the he would no longer be able to give lessons. It was
train comes to a halt. The sergeant leans out over the poverty, then; or else, after the dismal voyage across the
door; then he warns Tordel: dreary oceans, teaching classes o f piccaninnies, between
“Monsieur Peyrebrune is over there." four white walls, far from art and fame, once and for
Peyrebrune, the great Peyrebrune, the man with the all

27 PAUL ADAM
 But these images very rapidly vanished. He was no if for some enormous effort.
longer thinking about her, with her languid hair, with gBloody whorrre 1”
her childish pout. Others now possessed that beloved He finds relief in those rrs that whistle between his
flesh. H e saw her, the officers' quarters, crushing her clenched teeth. To some extent it is the draining away
mouth against pointed moustaches, and he suffered at of that useless contraction that grips him, tormenting
each position she was obliged to assume, each limb she him.
bared, shameless... glutted, according to the alle­ Within him a drama is playing itself out so intensely
gations... She stood there before him, mocking, on the that the external world seems factitious to him, artifi­
lustreless connecting-rod of the locomotive, among the cial, contrived: the greenery, dull; the trees, blue as in
water that was pissing briskly from the boiler, and she old landscapes; the sky, a false, chimerical light; the
burst out laughing amid the crackling of a lump of coal clinker between the lines, a black daub; the rails, like
that fell and flickered out. dashes of a quill; the tunnels, a pasteboard masonry, a
A rage overcame TordeL It impelled him to thoughts toy.
o f murder. And always the unremitting image of Alice And he forces himself to lead his thoughts elsewhere,
allowing her skirts to be turned up. to escape from the frightful phantasm of his mistress
Peyrebrune was prattling along. An account, now of lying in a swoon on a filthy divan next to a gleeful rake.
the <nn, in which she was caught out. "Bloody whore!”
Lucien is thinking: she took off her corset, un- Then he lingers over discovering faults in her,
i fastening the busk from the bottom up; the crumpled finding her ugly in order to build up for himself
chemise became visib le o n her belly, with her breasts reasons for indifference. She had freckles on her face
peeping out above it. A clean smell, one of elegance, and throat; her brow was wrinkled; but her eyes, but
fills the air and, in that room which he visualises as her hips, but her lips mingling with the moustache of
being completely impregnated by her, he h im self is not an old soldier!
there. An animal in heat; she surrenders h er s e lf to the PeyTebrune is still going on. In the empty immensity
embraces of a man both embarrassed and self-satisfied. of the engine-shed the combative sparrows were
The lover's breast swells and subsides with a painful fluttering, cheeping. A clatter of spanners resounds, the
precipitancy. Evil sweats, flowing from the nape o f his rumble o f a baggage cart and, always, uninterruptedly,
neck, along his back, bathe him. His joints contract the irritating activity o f the electric bell.
mto a bunch, a nervous seizure, a tension o f passion, as — Translated by Andrew Mangravite & Iain White.
 ...arrived in Paris like any other Wallachiatt or Levantine
student\ and alreadyfull of lovefo r the French language,
Monsieur Moreas betook himself to the school o f the Old French
poets, and especially kept company with Jacot de Forest and
Benoit de Sainte-M aureHe wished to take the road to which
every ambitious young man who wants to be a good harper ought
to vow himself; he swore to accomplish the entire pilgrimage: to
date having started out with the Chanson de Saint-Leger,*
he has, it is said\ arrived at the XVLLth Century, and all that in
just ten years: this is not as discouraging as might be believed.
And\ now that the texts are morefamiliar, the road shortens
itself: hencforth few er halts, Moreas will pitch camp beneath
HugoJs old oak tree and, if he perseveres, we shall see him attain
Jean Moreas (I856-I9IO). Moreas, a French-
speaking Greek, wrote the first manifesto of the goal o f hisjourney, which is, without doubt, to catch up with
Symbolism in 1886 for the literary supplement
to Lt Figaro; it gave the slowly forming move­
himself. Then, casting aside the staff, often exchanged and cut
ment a name as well as an attitude. Mor£as' from diverse copses, he will rest upon his own genius and we
poems were more decadent in feeling, he was
often parodied for his use of outlandish shall be able to judge him, if that is our pleasure, with a certain
neologisms, and the manifesto was in part an
attempt to substitute the word Symbolism for confidence. came
Decadence, an epithet he disliked.
All that we can say today, is that Mr. Moreas passionately her h<
After the two novels he co-authored with
Adam (from one of which this story is taken: roun<
see previous biography of Adam) he sought a loves the language and the poetry o f France and that the two off a!
return to the simplicity of classicism by
founding his txoU romant (whose penchant for
sisters with haughty hearts have more than once smiled upon him, soon
galla
the past is so deftly skewered by de Gourmont
in his remarks here). The portrait by Rouveyre
content to see at theirfee t a pilgrim so patient and so chivalrous purs
was drawn a few days before his death and armed with such good-will... of tl

THE BOOK OF MASKS 30

 JEAN MOREAS

Jji Faenza In the world o f the high-life she called Before long every pasha fleeing hanging, every boyar in
herself by the Italianised name o f La the mood to eat up his estate, every flash adventurer
bt Faenza, because o f her complexion which seemed and billiard-hall philosopher having any pretensions to
burnished by the sun o f Naples and her big black eyes the respect o f his fellows, was manoeuvring for the
that would lay you low like blunderbusses from the honour o f depositing handfuls o f golden louis on the
thickets at some godforsaken crossroad o f the Abruzzi. rose marble o f the mantelpiece in her bedroom. She
n She was bom, for all that, in the province o f Indre-et- had her town house, just like an actress with eleven
Loire, where she was married at scarcely sixteen years to hundred francs worth o f income, valets in knee-breeches
a certain Verdal, a respectable attorney and a man o f and coachmen o f an unlikely obesity.
fifty, who, after fourteen months o f married life, left Then a time o f splendour commenced for the
her a widow with a little boy on her hands and in a beautiful La Faenza, that lasted for more than ten years.
thoroughly problematical financial situation. Some It was the old, old story o f all those pretty girls landed
time later, wearied by that sad and monotonous life in up on the streets o f Paris with breasts too large for their
the provinces, haunted by dreams o f luxury and easy slight scruples. In her salon she wore ruinous outfits,
pleasures, she allowed herself to be taken away to Paris extravagant hats, fabrics from the Orient fit to make a
by a sacked sub-prefect, who soon deserted her to shah squint, and in her boudoir, she had Venetian
marry the daughter o f a rich merchant o f the rue du mirrors bordered by gems in which to admire the
Sender. sweeping curve from the majestic small o f her back to
As her twentieth year dawned, her big lively eyes her buttocks. She possessed the very essence o f that
carried hearts away, her hair, without actually touching self-styled Parisian spirit one encounters while sucking
her heels, descended well-nigh past her hips which were crayfish in the stale atmosphere o f the private rooms o f
round and dancing, she had ample occasion to throw expensive restaurants. The young reprobates, anxious to
off all restraint in fashionable cabarets. Her stock was earn their spurs, and the old rakes, jealous o f their hard-
soon priced pretty high on the stock exchange o f won fame, contended for the glory o f paying o ff her
gallantry, and the respectable barons, who so profitably dressmakers' bills, her villas at Nice and her cottages in
pursue the white slave trade under the noses and beards Normandy. In short, in the midst o f all those intoxi­
of the police, were offering golden bargains to her. cations o f her victory, without realising it, she was

31 JEAN MORgAS
 overtaking the sad epoch of obstinate wrinkles, loose
n.
teeth, and the hair that disappears as sadly ks the
autumn leaves. To tell the truth, she really had no Philippe was a handsome young man of nineteen ot champagne an
reason to realise it, for, despite her thirty-four years, her incredible tigl
twenty, with a fine moustache, a young girl’s waists
nonsensical t lH
skin was perfectly smooth and marmoreal, her teeth and the eyes of a dove. Without the least suspicion of Neverthele
were of a whiteness that was insolent, and cascades of the past life of his mother, who invented a thousand the intimacy,
hair intractable to the most murderous combs fell from ingenious lies to explain to him their unduly long between the
a head as charming as that of a virgin by Giorgione. separation, he began adoring her with all the ardour of child that ha
A t this point we recall that La Faenza had had a son a heart closed until then to familiar development La not come at
from her marriage. This child was brought up by an Faenza, for her part, was literally mad about her son since her fli^H
aged aunt. H is mother saw him only once, when he was her beautiful Philippe. seen her soi^|
eight; after that her only concern was to send him some The property where the former courtesan deter­ once she m
m oney in letters filled with that type of false senti­ mined to expiate her litde failings was a charming villa fearful moi
m entality common among whores. The aged aunt, with green shutters about which convolvulus and For her so^H
nasturtiums with bleeding calyxes coiled like serpents. if he was s
wishing to conceal the mother’s conduct from her son,
A small wood, growing wild, enveloped it with anair of one canes
arranged for him to enlist in a regiment stationed in
for a whil
Africa., where, at nineteen, he was a non-commissioned exquisite mystery in its fleeting shadows. In its darlcpfl
retained i
officer. Having distinguished himself during the latest comer, beneath the parasol of a big polonia, the
reserve ai
' uprising there, he was awarded the Military medal, but twittering of the green woodpeckers mingled with the
M ada
unhappily his wounds obliged him to leave the army. tinkling of the water a nymph’s urn poured out intothe in her w ;
At the news, La Faenza felt hers e lf m oved by a subtle litde marble basin gnawed at by moss and yellow silk dres
and immeasurable maternal affection, and she resolved lichens. of aravi
to renounce the pleasures of paid love in order to For many months the mother and son led a sweet plaits as
consecrate the remainder of her existence to the and peaceful life there. They did all the litde nice powder
happiness of that abandoned child. Having sold her things for each other, beside excessive endearments bours i
town house, her jew els and her carriages, she withdrew interspersed with make-believe sulking, perhaps to a their es
to Touraine, to a property offered to her years before ridiculous degree. La Faenza had completely forgotten and ye
by a rightist deputy. And so La Bella Faenza became about her former existence: the grandstands at the races connet
once more Madame Verdal, the widow of an honest and the pit-tier boxes at the little theatres, the climbing
attorney, the mother of an exemplary family, a pious trips in the Pyrenees and the yachting parties at
and charitable lady.
Trouville, the lavish dinners in her splendid town
house in the Parc Monceau, and the litde suppers in
small, fashionable restaurants, where the carafes of
 cham pagn e and chartreuse o f all colours made her not bad looking, to tell the truth, for the daughters o f a
incredible tight-fitting costumes seem even more notary— were certainly the foremost.
nonsensical than was natural. The Mouflets’ eldest daughter, Mademoiselle
Nevertheless, in spite o f all their mutual affection, Clementine, would have been extremely pretty without
the intimacy, that intimacy free and full o f abandon, those odious dresses o f gosling-shit-green vicuna from
between the mother who has spanked her child and the the shop o f some subprefectural W orth. Two great big
>f child that has grown up around his mother's skirts, did startled eyes beneath a helmet o f hair o f a becoming
not come about. And that was natural. As we know, chestnut colour; and, with that, a seventeen-year-old’s
since her flight with the sub-prefect, La Faenza had bosom that had the air o f intending to keep promises.
seen her son only once while he was still a brat. All at The ex-courtesan and the notary’s family often
once she met him again as a tall young man with a visited one another to take cups o f tea, to play innocent
fearful moustache and a martial scar across his temple. games and twist a few opera-arias out o f shape on
For her son, the mother was a stranger; it was almost as more-or-less out-of-tune pianos. Philippe, who had not
if he was seeing her for the first time. That being so, learned to be particular about matters o f dress in his
one can easily understand why they were rather hesitant hunting-grounds at Koumir, found Mademoiselle
if
for a while to speak to each other in familiar terms and Clementine's gosling-shit-green dress strong for his
retained in their relations with each other an inscrutable taste, everything in him preferring to it the treasures
reserve and an unnecessary politeness. that it concealed. Mademoiselle Clementine, for her
Madame Verdal had cast o ff La Faenza, the hetaera part, did not feel an insurmountable aversion to his
in her was definitely dead. Her attire was severe: black brown moustaches. Needless to say the Mouflets daily
silk dresses with jet trimmings. A few rings and earrings discovered new qualities in the only son o f a mother
of a ravishing modesty. She adopted centrally parted enjoying an income o f five thousand livres. Thus they
plaits as her hairstyle and used a modicum o f rice chastely courted, under the eyes o f La Faenza, who
powder as her make-up. One supposes that the neigh­ suspected nothing. One evening in July, the entire
bours in the countryside had not been able to refuse her Mouflet clan found itself assembled in the ex-
their esteem, so alike were they in modes o f conduct courtesan's dining-room. After some polkas tapped out
and yearly income. Among the ex-courtesan's good by the youngsters, and some trifling exchanges o f con­
connections, the Mouflet family— versation, the scrivener proposed, in view o f the insup­
comprising the father Evariste Mouflet, a venerable portable heat o f the atmosphere, a stroll beneath the
notary and an insipid provincial touched by a mania for cooling foliage o f the garden. Everyone accepted with
subterfuge, the mother, Olympe, a decent and respected alacrity.
woman, who had taken as lovers no more than three or The evening was superb. The full moon was shining
four o f her husband's clerks, and their three daughters, like a fantastic louis d’or in the cloudless sky. They

33 JE AN MORIrAS
 scattered through the paths where, now and the* some indignant tirade.
glow-worms perhaps sparkled. Philippe remained standing there, wild-eyed,
La Faenza had been searching several minutes for her uncomprehending. prorr
son, when she thought she made out two shadows silk J
La Faenza went back into the house in a state of
with
intertwined upon a stone bench in the darkest comer of indescribable exasperation. She wept, sobbed, roll^ m od
her garden. She paused, watchful. It was really as if the about in the carpet, foaming at the mouth. Then,
sound of kisses were mingling with the plashings of the suddenly, rising, she began kissing her son full 0nthe pom
water falling into the marble basins. Holding her lips, all the while laughing like a madwoman; with
breath, she advanced almost to the bench itself, behind entw
a hedge of red rose-bushes. Her son Philippe was with
engaged in murmuring the sweetest things in on v
After a few days of sulkiness, the mother and son were Perl
Mademoiselle Clementine's ear.
reconciled, with a renewal of tenderness. And ev<ety day ince
A strange sentiment then invaded the ex-courtesan s
there were long walks through the fields, from which thei
heart; she experienced a moment of vertigo; then the tru i
pupils of her eyes dilated and, choking with rage, they returned like last night's lovers, their hands full 0f
C
starting up to her full height in front of the poor, bunches of broom. In the morning they would go off
She
totally bewildered lovers, she addressed Mademoiselle for hours at a time, on horseback, in the woods, andin
on’
Mouflet in virulent terms: the evenings they would go sculling with a canoe on the “T 1
__She certainly was stupid not to have noticed long calm waters of a nearby pond in the romantic hail
( ago that they'd been coming here to steal her son. And moonlight. And here's something odd! Since the w it
on top of that she'd been forking out her money to feed incident in the garden, a noticeable change had taken bar
a corrupt notary and his street-walker daughters. And place in La Faenza's habits. Breaking with the severe
as for Ma Mouflet, why, she was only a good-for- attitude she had adopted since her conversion, she cast sur
nothing who bedded with her domestics! Everybody in aside the honest woman’s inelegant frock to dress again dyi
the countryside knew about it. They’d better not, all in ruinously expensive fabrics in startling colours, fin
those stoney-brokes, ever set foot in her house again; ostrich-plume hats, and very long doeskin gloves. The its
she'd chase them from her doorstep with a broom.... gems she hadn't wished to part with were taken out up
Completely forgetting herself in her rage, Madame once more from their garnet-red velour caskets to
W
Verdal again became what she formerly had been and br»
adorn her fine long hands and her regal neck. Rice
crushed the Mouflet family, drawn to the scene by the
ha
powder no longer sufficed her as an embellishment and
gls
noisy dispute, with the filthiest possible invectives. she recalled the subtle tints and the precious aromatics
Mouflet led his wife and his frightened-to-death that confer youth. She took particular care regarding thi
daughters away, after having responded with an the choice of her undergarments, in the deceitful

T H E B O O K OF MASKS
 T

promises of which she was an expert: antique lace on mother?”

silk chemises, pale rose pink stockings with bows or Then she would laugh, peals of laughter that made
ivith diamonds darting fire from their facets. The the burnished splendour of her teeth shine like those of
m odest furniture of her boudoir and bed-chamber was a wild beast. Casually, entwining, sinuous and feminine,
completely changed. Calling to mind again the exciting she would seat herself on Philippe's knees, while he,
pomp of her courtesan's alcove, she surrounded herself flustered and with unconscious lasciviousness filling his
with low-built and softly velvety furnishings that eyes, barely dared to look at her. After having spent
entwined one like voluptuous arms, with Syrian fabrics, some minutes twirling her son's moustaches, kissing his
with Karamanian carpets, and with striped tiger skins lips and his carefully waved hair, she would wallow on
on which naked feet frisked, offered for vibrant kisses. the tiger-skin rug that pointed the way to her bed,
Perfumes smouldered continuously in the richly carved crunch a few biscuits, swallow a glass of port at a gulp;
incense-bumers and armfuls of white roses mingled then, with the leap of a gazelle, she would bound be­
their last exhalations with the indifference of the tree tween the sheets, bordered in brodtrie anglaise, she would
trunks in the lofty fire-place. deliciously close her glossy eyelids, with long and
Outfitting her son also occupied her enormously. shivering eyelashes, saying with a faint movement of
She would say: "This isn't chic," or, "That looks good her lips:
on you;” "This frock-coat wrinkles down the back,” or, "Off you go to bed, Monsieur, it’s late and I’m
"That jacket has a nicely snug fit.” She would part his sleepy!”
hair and pomade his moustache, just as she had done When Philippe’s nerves and his poor little heart
with her lovers in the days when she was kept by obese finally revolted, their tranquillity was definitively
bankers. ruptured. He frequently left the house before dawn, on
Sometimes at evening, in the late hours, she would a restive horse, over the meadows, without knowing
summon him to her bed chamber, and there, in the quite where his reckless ride might take him, or he
d yin g lig h t o f the pink wax candles, her sculptural would go shooting wild duck for days on end in the
fingers scarcely sh ield ed b y th e cambric chemise with typhoid-infested marshes. Nervous, temperamental and
its im p u d en t scooped neckline, planting herself bolt irritable, for some time he had tried to find ridiculous
upright before th e tall mirror o f her d resser made from reasons for an argument with his mother, saying that
West Indian hardwood and jutting out her dazzling this life of idleness had finally begun to get on his
breasts and the insolent curve o f her statuesque nerves, that it was shameful for a young man o f his age,
haunches, she would speak to her son, with insinuating that he would certainly return to his regiment! T hen
glances: there would be touching scenes, tears, pardons begged
"Don't you think that I'm still beautiful? Don't you for, protestations of filial love, followed by long
think that you'd be mad about me if I weren't your caresses and swooning kisses on the mouth.

35 JEAN MORgAS
 V.
you've turned my head... As if you don’t desire me
Take a good look at me, I'm as beautiful as I was ^
That day they had dined— it was a whim of La twenty. But then there's morality! Ah, morality! 11*
Faenza s— in the little boudoir, hung with mauve satin. at it myself! And besides, you don’t know; your auntf
A sad twilight palely filtered through the panes of the kept everything from you... I have been... kept; rVeL
narrow window. La Faenza had said: "Don’t let’s light what's called a tart! All of my income, and yours, Conw
the candles, this half-light is very pleasant.” She fell from that... So you really might not have the right to^
silent, with a vague frown. Scents of magnolia hung in so scrupulous. We are both in the mire, Philippe, let’s
the heavy air. She lit a Dubeque cigarette, he his simple stay there...”
soldier’s pipe. Nearly ten minutes passed in an embar­ He stared at her stupefied. She went on, more and
rassed silence. more possessed:
La Faenza spoke without turning her head: "You've seen me in my chemise, you know that I
"Are you worried?” have superb breasts that princes have paid their weight
"N o ”g| in gold for... W e’ll be happy, my Philippe, don't you
A few more minutes of silence. Suddenly, tensing her want that? Oh! I'll love you, and we’ll die together... of
limbs in a supreme effort, La Faenza fell at her son's loVe..;”
knees and, embracing him frantically, she said to him, She threw herself upon her son with the frenzy of a
almost upon his lips: Maenad, and, carrying him with her in her vigorous
"Philippe, you don’t love me!” arms, she tumbled with him onto the chaise longue,
He kissed h er on the head without responding. panting the intoxication of her breath into his face. He
Then, with an abrupt jerky movement, she rose, paced felt himself lost in voluptuous annihilation. Then,
the room feverishly; then, stopping short, she said in a suddenly, disengaging himself from that embrace witha
hollow voice: desperate spasm of his will, standing erect and
"Oh! my God, how awful this is! I must finish it. stiffening his hams, he looked about him wild-eyed.
Listen to me, Philippe; you see it, you sense it, I love La Faenza completely beside herself, threw herself
you; and it isn’t a mother’s love that I have for you, but once more at her son. Then, his features contracted, his
that o f a woman in love, o f a mistress, do you under­ lips frightfully clenched, Philippe seized a Japanese
stand? Oh yes— I want you and you will be mine!” dagger whose slender blade glittered upon a round
She giggled like a madwoman, then began anew: pedestal table with bizarre inlays, and struck her a
I m your mother— and what o f it? A fine affair/ Is it violent blow in the throat.
that I know you? I’ve only seen you once when you She fell upon the carpet, without a cry, gushing
were seven; you are a stranger to me, a nice boy, and torrents o f blood.
 ;
Monsieur Bloy is a prophet. He took cart in his writings, to certify himself as suchfor us-
am a prophet. ” He was able to add: and a pamphleteer as well... The prophet makes hearts
bleed; the pamphleteerflays skins; Bloy is afla yer o f skins.
Not an elegant torturer who, Roman or Chinese, decorticates a breast, a cheek, removes
half a scalp, in accordance with the science of animal pain; but a butcher who, after a circula
slash, tears away the entire hide, like a tight dress. Many of his victims, still alive, still cry fljj Salamander
as loudly as at the moment when the tender robe of flesh was rippedfrom them; the man is The
perfectly naked and, through the transparency of his second skin we see the double cloaca ofa Vampire
putrefied heart. Deprived of their hypocrisy, men peeled in this way truly appear as over-rip
Barbarians, who
fruits. The vintager-time hasgone by; all they aregoodfo r now is the dung~hill....
o f their outstand
The pamphleteer has need ofa style. Bley has a style. He hasgleaned the choicest seeds little river near C
from thegarden of Barbey d’Aurevilly andfrom Huysmans’ little plot, but the spruce has H aving excavate
grown—sown in that earth of metaphors^—into a mightyforest that scales the summits, and shaft, they laid t]
the pungent pink, into afield glittering with magnificent poppies. Bloy is one of thegreatest w ith a quantity c
creators of images that the earth has bom; that anchors his work, as a rock anchors the shifting allowed the wate
soil; thatputs his thoughts in relief like a chain of mountains. He lacksfo r nothing to be a assure the secrec
very great writer exceptfo r two ideas, because he only has one: the theological idea. the prisoners wb
1 Leon Bloy (I846-I917). Characterised by T he instinct c
Monsieur Bloy’s genius is neither religious, nor philosophical, nor humane, nor mystic:
Philippe Jullian as “the Catholic polemicist that, fifteen cent
who shuddered with horror while reading Monsieur Bloy ’s genius is theological and Rabelaisian. His books are as if written by Saint repeated among
Lautreamont” and yet created tales that are "a Thomas Aquinas in collaboration with Gargantua. They are scholastic and gigantic, eucha- but strangely de
literary counterpart to Antoine Wiertz’s ristic and scatological, idyllic and blasphemous. No Christian can accept them, but no atheist childishness o f t
pictures."*
Leon Bloy was one of those writers who can rejoice in this. When he insults a saint, it isfo r his mildness, orfo r the innocence i f his cudgels o f all its
vividly embodied the paradoxical nature of charity, or the poverty of his literature... But it befits a prophet to grant himself immunities: pedants could n
"Decadence.” He remained a devout, rather he allows himself to blaspheme, but only out of an excess of charity. Prussia’s slavi
stiff-necked, Roman Catholic even when the imported into F
content of his stories verged on the Luciferian: Monsieur Bloy’s blasphemies are, in any case, of a perfectly Baudelairean beauty, and he
bum -bailiff infa
an illustration of Mario Praz's contention that himself says: "Who knows, after all, if the most activeform of adoration is not blasphemy out
"Sadism and Catholicism, in French Decadent their origins.
literature, became the two poles between which
o f love, which might be the prayer o f the abandoned?” H ow many ti
the souls of neurotic and sensual writers ...It is unfortunate that Bloy’s theological notions are not discussed anymore; they are how it could be
oscillate.'”* very badly worn
curious because i f their vain tendency toward the absolute. Vain, because the absolute is the
Bloy’s two great collections of stories are
profound peace in the depths o f the silent immensities, it is thought contemplative of itself, it is were plainly ma
Histoires desohhgeantes (1894) and Sueur du Sang
in their saddles
'1892), from which the present tale is taken. unity.

39 l £o n B
THE BOOK O F MASKS 38
 LEON BLOY

Salamander It is said that after the death o f Alaric, Some have claimed that they were tied there, others
He the Goths mourned him as a hero of that their comrades carried them away. This much is
Vampire their nation and that in accordance certain, that these savages had the inexplicable power to
with the custom o f the Northern conceal their dead and their wounded from us. If straps
Barbarians, who lavish great attention upon the tombs were fitted to their saddles, we would expect that these
of their outstanding men, they diverted the course of a served to secure the rider in such a way that, even if his
litde river near Cosenza as part o f his funeral rites. mount fell, the man would be instantly freed. I recall
Having excavated in its bed a grave resembling a well- that this deceptive and complicated business o f stirrup
shaft, they laid there the corpse o f their king, together leathers was called, at the time, the Prussian question.
with a quantity o f treasure, filled in the hole and then It has been asserted that they burned their dead. I
allowed the waters to resume their natural course. To have never seen this, and I doubt that at any time
assure the secrecy o f the tomb, they cut the throats of during the war, these odious brutes who so efficiently
the prisoners who had been employed in this task. burned our wounded and our old people would have
had the leisure or the means to extend such Teutonic
The instinct o f that race has so little changed such
practices to themselves.
that, fifteen centuries later, we have seen similar scenes
But frequendy, when they were unable to carry o ff
repeated among us, stripped o f all grandeur, to be sure,
their dear departed, they certainly did inter them in the
but strangely demonstrative o f a certain leaden
manner of Alaric, with every imaginable reverence and
childishness o f that Germanic people which all the
all the sense of mystery that can inform such brains;
cudgels o f all its masters and the prattling o f all its
burying them, for instance, between two apple-trees in
pedants could never make more manageable.
which they would make an incision, in the hope o f
Prussia's slaves, mechanically disciplined, have
being able, a litde later on, to recover their precious
imported into France, in the baggage trains o f their
carrion.
bum-bailiff infantry, the most age-old mustiness of
Many a stray dog knew the miracle o f tracking down
their origins.
and devouring them, scratching at the earth o f those
How many times have we asked ourselves in vain
shallow graves.
how it could be that uhlans, evidently slain or at least
very badly wounded by our marksmen, whose paths
There was, among us, a man we had adorned with
were plainly marked in drops o f blood, should remain
the ironic nickname o f the Salamander, because he was
in their saddles and vanish?
half-burned.

39 L^ON B LO Y
 I do not suppose Ish all ever see a more apalhng face.
that horrible cretinoid bastard Steinmetz, who wished
Before encountenng him, I had not been aware that the
thus to revenge himself upon them, in advance, for tL
Physiognomy o f a living being could express so much regin
splendid drubbing he received that infallibly forced paint
hatred, so much hopelessness, and could so well upon him a foolish waste of his own troops. o f bu
duplicate the faces o f those who had fallen into “the I do not know w hether it is easier to picture it to A
nre that dieth not." oneself or to describe such a horror. O ur Salamander, joyot
T hey told the story, in almost hushed tones, of this who had been its witness and its victim , having only Ai
unfortunate who had been listed as missing from the with great difficulty escaped the supreme penalty, coul<
first corps o f volunteer riflemen, of how he never would at times interrupt his grim m onastic silence to claril
forgot having seen his wife and daughter raped and speak from the depths in w hich he cloistered his soul. T
murdered by a gang of fifty German louts quartered in Then he spoke a few very brief words that made to es
his farmhouse in Morsbronn, the same evening as the one's hair stand on end, but the stigmata which his imag
body displayed were even more eloquent than his sepu
grievous battle of Froeschwiller.
silences. atro<
Through a thoroughly Prussian refinement that
He had been able to save his eyes, now lacking axle-
Bismarck himself had applauded, he was bound to the
eyelids and resembling two spikes o f dark metal thrust o f tl
fo o t o f the bed. A punishment for the enormous crime of
into two bloody swellings; but his nose, his lips and phai
having faded to speak respectfully to one of these
bandits. He had to go on living with that in his heart!.. ears: all were gone, and three quarters o f the face was
blackened, carbonized, as if a paintbrush of burning S
Twelve days later, at Saint-Privat, he fought many
lava had passed over him. bare
hours like a man gone berserk, and was the cause of
had
that great cry of sorrow which arose from the midst of It had been necessary to amputate three fingers of his
amc
the Germans, when they saw the interminable rush of left hand, and his chronic limp, complicated by bizarre
verj
blood ebbing from their dead. tics, led one to suppose that the rest o f his body had
nigl
Struck by a ball a few moments before the close of also sustained the crudest familiarities of the fire­
den
that terrible day, and cast at random into the church brand.
I
where our wounded were piled high, it was his destiny He used to say, “I was browned in the grease of anc
to be one of the miraculous survivors of the nameless those poor buggers.” wa
catastrophe that the military historians have feared to For the fire had ended by setting light to that mass the
recount, and for which a whole people will one day of human corpses upon whom the burning timber-
have to answer, when sacred Justice makes an work fell... SOI
appearance. And were those terrifying flames touched off by jets ass
MarechaTs hasty retreat not having permitted the of petrol, as at Bazeilles? God alone knows. vo
evacuation of this temporary field-hospital, the three or Nevertheless, the Germans were old hands at this, and
four hundred poor devils abandoned to the mercy of it is an unspeakable blot upon their armies, a shame not us
the conquerors were condemned to be burned alive by cc
seen since the days of the Byzantine Empire, that
 regim en ts o f Baden or Bavaria, armed with cans and who would be heard weeping softly for the rest o f the
paint brushes soaked in petrol, were assigned the task night. It issued from him like a black flower, a gloomy
0f burning down buildings or enclosures... tuberose o f melancholy that suffocated us...
A profitable lesson which was not lost upon the Very mild, in other respects, as soon as he no longer
joyous Communards o f 1 8 7 1 . saw Prussians, a good-natured spectre and an excellent
At all events, the unfortunate village o f Saint-Privat soldier who never grumbled; we accepted the moral and
could easily be pillaged, all night long, in the white physical oppression o f his redoubtable presence out o f
clarity o f that terrifying lamp o f sorrow. pity as much as out o f fear. The fact is, he was not a
The Salamander, so called because he had been able nuisance and passed the hours, immobile, seated on the
to escape an agony whose horror flouts the ground, his chest pressed into his drawn together knees
imagination, had managed to shelter himself in a sort o f and his face lost in the hollow o f his two arms.
sepulchral vault where the inferno pursued him in the One o f his compatriots explained that he had been a
atrocious form o f fiery liquids— mineral oil or human worthy man, a respectable husbandman, loving his wife
axle-grease, he was unable to say— and in the darkness and his daughter as a fanatical bonze loves his idols;
of that place, The Pit, it calcified for him his and, having been himself transformed into a phantom,
phantasmagoric face. he now chattered familiarly with their phantoms.
I have often asked myself what could life, country,
So hardy a cripple was he, that four months had even God have meant to one as profoundly wretched as
barely gone by when this man, whom death evidently he...
had not wanted at any sort o f a price, found himself
among us in the capacity o f a volunteer. He was really W e only found out when it was too late— and
very g o o d ! As good as any o f us, especially during the everything was over— how complete a spectre he was,
night attacks, when the sudden looming up o f his when we discovered that our Salamander was a
demonic face often caused a panic. passionate despoiler o f graves.
His sole intact hand was, I believe, as good as ten Having lived for several months with only his hatred
and it seemed to multiply itself. Unsuited to the various o f the Germans to sustain him, nothing was able to
ways o f handling a rifle, it was none the less, the best in assuage this unique passion, not even their deaths, on
the world for knifings or bludgeonings. which he lavished care, and which he knew how to
At those times his macabre mouth would open in a prolong under certain circumstances. Even these deaths
sort o f laugh that did not spread to the rest o f us, I barely satisfied him.
jets assure you, and he would cry out hysterically and He wished that he might have the power to lay
voluptuously, like a lover. hands on that which does not die, that which some call
When his pleasure was exhausted and it was time for their immortal soul— if, that is, it were possible that
nd
not us to withdraw from combat, nothing, but nothing, such brutes might possess one.
could convey an idea o f the sadness o f the unfortunate Unable to evoke the fluid spirits o f the dead before

LlrON B L O Y
40
 his executioners heart by supernatural means, he turned During the especially fierce combat waged int}u
his attention to their corpses, horribly persuaded that environs of the unfortunate little town of Believe •
the Requiescant in pace is not an idle formula, and that he the departement o f the Ome, the Prussians, having ^
could, in some way, torment the dead by defiling their one of their youngest and best-loved officers die, J^j
tombs. contrived to bury him clandestinely, according to^
In any case, this way he had the possibility of custom, in a wooden trough, found in a peasant's pig
inflaming the grief of those who had survived them, sty.
and wept for them. They laid him in this bizarre coffin, his sword athis
Among the evidence gathered after the extermination side, and beside him, on the bare earth, as if to guard
o f the vampire are details that are such as to defy his body for eternity, a simple soldier killed the same
understanding. day. The soil of the double tomb was carefully tamped
They found bundles of papers on him, plundered down, and the emplacement marked with the greatest
from the corpses, and letters in his own hand that precision.
might well have been posted from helL These letters, Two months after the signing of the armistice, three
composed in the mournful style o f funeral Germans came before dawn to visit the funereal spot
announcements and almost too disgusting to touch, and discovered, by the side of the open grave—which
informed the mothers, the widows, the children, the was emitting an unbearable odour—the Salamander
friends or the fiancees, living in Germany, of certain crouching over the two corpses, which he had
sacrilegious acts in flicted in the darkness upon the mutilated, sneering at their putrefaction.
wretched disinterred bodies of their dearest ones, Teterrimafacies daemonumL. The apparition of this
accord in g to the satanic discernm ent o f this ghoul... frightful face, in such circumstances, in such an hour
Naturally, he knew of the Gothic custom of secret and in such a place, must have been terrible for these
inhumations of which I have spoken, and he had a barbarians, since the physician declared that one ofthe
jackal's flair fo r rootin g ou t such buried treasures. Germans had died on the spot from a ruptured
He died in his sin, at the commencement of the aneurism.
armistice, his existence no longer having any object. As for the other two, they bravely gave of everything
"What's the g o o d o f hanging on now?" h e said to they had of the blood in their veins—and their bodies,
him self. pierced repeatedly, were only with the greatest
difficulty separated from the spasm-wracked corpse of
This is how we have, by means of induction or Salamander the Vampire.
deduction, p ieced togeth er the facts concerning his fate:

THE BOOK OF MASKS 42

 A w riter's talent is often only the terrible ability to retell the
eternal clam ourings o fa m ediocre hum anity in phrases that see*
beautiful and eternal; even gen iu ses and m en o f gigantic talent
like Victor H ugo or Adam de Sain t-V ic tor w ere destined to offlt 'The fr a c ta l
J s fa r clsw s
u s an admirable m usic whose gra n d eu r conceals immense deserts
(T h eory o f
o f vacuity; their souls are like the unformed\ docile soul o f the the Sym bol)
sands or o f a crow d; they love ; they dream , they crave loves,
and uncom
dreams, the desires o f every man and beast; poets} they cry out priests pon
m agnificently that which is not w orth the effo rt o f being thought fathomed t
Andre Gide (I869-I95I). This early text by the need to
Gide (1892), previously untranslated, is simul­
of upon the nr
taneously an exegesis and demonstration of The human species, w ithout doubt ; in its entire aspect ofa hive Thus th<
Symbolist theories of literature. Though a little
beautiful, ant
flawed by youthful enthusiasm, it is a coura­ or colony\ is only p re-em in en t over the bison species or that of the
geous attempt to explain the more hermetic because he wo
concepts that underline Symbolist ideas: kingfisher ; because w e are a p a rt o f it; here and there man is a where, peacef
Platonist influences being particularly evident.
sad automaton; but the superiority o f m an lies in thefa c t that he You know
Although Narcissus is dedicated to Paul Valery
it is more influenced by MaHarmean concepts, already be
in particular his “Garden of Ideas." Pierre
is able to arrive at consciousness: a sm all num ber attain it, To always be
Louys introduced Gide to Mallarm£ in 1891 a cq u irefu ll consciousness o f self j is to know on eself so much
and he became an enthusiastic disciple,
Now t
attending his famous weekly soirhs in which d ifferen t fr o m the others that one is no longer conscious o f men
Symbolist doctrine was elaborated. This text, mirrored
and the one following it, by Claudel ( and except through p u rely anim al contacts: and y e t among souls of then, bin
perhaps even the final piece by Saint-Pol- himself t
Roux), attempt an evocation, rather than a this degree there is an id ea lfra tem ity based upon differ­
definition, of the essence of Symbolist thought. useless r
Gide's abandonment of Symbolism dates ences— w hile the socia lfra tern ity is based upon resemblances. questioi
from his trip to Tunisia in 1895, although its form hi
influence pervades many of his works, in This complete consciousness o f on eself can be called the origin
excessh
particular Paludes and Lc Voyage dVriau Gide's
subsequent literary career hardly needs
nality o f the sou l— and all o f this is only to poin t out that group her pro
recapitulation here.
o f rare beings to w hich A ndre Gide belongs...
 ANDRE GIDE

The Tractate Perhaps books are not all that Ah! not to know whether one loves oneself!... not to
Narcissus necessary; originally a few myths know her beauty! I merge into this landscape without
(’Theory o f sufficed; a religion contained them paths, that does not contrast its planes. Ah! Curse this
the Symbol) all complete. The people, amazed inability to see oneself! A mirror! a mirror! a m irror! a
& at the appearance o f these fables, mirror!
and uncomprehending, worshipped them; the attentive And Narcissus, who does not doubt that his form
priests pondered the depths o f these images, and slowly may be somewhere, rises and goes in search o f the
fathomed the inner meaning o f the hieroglyph. Then wished-for contours wherewith to envelop his great
the need to explain them was felt; books have enlarged soul.
upon the myths— but a few myths sufficed. Narcissus has halted at the edge o f the river o f time.
Thus the myth o f Narcissus: Narcissus was perfectly Fatal, illusory river in which the years pass by and flow
beautiful\ and that is why he was chaste; he scorned the Nymphs, away. Simple banks, like a rough frame in which the
because he was smitten with himself. No breath troubled the spring, water is set, like a sheet o f plate glass; where nothing
where, peacefully reclining, all day long he contemplated his image... could see behind itself; where, behind, em pty ennui
You know the story. But we tell it still. Everything has might spread itself. A dreary, lethargic canal, an almost
already been said; but since nobody listens, it must horizontal mirror; and nothing to distinguish this dull
always be repeated. water from the colourless ambience, if one did not
sense its flow.
Now there is neither bank nor spring; neither From a distance, Narcissus has taken the river to be a
mirrored flower nor metamorphosis; there is nothing roadway, and as he is bored, all alone in all this
then, but Narcissus alone, dreaming and holding greyness, he draws near in order to watch things pass
himself aloof in the greyness. He is uneasy in the by. Now, his hands upon the frame, he leans over, in
useless monotony o f the moment, and his restless heart his traditional pose. And, as he watches, a slender
questions itself. He wants at last to know the exact appearance suddenly dapples itself upon the water.
form his soul possesses; he senses that she must be Flowers on the banks, trunks o f trees, reflected
excessively adorable, he judges this to be so because of fragments o f blue sky, a flight o f rapid images that only
her protracted trembling; but her face! her appearance! awaited him in order to be, and that take on colour

45 ANDR6 GI DE
 beneath his gaze. Then hills open up and forests space Chaste Eden/ Garden of Ideas! where forms,
themselves out across the slopes of the valleys: visions rhythmic and certain, revealed their number on 1
that undulate in accord with the water's flow, that the effortlessly; where everything was as it appeared; whctt so fi
waves diversify. Filled with wonder, Narcissus watches; to prove was pointless. ' ther
but hardly comprehends because, whether his soul Eden! where melodious breezes undulated in thin
guides the stream or the stream itself is the guide, they anticipated curves; where the sky stretched out blue kno
balance each other out. above symmetrical lawns; where birds were the colour one
of time and b u tterflies on flowers created providential whc
Where Narcissus watches: it is the present. From the
harmonies; where the rose was pink because the rose- alw:
more distant future, things, still potential, hurry toward
chafer, who happened to land on it, w as green. mo1
being; Narcissus sees them, then they pass; they flow id —
into the past. Narcissus soon d isco v ers that it is always Everything was as perfect as a number and scannedlike
a poem; an accord emanated from the rapport of its /
thus. He questions; then ponders. The same forms his
always pass by; only the surge of the wave differs. Why lines; a constant symphony hung over the garden.
several? or indeed, why the same? It is because they are At the centre of Eden, Yggdrasil, the logarithmic
imperfect that they alw ays b e g in anew... and, he thinks tree, plunged its roots of life into the soil, and spread
to h im s e lf, all striv e fo r a nd seek an original, now-lost across the lawn the thick shadow of its foliage where
-JV
form, cr y sta llin e an d paradisiac. only Night lay extended. In the darkness the book of spn
Narcissus d rea m s o f paradise. Mystery, in which the truth that must be known may gro,
be read, lay propped against its trunk. And the wind, too
breathing all day long into the leaves of the tree, spelled shn
out the necessary hieroglyphics. up
Religious, Adam listened. Still unsexed, unique, he a n<
Paradise was n o t vast; ea ch form , p erfect, b lossom ed
lived seated in the shadow of the great tree. Man! wh
th ere o n ly o n ce; and all w ere con ta in ed in a garden. I f it
Hypostasis ofElohim, instrument of Divinity! for him, bo<
was, i f it was n ot, to us what matter? But it was as it
was, if it was. E verything th ere crystallised in to a through him, forms appeared. Motionless and central
n ecessa ry b lossom in g, and every th in g wasn p e r fe ctly as amid all this enchantment, he watches that which doi
it o u g h t to be. E verything rem ain ed motionless, unfolds. clo
because nothing w ish ed to b e better. Calm gravitation But he, ever an obliged spectator at a spectacle where
he has no role other than to watch, grows weary. He in j
alone earned out the revolution of the whole.
knows that everything is for him—-but himself... he des
And, since no momentum ceases, in the Past or in
never sees himself. But what, then, does all the rest hal
the Future, Paradise was not becoming: it simply and
forever was. matter to him? Ah! To see himself! Certainly he is wh
po;
powerful, since he creates and the entire world hangs

THE B OO K OF MASKS
 on his glance— but what does he know o f his power, in recreate through herself the perfect being and there to
so far & re111**115 unaffirmed? By dint o f contemplating limit that breed, will cause the unknown-one o f a new
where them, he no longer distinguishes himself from these race to stir in her womb, and soon a new being will
things: not to know where one stops— not even emerge in time, still incomplete, and which will not
knowing where one goes! Because finally it is slavery, if suffice unto itself.
lue
one dares not risk a movement without disturbing the Sad race, who will disperse yourselves over this land
o lour
whole harmony. Too bad, then! this harmony and this o f twilight and prayers! the memory o f Paradise lost
ential
always-perfect accord irritate me. Movement! a litde will come to desolate your ecstasies, the Paradise you
rose-
movement, just to know— a discord, devil take will search for everywhere— which prophets will come
it!— Right then! something unexpected. again to tell you o f—and poets, here, will piously
ledlike
Ah! grab it! to grab a branch o f Yggdrasil between gather up the leaves tom from the immemorial Book in
fits
his infatuated fingers, and let him break it... which one may read the truth that must be known.
n.
imic
It’s done.
pread n.
vhere ...An imperceptible fissure, at first, a cry, but it sprouts,
>ok o f If Narcissus turned over, he might, I think, see some
spreads, becomes exasperated, whisdes shrilly and soon
n may green bank, perhaps the sky, the Tree, the
groans like a tempest. The tree Yggdrasil, withered,
Flower— something stable at last, and enduring, but
wind, totters and snaps; its leaves, where the breezes played,
whose reflection falling upon the water breaks up and
e, spelled shivering and curled up, contort in the squall that rises
is dispersed by the fleetness o f the stream.
up and carries them far away— toward the unknown o f
When will this water cease its flight? and finally
jue, he a nocturnal sky and toward the hazardous regions,
resigned, stagnant mirror, show me, with the same
n! where the scattering o f pages tom from the great sacred
purity of image, the lineaments o f these fatal
ror him, book, also stripped o f its leaves, fly away.
forms— so confusingly alike— or even become them, at
entral Into the sky a vapour rises: tears, clouds that drop
last.
h down again in tears and which rise again in storm-
When will time, ceasing its flight, allow this flux to
clouds: time is bom.
rest? Forms, divine and perennial forms! which only
- where And terrified Man, androgyne split in two, trembled
await repose in order to reappear, oh! when, in what
He in anguish and horror, feeling, with a new sex, a restless
night, in what silence, will you re-crystallise?
he desire welling up within him for that nearly identical
half of himself, that female suddenly present there,
Paradise has always to be restored; it is not in some
whom he embraces and o f whom he wishes to regain
far-off Thule. It remains beneath appearances.
ig s possession — that woman who, in the blind effort to
 Everything is in potential possession o f the intimate congeals upon the supreme cross, speaking the1^
harm ony o f its being, as each salt, in itself, possesses the words:
archetype o f its crystal— and a time o f tacit night “It is ended...” num«
and, d
comes when the densest waters descend: in the No! for all things are to be made anew, eternally
Th
unperturbed gulfs secret crystal-clusters will flower... made anew— because one of those casting lotsh^ throu
Everything strives towards its lost form; it is checked his vain gesture, because a soldier wishedto symb»
apparent, but soiled, warped, and dissatisfied with win a tunic, because someone did not watch. appea
itself, because it always commences anew; humedly, Because the fault that again loses Paradise is aW defeal
em barrassed by neighbouring forms which also strive, the same: the individual dreams to himself whiletht there.
every one o f them, to appear— because, to be is no Passion ordains itself, and he, proud supernumerary Th
longer enough: one must prove it to oneself-—and pride fails to subordinate himself.* and d
infatuates them all. The passing hour overwhelms Inexhaustible masses, every day, in order to put thing,
Christ back into agony, and the public in the moodto the in
i them.
pray... a public!— when it would be necessary to supp<
Since time flies only through the flight of things,
heedl
each thing clings fast and tenses itself in order to slow prostrate the whole o f humanity: then one mass would
he kn
this course a little and so be able the better to appear. It suffice.
Form
is during these periods then, when things are moving If we knew how to watch and wait...
more slowly, that time rests— one imagines— and as Be
noise ceases, with movement— everything is quiet. One in w l
m.
waits; one comprehends that it is a tragic moment and in w l
that one must not stir. ordei
The Poet is he who watches. And what does hesee?—
"There was silence in heaven;" prelude to symr
Paradise.
apocalypses. Yes tragic, tragic moments, in which new word
Because Paradise is everywhere; let us not believein
eras commence, in which the heavens and the earth sure
appearances. Appearances are imperfect: they stammer
meditate, in which the book sealed with seven seals syml
the truths that they contain; the Poet must takethe andi
begins to open, in which everything begins to be set in
hint— then reiterate these truths. Isn’t this what the St
an eternal position... but suddenly an obtrusive clamour
Scientist does? He also seeks out the archetypes of silen
arises; upon the blessed plateaux where it is said that
things and the laws governing their succession; in®1 crow
time goes to end itself, a few ever-avid soldiers share
end he recombines an entire world, ideally simpk>® upoi
the vestments between themselves and cast lots for the
which everything arranges itself naturally. shro
tunic— as ecstasy immobilises the holy women, and as busy
But the Scientist searches out these primary f01®5
the rent veil w ill betray the secrets o f the temple; when lucic
means o f a slow and timorous induction, through
all o f creation finally contemplates the Christ who
49

THE B O O K OF MAS*5
F*st

numerous examples; for he halts before appearances time, time will be able to do nothing to it. To go on:
and, desirous of certitude, he refrains from intuition. one asks oneself if Paradise, itself outside o f time, was
ally
The Poet, himself knowing that he creates, guesses perhaps never more than this— that is to say, only
& 9 through each thing— and one thing is enough, being a ideally...
N to symbol, to reveal its archetype; he knows that Meanwhile Narcissus contemplates from the bank
appearances are only a pretext, a concealing vestment to this vision of an amorous desire transfigured; he
1 1 defeat profane eyes, but which shows us that It is dreams. Childish and alone, Narcissus falls in love with
fe d>e there* the fragile image; he leans over, with a need to caress, in
katy, I The pious Poet contemplates; he leans over symbols, order to quench in the river his thirst for love. He leans
and delves deeply, silently, into the heart of over and now, suddenly, this phantasmagoria
put things— and when, visionary, he has perceived the Idea, disappears; now in the river he sees only two lips in
p°od to the intimate harmonious Number of its Being, which front of his own, offering themselves, and two eyes, his
o supports the imperfect form, he seizes it, and then, own returning his stare. He understands that it is
w ould heedless of the transitory form which it dons in time, he—he alone— and that he is in love with his own face.
he knows how to restore an eternal form to it, its true All around, an azure emptiness, which his pale arms,
Form at last— crystalline and paradisiac. sinking into an unknown element, split asunder,
straining with desire towards the shattered appearance.
Because the work o f art is a crystal—partial paradise He raises himself slightly; the face disperses. The
in which the Idea flourishes anew in its superior purity; surface of the water, as before, is dappled and the vision
in which, as in vanished Eden, the natural and necessary has returned. But Narcissus tells himself that to kiss it
order has arranged all forms within a reciprocal and is impossible, he does not need to desire an image; a
b see? —
symmetrical dependence, in which the pride of the gesture to possess it, w ill tear it. He is alone. W h at to
word does not supplant the thought— in which the do? Contemplate.
lieve in
sure and rhythmic phrases, still symbols, but pure Religious and grave, he recovers his calm serenity: he
rammer symbols, in which words make themselves transparent remains— a symbol that grows— and, brooding over
the and revealing. the semblance of the W orld, vaguely feels the transient
tthe Such works do not crystallise themselves except in generations of humanity re-absorbed into him.
of silence; but sometimes there are silences in the midst of
in the crowds, in which the artist takes refuge like Moses Perhaps this treatise is not all that necessary. At first,
le, in upon Sinai, isolating himself, escaping things, time a few myths sufficed. Then came the desire to explain;
shrouding him in an atmosphere o f light above the priestly pride that seeks to reveal mysteries in order to
orms by busy multitude. The Idea slowly settles on him, then, be adored— or else a lively sympathy, and that
rh lucid, blossoms outside o f time. And as it is not within apostolic love which brings it about that one discloses,
7 I

49 A N DR.£ G I D E

s
 an d in displaying them profanes the temple's most
without scruples or fears? And I dared not return tjw
secret treasures, for worshipping alone is painful and so evening, apt to imagine too many new anxieties* I
one wishes for fellow worshippers. walked towards the woods where, already, in times
C ertain ly it w ill be neither the irksome laws o f men, and often, my sorrow had vanished. Night came, an<j
n or fears, nor modesty, nor remorse, nor respect for me moonlight. The woods became tranquil and filled ^
o r for m y dreams, nor you, sad death, nor terrors from marvellous shadows; the wind shivered; the nocturnal
beyond the grave, that prevent me from joining that birds awakened. I started down a deep path where the
w hich I desire; nothing— but pride, knowing sand glowed beneath my feet, and this haunted
som ething so strong, yet feeling myself stronger still whiteness guided me. Between the more widely spaced
and able to defeat it. But the joy o f one such haughty branches, when the wind stirred the trees, one could set
victory is still not as sweet, not as good, as to yield to the elusive shapes o f mists floating over the path; and,
you, desires, and to be vanquished without a fight. as if in the middle o f the night, the dew dripped from
the leaves, and the scents o f the forest became amorous,
W h en springtime came this year, I was tormented by There were tremblings am id the grasses, each form
her grace; and as desires made my solitude painful, I searching, finding, becoming harmonious; the flowers
came out in the morning into the fields. A ll day the sun swayed, and the pollen floated, lighter than the mist,
shone forth upon the plain; I walked dreaming of like powder. A secret and swooning joy felt itself
happiness. Certainly, I thought, it is from other lands murmur beneath the branches. I waited. The night
than these disenchanted regions that I led my soul to birds lamented. T hen everything fell silent; it was die
graze. W hen shall I be able, far from m y morose meditation before the dawn; jo y became serenity and
thoughts, to stroll in the sunlight filled with joy, and, in my solitude boundless, there in the colourless,
forgetting yesterday and so many useless religions, counselling night.
embrace the happiness which w ill come, vigorously,
 We have always seen superior men, once they have
no tastefo r running civilisation, live outside of it. Tie
This one, whose name is practically unknown, has R eligion o f
Letters
never ruhbed shoulders with his brethren; at thefirst
opportunity he left us, dedicated,fierce,for a distant All writing coi
considered as a w
consulate;for his retreat, he has an abandoned pa­ viduaL Either the
simply confomui
goda and, certain that they do not see into his soul} he reason for exister
man, indicating a
allows his eyes to wander amid theyellow ants.... oblique, it marks
The Roman lc
But it will befifty years before even these details ciple; the Chines*
its essential trait,
interest anybody; the author of Tete cfor is here or affirms that a thi
it signifies.
there, as he has chosen to be. For ships it matters One symbol o
figures for examj
Paul Claudel (1868-1955). Claudel worked whether the wind blows this way or that;for books the letter is essen
of successive affi
not at all: they set outfrom all sides at once, they
for many years in the French diplomatic service
in China and the Far East. In 1886 he simul­ out. Unit is adde
taneously converted to Catholicism and syllable changes i
discovered the works of Rimbaud, which had a
seminal influence upon him. He was principally
arrive everywhere, waifs that shipwrecks wrap in the Chinese sign
series of beings, i
known as a poet and a dramatist (and it is in
this latter role that de Gourmont wrote about
eternal swaddling-clothes. Tete d ’o r was launchei A word exists by
relation of its str
him in He Book of Masks).
The present texts come from his collection one day by a man who wrote in French, and with horizontal line ii
vertical, the indi'
Connaissance de VEst (which can be unsatis­
factorily translated as The East I Know, 1900) genius, seven or eight years ago, and who has since that group of tra
whole; the perioi
been silent.
which he referred to as "a book of exercises" •written
as an application oJMaUarmi’s rule: "Leam to see.'*
something that c

53 PAUL C
THE BOOK OF MASKS
 in the Chinese character a c o m p l e t e l y d e v e lo p e d being, a
written person, having, like a person who liv es, h is nature
and his moods, his own acts and his inner individuality, his
structure and physiognomy.
This explains the piety with which the C h in ese regard
writing. They bum with respect the humblest paper m arked
with a vestige o f th is mystery. The sig n is a being; and, from
the fact that it is common to all, it becomes sa cr ed . W ith
them the representation o f ideas is almost an idoL S u ch is
the foundation o f that scriptural religion which is peculiar
to China. Y esterd a y I v isited a Confucian temple.
It was in a solitary quarter where everything spoke o f
desertion and d eca y. In the silence and burning heat o f the
sun at three o'clock, we followed the sinuous street. O ur
entrance is not to be by the great door where the proud rot
in their enclosure, where that high column marked with an
official inscription in two languages guards the worn sill. A
woman, short and round-backed as a p ig, opens a s id e
passage for us; and, with echoing footfalls, we penetrate into
the deserted court.
By the proportions o f the court and o f the peristyles
which frame it; by the spacious intercolumniabons and the
horizontal lines o f the facade; by the repetition o f the two
enormous roofs, which lift their massive black curves with a
single sweep; by the symmetrical disposition o f the two litde
pavilions which are before it and which lighten the severity
o f the whole with the agreeable grotesques o f their octagonal
roofs; the building (to apply the essential laws o f archi­
tecture) is given a learned aspect, a classic beauty in short,
due to an exquisite observation o f rule.
The temple is composed o f two parts. I suppose that the
passages with their rows o f tablets on the walls, each one
 preceded by a long, narrow altar of stone, offer to a hasty
nor this veil of vague showers. Shut your eyes- listen
worship the primary series o f precepts. Lifting our feet to rainfalls. ’ ^
avoid the sill which it is forbidden to tread upon, we pene­ Nor does the monotony of this constant sound poised over the ye
trate into the shade o f the sanctuary. explain it. spread out like a c
The vast high hall has the air of holding an occult It is a weary mourning whose cause is within itself. Silence. By an:
presence. It is utterly empty. Here silence sits veiled in lichen I descend ii
the self-absorption of love; it is the effort in labour. •jjJ*
as the footpath at
obscurity. H ere are no ornaments, no statues. On each side heavens weep over the fruitful earth. Not only autunj.
arrive at a closed <
o f the hall we distinguish, between their curtains, great in- ’ the future fall of fruit whose seed she nourishes, draws^ In vain I shake th<
scriptions; and, before them, altars; but in the middle of the tears frown the wintry cloud. Sorrow is in the summer upon it rudely wii
temple, behind five monumental pieces of stone, three vases the flower of life is the blossoming of death. Not even a bir
and two candlesticks; under an edifice of gold, a baldachin At the moment when the hour before noon is ended, ajj This place is ii
or a tabernacle which frames it on all sides; four characters descend into the valley filled with the murmur of various the balustrade wl
are inscribed upon a vertical column. fountains, I pause enchanted by the gloom. How abund^ teeth and fingers
Here writing possesses this mystery; it speaks. No are these waters! And if tears, like blood, have their from the offering
moment marks its duration, no position. It is the perpetual source in us, how refreshing it is, listeningtnthjj tea. Neither the i
commencement o f an ageless sign. No mouth offers it. It liquid choir of voices, deep or shrill, to harmonise from dated idols who;
exists; and the worshipper, face to face with it, ponders the them all the shades of grief! There is no passion but could the depths of thi
borrow of your tears, O fountain! And since the brightnts religion of the pi
written name. Solemnly enunciated in the gloom of the
munch; but here-
shadowy gold o f the baldachin, the sign, between the two of this single drop, falling from on high into the basinup®
piece of muslin-
columns which are covered with the mystic windings of the the image of the moon, satisfies my particular desire, notin
come soon to sqi
dragon, symbolises its own silence. The immense red hall vain shall I have learned to love your sanctuary through
Let me comp;
seems to be the very colour o f obscurity, the pillars are many dreamy afternoons, O sorrowful valley!
before me as far
hidden under a scarlet lacquer. Alone in the middle of the I return to the plain. On the doorsill of his hut—when, to a flower of wl
temple, before the sacred word, two columns of white in the inner darkness, gleams a candle lit for some rustic geometric centre
granite seem its witness; the very soul, religious and abstract, fete— a man sits, holding in his hand a dusty cymbal It rain whole, virtually i
o f the place. heavily. In the midst of this damp solitude, I hear onlythe itself* and where
cry of a goose. occupant, all lin
. The sun sets,
<? . where open pine

The T here is an in telligen ce in joy, I admit it

Melancholy T h ere is a vision in laughter. But that you The I have devoted more than one day simply®
Water may comprehend, my friend, this medley of Temple o f the discovery of it, ensconced upon itssteep
blessedness and bitterness which the act of Consciousness cliff of black rock, and it is not till late The On
creation includes, now that the melancholy season begins I ** afternoon that I know myself to be uponti* Tomb
shall explain to you the sadness of water. right path. From the giddy height where I climb, the wide
The same tear falls from the sky that overflows from the rice-fields seem designed like a chart. The brink along formidable pilla
eyelid. D o not think to accuse the cloud of your melancholy, I move is so narrow that whenever I lift my right foot it *
 i 'i
The
poised over the yellow expanse o f the sown village fields detail the laws relating to sepulchres; half obliterated by

u
spread out like a carpet below. moss a threat forbids the breaking o f vases, loud cries, or the
iffice to
Silence. By an ancient staircase covered with a hoary spoiling o f ceremonial basins.

i
lichen I descend in the pungent shade o f the bay trees, and, It is certainly later than two o’clock, because I see that the

i
f. It is
as the footpath at this turning is suddenly barred by a wall, I dim, round sun is already a third o f the way down a dull and
The
arrive at a closed door. I listen. N o word, no voice, no drum! lurid sky. I can only mount straight onward, to survey the
in , and

i in p. i
In vain I shake the wooden handle o f the door, and beat arrangement o f the cemetery; and, preparing my heart, I start
vs these
upon it rudely with both hands. our on the road the funerals follow across this home o f the
tv; in
Not even a bird cries as I scale the wall. dead, in itself lifeless. First come, one after another, two
This place is inhabited after all; and while, sitting upon square mountains o f brick. Their hollow centres open by
ed, as I
the balustrade where domestic linen is drying, I sink my four arches on the four points o f the compass. T he first o f
ious
teeth and fingers into the thick rind o f a haddock stolen these halls is empty. In the second a giant tortoise o f marble,

m im m
ndant
from the offerings, the old monk inside prepares me a cup of so high that I can scarcely reach his moustached head with
tea. Neither the inscription above the door nor the dilapi­ my hand, supports a panegyric column. "This is the porch
to this dated idols who are honoured with a thin spire o f incense in and apprenticeship o f the earth,” I thought. “H ere Death
om

11
the depths o f this humble cave seem to me to constitute the halted between the double thresholds, and here the master
:ould religion of the place, any more than the acid fruit that I o f the world received supreme homage between the four
itness munch; but here— on this low platform, which encloses a horizons and the sky.”
i upon piece of muslin— this circular straw mat where the bhiku will But scarcely have I gone out by the N orthern door ( it is
not in come soon to squat for meditation or sleep — is everything. not vainly that I leap this rivulet!) than I see open out before
5h Let me compare this vast countryside, which opens out me the country o f the shades.
before me as far as the double wall o f mountains and clouds, Forming an avenue o f alternate couples, monstrous ani­
/here, to a flower o f which this seat is the mystic heart. Is it not the mals appear before me, facing each other, successively re­
tic geometric centre where the scene, united into an harmonious peated kneeling and standing in pairs; rams, horses,
It rains whole, virtually takes on existence and a consciousness o f unicorns, camels, elephants; until, at the turning where the
the itself; and where, to the studious contemplation o f the last o f the procession disappears, these enormous and ugly
occupant, all lines converge? shapes loom out against the straggling grass. Further o ff are
The sun sets. I clamber up the steps o f velvet whiteness ranged civil and military mandarins. These stones are sent to
where open pine-cones are strewn like roses. ceremonial funerals in the place o f animals and men; and, as
the dead have crossed the threshold o f life, it would not be
suitable to give closer likenesses to such replicas.
Here, where this large cairn— hiding, they say, the
y to treasures and bones o f a very ancient dynasty— ceases to bar
:eep the passage, the way turns toward the East. I am walking
He On the pediment o f the funereal portal I read an now among soldiers and ministers. Some are intact and
the Tomb order to alight. On m y right are some broken standing, others lie on their faces. One warrior without a
e tv statues in the reeds, and an inscription on a head still clasps the hilt o f a sword in his fist. By a triple­
lich formidable pillar o f black granite gives with wearisome arched bridge the path crosses the second canal.

55 PAUL C L A U D E L
5*
 Now, by a series o f stairs where the central hand-rail still an animal interment, the mixing o f crude flesh with inert
shows the imperial dragon, I cross the ravaged site of and compact clay. The king and peasant are forever consol,,
terraces and courts. These are the walks of Memory, the dated into this death without a dream or an awakening.
fugitive traces o f lives which, leaving the earth, serve only to But the shadow of evening spreads over this cruel place.
enrich it by decay; the steps of sacrifices, the awful garden O ruins, the tomb has survived you! And the brutal stolidity
■where what is destroyed attests its whilom existence in the of this bulk is a perfect symbol o f death itself.
presence o f what still remains. In the centre a throne As I return among the colossal statues o f stone, I see in
supports, a baldachin still shelters, the inscription of a the dried grass the decaying corpse o f a horse, which a dog i,
dynasty. All about, temples and guest-houses have become a tearing. The beast looks at me as he licks the blood which
confused rubbish among the briars. trickles down his chops; then, applying his paws again to the
And the tomb is before me. red carcass, he tears off a long strip o f flesh. The mangled
“Between massive projections of the square bastions remains are spread about. •
which flank it, behind the deep-cut channel of the third
stream, is a wall which assures us that the end of our journey
must be here. A wall and nothing but a wall, a hundred feet
high and two hundred feet wide. Eroded by the use of cen­
turies, the inexorable barrier presents a blind face of
masonry. A single round hole shows in the centre of the Disso- Again I am carried back over the indifferent
base, the mouth of an oven or the oubliette of a dungeon. lution liquid sea. When I am dead, nothing can hurt
This wall forms the front of a sort o f trapezoid formation, *** me. When I shall be interred between my father
detached from the mountain which overhangs it. A low and mother, nothing will make me suffer more. They cannot
| moulding, ending beneath an overhanging cornice, stands jeer any longer at this too ardent heart. The sacrament of my
' out from the wall like a console. No corpse is so suspect as body will dissolve in the interior o f the earth; but, like a
to require such a mass being placed upon him. This is the most piercing cry, my soul will repose in the bosom of
throne of Death itself, the regal exaltation of sepulture. Abraham. Now everything is dissolved, and with a dull and
A straight alley, remounting the sloping plain, crosses a heavy eye I search about me in vain for the familiar land and
level plateau. At the end there is only the same mountain the firm road under my feet— and for that unkind face! The
whose steep slope conceals in its depths the ancient Ming. sky is nothing but fog, and Space is nothing but water! You
And I understand that this is the sepulchre of the Atheist. see it! Everything is blurred; and all about me I must search
Time has scattered the vain temples and laid the idols in the
in vain for line or form. For a horizon there is nothing but
dust, and only the arrangement of the place remains, with
the cessation of colour in darkness. All matter is resolved
the idea it expressed. The pompous catafalques on the
into water alone, like the tears I feel coursing down my
threshold have not been able to retain the dead. The cortege
cheeks. All sound is like the murmur o f sleep when it
of his vanished glory cannot retard him. He crosses the three
breathes to us all that is most crushing to our hopes. I shall
rivers, he traverses the manifold courts filled with incense;
have searched in vain, I shall find nothing more beyond
nor is the monument that has been prepared for him
sufficient to hold him He cleaves his way fiirther, and enters me— neither that country which might have been my home,
into the very body and bones of primitive earth. It is merely nor that well-loved face!
— Translated by Teresa Frances & William Benk-
 O f Things The
(ex tra ct) exist
pe°]
A bucolic poet!... No variety o f poet is rarer: he neeis I have seen d
living being to a
brought it hand
to live apart in the honest homes o f yore, at the edge oj the wood or sto
a 'woodguarded hy thorns alonef among black elms• had carried it o!
A ni m a ls do ]

'wrinkled oaks and beech "trees 'with skin as smooth as have seen cats s
long time. In d
that o f a dearly cloved mistress... idea of fightinj
1 think it is
Without a doubt there is no other poet in France has robbed ma
difference bet?
today capable of evoking a tableau so serene and so a piece of woe
primitive relig
true with words so simple, with phrases that seem attachment tc
that one plan
like those of an idly wandering conversation and still> dies will with

Francis Jammes (1868-1936). Jammes lived as if by chance,form charming pure and definitive 1 have knowr
dead. The sa

verses...
his whole life in a small town at the base of the They are oft
Pyrennees, far from Parisian literary coteries,
who wore th
who only discovered his verse by accident.
There is little else to say of a biographical
nature.
It is high time,fo r our good name, to give this poet I have oft
Their disint
The work here dates from 1920 and has an
interesting similarity to die later writings of
fam e and,fo r our pleasure, often to breathe in his their decay,
piece o f fur
Ponge.
Jammes became a Catholic, but avoided the poetry, which he himself has called a poetry o f white trigger, a w;
of tune, sue

roses.
Nationalism that accompanied die conversion
>fso many of his contemporaries. W hen we fc

58 59 FR/
T HE B OO K OF M A S K S
 FRANCES JAMMES

Of flin gs The belief that things are endowed with life love is in us alone, and afterwards regard it as something
(extract) exists among children, animals, and simple external to us? Who can prove that things are incapable o f
people. affection, or who can demonstrate their unconsciousness?
I have seen children attribute the characteristics o f a W as not that sculptor right who was buried holding in his
ted s living being to a piece o f rough wood or to a stone. They hand a lump of the same clay that had obeyed his dream?

]e of brought it handfuls o f grass, and were absolutely sure that

the wood or stone had eaten it when, as a matter of fact, I
Did it not have the devotion o f a faithful servant; did it not
have a quality which we should admire all the more, because

ls>
had carried it off without their noticing it. it had the virtue of devoting itself in silence, without selfish
Animals do not differentiate the quality o f an action. I interest, and with the passiveness o f faith?
b as have seen cats scratch at something too hot for them for a
long time. In this act On the part o f the animal there is an
Is there not something sublime and radiant in the thing
that acts toward man, even as man acts toward God? Does
idea of fighting something which can yield or perhaps die. the poet know any more what impulse he obeys, than does
I think it is only an education, bom o f false vanity, that the clay? From the moment when they have both proved
has robbed man o f such beliefs. I myself see no essential their inspiration, I believe equally in their consciousness, and
e
difference between the thought o f a child who gives food to I love both with the same love.
a piece of wood and the meaning o f some o f the libations in
) The sadness which disengages from things that have fallen
primitive religions. Do we not attribute to trees an
into disuse is infinite. In the attic o f this house whose
attachment to us stronger than life itself when we believe
inhabitants I did not know, a little girl’s dress and her doll
that one planted on the birthday o f a child that sickens and
lie desolate. And here is an iron-pointed staff which once bit
dies will wither and dry up at the same time ?
H ll. into the earth of the green hills, and a sun bonnet now barely
I have known things in pain. I have known some which are visible in the dim light from the garret window. They have
dead. The sad clothes o f our departed wear out quickly. been abandoned since many years, and I am wholly certain
They are often impregnated with the same disease as those that they would be happy again to enjoy, the one die
who wore them. They are one with them. freshness o f the moss, and the other the summer sky.
I have often considered objects which were wasting away. Things tenderly cared for show their gratitude to us, and
Their disintegration is identical with our own. They have are ever ready to offer us their soul when once we have
their decay, their ruptures, their tumours, their madnesses. A refreshed it. They are like those roses o f the desert which
piece of furniture gnawed by worms, a gun with a broken expand infinitely when a little water brings back to their
trigger, a warped drawer, or the soul o f a violin suddenly out memory the azure o f lost wells.
of tune, such are the ills which move me. In my modest drawing-room there is a child's chair. M y
father played with it during his passage from Guadeloupe to
When we become attached to things why do we believe that France when he was seven years old. He remembered

59 FRANCIS J AMMES
distinctly that he sat on it in the ship's saloon, and looked *
tempestuous soul; and sometimes they sing on the lal<
pictures which the captain lent him. The island wood of
where another poet dreams.
which it was made must have been stout for it withstood the
games o fa litde boy. The piece of furniture had drifted into There are hours and seasons when certain of these accord
are most to the fore, when one hears best the thousand
my home, and slept there almost forgotten. Its soul too had
voices of things. Two or three times in my life I have bccn
been asleep for many long years, because the child who had
present at the awakening o f this mysterious world. At the
cherished it was no more, and no other children had come to end of August toward midnight, when the day has been hot
perch upon it like birds. an indistinct murmur rises about the kneeling villages. It j,
But recendy the house was made merry by my little niece neither the sound of rivers, nor o f springs, nor of the wind
who was just seven. On my work table she had found an old nor of animals cropping the grass, nor o f cattle rubbing thtjt
book w ith plates o f flowers. When I entered the room I chains against the cribs, nor of uneasy watchdogs, nor of
found her sitting on the litde chair in the lamplight, looking birds, nor of the falling o f the looms o f the weavers. The
at the charming pictures, just as once a long time ago her chords are as sweet to the ear, as the glow of dawn is sweet
grandfather had done. And I was deeply touched. And I said to the eye. There is stirring a boundless and peaceful world
to m yself that this litde girl alone had been able to make the in which the blades of grass lean toward one another till
soul o f the chair live again, and that the gende soul of the morning, and the dew rustles imperceptibly, and the seeds it
chair had bewitched the candour of the child. T here was each moment’s beat raise the whole surface of the plain. It j]
between her and this object a mysterious affinity. The one the soul alone which can apprehend these ochre souls, this
could not help but go to the other, and it could he awakened flower-dust joy of the corollas, these calls, and these silences
by her alone. , that create the divine Unknown. It is as if one were suddenly
\ Things are gende. They never do harm voluntarily. They transported to a strange country where one is enchanted by
(are the sisters o f the spirits. They protect us, and we let our languorous words, even though one does not understand
thoughts rest upon them. Our thoughts need them for very clearly their meaning.
resting-places as perfumes need the flowers. Nevertheless I penetrate more deeply into the meaning
The prisoner, whom no human soul can any longer
whispered by these things than into that hidden in an idiom
console, must fe e l ten d erly tow ard his pallet and his earthen
with which I am unfamiliar. I feel that I understand and that
jug. When everything has been refused him by his fellows
it would not require a very great effort to translate the
his obscure bed gives him sleep and his jug quenches his
thought of these obscure souls, and to note in a concrete
thirst. And even i f it separates him from a11the world
fashion some o f their manifestations. Perhaps poetry
without, the very barrenness o f his walls stands between him
sometimes actually does this. It has happened that mentallyI
and his executioners. The child who has been punished loves
have answered this indistinct murmur, just as I have
the pillow on which he cries; for when every one of an
evening has hurt and scolded him, he finds consolation in succeeded by my silence in answering distincdy a
the soul of the silent down. It is like a friend who remains sweetheart's questions.
silent in order to calm a friend. But this language o f things is not wholly auditory. It is
But it is not only out of the silence o f things that is born made up o f other symbols also, which are faindy traced on
their sympathy for us. They have secret harmonies. our souls. The impression is still too faint, but, perhaps, it
Sometimes they weep in the forest which Ren* fills with his will be stronger when we are better prepared to receive God
— Translated by Gladys Hty*
 Individualism which, in literature, gives us such agreeable panniers of novel
frequently enough proves itself sterilised by the growth o f the weeds o f pride. 0 ^ *
young men, wholly swelled by a monstrous infatuation, avow their desire to create
only their own work, but at the same time The Work, to produce the unique
after which the exhausted intellect w ill have to rest itself to becomefertile and collate
thoughts in the slow and obscure work o f the restoration o f its vital juices. Even in
Paris there are two or three "Glory B oys}}who have arrogated to themselves the right
to pronounce with their mouths alone this w ord which they have exiled from the Q ooi
dictionary. But that is o f little importance,f o r the spirit blows where it will, and, F rid a y
when it blows into the skins o f fr o g s and causes them to p u ff up, this is merely enter- 2*
tainment, because the world is sad.
Laurent Tailhade has none o f the grotesque blemishes o f pride: no one more natu­
[Laurent Tailhade (1854-1925). Destined for rally practices a more natural profession, that o f a man~of~letters. The Romans callei
Ithe priesthood by his family, Tailhade became
one o f its chief scourges. Among the most such men rhetoricians and that meant those who speak, those who master words; thou
Iactive o f the anarchists of his time, Tailhade who subject them to the yoke o f thought and who know how to wield them, animate
■produced mountains of sarcastic attacks on the
Khurch, state, army, fellow writers, politicians,
them, spur them on to the point o f imposing upon them, at the moment <f their choice,
Fjoumalists. Fortunately he was as skilled with the rudest uses, the most dangerous and the most novel. Latin by both race and taste;
Isword as with the pen which he frequently
Tailhade has the right to this beautiful title o f rhetorician, one who is shocked at the
proved in the numerous duels provoked by his
Iinvective. The establishment was delighted incompetence o f the vulgar pedants; he is a rhetorician in the style o f Petronius, a
when he became the victim of an anarchist
master o f prose and o f verse alike...
bomb at the Foyot restaurant in 1894 so soon
after his witticisms at the expense of the The century}s ignominy exasperates this Latin in love with the sun and perfumes,
Chamber of Deputies bombing. Tailhade
beautiful phrases and fin e gestures, f o r whom money is a pleasure that one tosses like
eventually lost an eye but this misfortune did
not dim his enthusiasm for the cause. (It has flow er-p eta ls beneath thef e e t o f lovely women, and not the productive seed that one
been alleged that Feneon planted the Foyot buries in order that it might germinate. H e proves himself to be the proud executioner
bomb, whose only casualty was his friend,
although more recent research makes this seem o f hypocrisies and avarices,fa lse glories and all~too~true turpitudes, o f money and
unlikely*.) success, o f the parvenus o f the Bourse as w ell as o f Fleet Street. Harsh, and even un­
Tailhade's anarchist prose is too full of
contemporary references to translate easily; his just, he whips his ow n hatreds;for him, asf o r all satirists, the private enemy becomes
poems are somewhat less vitriolic, those
the public enemy, but what beautiful language traditional and new at the same time;
following are from his Poems aristophanesques
(1904), a collection o f his poetry of the and what insolence:
previous ten years.
The things I write are not for those dull bastards/

63 L
THE BOOK O F MAS KS 62
 A luxury—for pious flocks who’ve sinned
With parsley sauce to smother their boiled cod__
Is when indulgent charitable God
Blows constipation off with holy wind.

In buses undefiled by blasphemy

Nuns scramble, tangled wimples all askance;
In bible-shops, smug priests hum mournful chants,
Benign through grinning physiognomy.

Lace-surpliced boys— tossed off by doubtful sires—

Trot off to mass behind round-bellied friars
And thrill each cottage with forthcoming trade.

A sandwich-man— whose news blots out the light—

States solemnest cantatas will be played
In sports-grounds, bars and music-halls tonight.
A Ballad on Andyou, young man, do not despair,for, whatever
Facing the you may think to the contrary, in the Vampireyou have a
Prospect o f an friend. And i f we include the acarina sarcoptes which
Imminent Dose produces the itch, why thenyou have two everlasting
o f Syphilis comrades.
— LAUTRJ&AMONT, Les Chants de Maldoror, I.

When white-sprayed lilac scents the April night

Love's randy rake is never out of work;
His fancy flies fly open at the sight
O f damsels undistressed: tumescent Turk,
Like maypoled Spring his fount of youth will perk
Its head up for the shepherdess who'll faint
In sweet recumbence, pretty as fresh paint,
Till harvest's festival makes antic hay.
Then spotted spoilsports youth's delights must taint—
Love dies a lad; the pox lasts till you re grey.

Sensation-hunters, desp era te in tight-

C hained bondage seek r e lie f w h ere vice-dens lurk,
And Venus shields her troth from Cupid's plight
W hile h ellh ou n ds, slashing leashes with bare dirk
R elease Pandora's box of poisoned murk.
So listen as your m aiden aunts acquaint
You with the wisdom of th eir chaste constraint:
From domes of Xanadu to Mandalay
Take note of quacks' advice—it's not so quaint:
Love s fancy-free; the pox insists you pay.
You scratch your limbs where tenfold itches bite;
Sin punctures them with a deflating jerk.
Lothario, you fought a lusty fight—
May mercury in magnums, phallic firk­
ins brimming iodines not deign to shirk
Their duty in restoring health and maint-
Ain innocence licentiousness made feint.
Priapic gods protect you— if they may—
From fairy queens whose bottoms lack restraint
Love smiles but once: the pox is never gay.

Great Prince of Love, pay heed to this complaint,

Abstain for once, if you can’t be a saint.
Read this device whose timely warnings say
Through Valentine's proud sprinkler s peeling paint;
Love comes, and goes; the pox is here to stay.
Running noses still half-wiped,
Half-washed faces still half-washed,
River boats are guttersniped,
Sunday's decks all over-squashed.

They inhale salubrious

Perfumes of suburban dreams
Floating up from dubious
Swollen dogs on stagnant streams.

And their lady wives all swear

Summer heat's too fierce to bear
As, with hides of elephants,

Massive heaving haunches squeeze

Past unsmiling Japanese
Slim in silken elegance.
— Translated by Stanley Chapman.
 His is a pagan soul\ or a would-be pagan soulj0f,
Pierre Q uillard (I8 6 4 -I 9 I 2 ) A poet and
playwright much engaged in the great social his eyes avidly seek out perceptible beauty, his dre^
issues o f his day. He was a tireless defender of
Dreyfus, and travelled farther afield than most lingers, wishing tofo rce the gate within which the
o f his contemporaries in the movement,
teaching in Constantinople and covering the beauty enclosed within things obscurely sleeps, He is
war between Turkey and Greece. A fervent
supporter o f the anarchist cause, he favoured truly more troubled than he vouchsafes to say, and C onversati
"propaganda by literature" rather than by
"deed.”
This work, a sort of prose eclogue
the captives)glances trouble him with more than a Concerning
the L ife an
(published in the Mercurt de France, September
1892), concerns the anarchist Ravachol, just
mere shudder. He knows all theogonies and D eath o f
recently executed after being found guilty ofa
series o f bombings aimed rather inaccurately at
literatures; R avachol

members o f the judiciary. Ravachol’s two trials

the dying
were major events, his insolent self-possession
impressed even those who had most to fear
I have known all the gods of heaven and earth, waves, th
from his beliefs. Sentenced to the guillotine he words an
I strolled to the scaffold singing *in a raucous since he has drunk at every spring, he knows more attribute
voice o f antiqi
Pour itre heureux, nom de Dieu, than one way to get intoxicated: dilettante ofa the nob)
Fautpendres Uspropriitairts!
Pour etrc heureaux, nom dc Dieu,
Faut couper Its curls en deux!...
;
superior type when he has chosen his dwelling (no scent of
convers;
His cry of Vive la Revolution was cut short by
the blade of the guillotine. Ravachol's impeni­ doubt near some old sacred fountain), having feel any
speak w
tent eloquence at his trials and nonchalance at
his execution ensured his snactification as the
martyr of anarchism, as exemplified by pictures
|
gathered enough having sown enough noble seeds, k agrees t
when I
in the anarchist press like the one reproduced w ill fin d him self the master o fa royal garden aniM myself
on page 72. Subscribers to a fund for the
charm
children of one of his accomplices included
Regnier, Saint-Pol-Roux, Rictus and
odorous multitude o f flow ers,
Verhaeren from the present volume; Paul
Adam wrote an essay comparing him to Christ. Eternal flowers, flowers equal to the gods
69

THE BOOK OF MAS* 5

 PIERRE QUILLARD

As I see it, Mathilde thought, only being

THE POET. Thus it is we shall not die without having
condemned to death sets a man apartfrom
known, except through our legends and epics, the man
hisfellows; it’s the one thing that is notfo r
superior to the very idea we create o f gods, the hero: he
sale.
who— lacking the omnipotence that we all too
STENDHAL, The Red and the Black.
willingly graiit to supernatural phantoms, remaining a
Conversation These voices were heard by the sea, man like us, capable o f failure and, yes, o f being van­
Concerning on a calm summer night: the men quished too— has sanctified actions vulgar and
tie Life and were stretched out, half-naked, on detestable in appearance, and will deserve that poets in
Death o f the golden sands, nonchalantly, future ages shall praise him in the same way as in
Ruvaclhoi close by the pretty young women, former days they did slayers o f monsters and prophetic
M and, though they were “o f today,” lovers o f justice.
the dying gliirruners o f the sun, the soft caresses o f the
waves, the harmoniousness o f the twilight, lent to their THE PHILOSOPHER. Ravachol was certainly a hero.
words and gestures that charm which it pleases us to When one day he felt the injustice o f suffering from
attribute, fancifully perhaps, to the sages and courtesans causes that were not o f his own making and which the
of antiquity, gathered beneath marble porticoes where rest o f the herd foolishly respected, he accepted a
the noble shade o f the oleanders floated in the virile struggle with the Triumphant Beast*, and each time it
scent of the spindrift. As they did not know that their became necessary, he— at the risk o f his life, unhesi­
conversation could be overheard, they no doubt did not tatingly dedicated to the inevitable
feel any pressure to lie, but each seemed instead to penalty— accomplished the necessary murder.
speakwith the complete sincerity befitting one who
agrees to consider a thing without self-deception; and A YOUNG WOMAN. The necessary murder, you say.
whenI recollect this unforgettable conversation to W ho has revealed to you that this man was not a
myselfnow, I ask myself if, in fact, it was not the very bloody and rapacious brute, a commonplace assassin,
diarmof those syllables that bestowed on the who understood nothing o f the grandeur o f revolt and
surroundings the splendour o f those vanished times. killed solely in order to steal?

69 PIERRE Q U I L L A R D
 T h e P h il o so p h e r , i don't think so: he understood A POET. Law... the very word makes me shudder with
th at he had to k ill and had to steal, and thatt it would perpetually chanl
horror and disgust. That a man assumes the right to
which m eanw hilj
be despicable and demeaning to beg. The traditional judge another already seems to me to be one of the
manage to exista
resignation had been preached to him: he had most repugnant follies ever to haunt an obtuse and
observation, an a
audaciously refused to resign himself and gave an bestial brain. But that somebody might have deter­ tun counter to J
example o f liberating anger. Two portraits of him show mined beforehand that this one or that one will be, by laws.
w ell enough how a doubt similar to yours first imposed virtue of some imbecilic formula, held to be criminal or
itself on a few reasonable individuals: the one was taken lawful, that, for its ferocity and absurdity surpasses all APOSTTIVIST
im m ediately after his arrest, and the other when his imaginings. There can be no common standard, be­ m anifest th e m
norm al physiognomy had been restored. The first cause two identical acts have never been committed last statem ent!
im age is that o f a felled beast: the expression upon his under the sun, and nobody could possibly predict the dream h e h a d
face bruised by blows is terrible; the second is of an innumerable multiplicity o f characters and
infinite gendeness, the eyes caressing and magnificent circumstances.
THE PHILOS
w ith tenderness and love. No words better capture this what one w ai
peculiar beauty than this phrase from the police A POSITIVIST. I might w illingly agree that the notion
things an d lo
psychologist that was reported to me: "His smile is of good or evil is conventionaL But it doesn’t seem to
a fancy-gooc
softer than any woman’s." That one is the true me that this convention is arbitrary: it expresses
reason a pre<
Ravachol. Imagine that he has set aside his haughty necessary relationships and transposes into human
what con fus

I ! serenity for an instant and wept at seeing the children

that he played with in the past coming before the bar;
recall with what magnanimous commiseration he
language social fatalities that science has confirmed
with total certitude.
roses o f th e
fierce lib e r t

welcomed the wretch who had betrayed him, and above THE PHILOSOPHER. There's a very adventurous word.
The M an
all the impassioned farewell addressed to him in the Mathematical theorems alone embody certitude,
speaking sc
judges* faces by the woman whom he loved, herself a because they derive from the spirit which is unable to you whose
prisoner also, and certain nevertheless that the words contradict itself. Once the notion of number is Here y o u :
would cost her further rigours. His attitude during the accepted, it’s a mistake to say that 2 plus 2 doesn’t add the mouth
double trial had been admirable for its simplicity and up to 4. But we can only gratuitously call science a you have i
nobility, and those who condemned him were obliged system of nature: your science is a momentary chattering
despite themselves to recognise in him a generous spirit. conception of life, a sort of mnemotechnique that is killed, yot
pretty near rational sometimes, but at others more world prc
ridiculous, after new discoveries, than the most puerile But your
A JURIST. That may be; and nevertheless they had to
of errors. As for the so-called social sciences, they are dynamite
condemn him because he had broken the law.
even more vain than the physical and natural sciences, become i

T H E B O O K OF M AS KS 70 7\ PI
shudder w
le r i g h t to perpetually changing and outmoded, and without is they who, in prisons, in penal servitude and on the
tie o f the which meanwhile, by your own admission, it wouldn’t gallows, suffer lamentably for having listened to you.
Case and manage to exist: these phenomena are too complex for W hat have you yourselves done?
e deter- o b serva tio n , and at each moment individual whims will
w ill be, by tun counter to experience and disprove these chimerical THE POET. W hat! W e act according to our nature:
: crim inal 0f laws. without intending to, you have just vindicated us. Yes,
rp asses ajj men may perhaps eternally allow themselves to go
ir d, be- A POSmVIST. But it's still necessary that these whims beneath the yoke; they may barely notice that they
manifest themselves with clarity. I have read Ravachol's suffer and that monstrous tyrannies oppress them. W e
m itted
last statements, and I can scarcely comprehend what come to rouse them from their sleep and from their
ed ic t the
dream he had formed for a new world. cowardice; with our aid they are able to throw down
age-old idols, 'til nothing w ill remain except w hat they
THE PHILOSOPHER. In order to know very exacdy have not thrown joyfully into the abyss. W e haven t
what one wants, one need only wish fo r mediocre starved, and we haven’t shivered on the w intry
t notion
things and look upon the world as a banal catalogue for highways, but when we kiss the mouths o f young
eem to
a fan cy-goods company's warehouse. For that very women, anguish over this universal sorrow poisons our
rI reason a precise desire is a lim ited one, while a some­ pleasure, and we suffer because all those we know have
ian what confused conception allows f o r the miraculous been crucified around us. From now on w e sh all be
n ed roses o f th e u n co n s cio u s to bloom in their savage and silent no longer and our outcry w ill rise, ever more
fierce liberty. loudly from the earth all the w ay to the stars: then
when the time comes, we shall die, w ith joyous hearts,
s w ord THE MAN OF INSTINCT. I am amazed to hear you struck down perhaps by our brothers w ho we w ill have
speaking s o ca lm ly about what others disapprove of, set free.
leto you whose own life is a perpetual negation o f violence.
Here you are, philosophers, poets, by the shining sea; THE PHILOSOPHER. We shall be struck down by our
t add the m ou ths o f y o u n g women do not refuse your lips; brothers and we shall die, our hearts joyous, if our
you have never known hunger, never felt your teeth deaths, as wise as we are, are as glorious as that of this
chattering on the roads in the winter; you have never sublime illiterate, and if we can sing during the final
killed, y o u ha ve n ev e r stolen, and you go through the moments of the collapse of all hierarchies and
is
world proclaiming the gospel o f revolt and destruction. authority.
rile But your hands are too shaky, I fear, to ignite bombs of
dynamite or firmly to grasp the haft o f a dagger. Others A YOUNG WOMAN. I think that at least you might
re
become intoxicated by the hatred you pour forth, and it compose poems less cynical and with a more pleasing
:S,

71 PIERRE Q U I L L A R D
70
T he Philosopher, w hat does it matter, provided
that we say well what we wish to say. He walked
proudly to the guillotine, and the coarser his words, the
more they were vomited from the sewers, the more able
they are to reach the stupid old man with the white
beard, the boss of eternity’s chain-gang, the odious
“rewarder-avenger” who has weighed upon men
through the centuries and filled Moses, Monsieur de
Voltaire and the moralist Jules Simon with wonder at
his complacent ignominy.

Thus, upon the golden shore, voices alternated, acrid

and insidious by turns, and in the dusk the red flower
o f the sun shed its petals onto the night and the sea •
 Sincerity} what an excessive demand v^hen a woman ts <%.
cemed. Those most vauntedfor their candour were still
players, even that lachrymose Marceline* an actress after a]l fro-K
g itttr
who wept through her life as through her roles, with the con ’ r*
scientiousness that thepublic’s applause inspires. As long as listens ini the mg
him it was a moi

women have written, not a one has had thegoodfaith to call It's not th at c
trouble w ith ch i
herself one and to acknowledge herself one in all imperious an invalid no lo i

humility, and the only rudiments that literature possesses of has sent the win.
snorts from b eh
feminine psychology, it must seek out in books written by The vast siler

men... the boy who list

thing that he do
R achilde (1 860-1953). Marguerite Eymery
began using the pseudonym "Rachilde" when
Whether they try out their charms in perversity or in can­ Poised on a ll
she was still a teenager. By 1878, she was living
in Paris and, in 1889, she married Alfred
dour, women succeed better in living than in dissimulation; o f wheat, lon g t
bearing o f o n e ;
Vallette, with whom she co-founded the they are madefor life,for theflesh,for materiality— and they eyes take in eve:

realise their romantic dreams with delight if they do notfini

Mercure de France, the Symbolist's most streaming as th
important journal (de Gourmont was among
to him the tem
themselves restrained by the indifference of the male whose
its editors). Their salon quickly became the
essential entry-point into literary circles. and beneath hi
luminous veils
more sensitive nerves are damaged by vibrating in the void....
Rachilde wrote prolifically: novels,
novellas, short stories and plays, though her undressed, stil

(Some of her pages) demonstrate that a woman can

novels are only now beginning to be translated H e lives in
into English. In her day she was considered
eating, w ith n<
experience phases of virility, write, at such moments, without
decadent, perverse and strange, but by the time
of the First World War, she had aged into a room, a filthy
to him just as
concerning herself with the obligatory coquettishness or
doughty patriot and defender of the status quo.
The Dadaists mocked her, and she regarded heated b y the

customary attitudes, produce art with no more than an iit&

them as Bolshevik/Boche swine. Nevertheless, roof. H is bed
the present story (first published in the Mercure
ancient canes
and words: create.
ie France, 1900) is one o f the most powerful
pieces in this book. heather a n d «

75 RAC
TH E B O O K OF MASKS
 RA C H ILD E

frog-Killer Tiny, frail, poised over his pale sheet like a Very sensibly, the little one shakes out his sheet each
water-bug upon the film of a pool, the boy morning while mother boils their soup, because he noticed
listens in the night. A finger has awakened him, it seems to that fleas don’t seem to like fire, and all the vermin either
himit was a moist finger, lightly touching his brow. bum up or drown inside the pot.
It’s not that of God, because God is too old now to But on this June night, it's not the fleas that have awak­
trouble with children. Silence now supersedes him. God is ened him. He has sensed someone walking close by him, all
aninvalid no longer able to gallop upon the wind, and he but noiselessly. Perhaps the wind has escaped from God’s
has sent the wind off to the stables where it sometimes stable? Or perhaps it is a marten? Or perhaps a rat, one of
snorts frombehind the gate. those big field rats, brown and furry, with a smooth snake­
The vast silence, with its cold index finger, has awakened like tail? No; it is a person...
theboy who listens, startled, discovering how black is this And the boy creeps forward a bit on his hands and knees,
thingthat he doesn’t hear. lowers his head again, raises his rump. If he can, with a
Poised on all fours, his lean little limbs rigid like sheaves single leap he’ll be standing in the middle of the room with
of wheat, long thighs, strong hocks, delicate feet, with all the the sole relaxation, in reserve, of his two folded h am s. He
bearing of one about to make a leap, growing smaller his knows that one doesn’t walk about at night as in the day­
eyes take in everything, his head cunningly lowered, his hair light. In daylight the beasts are what they wish, but at night
streaming as though he were in a heavy downpour, barring they are what they are able to be, and when the birds have
tohimthe temples of figures more sombre than the night, closed their eyes, they fold in their wings and, like an un­
andbeneath his hair his fixed pupils shine, like two known species, run with extraordinary leaps, g rayin g the sun.
luminous veils of crep e, because this litde one, even He knows this and other things as well, this litde one, just
undressed, still has about him an air of mourning. six years old, who, being left on his own avoids the house,
He lives in an animal state, going, coming, sleeping, going there only to sleep, and eating anywhere with a
eating, with nothing to say. He p o s se ss e s a com er of the savagery that leaves his lips bloody.
room, a filthy comer, by the side of the fire-place. It’s home He hears nothing; all alone, over by a fence of brooms
to himjust as though he were a cricket. In the winter it’s guarding the garden—cabbages, turnips and some nice
heated by the ashes. In summer he gets air from a hole in the onions-—the earth has cried out. The earth has a truly terrible way
roof. His bed is a wattle of willows solidly tied to the of crying out. It is almost silent, emitted through grinding
ancient canes of chairs. Someone has thrown down a mat of teeth. If someone, man or beast, does a forbidden thing, she
Heather and a sheet on top... the same one for the entire year. tries to give warning and more faithful than a good dog, she

75 RACHILDE
doesn't spoil matters with useless noise; a pebble rolling, a From his comer, Little Toniot saw little more. The
grain o f sand crushed, the imperceptible sound of a snail’s had only the one outside door and the roof-hole. By day I
shell weighing it down suffices. sunlight entered through the doorway. On certain evenin I
A nd always and at all times, a cracking of deaths three the moon reserved the roof-hole for herself, passing her I
little bones, for the earth is replenished by them. How those hands through the soot, caressing the suspended kettle and
little bones o f death do protest! making it shine like silver. This moon always awakened
Someone certainly came from the direction of the beans. Little Toniot who heard it shine. Ah! why didn’t she enter
A robber? After the onions, no doubt. Nude from head to now while his teeth chattered, scared in this comer by the i
toe, sex and ears pricking up, Little Toniot rose for his chest? Light is so good! And there— she miraculously
habitual leap like a hopping insect or a toad. He had the idea opened the door, the door shut with an inside latch. Yes, ^
o f waking his father, Big Toniot, who sleeps in the other moon was good, just like a real person, a beautiful woman,
room, who sleeps beneath a hunting rifle hung upon the very pale because of the blackness o f the night, a completely
w all— Big Toniot, so fatigued from his last stalk. naked woman, a little fat, the hips rounded and full as befits
W ouldn’t it be a terrible thing to shake a man who was a star, her breasts high and hard, her entire face veiled inred
so weary, who had only just gone to sleep without a word? hair.
Little Toniot didn’t think o f his mother because to him, a Toniot had never feared beasts nor females, but he was
man o f six, women don't count. He scorned them. His terrified by the moon disguised as a woman. Mechanically,
mother would beat him, and he would cry, silently, behind he made the gesture o f pushing his black hair back fromhis
her back; because women open their hands to strike, they face like a stubborn child, and he saw, with an inexpressible
only swat a lot o f air at you, it doesn't hurt, whereas men terror, this gesture repeated across the face o f the moon, as
I slap with a closed hand. Big Toniot slapped that way, and though he had seen his own reflection in a mirror.
' the boy was filled w ith respect for his father—possessor, And it wasn t the moon, this big white reflection of him-
moreover, o f a real hunting rifle. self: it was his mother. Little Toniot no longer dared stir.
D ecidedly, it was a robber who had come, seeking onions. So! W hat are you doing here, seed o f a toad? Why aren’t
Litde Toniot could no longer deceive h im self on that score. you asleep at this hour?”
Those bonelets of the dead were starting to protest. Sticky The woman, face to face with the little one, rumbled
all over as with sweat from bad dreams, the slight body of dully.
the boy huddled by the worm-eaten chest where they stored I m not doing anything,” he answered, protecting his
the bread and the lard, those two treasures of the house. cheek with raised elbow.
Despite his looking like a little wet cat lying in wait for a big “W hy aren’t you asleep, vermin? W hy are you nosing
rat, he was paralysed with fear; but his carnivorous instinct around here? And your father— where’s he at? Have you
gave him the keen desire to sniff out prey. If it should prove caused him to wake up, wretch?”
much larger than he, it would be well to call for Big Toniot “No, I haven’t bothered him, only I’m awake because I
directly... as the earth cries out when too heavily trodden
heard crackling in the garden.”
upon. i
“Is this the first time you’ve heard crackling in the
 KgS
W

1$H garden, little pig? At night, everything crackles! M ust you which would emit a squawk and be dead.
catch each passing noise by the tail, snoop?” Strange; why had she suddenly begun to hit like a man?
"I thought it was after the onionsl It sounded like a man's Was it because naked women have this right? Had such
footsteps!” mysteries entered the room along with the brightness of
"Footsteps? Son-of-a-dog!” skin? And he shivered with fright.
n tsh e
entej And before Little Toniot could think to raise his elbow, “Ah, I’m as worn out as if I had just produced you, son-
>fnerb
|1 the angry female seized him by the shoulder, pushed him of-an-owl!” the mother murmured, turning her back to him
“ loiUly toward his bed of heather in the corner o f the hovel, from in order to put on her chemise.
which the cursed little swine wasn’t to stir before the proper It was as if the moon had finally left the room.
iful time. There, dumbly, blindly, balling her fists, she beat the Everything grew dark and Toniot began to breathe again.
w°maj1)
aco* p W boy, wholly mastered by a frenzy o f anger, though he hadn't
i fullasbeft, done anything wrong.
=veiledmre<j Completely naked, the child received blows to the ten-
derest places without crying, in keeping with his scornful Big Toniot was dirty and lean. He had the sad mien o f one
but he was habit, and, that very night, it came to him that he might per­ who throws himself into the lion's mouth and frets for want
haps be spared if he complained less to the world.
echanically, of something better. His trousers o f a greyish-brown cloth
His mother had a drunken air. turning green from lengthy rubbings upon the forest mosses
ack from his "I'll tie you up, vermin,” she repeated in a low voice, and grasses of the embankments, glided woefully upon his
nexpressible clenching her teeth, and even more her fists. “I'll tie you by hips like vine-poles, allowing a pretty thong o f fawn leather,
le moon, as
the legs like they do with chickens for market!” which had the same skin as its owner, to peek from between
MT. Then he responded in an equally low voice, guessing that his belt and a short patched jacket. (Little Toniot, to imitate
ion of him- he would have to resign him self to the blows, submitting to his father, designed a similar thong by means o f a ligature
ared stir. an order laid down by the most high. and he gripped the string 'til he was on the point o f bleeding
Why aren’t "What? You still angry? W h y aren't you wearing a in order to clarify the demarcations.) This man said nothing.
chemise tonight? Finish this or go to sleep. He killed beasts, mole-catcher by profession. He tended the
m blcd The female suddenly stopped, and tossed back her hair. traps set for foxes, martens, rats, fish, chiefly for game, and
And Little Toniot imitated her. as he had no game licence, he took some precautions, such as
ling his They faced each other from the depths o f the shadows the moles hung from the back o f his jackets and frequently
where the mother’s panting sides shone dully. And each was left to rot for weeks, displayed as self-evident insignia.
losing shamed by their paltry nudity. He owned his hereditary house, stranded in this forest
Cowering on his sheets rubbing his little smarting limbs clearing like a shipwreck on a desert isle; he lived there
rt you
which would be blue by morning, the boy studied the female simply, catching everything he was able to devour: the fe­
with a look of suffering curiosity, protecting his little sex male and the little one unable to demand more o f him, since
cause*
with his left hand, because he greatly suspected that if she the police would not mix in his affairs. From time to time,
struck at him again, it would be the end o f the little toad, he went into a distant neighbouring town to sell some rush

77 RACHILDE
 F

baskets. By five, he always brought one back neatly foil of

bird-traps. head. He has
horse manure, a trifle to urge the garden vegetables along. One Sunday, it was a pedlar instead of the dry-goods ^ I
He also brought bread and lard which he set down in the earth cry out.
who came with thread for Big Toniot’s woman. This day^ I someone has
middle of the dung, the whole of it covered by an old news­ conversation in the empty house was less loud. The pedlar going forth ii
paper, to keep away the flies. He walked about barefoot in spread out his goods. It was very interesting. You could wise person;
winter and in summer, his soles having acquired the hard­ purchase a bee made from honey, and Big Toniot, the the little sav;
ness of iron. No one knew whether he loved his woman. His following week, noticed that someone had stolen his onions I front of him
woman hated his guts. First, because he never spoke and the "Is it possible,” cried the woman, all of her coarse hairs With the
woman had a superstitious horror of silence; then, they had brisding, "is it possible that you are accusing a brave pedlar Toniot arrivH
a boy and she would have preferred a girl, an ally and an whose papers are in order? He even showed me his licence! bed. He kncH
accomplice, a creature more supple, capable of appreciating He don't need your onions, dirty owl! He's a very proper What remai
all the vain phrases which escape from exasperated mothers man; he wears out his shoe leather every day and, on brown coveH
on rainy days. Moreover, Big Toniot’s woman grumbled Sundays, he drinks wine." from the w M
about him with all the abundance of a foaming torrent to What she didn’t say was that she had offered him the powerful fi^ J
any rare passer-by whom Providence deigned to send her onions in exchange for some dubious compliments. So, she’sH
way. When the gatherers of dead wood, the shepherds, the Big Toniot lowered his head, sniffed in the direction of he has gues
lily-pickers or the dry-goods pedlars accidentally strayed to the door. In effect, because wine blossomed inside of him, T o th e lf l
her door, there was a flux of discourse and lamentation and nothing was added to it, every word cost him cerebral And he I
| which rambled along, arms waving, from one end of the effort. For the rest, when he watched for a beast marauding bathed hin
' house, instantaneously vacated by her two men, to the other. behind a hedge, he was not so childish as to waste time has hidderfl
Fortunately, Big and Little Toniot were able to escape her, talking. Not he! Yes, the m
the woods were vast; and, during those times, the red-haired But Little Toniot naively promised to himself that he’d branches, f l
woman, so tired of a life o f sloth spent with her two bad keep an eye on the onion s. in the nap
boys ("If bad, Madame, then they shall have nothing to eat, That's why, having heard a crackling not far off in the runs aroui
just as they have nothing to say/”), recounted her woes in garden, he had got up in the night, while the father slept And she r<
terms that cannot be written down for home consumption, beneath his hanging rifle, his father, the stinking mole shut her in refl
as for example: He stinks o f moles. away by a female grown extremely delicate since she had crouched
Then, loving to spend money foolishly, she would pur­ ' longed for a night-gown and no longer tolerated the irri­ He has gc
chase a faggot, or mushrooms gathered at night, a bunch of tating touch of a rough night-shirt against her burning skin-- before thi
lilies or a penny's worth of thread. Poor Little Toniot! Feverish, he's unable to sleep. His of foliage
Big Toniot never reproached her for this, but Little turn has come to chase the great beast. He sniffs. He listens spite o f v
Toniot shook his head, scornfully. Is that the sort of thing sees then
in the dark. He turns this way and that on the dry heather,
one buys deep in the woods, mushrooms or lilacs? As for the a great w
slowly, fearful of making noise. A ll through the night he
thread, Litde Toniot knew how to mend things with sprigs, flexibility
listens for something. Something or someone. He's not
having many a time tested their relative strengths on the stretchin
really certain. The forefinger of silence probes deep in his

78 79 R
THE BOOK O F MASKS
head. He has calculated that it's a week since he heard the silver! Now he understood why she'd called him seed o f a
earth cry out. Heavy groans from a breast upon which toad, for he really was the son o f a frog. He watched, he
someone has pressed their knee, deep shudder o f revolt watched, his eyes ached so much that they burned! H e'll
going forth in a discreet signal, like the cough o f a very old look at that thing all his life, inside him, in the dead centre
wise person; and the heart o f the earth beats in the breast of o f his heart, he'll be mirrored there like a poisoned well-
the litde savage on watch, who rises at last, looks straight in spring whose reflections are sometimes cruel, sometimes
front of him, his nostrils sucking in the scent. sweet.
With the supple movement o f a grass-snake, Little He had truly seen enough! He retraced his steps, the little
Toniot arrives at the door without checking his mother's savage, he drew back, re-entered his lair. H e ought to have
bed. He knows full well that Madame la Lune has emerged. gone back to sleep like an obedient and compliant ch ild ,
What remains there, is her linen chemise swooned upon the head turned toward the wall, but stronger than himself, the
brown coverlet, the shroud o f one who is dead to him, put spirit of the earth, that primordial pact drawn up between
from the world a second time beneath the blows o f her men for protection against the Enemy, drove him instead to
powerful fists. his fathers bedside.
So, she’s out there with a man on this wicked night, and Big Toniot, awakened in turn, sniffed at th e wind:
he has guessed enough to perceive in him an everlasting foe. “What, boy, what is it? You sick?"
To the hunt then! “Nah, pa. Ma's hurt. Fell down. Better help her get up
And he crept out o f doors into a mild blue light that right away, pa.”
bathed him, caressed him, a baptism o f courage. The moon He said pa as he'd done when he was an infant, and
has hidden in that port o f the swamp where the frogs sing. scarcely capable of a wicked thought.
Yes, the moon's just there beyond the foremost o f the tree But the father got up, snorting, muttering:
branches. She is a jolly white form, round all over, who rolls “Oh yes—what’s she been up to? The bitch!”
in the nap o f the grass; she is veiled by a thick cloud that “Stealin’ onions, I think.” Little Toniot added that part
runs around her waist, seeming to him to eat up her head. in a low tone, his face filled with loathing in the presence o f
And she rolls, and she glistens, all o f the light escapes from the inexpressible crime he's explained as best he could.
her in reflections o f red hair, o f milky throat. Little Toniot "Blast it!”
crouched low and bent back the grasses with great caution. And the father had taken down the rifle.
He has gone beyond the garden, he's almost to the ditch just "It's that pedlar, eh?”
before the wood where there's a sort o f alcove, an ample bed “I dunno! It was a man...”
of foliage. He watches, he watches and silently he laughs, in “Yeah? W ell I know! You stay here.”
spite of which his heart grows tighter from fright. W hat he The litde one stays put. It's no longer his affair. The
sees there, he will never forget, because it's so funny! He sees father knows his business.
a great white frog, yes, it's just like that, this marvellous And back to sleep goes Little Toniot, stopping up his
flexibility of thighs and open arms, this elastic and precise ears. He hears it all the same: two shots, reverberating
stretching of members so pale that they seemed to be of through him endlessly, in the depths o f his being where it is
always filled with the vision of the great white frog, of sky. (Besides, as soon as it rained, he went to bed; this al
Mother Moon wallowing on the earth beneath an unknown saved him a meal at least!) gives his
cloud. He perceives a cry, two cries...and he stops up his Meanwhile, the seasons change. It became necessary bundles
ears. His teeth chatter. My God, what’s happening? Will she him to look for the old clothes belonging to his father, no* even bre
return, angry enough to kill him with her fists? in prison, because his child’s trousers were unable to gr0w will he 1
She comes back alright, trailing Big Toniot who pulls her along with him. And first he weaves two reed baskets, often cc
along by the hair. remembering the gear that people display when they g0 ^ shots? I-
rabbits <
“Here,” the father says in a hysterical voice in which all town... and he hides two rabbits there. The rabbits andthe
to live ii
the suffering earth seemed to groan, "meat on the table!” baskets, the one inside of the other would probably bring^ ]
he laugl
The big white frog is now striped along the thighs by fifty pence. A fortune. Lard for six months.
...Bee
streaks of blood which spurt from her mouth as well. The Then he sets out, threading the heaps of the footpaths,
hears th
motions of the arms and legs, through nervous energy, imi­ proceeding by chance. He'll arrive anyway, and there’s plenty I swamp
tate those of a few minutes past, so that the pangs of her of time. Finally, the actual day for the walk to town arrives, j the beat
death-throes resemble the writhings of her pleasure. He speaks of Big Toniot, the one who had murdered his with m<
Then her jaws snap shut. woman... Now the whole world knows why he's come back, i is mixec
The great white frog will sing no more. That surprises him. He owes as much to Big Toniot who purer h<
killed his wife, doesn’t he? He learns that it's very rare in arrowht
town for people to think this. Well! obviously there's more weave tj
to men than there is to... frogs, and he’d need too much lead ! Yes,
He has remained all alone completely satisfied with himself. to plumb them. never-ei
His days go by lying in wait for animals. The police, taking He finds his way to the prison and there he obtains his their fb
his father from him, had left him the rifle. His mother was patrimony: the famous trousers of grey-brown cloth, more they irr
buried far away. The good women who had rushed forward green than ever, decorated now with reddish stars, and the comer >
like big buzzing flies to offer him eggs, milk, consolation, old short jacket, patched everywhere. Someone explains diction
and had taken pity upon his condition of orphanhood, were things to him: his father, all in all, was perhaps not so upon tl
infuriated because he had made his horror of talkative culpable; he had acted almost within his rights, and surely Yes,
people a little too brutally evident. He does his little bit of no one would have condemned him to hard labour for lifeif must k
housekeeping, shakes his sheets, steeps his soup. The place is he had been a gentleman of the town, rather than a primitive withou
his, he had almost lost it all through the workings of justice, forester and a poacher to boot. So then—to kill a woman serve ta
and when the curate showed up, with his benign air, Toniot and to maim a pedlar—not as grave as hunting without a those 1
fled up the chimney after having bolted the door. But he is licence! This last echo of civilised existence filled him with* mouth
now the master of the house, and no longer a child learning new stupor. It all becomes a muddle in the poor head oftw8 Ret
his catechism! as Big'
simple boy. He tosses his rabbits into the manure, no long*1
Having the fortune no longer to owe anything to anyone inherit
daring to sell them. This gives him vertigo. He imagines to
on earth, it seems crazy to him to tolerate menaces from the Andh.
himself that he's tossed his father and mother away. He

THE B O O K OF MASKS
bed.
Hi,
gives his baskets away and runs from the town with his man who has found his way. The rush baskets fetch little,
bundles as though he’d killed all the policemen there, not
luf<^ even breathing ’til he reaches the middle o f the woods. How
will he live without a hunting licence? W hat now? How
the mushrooms don't last, and the birds are singularly
cautious. A field rat furnishes a sorry roast, releasing a fetid
odour of musk during cooking... but frog... is like chicken! A
ba*k«s, often could he furnish explanations for his personal rifle true feast for the amateur! He saw, in a blissful dream, the
shots? He discovered a grave inequity. Whether he killed little white thighs lined up on a hazelwood spit, browning in
" * * *
rabbits or people, he sinned; that’s all. But more important is the fire and turning with the docility o f little puppets,
?**&
to live in freedom. And while dreaming of how he will sin, vaguely ghosdike. He'd eat his fill and sell the rest. Even­
baM? s J
he laughs silently... tually, he would depopulate the countryside o f the ener­
: footpad ...Because they always sang, the bitches! At nightfall he vating little animals whose songs, half oaths, litanies o f hys­
hears them chatter and croak from the depths of every terics, haunted his memory fearsomely.
Itrhec e’s p ^ J
swamp in the forest, the swamps surrounding the house, in Each day, Toniot leaves his house which the winter wind
tow n arrives,
the beautiful swamps, cups o f glaucous crystal overflowing has ravaged, carrying off the door and splitting the roof.
rderedhis
with moss, full of a mysterious liquor where, in equal doses This is no longer his hereditary home, it’s his ruin. He goes
’s come back, is mixed the poison o f the rotten autumn leaves and the inside like a night bird swallowed up after a tempest in the
oniot who purer honey o f the springtime flowers, irises, nympheas, hole of an old wall or a crag. He has lost the taste for
:ry rare in arrowheads and periwinkles, o f gloomy periwinkles which daylight and for bread. He’s unable to shake o ff his somno­
there’s more weave themselves in plaits for entangling the legs of hunters. lence until the first callings o f the frogs. Then he stretches
o much lead Yes, yes, they murmur, the bitches, implore, cry out in out on all fours, a savage on the scent o f war, sniffing at the
never-ending sadness their search for a king, and forming wind. He crawls; he snuffles; he sucks in the smells o f the
obtains his their foul rings, shining with pleasure at being so stupid, forest which the tenderness o f the morning moistens with its
doth, more they importune him with sinister vociferations. From every tears. If it’s autumn, there’s the smell o f rosemary, juniper
rs, and the comer of the woods, summer evenings, a concert of male­ trees, and the acorns of the oak which dry out, exhaling litde
explains dictions raises itself up and falls in a downpour of long sobs jets of gold; if it’s spring, sage, elder and eglantine, all in full
lOtSO upon the orphan's face. bloom.
ind surely Yes, he knew quite well what he would fish for! Since he Either the beasts begin to flee, or else they intermingle
ur for liftifI must kill to live, and he wanted to live, he wanted to kill madly.
i a prim®* without a sound and to kill those whose deaths would best The only change evident in the man is a bit more sadness,
i woman j serve to suffocate noise. So he tried to gather up joyfully a bit more languor.
ithouta I those living flowers o f the turbid swamps, hatched from the But Toniot no longer thinks. He is far from the town,

him wiA* I mouths of fools... which he closed one by one. from his parents, from himself. The pernicious ponds,
Returning from town, Little Toniot thought o f himself mirrors which have reflected every mystery, attract him,
Lad i t as Big Toniot henceforth, a bit wilder than the other, having fascinate him, bewitch him. He is the prince o f the frogs
nolo# j
who call to him with a frenetic passion... without ever
agin* 10 inherited a desolate house and the trousers o f an assassin.
And he stood erect, taken with respect for himself, like a getting a better glimpse o f their rime to die.
,y.H«

I* 81 ra c h ild e
ICS
 And he w ill go towards them, pole on his shoulder from
seized by the double hook which, from afar, resemb^
which a thread hangs (perhaps bought from the pedlar by saving anchor. She shakes her little legs behind her T *
his mother/) and a little scrap o f red cloth as long as a thighs of a girl being violated..
woman’s tongue. He goes beneath the boughs, with a The frog hunter gathers them up one by one, tran
methodical step, eyes fixed and dull, his black hair barring He seems to mow them down with the top of his ^
his face with heavy lines. He looks like a very old man with He would take them all if it were possible to take all th
the piercing eyes o f a young animal. Before the pond he frogs in a pond, where each glob of mire receives a char
salutes them with his silent laugh. He makes no conversation birth and every drop o f clear water caresses an adult. But
w ith them, nor does he offer any gift of joyous accession. night comes.
T hey all, in a grand deployment o f their mesmeric forces, The moon looks down, a queen who jibes most evilly„
begin to undulate in broad bands, and pleat the water like those who call themselves her subjects. Whether the
soft silk. sing or die doesn't prevent her from being the only frog’,^ 'd
A round them, the trees contemplate the drama with bent that has seen everything from the beginning of the world,
heads. T h eir weeping hair spreads out, and the moon that Toniot fills his sack. A long linen sack that he has cut
one notices early on in a clear sky is outlined by a crown of from his mother’s lost chemise. H is nails are red withblood
amber gradually deepening to the colour of blood. Still later, The sin at an end, he returns home, pole upon his shoulders
it w ill be like the point o f an arrow whetting itself upon the and from it hangs the sack whose guts are swollen withlitdt
agony o f the day. guts who gasp and then die. A t home, it’s supper time and
The clamour o f the frogs grows frightfully, their yellow he handles the fireplace passably well. The wind paws,
eyes, drops o f weeping gold, shine like stars. In the midst of suffocating the flames. T he earth moans, scolding gently,
this Sabbat they emit human words, shrill interjections in No, people are no longer able to prevent him from eatingii
the manner o f infants amusing themselves with excess, or his hunger, to live. He is free.
make themselves hoarse with puerile anger. These are the On his knees before the heap o f tiny cadavers, he dtspoi
little abortions bom o f unavowable loves, litde foetuses them, removes from them the double loop of their two
immersed in the universe's carboy, who try to break through golden eyes, removes their jolly robes of green satin, theii
its transparency with their desperate litde hands. cute panties o f white velvet. A ll these jumbled things glisffl
And they crowd one upon the other, poor litde monsters, like the underwear o f dolls, and he leaves the room for as
in order to gaze upon the red tongue which draws to them long as those naked thighs, so pale, are shaken by nervous
the man at the end o f his damnation's thread. It is the fiery tremors.
tongue of the chimera! They are fascinated, little siren ...And the fixed pupils o f the man have a strange flan*®
enchantresses, and, in turn, he is fascinated also. The pole them, shining w ith covetousness or with hatred, and fa. &
drops, the thread lashes empty air, and the atrocious cty of a away dogs are how ling at the moon, and dreaming ofbitflj
live plucked bird is heard. The frog, full of curiosity, is Death in the arse.

T H E B O O K OF MASKS
 >=

The merits o f thefounders o f religious orders have been much celebrated... Of theme
orders, some have been extinguished\ having given the world what light they had; o/^
have prolonged down the centuries the lingering death that quietly stifles institutionsfj
disaccord with the tastes o f humanity; others,finally, have survived only by modi­
fyin g, and again modifying, their statutes to meet the transformations, so rapid anj In
disconcerting, of the eternal ideal. P erp etu u m
( A n o v e l ) *•-
...In like manner one might write curious chapters on thefounders o f literary review
and one mightfind, no doubt with astonishment, that Saint Philippe Neri and some of
our contemporaries have characteristics in common—f o r example a tastefo r the un­
known and that disinterest which sacrifices present satisfactionsf o r the success of an A little mets
idea. predetermin
...It comes about, in the social sphere, that an associationfou n ded by a Breton ser- embryo, liq i
o f nothingn
vant-girl caresf o r more poor people than the Assistance Publique; and it comes
about that, in the sphere o f literature, a review founded with a capital o f fifteen Louis
has more influence on the progress o f ideas, and consequently on the progress of the
world (and perhaps on the rotation o f the planets) than the proud compilations of But the bea
leading academics and commercial dissertations. released h e
...Identifiedfrom the birth o f the Mercure de France with the review to whose her, trim m
infancy, ui
inception he had plainly contributed, Monsieur Alfred Vallette subsequently became its
realfounder, since all the stones set above thefir s t have been touched by his hands
alone, and since alone he represents in it,fro m the laying o f thefoundation-stone, the
principle o f continuity which is the principle o f life itself. From that time on, then, Time pas
Alfred Vallettc (1858-1935) Married to
when he assumed this burden, his literature has been all in deeds; he has exercised only one fine i
Rachilde. he was the dominant spirit behind peers, sh
the Mercure de France, both the magazine and die a practical imagination, a criticism with immediate and certain consequences. did n o t;
publishing house. He devoted his life to this Irony or poetry; everything outside o f that is insipidity and platitude. Perhaps we
enterprise, supported many writers during hard
mark o f
times (Alfred Jarry being a notable example), will never know if Monsieur Vallette would have made splendid use o f his literary nor chaj
and wrote a great deal of critical material for gift, but we know he possesses it. In writing literature it is to be regretted that Life
die review. He hardly wrote fiction, the present
tale being a rare exception (from the sixth issue may have intervened and, with a somewhat satanic gesture, upset the inkwell over the
of die Mercure, 1890). newly begun page.

THE BOOK O F MASKS

8*
 ALFRED VALLETTE

IV.
In Prtface
perpetuum W h y d id the W ill one day create the Meanwhile, by dint of day-dreaming o f it sometimes,
(A novel) Frog o f the game o f Tonneau*?_ and as if her understanding were by degrees expanding,
she inferred that— this mark clearly not corresponding
to anything— the future held things in store... And her
I. imagination aroused, by the rose o f the spirit, impatient
A litde metal poured into a clay mould in which the for tomorrow, she gaped.
predetermined shape was hollowed out, and already the
embryo, liquid semblance o f a being still participating
V.
of nothingness, gaped.
W hat things?... Certainly none o f the minor incidents
o f her present life, litde miseries and litde joys o f no
n. importance... But someone clothed her in a lovely
painted robe of green with bronze reflections, and such
But the beastie was bom into the light. Someone
was her happiness that she thought her destiny fulfilled.
released her from the silt embossing her limbs, scraped
Yet she quickly realised that it was not; and more than
her, trimmed her; and, during these solicitudes for her
ever avid of something new, each thought questioning
infancy, unaware o f herself and o f the world, she gaped.
the future, she gaped.

m.
VI.
Time passed, o f which she had no notion; after which,
A great event occurred; someone set her upon a pretty
one fine morning, gathered together w ith many o f her
table o f green wood pierced by holes and painted
peers, she found herself gaping— like all the rest. She
ochre, a royal residence she had often coveted when one
did not see in this anything more than that it was the
o f her sisters was so adopted, and yet again she
mark of her race. But, neither rejoicing in the revelation
imagined herself as destined for her full share o f
nor chagrined by it, w holly indifferent, she gaped.
worldly delights. But she accustomed herself to luxury,
and, m aterially satisfied with her condition, she experi­
enced anew the effects o f the emptiness in her soul, and
she gaped.
 vn X.
However it led to nothing, and she was gliding through Indeed, something out of the ordinary was underw
days o f monotony with an opaque ennui, when a cart the arbour and, all at once, a disc flew by, passing ^ j
carried her off toward an unknown destination. She felt her head. This was the fiat lux: these were the thing^ |
an mtense emotion, which during the trip grew into a And, while the iron discs whistled around her, son^ j
perfect fever o f anxiety: there could be no doubt, the times struck against her so as to do her harm, showe^
hour was approaching for something... And she gaped. down upon the pretty table o f green wood and rushe<j
into the holes, her explicit longing became impatient
grew keener. Suddenly, a dazzlement, a swoon of
vm. ecstasy, oh! so brief! And, as soon as communicated, ^
Someone set her down just two steps from a bowling disc was swallowed up... where? W as it no more than
alley, not far from a swing, beneath an arbour attached that?... And she gaped.
to a house whose sign depicted a thin pole planted in a
river in which a perch was swimming, a rebus under­
lined by the following: The Two Perched*— Fish-stew and XI.
fried fish from the Seine... But her excitement subsided, The chance event often recurred, invariably followed
because nothing of the things to come was immediately by a melancholy o f disillusionment. But soon enough
apparent. — Ah' if only she were able to hasten destiny the secret craving rose in her again, and when it was too
along/... And she gaped. long in coming, there was a sensation o f abandonment
within her at first benign, then insupportable, which
was succeeded by a black sorrow: the most exquisite
IX. emotion, after all, that she had yet experienced. —And
■All in all, she was not unhappy there, were it not for she gaped.
[that irrepressible need for adventures, and the weeks
flowed by gently and calmly, free from any notable
f events: dull. Meanwhile the breezes grew warmer, the XD.
sun brightened up the horizons, the greenery of the But month followed upon month without anything
arbour became spangled with multi-coloured bell­ new happening. N ow was this all o f the things
flowers; then, one Sunday, the clouds rained down promised to her by the future, and the entire unique
upon The Two Perches. Then she understood that time reason for her having been brought into the world?
was passing, and, restless to the point of anxiety, she That was not all there was to life: it was a reason, no
gaped.
doubt, but not a reason for life... And she gaped.

THE B O O K O F MASKS
 xm. XVI.
V^inter came, and solitude, and boredom, dissipated a At last her house, for a long time a hovel polluted by
little by that first sunlight. Then she recalled the joys of nauseous stenches, collapsed from age. Someone
the other summer, along w ith its melancholies, exactly separated her from it, and, after diverse peregrinations
the same, and also the same regrets. And after a winter o f which she was scarcely conscious, she again found
and a summer alike, there were another similar winter herself in a dark place, in the middle o f a heap o f old
N and summer, to which absolutely identical years were scrap iron as rusted as she was. — Ah! her regal home,
m
added. — And she gaped. her beautiful green robe with bronze reflections, her

i former good health and the communions under the

arbour pricked with bell-flowers! T hey were good
XIV. times, then, the good old days!... Now, everything was
Only she grew old, and the bad weather damaged her said. — And still she gaped.
home, along w ith her lovely green robe with reflections
of bronze, which had moreover been rent by so many
fruitless discs— just as it happens that futile desires xvn.
wound more deeply than dreams, even when too fid- How many weeks, or months, or years d id she lie there,
filled. So her sp irit returned more frequently to the her spirit in her memories, her soul drow ned in m elan­
past; in life as she had lived it, experience made it plain choly, and in spite o f all, gaping?... N ow , in the
that the future no longer held anything. — And still she presence o f the m elting-pot in w hich her dissolved
gaped. being was about to return to unform ed m atter, she
gaped— someone grabbed her in order to h u rl her in:
alas! alas! it was the end o f a ll ends, ineluctable! A nd
XV. she gaped— slowly she was pushed into the m olten
More and more her abode fell into decay, and finally metal, which already halfw ay encom passed h en she
she no longer dared to look at herself, so immense was gaped— slowly it reached to the com ers o f h er m outh:
the sorrow of seeing, through the innumerable holes of she gaped— and slowly, slow ly the tw o extreme points
her tom robe, the incurable leprosy of the rust with o f her spread-apart jaws disappeared, gaping a ll the
which her body was tarnished, poor body that the while...
discs—now quite rare—had bruised and even crippled,
for she lacked a foot. Her day-dreaming took greater
delight in her past, whose vision nowadays conjured it­ Postface
self up so pleasantly. —And still she gaped. One day the W ill created the Tonneau Frog in order to
amuse itself.

87 ALFRED V A L LE T T E
 The veritable theoretician of Naturalism, it is by means of bis
conversation, throughgently sarcastic little remarks that he tau htL
friends the art of rejoicing in turpitude; baseness and evil His
resignation to life’s difficulties was discreetly hilarious: with what
F elix Feneon ( I 8 6 I - I 9 4 4 ). A quite remark­ fine prudent and contented air have I seen him smoking afoul cigari
The B ird
able figure, Feneon was a vital intellectual
influence w ithin the artistic, literary and
Never to write, to disdain that; but to have written, to haveproven ch arm er
political circles o f his time. As art critic he was an evident talent in the exposition of new ideas, and abruptly tohay
the most influential advocate o f a whole series
o f avant-garde painters. He more or less in­
fallen silent? I believe there are spirits who are satisfied once they they var
There t!
vented Post-Impressionism, supported the know their worth; a single attempt sets their mind at rest. In thism grey tal

cool-headed men, having tested their virility, abandon an amusement

Impressionists, Fauves, N ab is, Futurists, and
grass w
was a close friend o f most o f the important
Incited
artists o f many decades. As chief editor of the
m ost luxurious literary review o f the time, La which, to them, was no more than the quest of a proof Monsieur win th<
Revue Blanche, he introduced and supported a
wide variety o f writers. But Feneon’s great
Feneon is cool-headed. gesture

passion was for anarchist politics, within which Cool, not luke-warm, because the disdainfor writing has not were c
take fl
he was active for most o f his life, writing
th o u s a n d s o f articles under dozens o f pseudo- brought about in him a disdainfor action: the cold-hearted are the dubfc
B p s and actively supporting the
^Propagandists by deed” (bomb-throwers).
most active and their patience of will is limitless. Thus, having social and o
the ge
W p in io n ’s anarchism frequently got him in (or anti-social) ideas, Feneon decided to obey them even beyond the that i
point ofprudence. This man, who assumed the air of an American
{rouble with the state and he was one o f the
defendants in the most famous anarchist trial beak:
o f the day. The Trial o f Thirty, which resulted
from the dynamite campaign o f Emile Henry. Mephistopheles, had the courage tojeopardise his lifefor the achieve­ secre
watc
Despite detonators being found in Feneon s
house he was acquitted, primarily due to his
ment ofplans that heperhapsjudged to befoolish, but also noble and m ov1
acerbic witticisms which reduced the trial to just: such a page in the life of a writer casts its lightfurther and higher are f
mor
than red-glowing writings. One need not render oneself a slave to
farce. At one point the judge excused himself
after opening a parcel received through the post
which contained human excrement; Fenton
remarked: “Not since Pontius Pilate has a ideas, to the point of enslaving oneself by living in the vanity ofper­ Ata
magistrate washed his hands with such
ostentation."
petual sacrifice, like a Blanqui* but it is good to have had the occasion enb
Ne;
His several hundred 3 Line Novels were
written as space-fillers for a daily newspaper in
to show some contemptfor laws,for society,for the citizen-herd; if, dev
1906, and arc true stories. They soon achieved from a vain struggle, one comes away with a wound, the scar is mi]

beautiful
cult status and have been often reprinted.

90
THE B O O K O F MASKS
 FELIX FE N EO N

the same park, where all the frolics will still not have
. 'I Bird- Five fingers spread wide. The crumbs
ceased.)
charmer scatter, high in the sunlight, form into
On the quais it is particularly to the cab-drivers that it
I & flakes, and are on the point of falling when
falls to fatten the birds. Collignon is kneeling on the
they vanish, snapped up. The rustle of wings is gone.
driver’s box; the flat roof is covered in oats and the
There the sparrows are, on the lawn, footless, and their
pecking beaks resound on it like hail. In this way the
j I grey takes on a purplish tinge against the newly-sprung
cab-driver indulges the sentimentality of the guardian
i grass whose viridity the banks of geraniums glorify.
of the law who watches
Incited by the old man’s success, some little girls try to
over the rank: this worthy driver will not be hauled up
win the confidence of the small creatures, in pretty
for any contravention of regulations. Moreover, moved
gestures from which fodder issues. Uselessly. The birds
by the spectacle, a family has swept into the cab and the
were coming right up at his first advance. Now they
horse is hobbling off towards the zoo.
take flight again, fearful or disdainful. Only the odd
A square. About a hideous old biddy, jerky in her
clubfooted pigeon decides to peck about on the path
movements, and on whom the birds affectionately void
I I and consents to coo a little. The little girls are amazed:
their droppings, some ladies have halted. She tells them
the gentleman has magical powers. They don’t know
about the birds’ habits, and about how much she loves
that it is not bread he is distributing to the fastidious
them: last winter, such a hard one, lots o f little
beaks—but succulent brioche, and that’s the whole of his
sparrows died; she was their Providence; more than
secret. Once again they are in a circle about him,
once she went hungry on their behalf. And a tear
watching the birds come and go according to his
tergiversates, then runs down the facial ravines; the
movements, eddying about his hat; and suddenly they
ladies get maudlin, look for their purses.
are filled with wonder: on his sinister nose, a linnet,
The foster-mother never goes back home without a
momentarily perched, is flapping its wings.
few francs that will serve to radically alcoholise her
Meanwhile, on the pedestals, Spartacus swears,
dinner. Next morning, very early, she will be in the
Atalanta decamps, Hercules volunteers, Pomona
garden whose denizens she praises so well. She will
enbosomifies; we see sailors o f the siege, a druidess, a
stuff two or three pigeons into her shopping basket and
Neapolitan fisherman and, over there, a tiger being
they, in their turn, will nourish her. She’s the animal-
devoured by an alligator. (T he old gentleman with
military moustaches will be back, at nightfall, to sit in ^°Ver* — Translated by Iain White.

f £u x f £n £o n
 3 Line M onsieur Frachet o f Lyon, bitten by a pug-dog Nothing but silver-plate! The finger of Saint j
Novels and believed cured (Institut Pasteur), attempted that at least must be genuine: so the burglars of th*
to bite his wife and died o f rabies. Poissy made off with it.

a*
A dishwasher o f Nancy, V ital Frelotte, back from Lourdes, Too much laudanum only gave the architect Godefo'
forever cured o f his tuberculosis, died on Sunday, by mis­ gripes in the stomach. Fair enough— he’d drown hinutif
take. But they fished him out. :

W e ll, well! N either the due, nor any person representing him In a dramshop in Versailles the ecclesiastic Rousleot
at the obsequies o f Riehl, crushed at Nancy by the due de encountered, with his eleventh absinthe, the attarfe 0f
M ontpensier’s car. delirium tremens that carried him off.

&

A t C lichy an elegant young man threw himself under the Love. At Mirecourt, Colas, a weaver, planted a bullet intht
wheels o f a rubber-tyred fiacre; then, unhurt, under a lorry, head of Mademoiselle Fleckenger and treated himselfwith
which crushed him. similar severity.

■The customs-officer, widower Ackermann o f Fort-Philippe Returning home, the ploughman Vaulthier, of Chapelle-su-
■ Nord), who was to have been married today, has hanged Bois (Vosges), found his wife there, drunk, and virtuously
himself at the tomb o f his wife. strangled her.

Considering his daughter (aged 19) insufficiently The tender feelings o f Delalande for his servant-girlwtie
puritanical, the Saint-Etienne clockmaker Jallat killed her. such that he killed his wife with a pitchfork. At the assizes
It s true he still has eleven other children. o f Rennes: death.

— Translated by bin

T H E B O O K OF M ASKS
m w m 93 ca*
 O f an intellectual precocity comparable, as regards the date, to that o f Maurice Barris, man ofsla^
approaches, or Charles Morice, man o f meanders and o f labyrinths, Camille Mauclair is the
"Mild
deductions and o f inferences and protractions....
He has been represented merely as a disciple o f Monsieur Barres; as he also was o f Monsieur
Mallarme, o f Monsieur Maeterlinck, o f many styles o f art and schools o f philosophy, o f all new
methods o f thinking and living. No one has more passionately than he sought theflow er that is not to
be plucked, that which one gazes upon, whose scent one bears away fo r ev er in one’s eyes. Whether lc
sings o f the dream or counsels energy, it is because, in the course o f his restless excursions, he has
encountered the blue irises o f the green pond, or two oxen with their horns intertwined. All oj apm
to his latest acquaintance, it is to her that he transfers all hisform er loves, at the risk o f perplexing
those who, without havingforgotten the day before, listen to the confidences o f the present moment.
Mauclair is o f superior intelligence. There are no ideas that he is unable to comprehend and
assimilate immediately; he clothes them again immediately with a supreme elegance; they seem
C am ille M au d air (1 872-1945). Mauclair
began his literary career as a poet and was co­ completely tailored to his cut: there is a singular sorcery here; it is as if, like Cinderella’s godmother;
founder with Lugn6-Poe o f the Thiatrc de he possessed the gift o f transforming things into immediately usable objects. He has tried everything
VOeuvre which premiered the plays of and turned everything to account...
Maeterlinck and Ibsen (and Jarry’s Ubu Rot).
If, as the theme o f a discourse, he takes this dictum o f Andre Gide: uI call everything that
f t ^ H e turned to journalism and then became a
■■prolific art critic, a champion o f Rodin and the appears, a symbol,” w e are surprised, but not disconcerted. For w e know thatfro m this obscure

r
^Im pressionists. He aged ungracefully: unlike form ula Mauclair is going to deduce a suite o f form ulae whose elegance w ill inevitably clarify, to i
Flnlon, whose influence he deplored, his tastes blazing whiteness, the ambiguous thought which he has chosenf o r his experiments. He must have it
did not evolve and he later became an
become luminous; he must have it so dazzling that w e close our eyes...
implacable enemy o f "modem art" His
notorious La Crist de I’art modeme (1944) allied Now, and here’s where eloquence triumphs magnificently, Mauclair gets hold o f this dry and
this enmity to extreme anti-Semitism: harshformula, envelops it in the sumptuousfo ld s o f his opulent style; he drapes, he adjusts, he
Maudair, a collaborator, celebrated the
regulates, he arranges; the diffuse materials become tunics, robes and mantles; the mannequin com
“disappearance" o f the Jewish picture dealers
and critics responsible, so he thought, for the alive; in truth it smiles and one believes that it breathes; the creature is complete: one sees, admires,
perversions of modernism. He contrived to die and loves it...
before the Liberation. Camille Mauclair makes the sense o f that old metaphor, f,the magic o f style,” completely under­
Ainsi Cria le sang de Vesprit appeared in La
Revue Blanche in February 1894 (dedicated to standable. His style is magic, notf o r the gaudiness o f its colours, or f o r the magnificence of its
Rachilde). Although it rather typifies the more sonorities, butf o r the beauty o f its unique colour and the purity o f its tone. He would seem tote lb
melodramatic writing produced by some of the those rivers whichflow, with a rich fluidity, over a bed ofgolden sand mixed with pebbles who# dr
minor figures in the movement in their ai
moments of indiscretion, its very lack o f re­
resistance is resolved into a slow, profound and continuous music. I f this is not o f its nature tottty
wi
straint foreshadows some of the modernist incomprehensible, I should say that I perceive in that sound metaphysical harmonies and, on the
writers Maudair was later to despise so much. cc
surface, the perpetualgleam o f the ideas the river carries along.

T H E B O O K O F MASKS
 ■ Thus He (If these pages arouse surprise, they present not terrible sun, where jets of the living water of sensibility
Blood o f The so much meaning as life itself, a passionate cry, and of happiness spurt out.
| Spirit C ried or a force of nature. Thus it is that the spirit of
■ Out... their author strives now rather towards a violent
I wish to spit out my words, red signs of my cries, as
I f> sensibility than towards reason: and that sensi- I spat out the beautiful red blood from my breast. I
B bility does not always seem lucid, because it submits itself to the sense of shall mark your faces with this blood! You will walk
k things, which is distinct from the order that our judgement imposes upon the streets with these words thickened with blood stuck
I them, and effortlessly frees itself therefrom. One never comprehends
■ anything, one cannot guess at the thoughts of others, but one sometimes
to your eyeballs! They will congeal on your eyelashes,
I' finds distant sonorities of one’s own awareness in the sound of present they will colour your wan tears, they will honour the
E words: and the author's hope here is but to awaken one of those underlying shameless rouge on your cheeks, they will hang from
B sonorities in the instinctive responses of the reader—if he can.) CJvl. your lying lips! And you will be so dismayed that your
flesh will crack, just to drink in this divine liquor, and
1 Men! If I set myself up in your midst, it is not in the you will mingle it with the nauseating body-fluids of
I manner of a chatterer, setting the spirits, naive fledg- your cowardice!
1 lings, squawking among the trellises of his phrases! But The blood of my spirit flourishes like the seeds of a
I I shall stand up like a rock upon your sand, I shall wag rowan tree... It is as flavoursome as the peppers of the
K my head like a sun, I shall tear my thoughts out from tropics in which the hidden ardour of the sun boils! I
■ my innermost depths like quarters o f meat, and I shall shall not fail to cry out to you the truth of life and its
■ cry out to you: Take, and eat! ardour: what does it matter if my head sways like a
For I am not a man o f taste, polishing his phrases as
world halfway extinguished? I rise up like one fated,
I he does his nails, nor a man concerned with making with the face of Saturn, with the muscles of Adas, with
I himself clear, nor any other o f your derisory puppets. I all the desolate shapes of ancient chaos!
I live by my in stin ct; I have come, enamoured of the
I laugh at your regularities, I create myself according
enigma o f existence, to press m y mouth to the old
to my pleasure in your midst! I have not come among
wound o f L ife; now I must crush my crimson lips
you to be sculpted like a stone, frozen like sorbet in a
against your consciences, as i f against strawberries/
mould, handled like a tool, agreed over like a party
Men, I d is co v e r e d that I was a vast garden. T h e
wall; I do not accept the laying of laws on the curves of
drops of my blood are the seeds o f pomegranates from
my brain like your crossroads-slabs! I no longer wish to
a miraculous orchard, my heart is an immortal fruiti I
confine my enthusiasm in an item of clothing, nor to
wish that my soul should at last appear as it was when I
rhyme my genius to the noise of my heels upon a
concealed it from strangers: a clearing burnt by a
boulevard, watched over by the yellow rancour of
xcct-lam ps! I no longer wish as a man of letters, to greyness, and shines over all! I am the man who ’
ack on the sugar-stick o f morals as you do, nor to his blood, come running with urns! I bestow my im strengthei
hom p on a sceptical cigar between the gaps of a smile mortal consumption upon you to dye tragically the Hop n
>f blue-tinted teeth! bandages of your dying moments! chatterinj
O reasonable men, I w ill no longer put up with all O women! You whose sensibility flowers above the the inefFa
h i s greyness! I am exasperated at passing for a critic, I reason of men as frail birds soar above the worms, I monumei
do not thrive like a vibrio in the blood-corpuscles of shall contrive to shimmer before you like a jewel. I ^ to which
Because y
others, I come, improbably, to pour my own into your wind about your feet like a bracelet of gems! I shall
the reflec
abject probability, I have unloaded an enormous cargo congeal my horrible blood in necklaces, I shall harden
No loi
o f despair onto your quays! I rise up like a shark from its drops in the interior fire of this old planet to braid
trudging
the m uddy depths of the ages, I rise with the candour them on threads of gold! I shall make myself supple as
the firma
o f coral from deep in my fishing-grounds of simplicity! satin, I shall make myself as diaphanous as tulle, I shall shoulder:
I pass through your assembly clothed in wonder- clothe my soul with velour, the better to drape the in a singl
inspiring red, guardian of the incomparable red blood, I scarlet of my spirit upon your finery! brazier o
advance! I am the man who bleeds among those whose For the truth that I bring you will know how to be as Men! j
veins are filled with dirty water! In your thirsty lands, in beautiful as it is frightening, its rapier will flower like a have take
the motley hideousness of your cafes, I build an im­ lily, it will lean toward kisses as the sun inclines toward stars! M )
moderate, incredible aqueduct for blood! the occidental groves! It will not limit itself to a single great cha
Rush with the others, join the palms of your hands, passion, it will not be contained in a lone winepress, of your 1
open your jaws decayed by acidic irony, clamber up my but it will burst out like a universal vintage through all trample i
■legs like crabs! I pour out on you the red and frothy ihumanity’s sieves! no longe
I fountain of W ar! I have devoured every twilight to tint Be silent, all of you, so as to consider sensing in shops of
my elixir, and that which I cause to flow over your silence. Be skilful moulders, occupied with affixing an about w
tongues bleeds with all the murders of all the suns! exact death-mask on the face of the Invisible! And you yourself
I have faded the dawns for you, I have lain in wait at will stride through life like real men. You will feel you creature
six in the morning to assassinate the sun, I have run are going out at dawn, skin pink from morning Proje
across the sky like a madman, I have hunted down the ablutions, and comparing your rejuvenated faces with hang th
clouds like cattle! I cut their throats at evening, I wiped my the pallid features of people coming home from a ball! Paradis
luminous knife on the pastures of the somnolent hills! You will look at them, those pitiful creatures, with that giv
W hy should I not be thrown headlong amid the in your
their greenish complexion and their hollow eyes
dancing stars, as though in the midst of golden bees? I spread
exhibiting in their pupils a shred of tarnished clarity*
zry out red, I breathe red, I laugh at being incompre- it swell
which the silky lustre of their coats laughs to scorn.
smalles
lensible, honest or probable! You do not know Life; it And you will be unharmed by the make-up that pleases beneatl
s neither a theorem, nor an account-book, nor a heart itself to dirty the faces of men, the first light, dwarf
luttering like a fan! Life is red, and lords itself over god, infamous dresser of lust: because your

97
THE B O O K OF M ASKS 96
 I strengthened souls can no longer be crushed. your enervated sensibility!
Hop no longer upon the crutches of your logic like And then uttering a solitary cry, drunk with the
1 chattering insects, but rise up, pure as reeds, towards honey of nature, raise yourselves up above the world in
| the ineffaceable sky! That your heart might be a the breeze, like the oak trees, and enjoy it! Do not
I monument, that each of you might be a bronze tablet despise the little shiver of the highest leaf in the
I to which the long horde o f secrets comes to surrender! evening, do not scorn the little creature's caress on your
I Because you are masters o f know ledge, and the stars are pistils, do not forget the sweetness o f the water's smile,
I the reflections o f your spirits! do not neglect to float upon the frail, hesitantly falling,
No longer will there be two troops of truths feather of the swan, any more than you refuse to howl
I trudging over the mountain and across the plain. But with ecstasy like a crater finally awakened!
I the firmament's flowers will descend upon their Feel, men, take hold of Nature's millions of hands!
I shoulders like wings, and all the birds of life will fly up Go up after her, stand up on her forehead, seize her!
I in a single v-formation to go and fall into the ideal For it need no longer be a grey existence, reason
| brazier of Orient! burrowing like a mole, and this is no longer the time to
Men! life has champed on its bit, the broken reins revere the straw eminence, to glorify the shrew-mouse!
have taken fright and gone off to box the ears of the Hah! Haven't you sniffed enough at the repugnant
I stars! My mysterious word stands like Hyperion in his balm of disgust, the clinging oil of ennui, and the
i great chariot! Do not winnow my parables with the fan shameless sweat of wrinkled monotony? Stand up!
I of your little truth, but abandon reasoning and balance, Reason is to be drunk with love, down to the dazzling
trample the astrolabe or the compass underfoot: there is hour of death!
I no longer time to measure out barley in the sticky You will either perish like cockroaches, or you will
I shops of existence, there is no longer time to roam be as resplendent as rubies! That is why I have come to
ll iffilllljji I about with candles searching for one's shadow! Deliver show this strange face to you today, because an
yourself from the abominable parody of clownish unfathomable apocalypse is shaking the frail decor o f
creatures, and behold a virginal sky gushing forth! my naked flesh! Here is the blood; it is time to drink it!
Project yourself like a stone from an opened palm, I am gaping like a red Fountain of Youth! Rush up like
hang the garlands of your efforts from the pillars of camel-drivers to the curb of the well, lean over, jostle
Iiaccsp|
I Paradise! I come here to vomit out to you the blood each other, madmen! And when your thirst has been
I that gives strength, and, like an old river-god, I stream assuaged, and strength has returned to you, when you
HU* | in your bodies which are my lands! Let the blood move apart, the crimson spring will become as calm as a
'<f I spread through the hidden compost o f your muscles, let mirror once more, a translucent jewel!
| | | I it swell the trees of your lungs, let it penetrate into your There you will contemplate, instead of the moulded
H i smallest veins, let it come like a warm spring to lurk clay of your features, your true and future face, for I am
beneath your skin, so that, by it, you may regenerate the one through whom you will know your destinies.
lli

97 CAMILLE MAUCLAIR
 There are afew dramatists among the newcomers, by which I meanfervent obscr^ I
of the human drama}gifted with that overwhelming sympathy that allows a writey I
fraternise with everyone in the world and with allforms of life...
Georges Eekhoud is a dramatist, impassioned, a drinker-in of life and of blood Char- I
His sympathies are many-sided and quite diverse; he loves everything. “Every donnerei

living thing that liveth shall be meatforyou.v Obedient to the Biblical injunction he I 2*>
They re H
fortifies himself with everyfeast the world offers. He assimilates the tender or the
quietud
harsh savagery of peasants or sailors with as much certitude as the most attenuated them b)
and hypocritical psychology of creatures intoxicated with civilisation, the disquieting The ves
Georges Eekhoud (1854-1927). Bom in infamy of eccentric loves and the nobility of devoted passions, the brutal animation of I accentu
Belgium, he spent his adolescence in Switzer­ gross popular customs and the delicate perversion of certain adolescent souls. He does I exude a H
land before bowing to family pressure and nothing
entering the army. A small inheritance allowed not select, but he loves all, because he understands all.
him to escape military service and begin his Suet
Taking something ofa liberty with the word, I have, in defiance of etymology ani 1
writing career. He was associated with the most west of
important Belgian literary review LaJeune usage, called him a "dramatist” albeit that he has never writtenfo r the theatre... His I havebt
Belgique between 1881 and 1893, a collabora­ Cycle patibulaire, which, reprinted, has again come before the public, and Mes where i
tion he ended when the editors issued a mani­
festo opposing vers libre, he was then the co­
Communions, published lastyear, seem to be the two books by Eekhoud in which place o
founder of a rival magazine, Le Coq rouge. that passion most clearly and loudly cries out the charities, the hatreds, the pities, the ness of
An Epicurean socialist he attempted to rally
contempts and the loves of this man who is the third tome of the marvellous trilogy of the'
literaiy support for Oscar Wilde during his by the
trial and later dedicated a book to him with whosefirst two have as their titles Maeterlinck and Verhaeren...
those f
these words: "To Oscar Wilde, Poet and Pagan I f sincerity is a merit, it is doubtless not an absolute literary merit; art accwrny
Martyr, tortured in the name ofJustice and
the ab]
Protestant Virtue." The sympathetic treatment dates itself quite well withfalsehood and no one is bound to confess either his strives
of homosexuality inhis novel Escal-Vigor Icommunions” or his repulsions; but I mean here by sincerity that sort o f artistic sordid
(1899) was a continuation of this campaign will be
and resulted in Eekhoud being unsuccessfully disinterestedness which makes the writer}fearing neither to terrify the average brain
to be c
prosecuted for “writing an immoral book." nor to grieve eitherfriends or masters; unveil his thoughts with all the calm shame-
In Terroir Incame (1925) he describes an How s
aspect of his aesthetic: "I aim to concentrate, to lessness o f extreme innocence or perfect vice— or of his passion. The “communions upstre
symbolise, a whole landscape in one unique but o f Georges Eekhoud are impassioned; he eagerly seats himself and, having been itself!
essential individual." A function performed by But
the heroine of Cbardonnerette (from Mes nourished upon charity, hatred, pity, contempt, having tasted the elixirs of lo v ef^
presse:
Communions, 1895) in the story here. concocted through his hatred' he rises, drunk, but not sated, onfuture joys.

too K 101
THE BOOK OF MASKS
vHNJp « li\
GEORGES EEKHOUD
x
' ^ X I
• 1
I’ ieL M

^ ® | | Char- Certain stretches o f a city's outskirts can succeeds in detaching itself from an April journey to
[ donnerette be compared to orphaned lands fallen these crucial provinces. The smile o f renewal shone
& under the sway o f a harsh step-mother.
csW B h e y rejoice in their sense o f well-being and rustic
falsely upon them. A radiant and sprighdy child, the
sun excited the saddened countryside and communi­

CS|a« I
■quietude even as monopolist industry comes to seize cated who knows what forced and artful grace to it.
2 diem by the collar in order to blight and exploit them. A morbid spiritual state had dragged m y feet to this
I The vestiges they manage to retain o f better times so sadly transitory region that morning. I no longer felt
I accentuate their sorry state, for if ruined monuments my aloneness there, even more isolated than elsewhere.
I exude a restrained and romantic melancholy, there is Forever deprived of hopes, I was plunged into the
I nothing more sinister than a landscape gone to seed. emptiness of my former nostalgia; I assimilated m yself
'M n ifc
I Such is the case with a small valley situated to the into this disintegrating region, doubly afflicted,
&P*n3 3 west of the city. The little swarded hills of bygone days struggling in turn with convulsions o f anguish and
|have been transformed into slopes and embankments normal growing pains— just like this land where the
where slag heaps and piles o f broken botdes take the brutal union of city and countryside resembled the
h ^ a i J place of cows sprawled in the high grasses. The bare­ corrosive and deadly kiss of a rape. It kept me from
ritits, tkktrik,im ness of the telegraph poles parodies the elegant sveltesse emigrating, from loosing my way, from dissevering
ottuoftlxm mtkii of the white birches and poplars. A streamlet startled myself once and for all from everything good. N ot one
by the nearness o f a brick-making plant and one of normal affinity held me together any longer, not one
m m iL . those frightful blocks o f workers' flats—proclaiming lawful consolation could come my way and, pending
te literary mirit,^ the abyss between philanthropy and the Gospel— the imminent metamorphosis, I was savouring the
inJ to conp5^ I strives to frolic and even to smile at the approach of the complaisance of this final springtime in the sickly and
sordid tributaries that lie in wait for it yonder, where it carious industrial suburbs. I was breathing in the fumes
will be diverted behind the railway aqueduct the better of this world in order to arrive at new shores. But
##d
W ^j
to be crammed between kilometres o f man-made walls.
How sad is the final cantina o f limpid springs and
which ones? And by what means? M y presentiments o f
an indispensable avatar by no means implied the end o f
. 7 ^ 1 upstream mills that the condemned rivulet sings to my life upon this earth. Reason told me that, without
itself] my leaving this planet, it had the means to create a new

ukb But it is in springtime that the spoliated area im­

presses you beyond all telling. M y memory never
world and a new humanity, with other morals and
other gods, outside of every tradition.

W »»# >
*91 GEORGES EEKHOUD
 At this moment in my speculations, descending an clouding over, becoming as velvet in their desolati10n> &
embankment, on the point of embarking upon the eyes a bit bloodshot, all at once bantering and be-
most intractable defile in this tollgate region, I crossed seeching, deep-set beneath the arch of the eyebrows
paths with a young girl, a sort of beggar, a true native of shadowed by long pale lashes, circled with violet as h# P]
this soil. At once childish and aged, this being assumed though from contusions. Oh that look, that beganljj^
a superhuman importance in my eyes. She was caught the prayer of a child martyr and ended with a prosti­ lm>d
between twilight and dawn, promise and decline, tute's leer! The better to define the emanation, theaura
suggesting at the time both the night to come and a day this dubious creature gave off, I would say that she
waiting to be bom. She lent charm to and reinforced might well have led the legions of urban and rural satu.
the impression produced by so local an environment, culottes*, and that in times of panic and bourgeois
and I did not doubt that she had issued spontaneously reprisals, decent citizens might have stood her against!
from the accidental meeting of the redeeming sun with wall, so much did she exude subversion, anomaly, the
the damned suburbs. spirit of the outsider.
Her sexless appearance complicated any determi­ She took up her stand in front of me, barring my
nation of her age. Her face could as easily be that of a passage, stretched out her chapped and callused hand
little boy as of a little girl, her body was as suited to an and demanded alms of me in a vulgar voice, chant-like
ephebe as to a female adolescent. with inflections shaped into fairground rhapsodies,
Scrawny, nervous, wan, dressed in tatters sewed to­ poignant as the roll-calls on a ship in quarantine.
gether with straw substituted for thread or fastened Seeing me moved to the point of searching through
with thorns in place of pins, she thrust herself upon my pockets for money, she interrupted her complaint
your attention with one of those faces that have a and, taking me by the hand in a very familiar way:
complex and impassioned expression, a physiognomy at "Come on!” she said. “Where?” I stammered. ‘Tm
once affectionate and spiteful, ingenious and pre­ starving!” she confided to me laughing sorrowfully,
cocious, sensitive and rebellious, shaped like an elon­ while she enveloped me with a carnivorous and coaxing
gated oval of livid complexion, rosy in places, with an stare. If I had to portray Hunger, I would copy that
aquiline and animated nose, an obstinate chin, a look of hers! abc
smooth brow, almost too genial for a woman, con­ We took ourselves off, myself completely at her
trasting with the sarcastic pucker of her fleshy lips, mercy, the liege-man of this social outcast, to a
alluring although rather faded. This face changed in its dilapidated little tavern, where once, at the dominical
expression from a depraved urchin’s carefree and vespers, couples from the city, escaping from cashiers-
ambiguous smile to the ecstatic and languorous melan­ desks and ell-measures, abandoned themselves and
choly of an angel by some Gothic master. whirled round and round in periodic harmony withtk
And in this local physiognomy nothing was as fiddles. I was delighted by her imperious assurance W
intense and troubling as the eyes o f an indescribable allowed myself to be guided as if that had been where
blue, by turn beady and sparkling with m irth or we were bound for and this stopover in a hovel a thin?

101 103
THE BOOK O F MA S K S
arranged between us, as if she had been waiting for me Oh yes, and what then? Make up your mind! Come on
this morning, out in the lane on the city’s borders. upstairs and get it over with! Or else make way and give
Chardonnerette— the tavern-keeper had addressed up your place to the next in line...” I seized her arm,
her by this suggestive, almost coarse, name, a name hard enough to break it: “You have lovers!” This
tru ly fitting for this plant o f the waste­ jealous outburst escaped me like blood spurting from a
land*—devoured the frugal dishfuls that I had served punctured artery. She laughed a false, hoarse laugh:
up for her. Occasionally she paused in her eating to “Lovers! Now he calls them lovers! All those who come
turn the unctuous and almost too grateful caresses of up to me on the highway! Anyone who’s walking by!”
her pupils upon me, so grateful were those pupils of And, edgily, she made the motions o f counting them
hers that they seemed ironic to me and inspired me to out on her fingers, which she then flicked as if to shake
remorse for my paltry benevolence: then, immediately off an invisible dust whose every grain represented one
after, this velvety and lubricated gaze became hard, of her innumerable gallants.
withdrawn, almost vindictive. W hen she had finished At that moment I simultaneously wanted to cover
her meal, she came to me, as I was settling up, took her with kisses and beat her unmercifully. I understood
hold of my hand and, with the resignation of a those desperate ones who, on the point o f commission,
cornered vagabond who goes off with the peelers: “Go or even having committed the worst of outrages,
on, give yourself a treat! Then, w ere quits!" massacre the object of their monstrous desire and
With her breasts already bared, she had signalled to believe themselves to be less damnable assassins than
the landlady who made to show us the way to a loft. divine lights; I compared myself to them to the point
Chardonnerette, her foot set upon the first tread of the that, ears roaring, eyes red and filled with tears, with a
staircase, turned round to me. Ah! always that physi­ great effort I reached the door to flee from the temp­
ognomy with its contradictory expression! If the tation of imitating them all the way.
enigmatic child was beginning to stir up my sensorial Chardonnerette had thrown herself in front o f me
being, she was also encroaching upon me, saturating me and, once more, that long ambiguous stare o f r ar<»<« and
even to the smallest crannies o f my souL And so it came menace, prayer and exasperation, drilled into my heart
about that the protector’s pity turned bit by bit, to and troubled me to the core of my being. Beneath the
respect, and even veneration. Yet, as my sympathy force of that stare my fury subsided into a delicious
became love, it was she who began to humiliate me, it stupor. I swooned away at the pressure of a hand be­
was I who became pitiable. come tutelary, at the heat of a fraternal hip grazing
“No, you owe me nothing!” I cried. “That would be mine and, in her eyes freed of prejudices and lies, I
frightful!” And all but sobbing: “How you must drank in forgetfulness of all things, save for her
despise me if you believe me capable o f exploiting your presence.
hunger!” She shrugged her shoulders: “Go on, don’t Was this the awaited angel, the annunciator o f the
talk foolish! You’ll have a first taste, that's all! Unless new world? Marching without speaking, two sleep­
- you re disgusted!... ” “Chardonnerette, I beg o f you!” walkers, we found ourselves, almost without knowing

103 GEORGES EEK H O U D

 it, in the open countryside, far from the suburb. sweat of labouring— we had miraculously avoided
Let s go back," she murmured to me with a voice them.
hollow and envious. “It’s too happy, too healthy here. All flesh and muscular curves they, all pupils and
This whole countryside stinks of butter and fat physiognomy she, Chardonnerette greeted them by
cabbages. The limp and swollen flesh smells of their names, or by a smutty nickname. For this one she
tallow...” had a tender tear, for that, a smile; at one of them she
This rural nature, serene, blissful and salubrious, made a lascivious pout, another she gratified with her
resigned to the point of servility, accorded poorly with preferred gesture, she parodied the tic, the vulgar roll of I
the subversive colour o f our thoughts. Recognising my the hips o f a fourth and greeted the most surly,
companion’s inward feelings of disgust and acidic frequently the ragged, o f her bedfellows who wished
affinities, I went still further, saying: “Yes, let's return her in their own image, brutal and pugnacious with the I
to where people suffer, where people alw ays seem in most trenchant, bitter and callous imprecations of
revolt beneath the constant menace of the pillory or combustive smuttiness. Inexplicable phenomenon/ The I
jail, where every licence glorifies us; let s go where love more storm-battered and miserable they seemed to be.
blasphemes, where kisses bleed, where possessions are the more she demonstrated her irritating and indelible
agonies, where people love in order to kill each other/ solidarity with them as she passed. An even more in­
At these words the eyes of the pale child appeared more credible phenomenon: far from being jealous of themI I
fiery to me, more like Greek fire than ever before. wished to reconcile m yself with these pariahs, to
In place o f the rustic steeples dressed in gold, we saw affiliate myself to this immense tribe o f slaves and
the manufacturers' smokestacks appear once more, rogues; partisan o f a sort o f polyandry, I would have
unrolling funereal crepes. The angeluses of peaceful been content to share Chardonnerette's favours with
villages were smothered by the factory bells chiming a the very lowest members o f the beggars' brotherhood,
kshort-lived deliverance to their gallery-slaves. with the rabble o f cant-speaking thieves and tinkers. As I
f Walking at an accelerated pace, in swarms, flasks at if she had read my thoughts, she cried out enthusias­
their hip, p ip es in mouth, ungainly, dusty, they looked tically: “Oh yes/... They're proud rascals, richer in
my companion over quite shamelessly, as if everyone spunk and in blood than cash/ T hey give me a good
had rights over her. M y wounds were rubbed raw by going-over too; I've had caresses from them that would I
those contemptuous winks o f their eyes. W hy hadn't I, flatten you completely and leave you splayed like a
so irritable, so in clined to bridle at the least offence, cabbie's mare/” W ith a volubility, with a ferocious
challenged these proles instead of merely looking to get fever that made her hoarse and breathless, she evoked I
away from them? More eloquent than symbols, true for me in short, panting phrases, the practices and
incarnations of easy-going strength or latent revolts, demands o f those men; she depicted siestas in brick­
with stout limbs and perfect figures reminiscent of yards hotter than sulphur-springs, nocturnal copu­
Roman medals, patinated with smoke, their gaudy lations in the hollow o f a millstone, and debauchenes I
apparel stuck tight to their sides from the exertions and in warehouses, and the audacity, the sexual fury o f

THE BOOK OF MASKS

104
 those beggars, unbridled even behind the law courts, thirsting for goodness and justice.
not two steps from the constables, while some snuffling Her disgrace seems like a black purgatorial
and sententious magistrate laid charges against one or splendour to her.
another robber of virginities who had let too much The more she enumerated her ignominies to me, the
blood from his patients. But still I brought her back to more I loved her, this total loss, this Madeleine of the
the facts of her personal experience, loutish idlers. Yes, I loved her. And with an absolute
i She told me of her communions with the under­ and pantheistic love! In the person o f this prostitute I
dogs, the pangs of hunger that she had glutted, the adored all of the people, all their suffering, the infinity
thirsts she had quenched. This sublime hussy never set of human sorrow, and I wanted to incarnate in this
the price of her favours higher than a quid of tobacco, martyr and saint the tragic and rebellious common
the other consolation of the starveling. How recidivists humanity in order to possess them, to beatify them
and incurables, sordid but with aching hearts, had forever.
sought a promise of redemption, alms of felicity in My affective aberration reached the stage o f
[Chardonnerette*s embrace. To the strikers on perpetual displacing into her my nostalgia for a better world. Her
strike, rebounding from the police-court to the county nomadic and innumerable loves exalted her in m y eyes.
jail, and from the doss-house with its phalansteries* of Infinitely redeeming and expiatory, she had wiped away
vagabonds to the wounded of our social gehenna, she more tears than the litde virgins at the cross-roads. Like
represented the moment of balsamic truce, the sweet insistent and volcanic ejaculatory prayers, like the
ointment, the field-hospital always open to them. But prayers of the shipwrecked that turn into curses of
sometimes she operated like cauteries and fiery needles. despair, the furious declarations of her faithful
In the imagination of her debtors she stirred up dreams followers had scourged her. Many a one, drunk, im­
of expiatory cataclysms. She had inoculated herself passioned to the point of epilepsy, in those stages o f
with the virus of reprisal in order to pass it on through lovemaking in which, among those o f a primordial
the cupping-glasses of her kisses to too-submissive and temperament, the outpourings of tenderness com­
fetpo-patient helots. She stirred the good-looking boys mingled with transports of hatred, had beaten, bitten,
of the rabble to the most courageous crimes. And on bruised her, trodden her underfoot, tattooed her like a
her breast, heaving with ferocious charity, the most jail house wall.
radiant adolescents, still so naive and so tender that Our Lady of the Chattering Teeth and the Rags, it
they smiled in their misery and at the inequity of their was with sores and wounds that her truculent pilgrims
position, awoke one morning as out-and-out anarchists. covered her body during their amorous novenas, by way
In return she impregnated herself with their virile and of votive offerings!
courageous essence, she modelled herself upon her When we entered the tavern I fell upon my knees.
lovers. The race of the heroic, louse-ridden poor had “I adore you," I cried out to her, wetting her
shaped her feminine charms to suit their benumbed chapped and dusty feet with all the tears accumulated
hands, their gross, convulsive mouths of Tantaluses within my breast since destiny had first confronted me
i this beggar-woman. "Yes! I bear for you an ligneous legs, with her mouth and her womb the
rrant love... a monstrous love, so my bygone loves, oscellated butt o f scars, the whole o f that exhaust^
ired for you, will tell me!... But forgive me my and starving body which would have fitted three tim
oleness and my novitiate. It is for you to initiate me in a child’s coffin, she stood there more heart-rend^
0 the redoubtable mysteries... See, I humble myself, than a strike-day, more consuming than petrol and ^
mble again at your feet. At this moment you might firedamp, more damnable than a warming-room ^ a
jpense succour too terrible for my trivial distress, you convict prison, and at the same time purer and more
ust be loved to the uttermost degree... The happy lustral than a baptismal font. Her shoulders were so
>wards still have too great a hold over me. Before puny that they seemed to bend beneath the burden of
itering into the heady dens of revolt, I must shake off her long hair, crowning with a smoky halo of sorrow
1 the open air the stale stench of the kennel! Be patient her seraphic and exhausted face. Her blue eyes, dilated
while until I am reconciled to the fact that for a part to the extreme, bluer than the sky on the first day ofthe
>fyour being I have denied my race, my origins, my world, searching as consciences, opened for me onto
family and my marriage, until I have known hunger, vertiginous visions of shame and salvation, iniquity and
proscription, prison chaplains, round-ups, defilements, redemption.
the outrages of every sort that the wicked rich man Then, tom between horror and fanaticism, wilder
lavished upon Lazarus, the shadow of and the foil to than a stealer of holy relics, with all the forces, all the
his damning prosperity... In order to gain access to the aspirations, all the emotional overabundance of the riff- I
anarchist communion, I hope first for the baptism of raff and the beggars who had pa id tribute to her
the interdict. It is from your union with some ruffian or fermenting in my being, I embraced her, I pressed her
another, it is from your adolescent bosom, more tome.
Iruinous than that of the octogenarian in the prophecy As her lips met mine, a delicious cold, the sapid
that, without a doubt, will emerge the Antichrist, the coolness of a paradisal fruit, spread through the very
Incendiary, the Purifierr sources of my life and I felt myself welling up, then
Her rags fell to the earth as a sign of her acquies­ drying out eternally in the prayer of universal suffering
cence to my forebodings. In her dying consumptive's granted me...
lakedness, with her poor emaciated arms, her frail and — Translated by Andrew Mangravite &Iain Whtt-
 There is an island somewhere in the mists, and on this island there is a castlt .
i i . fa
castle there is a great hall lit by a little lamp, and in the hall there are people waitin wi
are they waitingfor? They do not know. They are waitingfor a knock on the door thy
waitingfor the lamp to go out, they are waitingfor Fear, they are waitingfor Death ,-jjJ
speak; yes, they utter words that momentarily trouble the silence, then they listen again
leaving their sentences incomplete and theirgestures unfinished. They listen, they waft
haps he won’t be coming? Oh!He always comes. He’ll be coming. It’s late. Perhaps he^
come until tomorrow. And the people assembled in the great hall, under the little lamp,
to smile, and they are on the point o f hoping. There is a knock on the door. And that is all
there is a whole life there, all o f life.
In this sense Monsieur Maeterlinck’s little dramas, so deliciously unreal, areprofoun
living and true; his characters, who have the air o f being phantoms, arefilled with lifet Ifa
those globes which appear inert and which, charged with electricity, willflash on contact with
a point; they are not abstractions but syntheses; they are states o f mind or, still more, statesof
humanity, moments, minutes that will be eternal: in short, they are real, by dint of their

f
unreality...
Poetry or philosophy, Maurice Maeterlinck’s literature comes at a time when we are most
in need o f being raised up andfortified, at a time when it is not immaterialfor someone to
Maurice Maeterlinck (1862-1949). Maeter­ tell us that the highest goal of life is “to keep open the highways that lead usfrom what canIx
linck won the Nobel Prize for literature in
1911 and must be the most translated author seen to that which we cannot see.” Maeterlinck has not only kept open those highways troiitn
in this collection, yet it is doubtful that his and cleared by so many well-intentioned souls, where the great-winded here and then stretch
voluminous spiritual ruminations are much out their arms like oases; he also seems to have extended into the infinite the profundity of
read nowadays.
Maeterlinck trained as a lawyer, even prac­ these highways: he has said “such specious words in low tones” that the thoms have maicwt)
tising as a barrister for a while, before turning on their own, the trees have spontaneously pruned themselves and a step beyond is possible, a
his back on the world of facts for one of
that today’s gaze travelsfarther than it did yesterday.
nuance and mysticism (he translated Novalis,
Emerson, Ruysbroeck...). His first book, pub­ Others without doubt have or have had richer language, a morefecund imagination,
lished in 1889 by the original Symbolist pub­ f o r clearer observation, more whimsy,faculties more aptf o r sounding the clarion of themusk
lisher Vanier was Sems Chanda (Hot-Housts),
o f words, so be it, but with halting and meagre language, childish dramatic combinations, t
—to modem taste he never surpassed these
poems of pure claustrophobic Symbolism, two technique almost enervated by repetition o f phrases, with these clumsinesses, with all oftbest
of which follow. Apart from his essays and faults, Maurice Maeterlinck works at books and pamphlets of definite originality, anda
meditations Maeterlinck made important
contributions to Symbolist drama with plays newness so truly new that they willfo r quite some time disconcert the lamentable troopof
now rarely performed ( I k Blue Bird, Ptltias & misoneists, the tribe who pardon audacity, i f there is a precedent—almostfrom a sense of
Melisaridi) except on the operatic stage.
protocol— but who regard genius, which is perpetual audacity, with mistrust.
 Hospital! Hospital by the canal!
Hospital in July!
They re lighting a fire in the ward!
As the ocean liners whistle on the canal!

(Oh! Do not approach the windows!)

Emigrants passing through a palace!
There's a yacht in the tempest!
And flocks o f sheep on all the ships!
(Better that we keep the windows closed,
We re almost safe from outside.)
It s like a hot-house in the snow,
Or a woman's churching on a day of thunder,
Plants appear scattered on a woollen blanket
A conflagration o f a sunlit day,
And I'm walking through a forest full of wounded.

Ah! the moonlight here at last!

A fountain in the middle o f the ward!

A group o f young girls open the door!
I glimpse lambs on an island o f meadow!
Beautiful plants on a glacier!
And lilies in a marble hall!
A festival occurs in the virgin forest!
And tropical verdure in a grotto o f ice!
Listen! die locks on the canal are opening!
And the ocean liners chum its waters!
But look, the sister stirs up the fire!

Along the banks the beautiful green rushes aflame!

A boat filled with wounded pitches in the moonlight!
A ll the king’s daughters are aboard a barque in this storm
Princesses w ill die in a field of hemlock!

Careful! Don’t open the windows!

Listen: the liner’s horns on the horizon!

Someone is being poisoned in the garden!

A great feast celebrated by the enemy!
Stags in a besieged city!
And a menagerie amidst the lilies!
Tropical forests in the depths of a coal-mine!
A flock o f sheep crosses an iron bridge!
And the meadow lambs mournfully enter the ward!

N ow the sister lights the lamps,

She brings meals to the patients,
She has closed the windows overlooking the canal,
And the doors to the moonlight.
w
jar
r

O hot-house in the forest's heart!

y our doors forever sealed!
* And everything beneath your dome!
And in my soul in your affinities!

T houghts o f a princess sick w ith hunger,

A sailor, listless in the desert,
Brazen m usic a t the w indow s o f the dying.

Seek out the coolest comers!

Like a woman fainting during harvest,
There are coaches in the hospice' court;
And far off, an elk-hunter passes by, become a sick-nurse.

Look about you in the moonlight!

(Nothings in its proper place!)
Like a madwoman dragged before judges,
A warship in full sail on a canal,
Night-birds amidst lilies,
Bells tolling at noon,
(Beneath these panes o f glass!)
The sick halted in a prairie,
The smell o f ether on a sunny day.

God, O God, when will there be rain,

When snow or wind in this hot-house!

<@>
I I mauri ce Ma e t e r l i n c k
 Laforgue, in the course o f reading, pencilled these notes about Corbiere which, though unedited
the same definitive; among them:
Bohemian o f the ocean— picaresque and droll— abrupt, concise, lashing the
line o f verse with a riding-crop— strident as the sea-gull's cry and like them ne^
weary— without aestheticism— nothing o f poetry and nothing of verse, scarcely
literature— sensual, he never displays flesh— Byronic and a loafer—always the
frank word— there isn't another artist in verse more distanced from poetic
language than he— he has a trade without plastic interest— the interest, the
effect, is in the whip-cut, the dry-point effect, the pun, the briskness, the staccato
romanticism— he wants to be undefinable, not to be loved, not to be hated,*
laconic, rejected in every latitude, by every custom, on this side and the other of
the Pyrenees.
That is the truth without doubt: Corbiere was dominated and guided by the demon of contra­
diction. He supposed that he had to distinguish himselffrom men through thoughts and actions
exactly contrary to the thoughts and acts o f the run o f men; there is much o f the wilful in his origi­
nality; he toiled over it, as women toil over their complexion, during the long afternoons between
earth and sky, and when he disembarked, it was tofir e broadsides o f stupefaction: dandyism a la
Baudelaire.
But one can only work at a nature successfully in the sense o f ones instincts and penchants;
Corbiere had to be inherently a bit o f what he became, the Don Juan o f singularity; there is only one
woman whom he loves; he mocks the other with the smart phrase, “the eternal madame.”
Corbiere has a lot o f wit, wit at the same time o f the Montmartre wine-shops and theforecastle;
his talent is composed o f this boastful wit; waggish and baroque, with an impudent had taste, anJ
withflashes o f genius; he has a drunken demeanour, hut he is only laboriously awkward; he canes;
to make o f them absurd chaplets,from miraculous rolled pebbles works o f a century-long patience,
but in his dizaines, he leaves the little stonefrom the sea all rough and raw, because he loves theset,
Tristan Corbiere (1845-1875). A Breton,
Corbiere spent most of his short adult life in at bottom, with a vast naivete and because his paradoxicalfo lly yields him, time after time, an
the resort of Roseoff, where he lived for the intoxication o f poetry and beauty.
sake of his poor health. Consequently he hardly Amid the never ordinary verses o f Amours jaunes, there is much that is very unpleasant mi
moved in literary circles, paying only short
much that is admirable, but admirable with an air so equivocal, so specious, that one does not ahwp
visits to Paris. His most important work Les
Amours jatmts appeared in 1873 at his father s appreciate it on afirst encounter; then one assumes that Tristan Corbiere is, like Laforgue, who is*
expense. Verlaine’s discovery of these poems, little his disciple, one o f those unclassifiable and undeniable talents who dot the history of literatun,
and his subsequent inclusion in Les Poetes maudits
strange and precious exceptions —singular even in a gallery o f singularities.
established Corbi&re’s posthumous fame.
The two poems here were quoted in their Here are two short poems by Tristan Corbiere,forgotten even by the latest publisher of his
entirety in De Gourmont's essay. Amours jaunes:
 , The sea it is. Dead flat. The swelling tide__
r ift? A gurgling bath-plug— rumbles to subside__
M Then hears its wave roll back. The roar withdraws.
Hark! Can you hear the night-crabs’ scrabbling claws?

The Styx runs dry. W ith lantern old Diog-

Enes comes scavenging. A fishing lodge
Finds poets, all perverse as pachyderms,
Recycling their cracked skulls as cans of worms.

A field it is. Fierce harpies, screeching, scoop

For rancid scraps. Their spirals loop the loop.
The mangy midnight rabbit's guttered den
Helps give the slip to springe-heeled garbage-men.

And death it is. Laws snore. Upstairs love sleeps

Siesta-sound. Love's succulent beef keeps
The rich red seal that switched-off kisses make.
Time's all alone. See! Not one dream’s awake.

All life is there. Lend ears to living springs

That shampoo Neptune’s locks. The triton sings
While struggling through the spinach-slimy tide
From naked morgues, his gouged eyes open wide.

TRI ST A N C O RBI & RE

Paris by A copper disk spins shining in the sky—
D ay God's cook-house! In this pan he likes to fe y
His manna in his manner up above—
His menu drenched in sweat and drenched in love.

W ith outstretched palms, gape-mouthed, the famished wait__

And parched throats rattle; clang their empty can.
They queue up for their turn, man after man,
And, listless, listen for the sizzling bait.

Do you imagine that the frizzled sun

Supplies such sustenance for everyone?
Bah! On our heads just black dog stew will fall!

They re on a sunbeam; wt re deep in the pit,

Our jug’s congealed, half-cracked, our lamp unlit.
Our wits survive on wormwood—and on gall.

— Translated by Stanley Chapman.

 He was a supremely gifted spirit, and rich in considerable learning. He had wished to
nourish his natural genius made of sensibility, irony, imagination and clairvoyance on
positive knowledge, on all philosophies, all literatures, all imagesfrom nature andfrom an
and even the latest insights o f science seemed to have beenfamiliar to him. His was an orr^
andflamboyant genius, ready to construct infinitely diverse and beautiful structures, /0ra^
up new ogives and undreamed-of domes; but he hadforgotten his winter muff, and he dieiy
cold one snowy day.
That is why his work, already magnificent, is but a prelude to an oratorio ending in
silence.
Many of his verses are coloured with an icy affectation of ingenuousness, the language ofa
child that is unduly loved, a littlegirl unduly indulged—but an indication, too, of agenuine
needfo r affection and a pure sweetness of nature—an adolescent of genius who would have
liked still to rest on his mother’s knees his uequatorial brow, store-room of anomalies,”but
many have the beauty of smoky topazes, the melancholy of opals, the coolness <fmoonstones,
and some pages, like that,for example, which begins thus:

F Jules Laforgue (1860-1887). A short, rather

Black north wind, yelping rain-shower
And black river, and houses of ill-fame...

tragic life and a little posthumous fame was have thegrace, sorrowful yet still consoling, of eternal confessions; the thing, eternally the
Jules Laforgue's fate. Bom in Uruguay, he was same, which Laforgue repeats in such a way that it seems dreamed and confessedfor theftrst
sent to school in France and suffered from time....
chronic loneliness which remained unabated on
his eventual arrival in Paris. He travelled to There was no presentfo r Laforgue except among a group of friends; he diedjust as his
Germany as a tutor and died there of con­ Moralites legendaires was coming out, though still offered to a restrictedfew, and it ms
sumption shortly after marrying an English only just granted to him to hear,from afe w mouths, that those pages irrevocably destinedhim
girl. His poems were collected together and
published after his death by F£n6on and have to live, to the life of glory, among those thegods create in their own image, themselvesgods,
been widely translated into English, largely and creators.
because of the esteem in which he was held by
This is a literature entirely renewed and unexpected, one that disconcerts one andgw &
such poets as Pound and Eliot. He also pub­
lished a volume of short stories ([Moralitis curious (and rare) sensation of our never having read anything like it; the b u n c h ofgrapes
Ugmdaim, 1885, also available in English) and with aUits velvet softness in the early morning light, hut with singular reflections andan&
various marginalia of which the present text is
one. It originally appeared in La Vogue in May as if the grape-seeds had beenfrozen within by a breath of ironic wind, c o m e f r o m farther
1886. away than the pole...

THE B O O K O F MASKS
 J ULES L AF ORGUE

jk Do you know the land where silence sand here and there for whom this is the sum total of
I Aquarium blooms? Admission costs one the daily news...
franc— less expensive, but less sought- Spanned by natural bridges, there are cracks where
after than the Opera, and two sous for the cloakroom, the slate-roofed carapaces of rat-tailed king-crabs
because it’s raining outside and here it is properly, sprawl and masticate, some capsized and struggling,
cosily warm. maybe even with themselves? One never knows.
A maze styled like a grotto, with gallows-like gas-jets (Would I be so out of place on my back among these
in the vault, corridors winding right and left of the crabs?)
luminous glass world of the undersea chambers—this is And fields of sponges, sponges like jettisoned lungs,
the Aquarium—twisting and turning day in day out in or beds of orange velvet truffles, a whole graveyard of
its cellar to the intermittent rhythm of the pistons that pearly molluscs, and those precious plantations of
drive the hydraulics— it is the Aquarium where one asparagus swollen and preserved in the formaldehyde of
witnesses the most virginal intimacies— the most far Silence...
gone scenes from behind the doors of the worlds in And the desolation of steppes empty but for one
question—silent, like the distinguished company in a tree, blasted and ossified, a cast-off phalanstery where
sick-room; this is the Aquarium that we shall one day hundreds of sea-horses unpretentiously cluster.
see recognised as an institution for public benefit. And beneath chaotic, deserted triumphal arches, eels
Dolmen-studded heaths encrusted with viscous slip away like carefree ribbons...
jewels, circles of tiered basalt where (in private, I assure And all these undersea territories I shall have you
you) crabs with an obtuse and tentative after-dinner observe.
goodwill grapple in couples with their deadpan eyes. The eggs I know not whose, hang—till when?—like
Oh] that lofty plateau, whence, stuck like a sucker, an bean-pods tied with corkscrew strings...
octopus, fat hairless minotaur, surveys the whole Hairy cells migrating to nowhere in particular, a
surrounding world. Then plains of fine sand, so fine crest of lashes round a frame, which they fan through
that it is lifted by the flapping of a flatfish’s tail as it the boredom of interminable journeys...
anives from afar with a fluttering of banderoles, And these secluded wells, most secret harems,
watched as it passes by great eyes at the surface of the laboratories for more mysterious experiences, where

111 JULES L A F O R G U E
bubbles float upwards, oh! they’re going to burst!... senses, too, limited by Silence, Opacity, and Blindness) 1
bubbles maybe pregnant, bubbles of bluish jelly tensed and why do they suspect possibilities beyond what is
by one single perpetual diaphanous spasm. allowed for us? and soak as if thirsty forever? and why
And plenty more, and better ones. do we also know how to curl up in our little corner to i
At last, as far as the eye can see, the prairies; prairies coddle the dead drunkard that is our little self)
enamelled with white sea-anemones, juicy fat onions, This is what I wanted to say as I leave this world of
bulbs with violet membranes, by bits of guts scattered smugness.
about, and, I swear, rebuilding their existence, by Now, O under-sea vacationers, I w ill make no bones I
stumps whose antennae wink at the coral next to them, about admitting that among our super-terrestrial
a thousand apparently pointless warts: a whole foetal, cravings we have two fruits that can perhaps match
cloistered flora, fluttering, waving, the eternal digestive yours: the head o f our lady-love, a worn-out flower,
dream of succeeding in whispering one day mutual closed and asleep among the pallid pillows, her curls
congratulations as to this state of affairs. limp and sticky with the final sweat, her bruised mouth
Oh! I know what you will say, my friends, as you showing her pale teeth in an aquarial moonbeam (do
flatten your sensuous noses against the glass. Yes, put not pick it, no!)— and the moon itself, a sunflower
yourself in their place. No day, no night, no winter, no flattened and desiccated by agnosticism...
spring, no summer, no autumn or other weathercocks: But the too-much loved lady is so near and the moon
dreams among the smelly messes of the cradle, sex so far, at least at certain times o f the night. W ell, what
without moving an inch, at the price of blind is it about certain times o f the night? rather than
imperturbability, in the coolness! always, always on tune?— D ialogue:— Passer-by, pray
Closing time, and up we go, back out into the what time is it?— It's Tim e, this is the Tim e (and that
muddy, shivery, hackneyed, knock-kneed, runny-nosed, may mean at the same tune, oh you need not hurry.)
poxy and bellicose daylight of 1886. Oh! before they W hy just having to bed these things that a
close, you are down in the under-sea, while we, we are conscientious, enlightened alderm an should be taking
dry with superterrestrial cravings: that is the difference care of...
I wanted to make clear. W hy aren't the antennae of our — Translated by Anthony MdvM
 Arthur Rimbaud (1854-1891). The facts of
Rimbaud's life have the status of legend, but Jean-Nicolas-Arthur Rimbaud was bom in Charleville on the 20th of October I
not for de Goutmont, and it is startling to read
Z854, and,fro m the most tender age, he made his presencefe lt as a most insufi^ I
his thorough reprimand of die poet—on the
other hand he was closer to Rimbaud than his street-tough. His brief sojourn in Paris was in 1870-71. Hefollowed VerUineto I
subsequent hagiographers and knew many who England, then to Belgium. After the little misunderstanding that separated them
had had first-hand dealings with him.
After a riotous, and often deliberately Rimbaud roved the world, follow ed the most diverse occupations: soldier in the D^j, I
squalid life in Paris, and then abroad, with army, manager, in Stockholm, o f the Cirque Loisset, contractor in Cyprus, trader in
Verlaine in his adolescent years, Rimbaud
abandoned poetry around the age of twenty, Harar, then in the Cape o f Guardcfui in Africa, where afrien d o f Monsieur
after the publication of Une Saison en Enfer Vittorio Pica would appear to have encountered him involved in the slave trade. Mori
(1873) to indifferent response. A long period
likely than not, despising everything but brutal enjoyment, savage adventure and
of vagabondage followed, in Europe, the
middle and far East, until he eventually applied violent life, this poet, alone among us all, voluntarily renounced poetry... after the ay
himself to becoming rich through trading in -■ o f seventeen Rimbaud had conquered originality, and his work will last, at the very
the Horn of Africa. He struggled hard against
enormous difficulties but eventually illness, least as a phenomenon. It is often obscure, bizarre and absurd. Quite without
exacerbated by the climate, defeated him. He sincerity, with the character o fa woman, ( f a girl, innately ill-natured and even
was shipped back to France in agony to die; the
precise cause of his ailment is unknown, but it ferocious, Rimbaud had that sort o f talent that interests us without pleasing us. In his
may have been tertiary syphilis. work there are many pages that give us to some degree an impression of beauty suchas
Meanwhile, his fame (s\matter of total
indifference to him it appears) had commenced one might experience btfore a suitably pustulous toad, a beautiful case of syphilis or
I with the publication of Les Poites maudits in the Chateau Rouge* at eleven o’clock at night....
1884, followed by whatever manuscripts had
It is unfortunate that his life, so imperfectly understood, could not be a true vita
not been lost in La Vogue in 1886, while the
next year saw the publication of Les Illuminations abscondita*- what there is o f it that can be understood, disgusts us. Rimbaud was
. by "the late" Arthur Rimbaud. His friends like one o f those women who fa il to surprise us by announcing in a brothel that they
knew nothing of his return and final months in
France, nursed by his sister, until several w ill embrace religion; but what is still m ore revolting to us, he seems to have been a
months after his death. jealous and a passionate mistress: here the aberration becomes debauched, because
His theory of the poet made "Seer" by
means of a systematic derangement of the sentimental...
senses proved influential for many decades. All B ut intelligence, conscious or unconscious, even i f it lacks all rights, has the right to
his works are translated into English.
We offer here a new translation of his most all absolutions.
famous Symbolist poem (which led a good
many of his less able disciples up increasingly Who knows if genius
arcane blind alleys*), and the final section of A Is not one of your virtues,
Season in HeU, generally seen as the rejection of
his past beliefs. monsters, be y o u called Rimbaud— or Verlaine?

T H E B O O K OF MASKS
 ARTH UR RIMBAUD

Vowels A black; E white; I red; U green; O blue:

Lf Some day 1 11 excavate our vowels’ birth.
A, sables corsetting the blazing girth
O f flies that storm a stench-charged foul bayou,

Overcast coves; E, mist-clouds, tents’ bleached hue,

Ice assegais, white knights, seeds’ umbelled berth;
I, purpled spittle, full round lips in mirth-
Ful spite, drunk orgies penance learns to rue;

U , endless rippling viridescent green

Seas, peaceful herd-spread pastures, calm serene
Deep furrowed brows thought’s alchemies incise;

O, great last trump's proud clarion’s strident shrill,

W o rld s' tumbling silences where angels spill—
O m egas ultra-radiant violet Eyes!
— Translated by Stanley Chapman.
 Adolphe Rettk (1862-1930). After a difficult
childhood, and voluntary military service in the
cavalry, Rette turned to literature, made the
acquaintance of Gustave Kahn and assumed co­
editorship of La Vogue. For its richness in poets, the present day— which has already lasted
His early writing is marked by an intense
rejection of reality, none more so than ThuUdes ten years— is barely comparable to any in the past; even the richest in
Brumes (1892) of which Nightfumes is a
condensation of the first section. It was not
sunshine and flowers. There were quiet early~moming strolls in fa
very well received; Maurras wrote that it dew in thefootsteps o f Ronsard; there was a fin e afternoon when
"marked the extreme limits of inhabitable
literature." Another critic, Harold Swan, Theophile de Viau’s weary viol sighed\ heard among the hautboys ani
described Rett6’s early works: "He has a taste
for mystery, a penchant for too-preciously
the trumpets; there was the romantic day, stormy, sombre and royal
epit
crafted and mystificatory phrasing, a mania for troubled toward evening by the cry ( f a woman Baudelaire strangled•
over-elaboration, as for his poetry, I find its
sprinklings of affectation and word-play there was the Parnassian moonlight, and the Verlainian sun rose; and
extremely disagreeable." Swan was in fact
Rettl’s own pseudonym! His criticisms of his here we are, i f you like, at bright noontide, in the midst o f a broai
fellow authors and, especially, a long campaign countryside rich in everything needful to make verses: grasses,flowers,
against Mallarml, written under his own name,
alienated most of his contemporaries. rivers, streams, woods, caverns, and women, young, and sofresh one
ThuUdes Brumes was written during Rett^'s
anarchist period, when he was also indulging in would imagine them thoughts newly sprung fro m an artless mini.
L drugs (probably morphine) and a surfeit of
K alcohol. His increasingly militant anarchist
This broad countryside isfilled with poets who go their way, no
i beliefs gradually eroded his conception of a longer in troops, as in Ronsard’s time, but alone, and with a
literature separate from the world, while para­
doxically supporting a position of complete somewhat unsociable air; they greet each other fr o m a distance with
liberty for the writer. He was arrested for agita­
tion several times and his political writings brief gestures. Not all have a name, and many never will: how shall
(Rfflexions sur I'Anarcbie, 1 8 9 4 ) were virulently
anti-militarist and anti-Cacholic. Ten years
w e call them? Let us leave them to their play, while this one here will
later he found himself at an impasse, his welcome us and tell us something o f his dream.
writing had failed to acquire a reputation, his
politics had moved to Socialism and then He is Adolphe Rette.
apathy, his much abused friends had washed
their hands of him. His conversion, described ...As a poet, Adolphe Rette has nothing other than a sense of rhytffl
in Du Diahle a Dieu (1 9 0 7 ), dates from this
time. A bumt-out case, he ended his days and a love o f words; he isfo n d o f ideas, and he loves them new uni
Nio
writing devotional guides, making religious even excessive; he wishes tof r e e himself fr o m all the old prejudices <0
pilgrimages and lecturing against the evils of
Anarchism and Socialism. he likewise would like tof r e e his brothersfr o m social bondage...

T H E B O O K OF MASKS
 A D O L P H E RE TTE

I Wghtfmnes Darkness most merciful, Charity with *

p innocent eyes whose golden lashes filter
pale and distant tears, Night ripples waves of pacifying The barking of the pack rolls through the forest. From
silence upon the city’s agitated slumber. Frenzied glades sifted for new gold by a martial sun, to copses
fingers of subtle spirits stir strings floating from where ponds half open mossy eyes, the child hunter s
delicate harps on high: gliding over unheard-of horn has grown hoarse.
epithalamiums for the marriage of a soul to Mystery. Just so, the afternoon, an ephebe on horseback; the
Fountain of all graces, amid lilies of reconciliation; shadows elongated, the cries of crows accompany him
peaceful water, coveted fluid gems wherein the and the hamadryad (she is the arch centenarian of the
barbarisms of everyday existence are drowned; clear centuries) sings to him: “You will not run it down...”
waves, sobbing, cut by luminous gondolas; the His horse gallops.
mourning murmuring of memorial viols soothes the The forest bleeds twilight; the weary horse has
ennui of a deformed prince who hides himself; mirror slowed to a walk; the horn has split and the divine
of melancholy and oblivion offering nival moires and rider s halo hangs, rent, in a tangle of low branches.
blues of solitary mdons— after so many burning See—Night ascends, the dogs fall silent and crouch
stations—to the fatigue of a pilgrimage to the basilica on the ground. Can this beast possibly be caught? Even
of Nut; forests of Gulistan; cool shadows enshroud the horse lies dead.
you, sick soul corroded by too many yesterdays of salt Joyful at last—after so many years of the chase!—an
from the Desolate Sea; the good motherly Night old horseman stumbles forward, gaping. There is
caresses the frail childhood of Dream; oh, but she’ll nothing there; nothing but moonlight, solitary,
never survive the furtive glimmer of a dawn which spreading shrouds upon ground.
perhaps reveals the abortion— the blessed starry Night There was a journey; it happened long ago.
lit with candles for the mass of the Ideal—oh that the
brutal fanfares of the sun might never gush forth from ?
the quotidian horizon! For I am embarked upon this
Night, may the velvet charm of this mystical Night Open, precarious prettiness of fans; slowly, the better
descend upon me— and you will possess me no more, to pleasure bleary-eyed Insomnia; very quickly, to
monotonous Life, hungry nightmare whose maw awaits. agitate in brief rainbows the vapours of your garish

I27 ADOLPHE RETlS

aromatics— O city of artifices] for the first time a cloud hides the sun; the birds
Fans, in the darkness, are bouquets of pale fire, the it with a mocking catcall: the breeze dispenses a stajf
snow of lunar cascades upon a thicket of asphodels, of smell of cadavers and mourns the tender orphans 71
noble garlands of the Panathenaea. Serpent exclaims: "I always liked them]” And
A mocking procession hurls itself pell-mell toward Salammbo breaks her golden chain.
the confused course of the clouds and tosses the milky Tree of life and fruit of death.
pearls to Her from on high. She doesn’t gather them;
she knows that in reality they are beads of coloured
glass. On certain evenings I do gather them myself, but
sooner or later I reject them to grovel at her feet, near But the flames o f the pyre build in the darkness; the
the hearth, powdered over with cold ashes. crimson of youth, this too-narrow diadem, the blunted
There— the wind is singing through the chimneys blade and cabalistic manuscripts which have taught us
— once again I have a lengthy, luminous dream of nothing since our childhood when we divined their
galleons rocking upon the blue calm of her eyes and her doctrine— let's bum them all, and this tress of multi­
half-open windows, as the caress goes forth from the coloured hair as well.
cool fans that discreetly lure Insomnia. The pale blue eyes invite silence; the Maia at the
Flowering lime-trees scent this night. bottom of the sea has smiled upon me; I’ll sleep
between her breasts.

In ecstasy beneath the tree of life, I impregnate myself

with the floral torments aroused by the breezes of a Doubtless it would be better to live. “Life is actionand I
terrestrial Paradise, and I hear the golden chain that action, joy,” says one philosopher. But a pale figure, so I
shackles Salammbo's childish ankles. happily pale, with a halo of lilies which have wasted
The branches of the tree swing to and fro; their away, with a voice wherein flights of angels formerly
clatter a maddening zither at a barbarian festival There passed, says to me: “Happiness is made from dreams. I
are fruits among these branches, beautiful vermilion I am inclined to agree; so then, so then my life, to
fruits, but I shall not gather them. M y old cousin, the me, is a frail dream-plant which I must constantly
Serpent, hidden in the leaves, has warned me not to. inspect for signs o f essential growth. I do not allow
One... just one... is lying in the grass, ripe, the wind “things” to distract me from these attentions, and if1
has tom it loose... I’ll try just that one... must exhaust myself, I prefer to do so pruning my
Bitter! So bitter... unreal flowers grown wild, without any goal, howevtf
This frozen sister of the glaucous leaves has fallen; vague, other than to infiltrate a little of their pollen

T H E B O O K OF M A S K S
 into my heart. reflection of a pale face with no eyes.
Since no person was ever mirrored here, where can
? this face have come from?
A Prince, very old although young, plays airs upon
r c0Uect Chimera w ings; alread y a certain number o f an organ installed in the peristyle of a ruined chapel
them, indifferendy set aside, have crum bled into dust which madden the wind-driven sylphs of his soul; and
between the leaves o f so m an y deceptive albums at the throughout the golden night there swells on every side
bottom of a cupboard, still so lid though a b it worm- in response to him, the flute notes of the Great God
eaten, this piece o f fam ily furniture o f w hich I am Pan.
proudest— it has already w ithstood so m any assaults!
But a last Chimera, long sought, clawed me with if
bronze talons as I attempted to pursue it, and bore me
away, a stranger, to a black twin-star previously Walks along the dirty yellow inertia of the canals,
unknown to the heavens of my dreams. I am so endless stations in a viscous fog rent by the hoarse cries
profoundly ravished by her, gendemen, that your earth of manoeuvring locomotives; count the pick-axe blows
is no more than a shining candle to me. Perhaps that's of a navvy whose humble and vulgar physiognomy
why you see so many ill tidings in those phrases which I exasperates you, observe the grimaces o f a monkey left
have forced myself to offer for your edification. Do not tied there by a mountebank who gets drunk at the local
hold it against me; I am so far from you, and so cabaret. See how natural its grimaces are! W ith us
befuddled by the many sombre marvels which flourish (atavism and selection, you see!) it is an altogether more
in this black twin-star. complicated sport; consider, for instance, the diagram
of avarice and duplicity inscribed in the wrinkles of my
? hostess’s carefully composed face as soon as the bill
appears. Smoke... have a drink as well... Other days I
Concentric parks o f shadow undulate; and curl and contemplate, lost in thought, the sky all vernal and new,
uncurl their infinite filigreed foliage; black plumes of and the sun, at once floating and held fast in a vast blue
prosperous ostriches which, teased by a summery and golden dream. Or I pick wallflowers from a flower­
breeze, rain litde flakes upon the dust of the blue paths; bed and scatter them to float—what a contrast!— upon
a clump of tulips interspersed here and there with the stagnant water in a tub swarming with monads and
gladioli, mimic prisms beneath the mystery of the bacteria; but a dancing sunbeam riddles this corruption
diffuse light of an eclipse. In a basin, where the with emerald holes where litde wings beat diamond­
congealed tears from last year's stars freeze, a water as like with thousands of facets.
sombre as remorse dreams and deforms in itself the In the evening, I enjoy the concert of toads who spin
 out oboe notes, answering one another from meadow unwonted flare no spectroscope can fix. At certain
to meadow. At length, rather than face that sullen old feverish hours, it is as if a wind from the Unknown^ I
man squatting in a Vatican of shadows, who patiendy just brushed our foreheads.
awaits his hour: my genuflection and kiss upon his One excellent fellow ignored her eyes.
slipper— anything, anything rather than this sinister Then another, and another: heaven vibrating
pontiff whose infallibility I will not accept: awareness violendy in accord with stormy forges with long fla^ I
o f Reality and his cardinals: Ennui. upon the horizon, but which lightens, very pale, an
unstrung necklace o f pearls high above... An abandoned
? garden wholly impregnated with autumn, with its noisy I
wings of dead leaves where, through excess, an arrogant
Those eyes, yes; those eyes of hers... mazes which folly shakes the little bells to drive the guardian angels
amuse my idle thoughts. away from the soul o f Eugene who, wearied, still strives
Those eyes: altars of velvet adoration stirred with to be drunk once more... Convulsive waves, grossly
rosy fires, and such a vision—among the low-pitched greenish, cadaverous paleness o f a malefic moon rising, I
soundings of a horn—a turret, with sleeping lions of coil themselves upward from ulterior gulfs like
sable and gold, where a persecuted chatelaine grieves; serpents, like hissing basilisks... the others, so distant,
lutes hum beneath the carefree fingers of parti-coloured blue blades jostling; then calm panoplies which would I
pages; the palfrey of a Dark and Handsome beau have been overthrown by the new, if only she hadn’t
whinnies toward the turret... doubted herself amid the rancours o f the Valkyries-
A litde romance, those eyes; but that's a good thing, damn! Those eyes o f Hers, so well known—too well
I and then: the altar excuses it all. known— waltzing and flashing around my thoughts-
Those eyes which alone can comprehend a spirit fit But silence and sudden darkness... what has occurred, I
to cultivate, as is proper, the black flower Hysteria; that Night should thus steal away before a sudden
those dark green mother-of-pearl eyes, all morbid and splendour?
surprisingly phosphorescent, lanterns of the Those eyes o f Hers, the eyes o f that dearest child
devil—angry because She hasn't been able to violate sparkle amid the desolation o f that first light! Divinely I
the Graal: the fiery steel and crystal soul o f our most sombre lake, lake three times pure, shivering with
recent Parsifals... impalpable white vapours which flee and are silvered
You, so long ago, a giddy evening in the smart part over, oh so distantly, by a dawn o f missal! The Sad
o f town. Queen remains seated at the edge o f those melodious
Others, whom the spirit of Melancholy never waves and weaves who knows what fabric of
touches with her wand, covet their unconscious cruelty; disheartened gold, and dwells there mute and in pro$e I
fierce metals with radiance from other stars whose since the doves have taken flight never more to return- I

THE BOO K OF MASKS |3° 1

 ”
gut to drown his heart in those eyes; to be lost there, Cheer up!... what’re you looking for? Don’t you
and gather from those lips a few sobs from a choir of hear the rain falling? You’re not going out in weather
stars scattered in the sky which die so m adly in the like that are you?”
depths of the mysterious lake... this is what the Dream I empty my glass without answering and look around
covets; it is the charm and grace o f the infinite— and me: so much distress in everything!... And me, a hunted
my soul can no longer escape from the net which Her wolf, I tell you, a real wolf, this person in the mirror
looks have stretched. And m y own eyes are two mirrors annoys me.
irreparably dulled, for I have been blinded by those “W hat are you thinking about now?” she resumes,
other eyes being too m uch reflected there. parting the folds of the dressing-gown which conceals,
but just barely, her regally tawny nakedness.
"No, no... enough for today, my charitable friend...
and then, if you must know, I'm thinking about my
| Real life floats about me like funeral veils. black twin-star, that dear wicked star from which I have
But I no longer recognise m yself very clearly— so been exiled for so long... If you only knew how much
weary, run aground on this faded settee whose springs malice is gathered at my heart’s core!”
groan like heretics put to the test. T h e stench o f an "You’re telling all this to me?”
, ancient crime stagnates in the room; the curtains seem "To your very self; but now I think it useless to
like tearful relations round a tom b; the furnishings embroider further upon this theme; I’m much obliged
creak in an alarm ing fashion; the fireplace freezes where to you for your grief at my sufferings... but now I must
two shrunken embers w ill not bum . And who with leave you. I'm returning to my Island, and besides, I
fuddled eyes watches for me from the depths o f the happen to like the rain.”
| glass? And off I go without further ado, unsteadily, while
I have a very clear perception o f not being here; my she, so tranquil— indifferent?— lights up a cigarette.
Mt is vibrating elsewhere— somewhere else completely: I am content to leave there, and yet I shall soon
| but where? return, most definitely.
Meanwhile, the creature standing before me strolls
her teasing fingers through her dishevelled red hair then
reaches for her glass — a lw a ys that infernal
alcohol!— and bangs it dow n upon the table next to my An implacable scribe, Asmodeus, installs him self in a
own. vast hall which is haunted by all the demons o f
"Go on then, have a drin k. W h a t's bothering you?” Impurity. Upon granite slabs and with a stylus o f iron,
"Nothing... I was afraid and I am drunk. Do I see he inscribes the sins committed in all the w icked places
you?M where he raised the roof when m y soul got coarsely,

•31 ADOLPHE RETTg

 vulgarly drunk. Here on certain evenings I shiver to where campanula flowers thrive; in the middle a w
contemplate the cold lamp, so yellow, which lights his embraced by tormented ivy. Not a sound, not a I
sinister task. For nothing in this world would I ever the kingdom o f Calm/
sneak a peak at that encyclopaedia of my villainies— a Some nights I have leant my elbows against the
mad longing would grip me to take shelter amid hair parapet of this well wherein the black immobile wateu I
shirts and macerations if, upon further reflection, I send back to me, instead o f my reflection, the inugc I
could not prove that “all that” was not my fault, really the One from whom I am awaiting, without hope of
not my fault given the madman that- some unknown obtaining it, a welcoming smile.
person gave me to look after, whom I have to keep Yes, and before these magical waters I would gladly I
amused, do I not? and for hours mingle with it a few tears, if I had not
Still, such an exoneration is perhaps a suggestion of forgotten the years o f workmanship that go into
the demons o f whom I catch glimpses, grimacing weeping... or hurl myself into that well?... But the imagt
through the sulphurous shadows of this hall. would break; and then an order emanated from Her
If I consult this scribe?... I forgot that, as regards my eyes, sombre chalices, pushing me back. Then I recline I
wickedness, he is both deaf and dumb. Go, my sweet on the soft grasses of the sleeping prairie; I surprise
fool, I think it better for you to return down there from myself by picking a bouquet o f golden campanula
whence we came. which I raise as an oblation to the moon—the very
friendly moon which brushes my lips with the kiss ofa
? blue moonbeam, coldly chaste... And caressing
rhythms, the soul o f the campanula, sing in the depths
■Is it true that these things will come to an end? M y Me of my heart.
I now weighs on me horribly, and this bantering double W hat compensation! No matter now that I amvery
whom I have caused to well up so firequendy, like a m...
genie in its bottle, beneath the noses of people who Now, everyday life carries out another coffin; the
thought they had a right to keep watch over me, now Undertaker himself leads the mourning. And passers-by I
supplants me. And the garrulous brood laughs, are astonished at the clean white shroud sprinkled with I
thinking me droll. tigridea and exclaim: “W hat’s this, then?”
Hide— in the pure nocturnal landscape of a fatidic No big thing: once again, a high-born soul returns to
dream... UMBO.
Beneath the blue moon a soft prairie stretches out

132
T H E B O O K O F MASKS
 When his C hauves-souris in violet velvet fir s t tookflight, the questi^
was posed in all seriousness as to whether M onsieur de Montesquiou
poet or an amateur o f poetry, and whether a life infashionable society
could be reconciled with the worship o f the Nine Sisters or o f one of them
since nine women are a good many women. B ut to hold forth about such
matters is to admit that one is urfam iliar with that operation of logic
which goes by the name o f the dissociation o f ideas,f o r it seems elementary
justice to evaluate the worth or beauty o f the tree and its fru it, the man and
his works, separately. Thus w e w ill not f r e t over unravelling the linen
thread fr o m this distaff, nor over enquiring into what the name of
M onsieur de Montesquiou hid, and what his standing as a man moving in
society might add, by w ay o f the illusory, to thefa m e o f the poet.

>
The poet, here, is a “Precieuse...”*
Comte Robert de Montesquiou-Fezensac
And here, at last, is the real bone o f contention with de Montesquiou: his
(I855-I92I). An extremely wealthy, homo­ originality is excessively tattooed. The beauty o f this bard recalls, not
sexual dandy, aesthete and the arbiter of taste
fo r the more outre members of the aristocracy. without melancholy, the complicated figu ra tio n s with which bygone Aus­
Montesquiou inspired the three great fictional tralian chiefs w ere w ont to decorate themselves, but in truth he adorns his
representations o f his type (Proust’s Charlus,
Huysmans* Des Esseintes, Lorrain’s de Phocas), and ow n work with a less naive artifice; there is even a singular refinement in
was their equal in real life. A mannerist poet of
exquisite tours deforce, the poems here are from
the nuances and in the design and in the am using boldness o f tone and lint.
Les Hortensias bleus (1894) a collection which, H e realises arabesques better thanfig u res, and sensation better than
according to the author "presents in blue this
life that others see in rose." Portent is dedicated thought. I f he thinks, it is in ideographic signs, like the Japanese...
to the glass-maker Galle, and bears this
With half o f his H o r t e n s i a s b le u s , one could make up a volume, still
characteristic epigraph from de Vigny:
Astonished by your pale and mysticglow,
quite thick, which w ou ld be alm ost entirely fi lle d w ith fin e , or lofty, or
Strong men grow weak and start to utter oaths. sweet poetry. The author o f A n c i l l a , o f M o r t u i s i g n o t i s and of
The essay on Lalique (from 1897) is an Tables vives would then appear as he really is, beyond all misrep­
example of his voluminous aesthetic
appreciations. resentation— a good poet...

T H E B O O K OF MA S K S
 R O B E R T DE M O N T E S Q U I O U

I Suceubus Androgynously writhing on supreme

Brocaded purple, silver limbs entwine
A prostrate form, coagulating wine-
D ark lakes o f blood with streams of milky cream.
Unfathomable, formless dazzling dream
T h at whirls a staring victim! Prophets shine
Auspiciously; yet drooping, sphinx-eyed, seem
T o seal enigmas with a wondrous sign.
The priestess that evokes Apollo's gaze?
The Sphinx— that Oedipus, by solving, slays?
O r vampire, when the hour is drawing near
T h at m idnight’s chimes w ill bid spread sunken old
Tom bs w ith these robes o f ivory: each tear
Indelible on each stained velvet fold?

Portent T h ese fa b led monarchs, who

tv Are crowned hydrangeas—blue
In fairest Flora's land—
W ith filigreed crests stand
W h ere con vex petals grew.
Pale tears Pan sheds as dew
Drench ga rd en s all unplanned.
They reached our coasts at last—
Regalia’s pomp cast
Beyond the distant v iew
Ofth eir unsullied blue

135 R O B E R T DE M O N T E S Q U I O U
 Unfathomable past
Where moonbeams held them fast
In robes her glow-worms grew.
These masters of disguise
Place masks across white eyes
When robbing roses* roles.
No whispered word consoles
The way that they surprise
Us when their spell belies
Their transmigrated souls.
If, fragrance lost, their air
Makes certain men beware,
And birds fail to rejoice,
What’s rare means they're first choice.
Though prudent men take care,
We others adore their
Soft low and pearl-grey voice.

Banality Bizarre is blameless; special spells delight;

(Dry-point) All oddness thrills; rare earns an orison...
A blackbird’s song's ecstatic if it's white
And, hearing it, my gloomy mood is gone.
Obscurity is piety in flight;
A blue-flamed iris—gliding regal swan—
Sets fountains gushing tears at its mere sight:
Half-smiles that jealous roses raise are wan.
What's commonplace is Revelation's beast:
Its vanquisher becomes my saint of saints
In precious triptychs limned with rarest paints;
Whilst genuflecting, rich robes at my side,
I’ll give up flowing worlds for that unique
Blue solitaire Bavarian kings seek.
—Translated by Stanley Chapman.

F MAS* 5
THE BOOK O
 To the beauteousfirst Lapidary. bewitchments. For the Fates are capricious and quickly
LA FONTAINE changeable. Such a stone, said to be fatal according to the
conjunctions of the times or the seasons, of sex or of age, by
Goldsmith 6n Lalique, a jingling resonance rhyming
dint of infinitesimal variants transforms its evil spells into
Glass-maker nicely with relic; predestined name for a
goldsmith, for a carver of shrines and benefits. The milky opal imprisons turbid sentiments that
(Excerpt)
you cannot, without injustice, attribute to the limpid designs
tv reliquaries, o f redly glowing ciboria, of radi-
of the transparent opal. For certain people, it is the actual
ant monstrances, o f jewelled candlesticks whose burning
peacock-feather that must be mistrusted. Its reproduction is
tapers reflect the fiery tongues o f their candlemases in
benevolent. Here there is a complete ritual to interpret, full
enamels and precious stones. Designer of gold-embroidered
of artful dodges and compromises like the flesh of certain
orfrays in which jewels star the brocades; skilful setter of
Lenten fowl. And I advise ladies of fashion, badly in need of
gems and bejeweller of sacristies, aptly skilled to wire-draw a
signs and portents, to obtain from Mme de Thebes, whose
pyxis on the elongation o f one of the nails of Christ or to
good graces and accommodating knowledge are unfailing,
outline it with an aura like the crown of thorns, imitating in
regular dispensations which permit them to reconcile com­
it tears of sanguine jasper and a grief of pearls; able also to
plete security with the fascinating possession of one of
discover, as in Florence, the profile of a Caesar in the veins
Lalique’s opaline amulets. For the self-willed will make use
of an agate; of creating, as in Dresden, an entire Lilliput out
of Labradorite, however much it be filled with petrified
|ofgemstones; and o f draping, around Josephine's neck,
butterflies' wings, only with regret; and you will not easily
IJroy burning in a blaze o f opal.
persuade him to plunge his hand into his bag of turquoises.
I I have often had the impression that I saw that coquette
A Japanese lacquer, the most famous of all, the Ko-rinn,
from the Thousand and One Nights, who, despite the glass case
has already assimilated the whole rainbow o f mother-of-
|n which her husband enclosed her, enumerated by as many
pearl to bring into play its mauve, greenish or rosy rays in an
|precious rings the tally o f her lovers— stretching out her
infinity of marbled shimmerings. The cape of peacock-
(hands to me in Lalique's show-cases. And, the hussy, how
feather stares had also tempted him, and that strange death-
ifiot to pardon her on account o f the rings— excuses for her
agony of hydrangea-globes which curiously blends in their
Infidelities, those irresistible wedding-rings. Were not those
fading corymbs all of the nuances of the steely blue, the
Swans swimming among the reeds the gift o f some dying
pinkish and the nascent green of their yellow shares.
poet who offered up his swan-song in her arms? From
But he, Lalique, the most audacious Prometheus, has
another poet, this other cygnifbrm inspiration: two of Leda s
truly stolen the flame. To lull it to sleep or awaken it in
birds with intertwined necks, “the one black and the other
flashing pendants or in wanly gleaming ones, that is the art
white”; day and night. And those peacock-feathers with
of this showman of fairy-tales full of fiery adventures. It is a
Opalescent eyes, the proud conquest. For, it must be said, in
whole garden of the Hesperides, fervent and glowing, that
homage, since it is also prejudicial to Lalique, that he is the
bums in the plates of this necklace, between these slender
master of irisations and the play o f colours, the prince of
dashes of black enamel and these diamond leaves in whose
pearls’ waters and reflections. Vigilant friends have in vain
shadows and white fires the red flaming fruits stand out
^summoned up risible or respectable superstitions, unac­
more ardently. But the opal does not limit itself to embers;
counted-for ostracisms, tenacious fears, invincible preju­
and there are still the clouded surfaces of stagnant waters in
dices; it is as if the sly jewel-setter takes pleasure in
which the irises mirror themselves, in which boundless and
^^Complicating, in perfecting his labours of charms and

g l7 ROBERT DE M O N T E S Q U IO U
 Y
minute landscapes are suspended from chains. Soap bubbles santhemums in brown enamel, with a diamond atth
take flight from a flute-player's pipe, and they too are opals. with leaves o f gold filigree set out in the form of a *1® I
For humanity has its role in these chosen necklaces, in these and pointed triangle like a Louis XV bodice-front,^0* I
impassioned brooches. I have before me the most subde of made like a branch o f fuchsia with drooping Chinesebtjj
aquarelles; a design for a pin to bind heavy hair, and it reminds flowers. Unused flowers, variegated insects, lilacs depic^ I
me o f these lines: from the front, from behind, and in profile, like that vi0L I
o f Leonardo Da Vinci whose series of aspects multiplies I
It pleases me that worry
itself in a masterly sketch in Venice. Projects for a seriesof I
Should gnaw at ivory,
tiaras for Sarah Bernhardt, who first gathered together in^ I
My hair, brown mantle.
ingenious goldsmith's flowerbeds the lunar Nile lilies of
Massy pin, airy comb with long ivorine teeth surmounted Cleopatra, the dewy lilies o f The Princesse Lointaine.
by a creation o f Blake, of Grandeville or of Wagner; of a Designs that are themselves gems, truly giving flames to
butterfly-woman whose arms are the enamel wings of a paon- their diamonds, marking out the diaphanous paper witha
de-jour, half-opened along the length of a delectable body of complete scintillation.
Venus, whose hair, hewn in gold, streams with insects’ wings But not only ornaments are hatched from the studios of I
and rolls with pearls. this Parisian Cellini; many marvellous objects: goblets,
This too is one of Lalique’s obsessions, one of the chosen comfit-dishes, handles for canes and umbrellas, pommelsfa I
elements of his decor; that of hair. He coils it around faces sword-hilts. And, before leaving, to return to those show­
in sinuous waves, fabulous also since he deranges its nuances cases o f a genial artisan, it still seems to me that I see the
to the point of giving them a greenish tinge, in just the way hands o f the oriental coquette gleaming there, fingers
the Grand Albert prescribes, or makes it resemble that of the encircled by flowerets that are the nimbus of Queen Mat;
Queen o f Sheba, of whom Flaubert wrote that it was and o f the Queen o f Sheba too, for it is indeed she whomI I
“sprinkled with blue powder.’^L. hear murmuring to me: “W e shall look at the sun through
I might never be done with detailing and (describing. A opals!"
floral necklace of water-irises, themselves bent over threads , Translated by Andrew Mangravite LtinWlit- I
of pearls whose drops are likewise those of that wave. Chry-

THE BOOK O F MASK5

 Since he left us only a very fe w too b r if pages, the work of only ajjJ
years, since he died at an age where most of a noble genius still
slumbered, an unknown perfume, in the closed calyx of aflower
Mikhael is not to be judged, only loved. He was charming though
very proud, amiable, though sad and withdrawn; gentle, though he hatI Uirai
&
to suffer in this life, eitherfrom the tiresome and the envious, or be­
amor
cause he knew afam e as precocious as his talent... thunc
In Miracles, unbelief in the divine is analysed with a beautiful Azah
sureness o f touch and with intelligence; almost everywhere, one smses theh
vibra
a spirit, master o f itself which insists upon endowing withform ideas theu
that merit theform . He is above all attracted by stories that are F<
meaningful and revelatory o f a hermetic state o f being: he loves magic and:
nisec
and prodigies, creatures oppressed by mystery and sickfrom reason.
who
He was an assiduous reader o f Spinoza, who had taught him, in the sens*
apt words o f Pierre Quillard, with a superior mysticism, (Cthe vanity heh
o f jo y and sorrow ” and he came to appreciate equally the life and the A
strai
j|hirvana~philosophy o f the philosopher o f his race. The masterpiece and
among his prose works is Armentaria, a poem o f great purity, pres
clearly aureoled by love, mystic and candid flow er, flos his i
I
admirabilis! There are lines in it like this one; Armentaria says: craj
Ephraim Mikhael (1866-1890). A poet and
playwright, Mikhael (real name Michel) <(Let us be pure in the darkness and go silently to heaven.)} hec
worked at the Bibliotheque Nationale and died the
aged 25, his prose poems and other writings
It is enough to have written this small amount o f verse and prose;
top
were collected and published by his friends posterity would ask no more i f there were still room fo r those the
after his death in 1890, which is where these will
two texts appeared. Miracles is also one of the Godsfa v o u r in the museum w e vainly enrich f o r it, and whichfoW veri
poems translated by Merrill in his Pastels in aris
Prose. barbarians w ill perhaps never have the curiosity to enter.

J4 I
masks
THE B O O K OF
 EPHRAIM MIKHAEL

Miracles It is in a rich and ancient city, on the shores

glance from the prophet to the sky where the vesper
p of a cerulean ocean, in a strange city where,
mist is thickening, and they pass on with negligent
among obelisks and pylons, machines o f war press and
steps. The wise men watch in sile n ce ; and the mer­
thunder. From a high terrace o f marble, the poet
chants, having cast a last look at their good ships
Azahel contemplates the swarming o f ambitious sails in
anchored in the peaceful harbour, shrug their shoulders
the harbour. In the peaceful twilight, under the sky
and depart. A doctor o f the law, however, has said with
vibrant with the flight o f swallows, he meditates upon
a smile: “Master, if thou art the envoy o f God, show us
the uselessness o f the hours. some sign. Verily, couldst thou not, after the rite o f the
For he knows that in that city, where live wise men prophets, heal the dumb and b lin d s
and sages and doctors o f the law, he alone has recog­ Near the harbour were two men— the one blind, the
nised the infirmity o f Reason, and he thinks o f those other dumb. The prophet laid his hands upon their
who bear through the ages their ridiculous common- foreheads, and the blind man opened his eyes, and the
sense like a precious and heavy reliquary; and because dumb man spoke in a loud voice. The prophet asked:
he has disclaimed it, he glorifies himself in hisfcheart. “Is the sign sufficient, and do you wish to follow me?"
And lo! among the crowd by the harbour, appears a But the crowd remains motionless, the blind man
stranger clad in a woollen mantle o f noble folds and of shakes his head, and the dumb man cries out with his
ancient pattern. His eyes, like antique gems, seem to newly-found voice: “I do not believe thee/”
preserve the memory o f primordial visions, and under The stranger therefore extends his confident hand
his feet the stones quake as with dread. towards the horizon which is now full o f night, and
When the poet Azahel had descended among the repeats the sacred words of Genesis: “Let there be
crowd, the stranger lifted his arms to heaven; and now light!" and lo! in the Orient bursts a summer dawn.
he cries out, in tones that resound like the trumpets of Disconcerted, the doctors o f the law consult with
the temples: “Men, I am a prophet o f God. I have come the wise men. But no one advances towards the sea.
to proclaim the Word, and those that will follow me I Then, with the sadness of a vanquished angel, the
will lead, walking on the waves o f the sea, towards the great stranger goes and sits dreamily on the steps of an
veritable Land of Promise." Then from the crowd ancient temple, before the doors that have been closed
a murmur of disappointment. Young men for thousands of years. The crowd scatters little by
 little, the wise men and the doctors abandon the Armen- That evening the spirit of the Lotcj
harbour, and as they return home they feel less taria visited the house and Armentaria died finest flow I
troubled, because the natural night has returned. Azahel ** She had languished since the sunun young wo:
alone has remained near the closed temple, and he gazes but the sickness advanced so rapidly this day thatthe While i
young woman didn’t even have time to reach her Florentiu!
upon the man come from yonder. If he were truly the
Envoy! Oh, to recognise him, to bow before him, to suite of rooms. She passed away in the oratory while that I ma]
andCres<
follow him towards the chosen land! —But the spirit of she was at her prayers. A servant who was waiting fi*
girls will
Azahel is obscured by earthly ideas, and he can only her at the door (because she was a captive from
here to c<
think that the man is very fair because of his high Thuringia and still a pagan) heard her corpse fall to^
deacon a
stature and of his godly looks. flagstones. Having entered, she saw Armentaria lying
When
Suddenly the elder arises and walks towards the on her back, her arms spread wide. And by the will 0f 1
Florentit
poet: “Azahel, thou hast loved a virgin who is dead. I God, the heavy crucifix of carved wood before which
unreserv
will give her back to thee.” Immediately, wrapped in the dying woman prayed had fallen piously uponher
but alloT
funereal robes and coming forth blushing from death as dead breast.
M y. T1
from the coolness of a morning sea, a young woman Then there was great confusion throughout the
asthoug
appears. Smiling and forgetful of the divine secrets of entire house. The servants departed, in all haste, tofind
"Belovei
the tomb, she opens her arms to her lover. Armentaria's young husband, Florentius, for he proved
virgin!”
But he flies in terror through the silent streets; to be absent that evening, having gone to comfort a
sleeping
among the pylons and the obelisks and the images of poor man who was dying. The servants made their way I
Why di
the forgotten gods he flies, blinded by the miracle like a to the poor man's hut and they said: “Master! Master!
by? W l
night bird frightened by torches. And it is only when he Your wife is dead.” And Florentius cried out aloudand I
believe<
finds h im self once more on the peaceful terrace of ran to his house.
pleasur
marble that he dares direct his gaze towards the The young girls of the neighbourhood had already
joined i
harbour haunted by prodigies. gathered. They had carried Armentaria to her marriage I
times, i
At that moment a mysterious light shines towards bed. Some searched through the chests for white
sign of
the Orient. Upon the pacified ocean the great biblical garments to adorn she who could no longer adorn
trembl
elder passes calmly, and the reflection of stars in the herself. The others went down into the gardens which of the
water borders his ways with a double row of diamonds. in the land of Neustria are barren and sad during this from a
Now Azahel would fain arise and walk forth also on season. But a few precious flowers managed to survive and nc
the miraculous waves. But he feels himself so heavy there, because the virgins who were to be married in^ I even n
with reason that he cannot even lift his shameful hands spring watched over them anxiously until their weddii^ I gfeete<
towards the Envoy who returns. (Trans. Stuart Merrill) day. And they tended them lovingly each day. But no | I Flo:
without any regret, all those fiancees went to gather I odour

THE B O O K O F MASKS |4 I •43

 1 finest flowers for the funeral bed; for they loved the the air with perfumes. Florentius opened a window
B young woman who had died. overlooking the fields. Then he thought about the men
While they were thus honouring Armentaria, who were out there in their silent homes. Perhaps even
P Floren tiu s arrived: "Leave, I beseech y o u ,” he said, "so at that moment they were embracing their wives, lovers
I that I may be alone with her.” But M artial, the bishop, sleeping together voluptuously. He saw those happy
I and Cresentius, the deacon, came forward. "The young couples, dispersed as in a misty dream, and a
B girls will leave, but we, men o f God, we shall remain mysterious pride rose within his heart. Alone among all
I here to console you.” But Florentius rebuffed both the those men he had been able to renounce those licit joys.
I deacon and the bishop as well. He rejoiced, he felt the intoxication o f saintliness
When everyone had gone from the house, welling up inside him. "I wish that they m ight know, he
I Florentius, seating him self by the bed, began to weep murmured to himself, I want to tell them o f our
I unreservedly. H e did not give way to violent sorrow, secret.” .
K but allowed his tears to flow, slowly and almost peace- But the dead woman raised herself upright from
§ fully. Then, in the silence, his sorrow elated him. And among those decaying flowers. A momentary flush had
t as though his wife were listening, he spoke to hen spread across her pale face, because it was an ineffable
| “Beloved virgin,” he murm ured am id his sobs, "beloved modesty that had awakened her. "Do not reveal that,”
K virgin!” And he kissed the cold pure hands that lay like she begged, beckoning towards her husband with
ft sleeping doves surrounded by flowers: "Alas! Alas! asupematural hand. "Do not diminish our glory. I w ant
1 Why did you withhold yourself from me in days gone you to be like me, my beloved. Do not reveal that.
■by? Why did you not become my wife? Everyone Your silence will earn you great experience of love in
1 believed us to be carnal lovers, aglow with sensual heaven. M y dear Florentius, divulge nothing. Virtue is
I pleasure. And we, we lay side by side, our lips never complete only when it remains a secret. And it is little
■joined in a kiss. Sometimes still... I remember... some- enough to keep secret, it is better still to deny it. If I
I times, your hand trembled in mine, didn’t it? But with a had wanted to be revered on earth as a virgin, could not
I sign of the cross you purified the hand that had I have lived in seclusion near Randegonde? Long ago
; trembled and we two slept side by side beneath the gaze the bishop of Vienna, Avitus, wished to lead me off to
lof the Lord. I have suffered, Armentaria, I have suffered that good queen. My dear friend, do you know why I
ifrom a lengthy passion through your sweet volition, refused? It seemed to me that virgins publicly con­
^and no one has known our divine secret. Behold how secrated to the Lord must take secret pride in their
[even now they shroud you like a wife, you who will be merit. Men know of their virtue and praise it. As for
greeted among the blessed virgins...” me, I would suffer it as a divine shame to be chaste in
Florentius slowly paced the funeral chamber. The the eyes of all. What offends my virginal modesty is to
odour of the flowers was heavy; the tapers also charged have someone know of my virginity. It is for that
reason, Florentius, that I have desired these sham Then the bishop, M artial, said: “Florentius, the
nuptials. I wanted to be mistaken for a wife in order to servants of the church have come to remove the body
be an unknown virgin. And now, my Florentius, I of Armentaria. But you know, Christian, tha t death is
adjure you not to reveal our secret to those who will but a brief and powerless separation. You know that
return. So that our souls may be blessed, renounce all you will see your wife again. Thus I do not address
glories and above all, that o f being sanctified while on long and desperate farewells to you. Embrace her as
earth. Be pure in the darkness and go to heaven in though she were leaving on a brief journey, embrace as
you did each morning on parting company.” Florentius
H aving wept for a long time, Florentius thought of approached the bed docilely. He bowed before the
those who had fallen asleep again, and prayed to the bishop; everyone heard him respond: “I shall embrace
Lord. A nd peace returned to his heart. Dawn, a mild, my wife as I embraced her each morning.” And
sad daw n was breaking; the morning breeze trembling all over from his radiant lie, he approached
extinguished the tapers. The bishop, the deacon and her lips for the first time with his lips that had never
the wom en came and put Armentaria into a shroud. touched hers.
 A lover o f literature's sense o f rightness o f things is offended Pj|
discovers that his admirations are not in accord with those of
public; but he is not surprised, he knows that they are the chosen
o f the hour. The public's attitude is less benign when it learns of an
the disagreement that exists between it, the public, obscure master oftHe ul
o f plaudits, and the opinion o fa small oligarchic group: used to TrcCof
And 2
having two ideas linked,fa m e and talent, it exhibits a reluctance scales sp
to separate them; the public does not accept, because it has a secret causes n
armour;
sense o f justice or o f logic, that an author can be illustrious by
over th e
chance alone, or that an obscure author merits the light of day... Icauf
H is verses, somewhat gilded, somewhat clamorous, truly glitter theastra

Stuart Merrill (I863-I9I5). Stuart Merrill R ulers v

was bom in the United States, in the state of and ring f o r festive days and stately processions, and when the
ruby-ey<
New York, spent his childhood in France,
where his father was a diplomat, and returned
play o f the sunlightfades, torches illumine the night to give light to A nd !
to the USA to attend university at New York the sumptuous cortege o f supernatural women. Women or verses; lying S t
City's Columbia College (now University). tem ptir
Merrill had close ties to the New York branch they are doubtlessly embellished by too many rings and too many where, j
of the Symbolist/Decadent movement in the
United States—with Vance Thompson, Edgar rubicelles, and their robes are embroidered with too much gold vigiL
and Frank Saltus he was a member of the circle Subc
of poets dominated by Edgar Fawcett. His thread; they are royal courtesans rather than princesses, but m
uttered
work as a cultural ambassador culminated in
his collection Pastels in Prose (1892). This love their cruel eyes and auburn hair... m om er
anthology was the first really to bring the
literature of the French Symbolists before the
And so, one discovers in Stuart Merrill, the contrast and con­ storm 's

our ant
general American public in English language f l i c t between afie r y temperament and a too gentle heart, and in
translation; the volume included prose poems Sine
by Mallatml, Huysmans, Regnier, Quillard, accordance with whichever nature fla r es up, one hears the violet1 flo w n i
Mikhael and Villiers. He spent his adult life in
fond, t
"ranee. o f b rass or the m urm ur o f viols...

I*4 •47
T H E B O O K OF MASKS
 S T U A R T M ER R ILL

| Ecstasy I— sang H e who bore the Lyre and the Unknown, like the Silence that is beyond Darkness!
And m y pale hands ten sed — s tiffe n ed by gems
Sword to the generations drained by their
stolen o f old from the Dragon's treasure— around the
I many ancestors drenched in sin— am the M age, holder
dazzling mysteries, hidden forever from the keen gaze
' of the ultimate secrets, who has gathered stars from the
o f m y brothers by the gods, fearing ineluctable folly.
Tree of Universal Life.
Flying, galloping on high, O monsters o f revelation,
And a thousand snakes w ith coruscating golden
until
I scales sprang forth from the sacred plants whose juice
my lips grew bloody from biting the purple clusters
[ causes madness, and hurled themselves upon m y
which w ill be harvested upon the days o f vengeance,
1 armour and m y shield blazoned w ith the sign o f victory
Christ and Satan,
over their quivering crim son tongues,
So that, pounding with m y clamorous arms upon the
k I caused the vindictive anger o f m y sword to flash in adamantine gate o f the seventh sphere where, w ith
the astral light and I drew out the divine Ode o f the blades o f white flame in their hands, the seraphim and
Rulers upon the seven chords; and the agony o f the the cherubim tower, winged by moon and helm eted by
iruby-eyed reptiles hissed through the dolorous plain, sun,
fe And I seized hold o f the m ane o f the immemorial I am abler having accomplished m y seven-fold
lying Sinner, the rosy flow er o f her sex opened destiny, to enjoy at last, in the paradise o f asphodels
Itcmpting me beneath the starry darkness o f the Tree and amaranths where day is night and night day, the
where, wingless and mute, all the birds o f T im e kept perfect Life and the perfect Death, for an eternity o f
vigil. eternities!
IE Subdued by m y strength o f kn igh tly purity, she Thus sang He who bore the Lyre and the Sword.
uttered to the heavens w ith a voice never heard till that
moment, the dread w ord that revealed to me, like the
storm’s thunder, the m ystery o f the worlds o f which
our ancestors the giants spoke.
Since that hour o f hours m y archangel's soul has
flown upon a hippogrifFs m usical wing, sinuous and
fond, toward an Unknown that lies beyond our
 Apocalypse In the semi-darkness beneath the pale their destinies beyond, have forever filled themselves
planet where the last light quivers, with fear.
brooding over the secret of the earthly centuries, there’s They have had strange dreams in the blue mount*
a vain tinkling o f harps amid the garlands of the of silence where the M agi meditate, and wished, b y Wa
universal orgy o f mankind. of a human pity contrary to that of God or of gods to
Above the towers o f the basalt palaces where the proclaim to the peoples grown pale through ancient sin
violet flames from tripods swirl toward forgotten the new good that the Book contains.
heaven, the drunken kings, their throats flayed by But the archangels, guardians of the secret, have
laughter, rend with their nails the rough silk standards struck at their heads with the flashing flame of their
that their ancestors, on mornings of hope, had swords, because they attempted to break, before the
decorated with chimeras in flight. appointed time, the triple seal upon the threshold of
And the queens whose fingers and arms are heavy the Temple of the Light which is not to be broken
with the most precious stones study parchments except by the sceptre o f the fatal Redeemer.
illum inated with sinople: tales concerning love, warfare, And here the drunken kings and the foolish queens
and death, o f which they are s ca rcely able to make at the sight of those corpses which pass by palely on the
sense, their h ea d s r e e lin g beneath the weight of their tide, and hearing the thunder o f the barbarian
cavalcade, begin to weep in the irremediable night; and
ancient crowns. their fingers suddenly raised seem to wish to pull from
All o f a su d d en , in th e d e se r t whose sands unfold to the sky its last remaining stars.
the gates o f these d a m n ed capitals, th e barbarian horde
o f the n igh t, a w a k en in g th e sound o f th e d u lcim ers,
gallop through the fie ld o f shadows around the
ramparts, where the steel sentinels sleep in the glow o f
torches p rick ed upon th eir lances.
A wind arises out o f the wastes, and in the wind of
this solitude the drunken kings and their foolish queens
in their terror allow the rags o f standards and
parchment leaves to fall from the tops o f the towers.
T hey recall the shouts o f the ancient prophets before
the apocalypse.
Already the river from the East carries along in its
currents— p u rp led ^ f old with the blood o f many
multitudes chanting vengeance and victory— the bodies
o f vigorous men whose eyes, having read the secret o f

THE BOOK of masks

 R om an ce and C ham bertin, C lo s-V o u g eo t and C orton would parade
before him abbatial cerem onies, princely banquets, the opulences of
vestm ents brocaded in gold, blazing w ith light. T h e Clos-Vougeot above Saint
all used to bedazzle him . T h a t w ine seem ed to him the syrup o f great L ydw in
Schiedat
dignitaries. T h e label w ould glow before his eyes like those glorioles,
radiating rays o f light, that are placed in churches behind the occiputs of format*
im ages o f the calculi;
Jo ris-K a rl H u ysm an s (I 8 4 8 -I 9 0 7 ).T h e most
The writer who, in 1881, in the midst o f the slough o f Naturalism,faced with a name speak o!
im p o rtan t prose w riter associated with
read on a wine-list, experienced such a vision, must have worried hisfriends, making them the end
S ym b o lism , H uysm ans wrote the "bible" o f
heavenl;
D ecadence, A Rebours (Against Nature) so beloved suspect an imminent defection. Af e w years later, infact, there emerged the unexpected A
It wa
b y O scar W ild e , then En Rude ( Becalmed— which
is published in English by A tlas) and Ld-Bas
R ebours which was, not the point o f departure, hut the consecration ofa new literature.... never th
(D own There), in which his autobiographical It is sometimes necessary, in order to entice the public toward very difficult subject none of
hero explores Satanism . H is later work reflects matters, to simulate vague romantic plots, which one unravels according to one’s own andapo
his conversion to Catholicism and, with excep­ Having
inclination, when one has said all that one wished to say. But the main point ofdays gone by
tions, is less com pelling.
became
Contem porary readers cannot fail to notice has become an incidental, and an incidental more and more despised: writers ingenious
dated t<
that the whole o f H uysm ans' oeuvre is pervaded enough or strong enough to succeed in a genre so much debased, capable still of spurring on
with a misogyny that manifests itself as a pro­ bones; t
with authority the jaded steeds o f sentimentalities and adulteries, are very rare nowadays. beneadi
found disgust towards the body and even the
entire biological universe. T h is theme underlies Besides, the aesthetic tends to specialise in as many form s as there are talents: amid a white a
his earliest realist novels and prose poems (one plethora o f vanities, there are admissible vanities to whom one cannot refuse the right to emit turning
included here, from A Dish of Spices, 1874), and and sh<
equally his later works o f Catholic piety. These
their personal norms. Huysmans is one o f these: he no longer creates novels, he makes boob,
Hot
I concern either withdrawal and abnegation, or and he conceives them according to an original arrangement; I believe that this is one of the
was coi
concentrate on other more dubious religious causesf o r which some still contest his work and fin d it to be immoral. This last point is etsy
enthusiasms in which Huysmans' neurosis is
Feast c
able to express itself so eloquently: his famous to explain in a single w ord:for the non-artist, art is always immoral... freezin
essay on Grunewald's painting o f the Now, tired out with having looked upon the hypocriticalfaces o f men, he is looking upon throug
stones, working on a supreme book on T h e Cathedral. In this, if it is a question offuH
crucifixion, or the less well-known, but equally everyo;
horrific, hagiography o f St Lydwine (1 9 0 1), an young
extract o f which follows. and understanding, it is a matter above all o f looking. He will see as nobody has seen, bectt#
to be 2
T h at same year, 19 01, Huysmans became a nobody has ever been granted a gaze so sharp, so penetrating, so perspicacious, so adroit at
monk, a few years later he suffered a terminal for sta
illness almost as horrific as that o f St. Lydwine, insinuating into the inmost recesses o f faces, o f rose-windows, and o f masks. Huysmans proacl
which he bore with great fortitude. an eye. berth;

1 50 I •S 1
THE BOOK O F MASKS
 JORIS-KARL HUYSMANS

| faint U ntil her fifteenth birthday, Lydwine oppose them further, and with the permission of her father,
I Lydwine o f seems to have been a fairly healthy girl; she eventually agreed to accompany them to the frozen canal
Schiedam her biographers merely inform us that behind the house where she lived; she had just stood up,
iv while still young she suffered from the after putting on her skates, when one of her friends, racing
i fbnnation of stones and that she expelled a good number of flat-out, collided with her before she was able to move her­
calculi; but neither Gerlac, nor Brugman, nor a Kempis self out of die way, and threw her against a block o f ice, one
speak of her childhood afflictions; and it was only towards of whose edges broke an asternal rib on her right-hand side.
the end o f her fifteenth year that the furious love o f the She was taken home in tears, and laid out on the bed
heavenly Spouse descended upon her. which she would scarcely ever leave again.
I It was at that time she fell ill, and though the sickness The news of this accident soon spread around the town
never threatened her life, it left her in a weak condition that and everyone thought it his duty to express his opinions.
none of the potions or medicines vaunted by the doctors Lydwine had to endure, like Job, the interminable chatter of
and apothecaries o f the tim e could succeed in overcoming. those whom the misfortunes o f others render loquacious;
Having grown remarkably feeble, she languished; her cheeks but those who were wiser, instead o f rebuking her for having
became hollow and the flesh m elted away; she became ema­ gone out, felt sorry for her, presuming that God must have
ciated to the point that she was nothing more than skin and had some special reason for having treated her so.
bones; the attractive disposition o f her features disappeared Her family, who were terribly upset, were determined to
beneath swellings and hollows, and her complexion, once stop at nothing to make her better; although they were poor,
white and rosy, took on a greenish hue, before finally they called in die most famous doctors in the Low
turning ashen. H er suitors were overjoyed at being rejected Countries. They dosed her with an endless quantity of
and she was no longer afraid to be seen in public. medicines ,and the illness only grew worse; as a result o f this
I t However, as she was unable to recover her strength, she treatment, a hard, purulent tumour formed in the fracture.
was confined to her room, where, a few days before the She suffered martyrdom; and her parents were at a loss to
Feast of the Purification, her friends came to visit her. It was know which saints to invoke next, when a renowned
freezing hard at the time, and the river Schie, which runs physician from Delft, a very charitable and pious man,
through the town, together with the canals, was frozen over; Godfried de Haga (commonly called “Sonder-Danck”,
everyone in Holland skates during such icy spells. Lydwine’s which in Dutch means, “My pleasure”, because that is
pang friends invited her to skate with them; but, preferring invariably how he replied to all those who were sick and
Jobe alone, she used the poor state of her health as a pretext whom he treated free of charge), called to see her. His views
for staying home. They insisted so much though, re­ on therapeutics were the same as those expressed by
proaching her for not taking enough exercise and assuring Bombast Paracelsus, who was bom a few years after the
her that the fresh air would do her good, that, not wishing to death of Lydwine, in his Opus Paramirum. Amidst all the
more or less incoherent drivel inspired by his occultism, this ploded internally, and the pus poured from her mouth.
astonishing man had seized upon the law o f divine equi­ These vomitings shook her from head to foot and J
were
not actd
washidi
librium when writing on the subject o f the essence of God: abundant that there was hardly time to empty the bowU
“W h
It is essential to realise that every illness is an atonement an enormous round pot before they were overflow^^H^
brought about by God and that until He decides that the parents I
Finally, she fainted after a last effort, and her
He’s hi<
rage, at
atonement has been fulfilled, there is nothing that any her dead.
hall-wa
doctor can do... A doctor may only be said to effect a cure She regained consciousness, however, and from thattime I
She
when his intercession coincides with the end o f the atone­ the most accursed life imaginable began for her; incapable I
her; anc
m ent decided upon by Our Saviour.” supporting herself on her legs, and continually rackedby
utterin
W ith these thoughts in mind, Godfried de Haga this urge to change positions, she crawled around onher enterin
exam ined the patient and spoke with his assembled col­ knees, dragged herself along on her stomach, or hooked not to I
leagues who were curious to know his verdict: “This sick­ herself around stools and the edges of furniture; burning Lyd
ness, m y dear friends, is not within our powers; all the with fever, she was possessed by unhealthy appetites, and you ar<
H ippocrateses and Avicennas in the world would lose their drank polluted or lukewarm water which, contorted by AtJ
reputations here.” And he added, in a prophetic tone: “The terrible spasms, she ejected. Three years passed in this way; ' behind
hand o f G od is on this child. He will work great marvels in while/to complete her martyrdom, she was abandonedby to hit
her; I w ould to God that she were my daughter; if she were those who had until then still occasionally come to visither. you tx
for sale, I w ould w illingly give a weight o f gold equal to my The sight of her agony, her screams and groanings, thehor­ get hii
head for such a favour.” rible mask o f her face swollen with tears, all drove her visi­ Th
A nd so he departed, without prescribing a remedy; all the tors away. Only her family continued to give her support; thing
quacks lost interest in her then, and she obtained at least a her father’s kindness never wavered, her mother, less re­ enem
short respite from having to swallow all those useless and signed to her lot as sick-nurse, became irritable with her and, stand
expensive potions. But the illness was advancing and the weary of her continual m oaning was often harsh withher. room
pain became unbearable; she was unable to remain still ' The grief that she suffered, in addition to all her other trace
whether lying down, sitting up, or standing. At a loss as to misfortunes, at being obliged to submit to such tirades and direc
w hat to do, and incapable o f staying in the same position reproaches would surely have killed her had not God, who
even for a moment, she asked to be transferred from one bed seems to have still been in a state o f some doubt abouther hern
to another, hoping this might relieve die acuteness o f her until then, suddenly intervened on her behalf, and demon­ thou;
sufferings; but all these movements only served to irritate strated, by means o f an unexpected miracle, that He would enou
the illness. not desert her and at the same time taught a lesson in daug
On the eve o f the day celebrating the nativity o f St John to her mother. ward
the Baptist her torments attained new paroxysms; she lay This is what happened. then
sobbing on the bed in an atrocious state o f nervous One day two men were quarrelling in the square; after infir
exhaustion; at last, she could bear it no longer; the pain, hurling insults at each other, they began to exchange blows It
throbbing and tearing at her, threw her from the bed so that until one o f them, drawing his sword, fell upon the other
of h
she fell doubled up across the knees o f her father who was valic
who, lacking either in weapons or in courage, too k to hi*
seated weeping at her side. The shock made the abscess exce
heels; at the corner o f the street he spotted the open doot
burst; but instead o f opening towards the outside, it ex­ wer<
Lyd wine’s home, and nipped in. Though his adversary

'5 3
THE BOOK OF MAS KS
 I ot actually seen h im g o in , h e n o n e th e le ss su sp e cte d th a t he Soon Lydwine could no longer even drag herself about on
§ y^as hiding there. her knees and clutch at the comers of baskets and chairs: she
“Where did he go? I’m going to k ill him! Don’t lie to me! had to crouch on her back in bed, this time for ever; the
I He’s hidden here somewhere!” he shouted, foaming with wound under her rib which had never healed became in­
I rage, at Lydwine's mother, who was standing, rooted to the flamed and infected with gangrene; worms bred in the putre­
I hall-way, staring at him with terror. faction, moving around under the skin o f her stomach and
She assured him that it was not so; but he did not believe forming three enormous ulcers as large and round as the
I her; and brusquely pushing her aside with his hand while bottom of a bowl; the manner in which they multiplied was
I uttering the most fearful threats, he forced his way in, alarming; they wriggled so much that to Brugman they
| entering even Lydwine’s bedroom and ordering the sick girl appeared to boil; thick as the end o f a spindle, their bodies
| not to conceal the truth from him. were grey and watery with black heads.
Lydwine, incapable o f telling a lie, replied: “He whom The doctors were summoned again and prescribed that
you are pursuing is indeed here.” poultices made from freshly milled flour, honey, and the fat
At these words, Lydwine’s mother, who had slipped in o f capons, to which some counselled the addition o f cream
behind the man, could no longer contain herself, and started or a stock made from eels, all sprinkled with dried beef and
to hit her daughter, saying, “Y ou little imbecile, how can reduced to a powder in an oven, should be applied to these
, you betray like that a man who is your guest and who might nests of vermin.
get himself killed!” These remedies, which demanded no litde care in their
The furious man, however, neither heard nor saw any­ preparation —for it was emphasised that if the flour was
thing that happened. Swearing aloud, he searched for his allowed to cool even a little the worms would not feed on it
I enemy who had become invisible to him, but who was —brought her a little relief, and it was possible to pick out
standing right there in front of him in the middle of the o f her wounds between a hundred and two hundred o f these
room. Not finding him, he rushed out to try to recover his vermin every twenty-four hours.
traces again, while his antagonist made off in the opposite But, in fact, these medicines were only palliatives and had
direction as fast as his legs would carry him. hardly any healing effect. A doctor from Cologne who had
When they were both gone, Lydwine, who had received heard of her, perhaps from Godfried de Haga, who seems to
her mother’s ill-treatment without demur, whispered: “I have been a friend, appears initially to have been more
thought^ mother, that simply telling the truth would be successful, though when everything is taken into account he
enough to save the man”; and her mother, admiring her too probably only succeeded in making matters worse. He
daughter’s faith and the miracle with which it had been re­ applied to her most purulent quarters a compress soaked in
warded, was filled with more generous sentiments, and from a mixture which he prepared by distilling certain plants
then on bore the troubles and burdens which her daughter’s picked only in dry weather when covered in dew from the
infirmities caused her with less resentment and bitterness. woods. This preparation, blended with a decoction of cen­
It must be admitted that the continual attention required taury or millflower, gradually dried up the ulcers. This
of her and her incessant harassment gave the good woman doctor was surely a good man because, so as to be sure that
valid cause for ill-humour; all the more so because however Lydwine would not be deprived of her remedy if he died
excessive the infirmities of her daughter seemed already, they before her, he charged his son-in-law, an apothecary by the
were almost as nothing to those which would ensue. name of Nicolas Reiner, to send her after his death all the
flasks of the mixture that she needed to close the wounds. nervous disorders.
But the moment came when none of these palliatives Soon, in addition to her other infirmities, her chest
could be o f any assistance, for the whole body of the miser­ in I
which until then had remained immune, joined theaft j
able girl became raw; besides the bright red ulcers in which a livid mucus ran from her nose, then copper-coloured^ I
whole colonies of parasites were being nourished without and carbuncles formed; the urinary disease, fromwhichsL I
being eradicated, a tumour, which turned septic, appeared had suffered in her youth but which had disappeared, re.
on her right shoulder; this was the dreaded disease of the turned and she passed calculi the size of small eggs; nextit
Middle Ages, ergotic poisoning or the sacred fire, which was her lungs and liver which became infected; her skin
attacks the arm and consumes the flesh right to the bone; became cankerous and gnawed at her; and, finally, whentin I
the muscles twisted and snapped, all except for one which plague ravaged Holland, she was the first victim; twoenor.
retained the arm and prevented it from becoming detached mous boils began to grow, one under her arm, the otherover I
from the trunk; Lydwine could not even turn on her right the heart. "Two boils, that is fine," she said to the Lord,
side now, and all she was able to do was raise her head, to "but it seems to me that in honour of the Holy Trinitythree I
which the infection had also spread, using her left arm. would be better.” A third boil immediately broke out onher I
Terrible neuralgic pains assailed her, boring into her temples cheek
like a gimlet and beating ever more violendy on her skull like She would have been dead twenty times over if these
a mallet; her forehead split in two from the roots of her hair afflictions had been natural; one alone would have been
to the centre of her nose; her chin became dislocated under enough to kill her; nor was there anything more to tryorto
her lower lip, and her mouth swelled; she lost the use of her do to cure her.
right eye, but the other became so sensitive that the least The rumour of all these disasters which had so strangely
glimmer of light would make it bleed; she also suffered from fallen the lot of one person who, though mortally ill inevery
raging toothaches, sometimes lasting weeks on end, which part of her body, still continued to live, spread far andwide.
drove her half crazy; and, finally, after an attack of quinsy And if it brought her orthodox doctors who perhaps aggra­
which almost suffocated her, she began to lose blood vated her troubles with doubtful panaceas, it was also the
through her mouth, her ears, and her nose with such pro­ occasion of another visit from the good Godfried de Hagi
fusion that the whole bed was soaked. who had cared for her after her fall.
Those who witnessed this terrible spectacle wondered Godfried, whose initial prognosis had been as to the
how so much blood could come out of a body which was so divine origin of all these ills, could only reiterate that hisart
utterly exhausted, and poor Lydwine tried to smile. was powerless to cure them; in the hope o f b r in g i n g adegree
"Since you all know so much more than I, tell me rather of relief to the patient, he nonetheless removed the intestines
from where does the sap come which in spring swells the from her stomach and deposited them in a basin; he cleaned
vine, so black and bare in winter?” and examined them, and replaced those which were fit fa
It would seem by now that she must have endured every use. His diagnosis was that she was afflicted by a putre­
possible ill. If one turns to the descriptions of her faction of the marrow, which he attributed to the fact that
biographers, which I have had to tone down, one would she did not take salt with her meals; and he added, ashe
think oneself in a hospital watching a procession of patients took his leave, that a new disease, dropsy, would shortly
pass by one by one, all suffering from the most terrible declare itself, which is exactly what happened; the dropsy
diseases, the very extremities of agony, and the rarest appeared as soon as the ulcers, which had been dressedw

i$4
THE BOOK O F MA S KS
 the solutions and poultices of the doctor from Cologne, had grey frock or prison uniform, and to shake in their hand,
I healed* When they ccascd to suppurate, the miserable which was always gloved, a tartavelle or rattle, to warn
B patient began to swell, and regretted the exchange of one evil people from approaching. The leper was a pariah, having no
for a worse. legal existence, separated for ever from the world, and
I She endured this incredible assault of physical calamities buried after his decease in a place apart.
[ for thirty-eight years; during all this time, she had not a The liturgy was terrible towards him; prior to his seques­
I moment's respite nor a single easy hour. tration, the Church celebrated a Mass of the Holy Spirit
| It is as well to remark here that her sufferings included containing the pro infirmis prayer in his presence, then he was
two of the three scourges which came from the East and conducted by a procession to the hut or lazar-house, if such
k ravaged Europe during the Middle Ages: the consuming fire, should exist in the area, for which he was intended; the
I a type of gangrenous ergotic poisoning which bums like a frightful prohibitions which would cut him off from all
i hidden fire in the flesh of the limbs, and until the bones contact with the living were read to him, and three clods of
I split, and from which death provides the only respite; and earth taken from the cemetery were cast on to the roof, a
the Black Death which, according to the observations of one cross was planted before the door, and that was the end of
| doctor of the time, “declares itself by a continuous fever, the leper.
external boils and carbuncles, frequently under the armpits, In certain parts of France, the ritual used was even more
and results in death within five days.” sinister. The wretch afflicted with the disease of “Monsieur
There remains the third scourge however, that other sainct Landre” only entered the church on the day fixed for
source of despair throughout those centuries —leprosy, his internment laid out on a stretcher and covered with a
jk This was all that was missing from the wretched girl’s list black sheet, as if he were already dead. The clergy chanted
ofafflictions. God, who, in His Scriptures and in the lives of the libera and conducted the office for the dead. The leper
His Saints, appears to show a special concern for the did not stand up again until he arrived before the hut or
;•"meseled" or leprous, healing them or employing their lazar-house which was destined to shelter him and, there,
, repulsive image to test the charity of His Saints, did not with head bowed, he listened to the pronouncement of the
wish to put his pitiful servant to this last trial; but the reason sentence which enjoined him not to set a foot outside, to
for making this exception, astonishing as it may seem at touch no one, and which even prescribed him to pass down
first, is easily to be understood. Leprosy would have wind of healthy persons, should he by chance come across
thwarted the Saviour's designs and rendered the develop­ such persons.
ment of Lydwine's holiness impossible, The rules concerning leprosy must have been broadly
fe It should be remembered that during the Middle Ages similar everywhere. A series of ordinances of this kind are
lepers were considered as incurable, and despite all their preserved in the Coutumier, or Book of Customs, of the
pharmacopoeia of hellebore, sulphur baths, the flesh of county of Hainaut, which, in the Middle Ages, was one of
vipers, all used since antiquity, and arsenic, which had been the provinces forming what is now the Low Countries. It is
tried by Paracelus, the doctors had failed to cure a single therefore certain that if Lydwine had been stricken by the
one, so that, from fear of contagion, they were shut up in disease, she would have been taken from home and, to all
special hospices or isolated in wooden huts, which they were intents and purposes, buried alive; she would not have re­
forbidden on the threat of the severest punishment ever to ceived the care of her mother and father and, after their
leave. They even had to wear distinctive clothes, a sort of deaths, of her nephew and niece, who would have been kept

*55 JORIS-KARL H U Y S M A N S
 away from her for fear of the disease spreading; from that Chlorotic Softly, draped in a hood of grey clo^
time on, she would have remained unknown, since no one Ballad twilight unfolded its misty tapestries ^
would have been able to visit her, and the example that God melting purple of a setting sun. ^
wished her to set would have been forever obscured. She came slowly, smiling a vague smile, poising^
It must be noted, too, that this question of the care which figure in a white robe, quilted with red peas. Her cheek” I
was given to her appears to have received special were stained, for moments, with purple patches, andU
consideration from Our Saviour. He overwhelmed her with long hair waved over her shoulders, tossing in sombre
torments; He disfigured her, substituting for the charm of billows of white and red roses.
her clear countenance the horror of a face swollen out of all A crowd of youths and a throng of young girls watc!^ I
recognition with a sort of lion’s muzzle scarred by streams her coming, fascinated by her cruel eye, her sickly smile,^
of blood and tears; He transformed her into a skeleton and advanced upon them, clasped them in her thin arms and
raised a ridiculous dome filled with water on her impossibly furiously glued her lips to their mouths. They gaspedand
frail stomach; for all those who see only outer appearances, trembled all over; breathless, aghast, screaming withpain,
He made her hideous; but, if he accumulated in her every they writhed beneath the wind of her kiss like grass before
visual disgrace, he intended that the nurses charged with the breath of a thunderstorm.
dressing her wounds should not be disgusted and grow Desolated mothers embraced her knees, graspedher
weary of their charitable offices because of the putrid smell hands and wept, with great sobs; but she, impassive, pale,|]a
which must necessarily accompany such wounds. fixed eye filled with liquid gleams, her hands clammy, her
By continual miracle, He turned these wounds into a breasts two darting points, repelled them, gently, and
cassolette of perfumes; the dressings which were removed, continued on her way.
teeming with vermin, exhaled an odour of sanctity; the pus One young girl crawled to the ogre’s feet, clutchingho
smelled fragrantly, and her vomit gave off delicate aromas; breast with both hands, in dying agony, and spitting blood.
and from this poor body swathed in lint whom He rendered “Mercy!” she cried, “Mercy! O Tuberculosis! have pityon
so shameful by His exigencies, He wished that there should my mother, have pity on my youth!” But the implacable
always emanate an exquisite atmosphere of seashells and ghoul hugged the girl in her arms and plundered the virgin
spices from the East, a fragrance at once distinct and lips for kisses, long drawn out.
soothing, something both very Biblical and very Dutch, of The victim still quivered feebly; the other clutchedher
cinnamon and spices. more tightly and dashed her teeth against the girl’s; the
— Translated by Terry Hale. latter’s body convulsed weakly, then became cold, inert,
while her cheeks mantled with glaucous tints and livid
vapours.
Then the goddess fluttered heavily; pallid rays gushed
from her eye-balls and bathed with bluish glazings the
blanched cheeks of the dead.
Softly, draped in a hood of grey clouds, the twilight
unfolded its misty tapestries over the melting purple ofd*
setting sun.
— Translated by Sm^ 0 '

I
156
THE BOOK O F MASKS
 At this moment there is a little movement of neo-
paganism, sensual naturism, eroticism at once
,
mystical and materialistic a return to those purely
fleshly religions in which woman is adored even in
the ugliness o f her sex, because by means o f meta­
phors one can idealise the misshapen and make the
illusory divine...
Pierre Louys (1870-1925). Louys’ refined But how deceptive is such a literature! All those
evocations, not to say re-inventions, of the
society of Hellenistic Greece proved extremely
popular both in France and the English-
women, all thatflesh, all those cries, all that lust ,so
speaking world, especially due to the somewhat
risque nature of such works as Aphrodite (1896)
animal and so vain, and so cruel! Thefemales nibble
and Les Chansons de Bilitis (1894). He lived his
entire life in Paris, travelling occasionally
at cerebellums and eat up brains; thoughtflies,
around the Mediterranean coast where so many
of his works were set. He had close friends ejaculated; their souls ooze out as i f fr o m sores; and
among the writers of his day but otherwise kept
himself rather apart from literary cliques except all those copulations engender only nothingness, dis­
for that around Mallanne.
The story here, from Sanguines (1903) per- gust, and death....
fecdy contrasts his devotion to things Hellenic
with/m desiecle ennui. Apart from his celebrated And he has rightly foreseen that this book of the
"public” writing he composed a vast hidden
oeuvre ranging from scabrous, but satirical,
poems often of epic length (Le Trophee des vulves
flesh logically concludes in death: the idea of death is
Ugendaires on the heroines of Wagner) to works
of outright filth. These began to appear after
joined to the idea o f beauty; and the two images, en­
his death, the first being his pastiche of a young
lady’s etiquette manual, a selection of which twined like two courtesans, die away slowly in the
follows. It first saw publication in a strictly
under-the-counter edition in 1930. night.

T H E B O O K O F MASKS
 ANew About four years ago, perhaps five, I used to ornaments, like an opera-cloak. It was gathered about her
Sensation occupy for several days a week an inconvenient neck by a circular, tufted trimming, above which her head
but out-of-the-way and picturesque ground just showed; it was a completely brown face, surmounted by
floor flat in a street which led at one end into the little park light coloured hair. Her features were young and sensual,
of Monceau: I took no interest in this detail, as the gate was and had a slighdy mocking expression; there were two very
[ closed every evening before m idnight, and I was unable to go black eyes, a very red mouth.
! there at the precise hour when I enjoy walking in the open “Will you please allow me to come in ?” she said, putting
air. her head on one side.
L One night, when I was there, in silent colloquy with two I made way for her with the astonishment which can only
blue porcelain cats squatting upon a white table, I was trying be felt by a man who sees, at an hour when one scarcely
to make up my mind between two methods of employing receives any but the most intimate feminine friends, a
my solitude; I was either going to write a strictly regular woman enter his abode of whom he has not the slightest
sonnet while I smoked cigarettes, or I was going to smoke recollection, and who addresses him in familiar terms in the
[ cigarettes while I contemplated the paper on the ceiling. first words she utters.
,4 The important thing is always to have a cigarette in one’s “Dearest,” I said to her timidly, when I had followed her
hand; objects must be enveloped in a heavenly and delicate into my room; “Dearest, don’t be angry with me, I recognise
havi- which bathes both light and shadow, effaces solid you perfecdy well, but unfortunately, somehow or other, I
angles, and by its scented spell imposes upon the restless can’t for the moment remember your name. W ould it be
fninrl a variable rhythm whence it may fall to dreaming, Lucienne now, or Tototte.”
ite That evening I both intended to write and desired to, do She smiled indulgendy and, without answering, took off
nothing; in other words, it was an evening like all the rest; her mande. Her dress was of sea-green silk, adorned with
and it would assuredly have ended before a virgin sheet of enormous irises woven into the fabric itself; their stems rose
paper and an ash-tray full o f corpses, had not my thoughts tapering up her body as far as the square opening at the
been suddenly interrupted by an unexpected ring at my front breast, which displayed both nipples bare. She wore on each
door. arm a small gold bangle in the form of a serpent with eyes of
I raised my head. I was convinced that on Friday, the emerald. A collar of large pearls in two rows gleamed upon
ninth of June, I did not expect any one at this hour of the her bronzed skin, emphasising the base of the supple and
night; but as a second ring followed close upon the first, I rounded neck.
went to the door and unlocked it. | If you recognise me,” said she, “it is because you have
On opening the door I saw a woman standing there. She seen me in dreams. I am Callisto, daughter of Lamia. My
was wrapped in a voluminous mantle of natural serge, re tomb was left undisturbed for eighteen hundred years in the
sembling a travelling dress, but figured with interlaced flowery woods of Daphne, near the hills where once stood

•59 PIERRE L O U f S
 the luxurious city of Antioch. But in these days tombs are hands, it is so sticky and hangs so badly. Anyho* j,
great travellers. I was brought to Paris, and my shade any material which drapes better than wool? You I
followed the stone which held my delicate ashes. I slept for a Anything finer than linen? Brighter than silk?. I
long time, imprisoned in the icy vaults of the Louvre. I yourself."
should be there still had not a great pagan, a venerable man, She continued:
Monsieur Louis Menard*, who is the only man who "In my time foot-coverings were made of leather
remembers, today, the sacred rites and gestures, pronounced Slippers, coloured shoes, furred indoor slippers, andhot
before my tomb the traditional words that can give a brief boots were know n. . .Your cycling shoes too, open, with I
nocturnal existence to poor dead women. For seven hours, strap rather high up, that was a Phrygian fashion. No*W I
each night, I go wandering in your squalid city. . . ” at mine; they are made o f olive morocco, gold-tooled !&* I
“Oh, my poor girl!” I interrupted. “How changed you bookbinding. You had better admire them. You will not
must find the world!” find any so fine where your lady friends buy theirs.”
“Yes and no. I find the houses black, the costumes ugly, She went on again:
and the sky mournful (what a singular notion that was of "In my time there were two precious metals usedfor
yours to come and live in such a climate!). I find that life is ornaments: gold and silver. Have you people found athird’ I
more stupid, and that people seem less happy; but one thing They were employed in the manufacture of necklaces, tin* I
that absolutely astounds me is the reappearance at every step bracelets, ear-rings, diadems, and brooches. I found all these I
of everything I used to know. Really! In eighteen hundred articles again in the Rue de la Paix, identical with ours. Wt I
years is that all you have done ? Nothing more original ? were acquainted with pearls, emeralds, diamonds, opals,
Nothing better, positively ? Is what I have seen in your moonstones, rubies, sapphires, and all the variously rinted I
streets, in your fields, in your houses everything, absolutely silicas which come from Arabia and India today as theyid I
everything ? What a sorry business, my friend!” then. Now, have you by any chance produced one precious I
The astonishment of my expression was a sufficient stone in eighteen centuries ? Just one, tell me just one,IW I
answer. She smiled, and went on to illustrate her meaning: o f you! A stone I never knew, a ring I never put on my
"You see how I am dressed ?” she said. “I am wearing the finger; a new jewel, even one mounted in gold, as mineart, I
robe that was buried with me. Look at it. In my time dresses since you have no rarer metal to offer me, but one that dap
were made of wool, yam, and silk. When I returned to earth a gem invented by yourselves?”
I thought I should find that all those ancient fabrics had not Her voice had gradually become more excited, untilit
I only vanished but been forgotten. I supposed (forgive me) assumed a tone o f reproach and scorn. I made a gesture, i
that after so many years men would have discovered stuffs much calmer one.
marvellous as the sun or the moon, and more voluptuous to “Callisto,” I answered, “you seem to me to attachtar®8
the touch than the skin of a virgin or of a fruit. But no; what much importance to the ornaments that women load them­
are your dresses made of? Wool, yam, and silk. . . Oh, I selves; with, and for which there is no excuse but thatot
know you have invented cotton goods, and you wrap up employing, in their difficult selection and meticulous
negroes in them, as you don't like the state in which those arrangement, a stagnant and idle existence. It is quit* o**
people walk about. I expect it is extremely moral of you. . . today, after ten thousand years of fruitless efforts by
Are you very fond of cotton? Are you proud of discovering nations, that a girl can never be made more beautiful y
it? Personally I cannot even bear to feel the thing under my art of the tailor, of the embroiderer, and of the
 I. js at the moment when she displays herself naked as the the signs o fa material substance which is not denied by any
I Gods created her. I have no doubt that the Greeks were o f our senses and which can mislead the most sceptical mind
I acquainted with that simple costume . . . " or even one simply forewarned against its improbability.
“Better than your people are.” I had been wondering for the last hour whether I were
"You did not invent it: you need not flatter yourself. I not being mystified by one o f the wilder o f my lady readers;
recognise that nowadays it is disguised even more badly than some foreigner, I thought, who is immodest and bold
when you were bom; but does the difference between bad enough to visit, at night, a bedroom to which she has not
and worse amount to much ? It is impossible to dress a been invited, no doubt wanting to make me forget the vulgar
woman. That is an axiom with which we cannot dispense. If intention that has brought her here in the contemplation o f
aesthetic truths could be demonstrated theoretically, the care that she has taken to dissemble it under a theatrical
Monsieur Poincare would have already proved costume. I had answered her in the way that she seemed her­
mathematically that it is useless to employ the human self to suggest, with the indulgent reserve, in conversation, o f
imagination in the quest for a solution o f this problem, one who through deference or curiosity is unwilling to tear
which is as certainly chimerical as the trisection o f angles. away too soon the veil o f a laboriously concocted and
For my part I do not worry m yself over a failure which is interesting comedy.
persistent because it is eternal; and I am content to admire a But as soon as she was naked, I understood that she had
woman in her primitive purity (which is also immutable), come to me from the depth o f the p a st__
with the antique emotion o f those who touched the body of I remember very well that the moment I was certain o f it I
Helen." began, if I did not finish, all the movements with which an
She looked at me more steadily, bending her head to­ invincible religious instinct inspired me. I held onto my
wards me, and said slowly: chair to prevent myself going on my knees, and I gazed at
“Are you sure, presumptuous one, that women have not her with bent head, with a feeling as though I were commit­
changed?” ting sacrilege, and that so miraculous a personage ought not
to be contemplated with eyes accustomed to behold living
n. women.
- Callisto was tall. The torso was spare and rounded, the
I do not know whether I actually saw, in my confusion, what waist high, the legs very long. Her limbs were articulated
she did immediately after uttering these words. with a fragile nicety which enchanted me; and one could
How she took off her rings, slipped down four bracelets, conjecture, even under the muscularity of her thighs, the
unfastened her necklace, and let her robes fell at the same dainty bones. Every hair had been plucked from her skin,
time as her heavy hair, I really could not say. It was all so but it was spotless, innocent of rouge, and shone as if just
rapid and so dazzling that the recollection of it in my mind bathed, having a uniform light brown tint, almost black at
is that ofa burst of splendour full of shadows. the nipples, at the elongated borders of the eyelids, and in
Up till that moment I had not believed with conviction in the short line denoting the organ of sex. I am really unable
the reality of my adventure. Apparitions, which were long to explain why her beauty could not have been produced
supposed to be supernatural, and which are now with less either in this climate or even in this age, for the evidence of
reluctance considered as obeying certain profound and it did not arise from the appearance of any particular detail,
mysterious natural laws, exhibit themselves sometimes with but simply from a harmony and perhaps from a kind of
 brightness about her. In order to assert a difference between lecture.
her and the women o f my own epoch, I was compelled to "A thousand years before my beauty existed, men coupfej ’
rely, without any other proof, upon my personal with women in practically the same way as goats did with J
discernment, just as a collector distinguishes the genuine their mates. You have read Homer? Neither Argos nor Troy ■
from the counterfeit without sometimes being able to show knew any other pleasure except that of the simple and brutal
that he depends upon any special feature for die act which satisfied the animals. Briseis was ignorant even of
establishment o f his conviction. the kiss upon the mouth. Andromache never proffered her
As i f to place herself within my reach she lay down upon breast to other lips than those o f her new born babe. Never
a couch. upon the flesh o f Helen’s sides did an open and nimble palm
"Y ou might at least have been able to perfect the female arouse the thrill which is bom o f the caress of a human
form,” she began again, with a smile. "And yet, as you see, being.”
the races o f mankind have degenerated. W hy do your She closed her eyes.
physicians, who are contemptuous o f ours, allow your mis­ “And then, suddenly, in one day, the ancient East, whereI
tresses, today, to be less beautiful than my sisters? The earth was born, took from the Gods, like a fire that can never
on which we live has not been swallowed up. The river grow old, the only gift which distinguished them from the
Orontes still flows from the depths o f the cedar wooded other inhabitants o f the earth: they invented voluptuousness.
m ountains. Smyrna survives. Sparta is dead, but Athens has “O days o f flowing sap! Youth o f the world! For the first
been brought back to life. O vainglorious and sickly age, time the lips o f a man and a woman abandoned the savours
w hy dost thou substitute for the women o f Ionian stock the o f fruits for those o f each other. The great burning soul of
mongrel Levantine, and why hast thou not created choice Aphrodite inspired the bodies o f lovers, and each day anew
breeds o f women as thou createst families o f roses ? Thou pleasure— a new pleasure, do you hear?— came down from
canst not. Thine experiment is that o f a child. Ours was that blue Olympus into the wide beds filled with their
o f the Gods.” enamoured cries. An unbridled intoxication ruled: from
As she talked— for I was scarcely in a state o f mind to Babylon to M ount Eryx every perfume, every silken fabric,
argue with her— a terror such as one hardly ever knows every flower, every art, and every woman joined the
except in some fit o f cold shudders, when one is half asleep, triumphal procession which entered upon the discovery of
^co n stricted m y temples. I trembled lest she should suddenly delight. Girls who were at last liberated from a hereditary
H tenish, like something fluid, so m e empty flash o f light, and I barbarism became conscious o f their senses and their desires,
w vondered whether it were only my sight that could have the opened their nostrils to the rose, and their entrancing bodies
W illusion o f her b od ily presence; whether I could, by placing to human mouths. For centuries the treasure of sensualities
f the end o f my finger on the tender skin of one of her lips, grew. In my tim e at A ntioch and at Alexandria women were
touch her. still adding to its riches. I, I myself, Callisto, daughter of
"Come along!" said she, laughing. "I am not a ghost Give Lamia, invented this . .
me your hand.” But I had started away from her.
And, arching her loins on the couch, she drew my arm She laughed.
round her body, which rested, with a voluptuous weight, "Now I’ve frightened you! W ell, suppose you tell
upon my fingers. .3 something; come! While I was asleep in the grave forPfft
Then, with unflagging pertinacity, she resumed her teen hundred years, what unknown delight has been yout

T H E B O O K OF MASKS
 Epconquest ? I asked you just now to tell me o f a new pearl. m.
P tV v I k]oWj am asking you to tell me o f some way o f making love
I that I have not experienced. Doubtless, after all this time, Whatever may be the feelings of curiosity which the women
tm I some quite new kinds o f enjoyment must have been made who will read this fragment of recollections may experience,
x ,4
K\1 I ^own. I await your invitation to partake o f them.” I shall not continue further with the description of what

Kxj
She was firmly entrenched in the ironical positions she followed; first, because I have already written, on the
I had taken up, and I could well believe that in her long evidence which I took from Callisto, a whole book with the

y ■ nocturnal wanderings about the city she must have tried in

I vain to complete her education; and so I made no effort in
f that impracticable direction. I merely said:
tide of Aphroditr, and, secondly, because a certain modesty
would still perhaps prevent me from communicating in the
first person the details o f a night which was immoderately
K “You must be patient. W e began by forgetting every- exciting.
I thing, you see. Now we are making the old discoveries Callisto rose about midday. She drew my attention
| afresh. The process is called the history o f modem quiedy to the facts that the sun had already risen, and that
Havilisation. A few years after your death the world was we had to blame a perfect lighting system for not having

Kv
h v
■ involved in unprecedented calamities which might have
B. proved irreparable. What happened was, first of all the birth
| and the singular fate of a religion which, at its origin, was
observed it. •
“You do away with Night, you no longer know Dawn,”
said she in a melancholy tone. “Once, the gleaming pageant
K morally admirable; but when it became distorted, it sterilised o f sunrise was the reward o f long and exhausting vigils. But
i the effort which had been made by your race and sowed salt now you pass all your lives in a light without variations, and
on the ruins of Athens. Next came the inroads of the you no longer know, even, how to look upon the Dark.”
barbarians; when the flood had rotted the wood of the I became anxious.
. vessel, the rats entered into it and gnawed it to pieces. That “M id d ay!. . But you told me that, for you, life was
state of affairs lasted until the dawn of a new day when men limited to the hours o f the night. H ow am I able to keep you
saw arising from the* East, like a ray of early morning light, here still?"
the books which had been saved from the wreck and were “That is a matter o f private arrangement between m yself
being brought back from Constantinople. We took a and Persephone,” she replied, with a peculiar smile. “L et us
■hundred years to read them. Since the study of them began, talk. I have not yet finished reviling your epoch.”
life has gone on for barely three centuries. But time is on our I was a litde tired and, at the same time, nervous. “No
side, perhaps. Give us time, Callisto." more of that, I beg of you,” I said. “Let us speak of our­
■ She smiled mockingly!® selves, shall we not ? Let us abandon the world, whether it is
“Will you find,” she answered, “the tradition of better or worse than it was . . . You are all that interests
KRhodopis in the byways o f your museums ? Have your me.”
prcheologists, who understand so well the politics of Pericles “In that case, listen. You are not convinced. I shall
and the strategy of Alexander, re-established the science of continue until you confess. Really, I am returning very vexed
’Aspasia and of Thais? Are they sure that the tomb where the from my second voyage on earth. I ought to have stayed in
delicate dust of Phryne lies at rest does not hide for ever the the grave with the dream of a purer age, in which I grew up
secret of a lost delight ? I still possess that tradition. Would surrounded by delights. I feel the need of telling someone
'&KA you like to know it ? I surrender it to yo u . . . ” what deceptions I have undergone in the course of my
m4
journey, and how angry I am with your century on account "Your thought, like your art, is a parasite uponoujH
o f all the surprises which it has not given me. I tell you, the corpses. It was not Descartes, it was Parmenides, who said
world is a young man who promised well and who is in a fair that thought was identical with being. It was not Kant it
way to spoil his life.” was Parmenides, again, who said that thought was identical
“I don’t know . . . I think, all the same, that we have with its object. And in these two phrases the schools ofthe
thought and created a great deal since your death. The present day are completely contained; they will never get rid
century in which we live is not so very contemptible.” of them. In all the directions in which your science becomes
“It is! By reason, to some extent, of its impotence, but still general—that is to say, philosophical—it rests, even today,
more on account of its complacency. No! You are neither upon the foundations which we laid. Euclid's masters settled
thinkers nor creators! You are Phoenicians, clever at once and for all the unalterable relations of line. Archimedes
reproducing models invented by my race, but you do not employed the integral calculus long before your Leibnitz,
find them anywhere but in our civilisation, and you only who is also indebted to us for his metaphysics. Instead of
exist in our shadow.” meditating on the fall o f the apple, your revered Newton
She gesticulated. might have confined himself to reading a page of our
“W alk through the streets of Paris. On every side our Aristode, in which his theory of universal gravitation had
eternal soul breaks forth in the facades of monuments, in the been set out two thousand years before. On the subject of
capitals of columns> and in the aspect of statues. After the the constitution of matter, which is the problem of God,
construction, during the course of a barbarous and paltry Democritus knew as much as Lord Kelvin; his hypothesis is
Middle Age, of some wretched buildings which are already still the only one admitted. Finally, at this moment, when
in decay (thank goodness!) you, the men of modem times, you are on the point o f achieving the concept of a universal
being incapable of creation, returned to our ruins; for the and central science, whose law would suffice to explainthe
last four hundred years you have been making mosaics of entire collection of phenomena— what is this science, and
stone with the fragments of our temples. One column dis­ what is this law ? They are those definitively expressed, two
covered in Sicily begot two thousand churches and as many thousand four hundred years ago, by Heraclitus. Fire be­
|railway stations. You cannot even give a new architectural comes movement, movement becomes fire, and there you
[form to new requirements. You make, with the brass of your have the world. In two thousand years you have discovered
[cannon, yet another copy of Trajan’s column, and you erect neither—”
concert halls in the style of the Corinthians. In succession to W e have discovered America,” I interrupted patiently.
ourselves, sculptors of marble and founders of casts of “That is not true!”
bronze, you discovered nothing, not a single natural stone, “Callisto, don’t talk nonsense.”
not a single chemical alloy, which was better suited to “I repeat and I maintain that America was discovered by
reproduce the human form. And the solitary great sculptor Aristotle, and that this is not a paradoxical thesis but an
you have had only became what he was because people dis­ historical and obvious fact. Aristotle knew that the earth was
covered underground a torso by Apollonius, a headless, round, and (as you can read in his works) he had advisedtk
armless, and legless wreck; a piteous ruin, but a created exploration o f the way to the Indies in a westerly direction,
work, that—a creating work. Schoolboys!” beyond the pillars o f Heracles. Columbus took up the
She took two books from a shelf and threw them on the project again. But it has always been considered that the
carpet.
glory o f a discovery redounds to the credit of the brain

T H E B O O K OF MASKS
 ■ ^ c h conceives it, and not to that o f the labourer who gives cut off from my cigarettes for the same period.”
B it practical effect. W hen Leverrier discovered Neptune— ” You exaggerate.”
"Good,” said I, in the last stages o f lassitude. “A t least “H ardly”
K you agree to that; we did discover Neptune." She became thoughtful. b
“And suppose you did! Discover Neptune! You are an “W ell! Give me a cigarette.” »*==
H amazing person! Since yesterday I have been begging you to I was offering you one.”
B tell me of a new pleasure, a conquest on the road to “Light it. W hat do you do? Inhale?”
■ happiness, a victory over tears. And you tell me you have "Girls puff at them; but that is not the best way. It is
■ discovered Neptune! I return to life after twenty centuries, better to inhale, as a matter o f fact. Take a whiff. Close your
■ anxious about everything, jealous o f the marvels that I eyes. Now another. . . ”
1 supposed to have been invented; wondering whether I shall In a few minutes Callisto had reduced her little tw ist o f
I not have to weep all through m y ghostly eternity for too oriental leaf to ashes. She threw away the half-finished stub,
B early an arrival in the world; and you tell me you have dis- where the paint o f her lips had left a reddish stain.
■ covered Neptune! A pleasure! A pleasure! O f the mind, of A silence ensued.
B the senses, what do I care! Am I to descend to the Elysian She even avoided looking at me. She had taken the square
I plains again without taking w ith me the thrill o f a new packet in her hand, which shook a little, I thought, as
I sensation?” though she were agitated by a faint emotion, and after she
She stretched out her hands . . . then added abruptly: had examined each of its four sides, she did not, I observed,
| “Besides, it was Pythagoras who discovered Neptune.” . return it to me.
I collapsed. I had abandoned the struggle. W ith slow movements and with the care one uses in
"Will you have a cigarette?” I asked. handling very precious articles, she placed it near the ash­
I "What?” tray on the edge of a brightly coloured divan, and disposed
| “I say, will you have a cigarette? O f course, I know, . her tawny person at full length beside it.
■[cigarettes too come from Greece, for it was Aristotle — Translated by Jam a Cleugh.
■who—
I “No. I won't go so far as that. I confess that we were
jpgnorant of that silly habit, which consists in filling one’s
mouth with the smoke of burning leaves. But I suppose you
i don’t mean to offer me that pastime as a pleasure?”
I "Who knows? Have you tried it?”
I “Never! Why, are you one of the practitioners of that
Ridiculous business?”
ft "Sixty times a day. It is actually the only regular
|occupation with which I have agreed to burden my
fttistence." J
I "And you like it?”
I really believe that I should be content not to touch a
; woman s hand for positively a whole week, rather than be
 Some Advice At the museum
From The It’s best not to ask the curator why the hermaphrodite has both
Young Girl’s bollocks and breasts. This sort of enquiry falls outside his field of
Handbook expertise.
O f Good
Manners In the pantry
Never tell the undercook to go screw a cooked chicken up the arse
unless you have personally made sure he is not suffering from a venereal
disease.

At the ball
A hard and fast rule: never grab the prick of your dancing partner unless
he already has a hard-on for you. A quick glance at his trousers will
prevent you from committing this embarrassing solecism.

Going visiting
Should some modest lady happen to mention: "My son doesn’t work
half so hard as your brother does” the correct response is not: “Justso,
but never mind: he fucks twice as well.” Panegyrics of this sort find
little favour among Christian mothers, however sincerely intended.

At church
If you fellate a gentleman before communion, be careful not to swallow
his come. Otherwise you will have broken your fast, which is strictly
against religious practice. (Except on Fridays: sperm, like milk, is not
classified b y the church as a meat product.)

At the opera
You really shouldn't ask why the handsome tenor doesn’t just get on
and screw the soprano who has been singing all night as if she were
sopping for him. They just don’t do that on stage.

Your mother’s lover

Should someone call by when your mother is engaged with her lover,
and you are asked to present her excuses with: “I'm afraid my mother is
indisposed”: be discreet. Thus, if the visitor continues: “I’m so sorry,
nothing serious I hope?” then “A prick up the arse” would be an
unnecessary elaboration on your part. — Translated by John Harman.
 Albert Samain s sincerity is admirable; I think that he
|would have been ashamed of variations on sensations
not explored through his own experience. Sincerity 4$
not mean candour here; neither does it mean gaucherie,
He is sincere, not because he acknowledges all his own
thoughts, but because he thinks all the thoughts that he
acknowledges; and he is simple because he has studied
his art even to its innermost secrets and has helped
Albert Samain (1858-1900). Samain’s himself to these secrets without effort and with an
habitual response to would-be biographers was:
"Ma vie ri’a pas d’histoire."—he was not really unconscious mastery.
exaggerating. Bom in the provinces, he became
a bank messenger at I4J4, attempts to break But this poet who loved only the nuance, the
into journalism failed and by 25 he had
progressed to clerk in the Ministry of
Education. He had some contact with the
Verlainian nuance, was able, at certain times, to bea
rowdier literary elements but, a profoundly
classical writer, he found the new theories
violent colourist or a vigorous carver of marble. This
"troubling." His considerable literary success
only began with the appearance of the Mercure de
;
other Samain, older but no less genuine, is a
France which published him in its review and in
book form
Parnassian Samain, but always personal, even in bis
Samain’s sentimental conception of the joys
of antiquity is very different from that of grandiloquence...
Louys! The present text is a severely edited
version of the original: between the first Such is this poet: powerfully delicious in the art oj
paragraph and the final section given here,
Hyalis falls in love with a mortal, Nyza. It is
taken from his posthumous collection Contes
making every bell and every soul vibrate in unison: 4
(1902). , souls are in love with this ((infanta in robes of state.
 AL B E RT S AMAI N

Hyalis The A little faun was bom out of the “Why are you here?” she asked him.
Blue-eyed union between a mortal and an “You know all things—don’t you know that?”
Faun Aegipan in the wind-thrashed “Of course I do. But Xylaos’ daughter Nyza suspects
(Extracts) forests of Mycalesia. His nothing.” . ,v;
peculiarities, legendary to this “Oh listen,” he cried, "have pity, explain to me this
day, clearly attested to the duality of his nature. He thing I’ve been stricken with; it’s like a desire no longer
lacked the awesome strength of the forest gods, but his to feel, or see, or even be myself... isn’t this the thing
delicate feelings were more unbridled than his animal men call ‘death’? O Ydragone, can you obtain this
formmight have suggested: a pelt less coarse and thick death for me?”
than the norm covered his flanks; his pointed ears and And he lifted a sorrowful face in which his eyes
fine nostrils trembled constantly at everything around shone like coals.
him; his gestures were spontaneous and carefree; when "In truth," she said, "that which you ask for is
he smiled his cheeks would slowly become hollow, and impossible, because you are ignoring the fact that the
the ingenuous look upon his face was ravishing at those blood of an Aegipan runs through your veins, and that
times; but what truly excited surprised delight were his is the immortal blood of a god.”
large, cerulean-coloured eyes, blue as the sea and the "But your philtres are so powerful!” the faun
sky, always in motion casting afar their sweet, murmured in a suppliant voice.
iastonished glances like that first star shining in the "Listen, your sorrow has moved me, and I wish very
East, before the sun has entirely set. much to try out the effect of my enchantments upon
you. But first you must bring me something to which
you are attached—that pet lamb of yours, for
example...” k
| As daylight spread over the brownish heather, and he Hyalis shuddered, and the litde beast licked gendy at
Watched the far-off, sombre sea catch fire with the sun, his fingers.
u dragone, the magician, tapped him on the shoulder, "You can have him.”
wdragone was famous among the Pythonesses. Her “Moreover, be aware that in order to attack your
-philtres could determine the path of the stars, divine essence, I must employ terrible poisons. Hyalis,
transmigrate the essences of metals, and cause the you will suffer horribly!”
shades themselves to do her bidding. “No matter. I’ll come to you tonight.”

I 69 ALBERT S A M A IN
 liquid bubbled. "But listen to me, hear me well, andfix 1
The lair of the Pythoness was situated in the heart of my words in your heart. When the cycle of the next
the mountains. moon is completed, on that same day, and at that very j
It was situated in the depths of a circle of hour of completion, you will die. Drink.”
monstrous-looking rocks, where poisonous trees were And Hyalis took the cup and emptied it.
reflected in dead water and the shadows looked as Immediately he fell backwards, emitting a terrifying cry. ;
though they had been there forever. Vipers writhed in It seemed to him that a fire arose and spread through
the black grass, twisted in knots, and hideous monsters his body, flowed in his veins, gnawed at his fibres,
came forth slowly from the pond and plashed in the attacked his bones. His limbs contracted, twisted, like
mud with a noise dry as scales, shaking their many dry twigs in a flame. He rolled about on the ground,
sharp claws. An odour of decay trailed through the air tearing off strips of flesh and tufts of hair with his
and the flames of the torches panted. fingers; and his suffering became so atrocious that
Hyalis arrived in the middle of the night. His face Ydragone herself grew pale.
was pale, but his eyes were determined and filled with Suddenly he stiffened, becoming immobile; then the
an unwonted light. magician sprinkled a few penetrating drops upon him.
As he went leaping across the grotto, a great bald- He reopened his eyes, breathing slowly; he rose^.
pated bird with a human face and a grey and rosy belly His soul shivered in all its senses, agitated by
shook two heavy and ponderous wings, and called out confused sentiments like a forest at dawn where the
his name three times. sleeping birds awake with myriad joyous cries.
Hyalis, already pale, became frightened and paused, He took some steps, groping his way; his hands met
shivering, but Ydragone appeared, leaving him no room the skin of the lamb, and he eagerly lifted its warm and
to retreat. curly wool to his lips. Then a strange sensation arose
"You see,” she said to him, displaying a bowl from from the depths of his being like an irresistible wave
which dense fumes issued forth, "IVe finished that comes from the open sea and rushes to break
preparing your philtre. Have you brought what I abruptly upon the shore. His chest swelled with sigh
demanded of you?” after weary sigh, and suddenly, from his blazing eyes, a
Hyalis, without responding, clutched his lamb. mysterious water spurted, falling in great drops upon
The magician took it, extended it upon a stone, its his sorrow like a refreshing rain upon the parched grass
head resting over the bowl, and raised a large knife. The of the prairies; and, filled with a delicious
lamb bleated softly and Hyalis covered his eyes. astonishment, he murmured:
Soon a strange mist diffused itself and the grotto “The gods know nothing of the pleasure of
turned completely red, the magnificent and terrible red weeping.”
of blood. From that day on, his existence modified itself in a
Now then, said Ydragone, and approaching the singular manner. Thoughts that had endured so long
faun, she presented him with a cup wherein a blackish no longer troubled him and his sorrows were less acu

THE B O O K O F MA S KS |7°
 t As a 111311standing on its bank can better admire a impassioned mixture, which he savoured with an
Beer's majestic course than one caught in its currents so inexpressible sorrow.
K fyalis, less narrowly drawn to the obscure lives o f the Meanwhile, the new moon had all but run its course,
I waters and the woods, embraced the forces and and the time assigned him by the magician had arrived.
I workings of the entire vast universe with a greater Like a man who is leaving on a long journey,
■amplitude, drawn from his contemplation o f the most assembling those things that he wishes to take, Hyalis
■profound impressions. passed the day in recalling to his memory his happiest
L Now the eternal rhythms of the world, the silent hours; he remembered his childish games, his
I course of the stars, the mobile and infinite sea, the conversations with Glaucus, the dryads, the vastness of
j silvery fires of the night succeeding the light of day, the the forest and the sea, and the most insignificant
<beauty scattered everywhere in creation, from the details, arising suddenly within his memory, touched
neighing of rearing stallions to the streamlined flight of him more than all the rest. He watched his last evening
the larks filled him with a ravishing confusion. falling upon the garden of Xylaos, upon the orchard
Further, Ydragone's poison, pursuing its certain which bordered a curtain of poplars with silver tips,
course, marshalled its forces slowly; and his soul, less upon a basin scaly and verdured where doves briefly
nourished by the energies of his blood, leaned with a touch down before flying off, upon the roof, upon the
secret sympathy toward all forms of life which he paths of fine sand where Nyza's footsteps lightly
perceived to be in decline. The agony of a slow pressed themselves.
twilight, the fatigue of a flower drooping between his Little by little these things became effaced; the last
fingers diffused through his finer sensibilities the most sounds of the day gradually passed away... night had
exquisite quiverings, and each day he fathomed with a come.
finer charm the moving mystery of life. The house beyond raised its pale facade and its
One evening he watched a funeral cortege from afar: colonnades connected by garlands of leaves. Hyalis
the pallor of the women beneath their long white veils, cleared the hedge and advanced within the darkness.
the dolorous brilliance of their eyes, the dismal The scents of the flowers, revived by a recent rain,
slowness of the funeral hymns, the sudden invitation to exhaled around him, pungendy.
embrace, so sweetly poignant as to be almost He bent down and recognised the rope with the
voluptuous; and he said to himself, pensively: wooden handles recendy left there by litde Callidice,
"The gods know nothing of the beauty of death.” and suddenly, he remembered the gendeness of the
Now, more than ever, he dreamed of the daughter of child, her gambols in the garden beneath the deftly
Xylaos, but his feelings had become transformed. He turning rope, and her noisy joy when Nyza also
knew that it was because of her that he had lost the consented to play, and their dance together, the bare
%ht but had gained the gift of inner illumination; and arms at her waist. This memory of bygone hours
Aus the regret at leaving the earth and the joy of touched his heart most deeply, and he silendy touched
suffering for Nyza formed in his heart a sad and to his lips the wooden handles polished by her

171 ALBERT SA M A IN
 charming hands. Being able to study so closely one whomhe
He had now reached the gates where the servants never before been able to approach made hishead
slept. He stopped, his arm resting upon a column, and with a sort of vertigo, and immense chasms inhjs 11
strained his neck in the darkness. His heart beat thought became evident, succeeded each otherwithin j
violently against his chest, and drops of sweat ran down him, as with the eyes of an eagle over a landscape^-
his torso and the small of his back. dominates in its flight.
He listened: turtledoves began to coo nearby, then He leaned forward again; a breath, feeble andpure, ^
fell silent,* the leaves of the garden moved with a long passed over his face and he shivered; it was thesleeping I
murmur. woman’s breath.
Then, mastering the hesitation that made his knees At regular intervals her white breasts rose andfell, I
shake, he cleared the doorstep and felt his way, groping and it seemed to Hyalis that now he was unitedwith I
toward a feeble light filtering from between the closed her, that he carried a bit of her divine soul pouredout I
hangings. into his own body, that the rhythm of his lifewasat
He parted the drapes and inclined his head. last in accord with that of his beloved.
This was Nyza’s room. A copper lamp in the shape Her exquisite mouth opened in the darkness likea I
of a bird spilled a pale light. At the back, upon a bed of fruit.
cedar inlaid with ivory strips, the virgin slept. Then, goaded by irresistible desire, he broughthis I
Hyalis came forward, watching her. In the presence lips to Nyza’s, as gently as he could, just enoughto
of this polished face, before those eyes sealed by sleep, a touch without waking her, with an almost immaterial I
supernatural emotion agitated him, and the room contact.
surrounding him filled with divinity. Then, trembling Then he remained thus, immobile and withclosedeyes. I
and pale, he leaned over this visage and studied it An infinite peace coursed through his limbs; atdie
carefully. A rosy and luminous blood in her veins same time it seemed to him that his heart grewlarge,
traced a bluish network upon the fine membrane of her becoming vast and splendid, blue as the firm am ent on I
temples; a delicate lock of hair, which trembled at her summer nights, where a thousand stars runninginall
slightest breath, caressed her cheek; imperceptible directions in golden curves decayed.
tremors passed over her immobile features, like those The hour had arrived; Ydragones poison struckhi®
ripples that a breath of summer spreads over the at the very source of his being. An icy cold envelop^
smooth surface of the waters; and, at times, the furtive him. Like an urn plunged into water, his soul filled
shadows of some sensation tugged at her lips, furrowed rapidly with the smothering darkness, he utteredaH
her brow and wrinkled the delicate nostrils of her nose. sigh, and his head, suspended over the virgin sbreath,
But what melted Hyalis* heart was the fringed slid poiselessly upon the pillow. .
shadow of the long lashes upon her cheek, and, behind Thus Hyalis of Mycalesia, the blue-eyed
the finely moulded ear, the amber border of her hair, of love.
her hair as fragrant and mysterious as a forest.

i
T H E B O O K OF MASK
 There was a rumour fro m Montmartre: something new was arising out of the
o f slangy and spicy monologists and fortune-tellers; someone,f o r thefirst time; ^
Jchan Rictus aka Gabriel Randon (1867- speaking, with an original and wayward abandon,f o r the Poor o f great cities, tk
1933). The circumstances of Randon’s bizarre Parisian tramp, the tatterdemalion in whom there remains something of the
illegitimate birth have been made almost
impossible to unravel by the author’s, and his Bohemian, the vagabond who has not lost all sentimentalism, the prowler in vdom
biographers’, myth-making. It resulted, there is a touch o f the poet, the unfortunate still capable o f irony, the outcast whose
however, in Randon being subjected to a totally
miserable childhood at the hands of a rage evaporates in bantering curses, whose rage recedes i f
tyrannical and sadistic mother. She coerced him
into excellence at school, but he ran away from
Hope gleams like a wisp o f straw in a stable,
home at 16 and began a life of utter
whose bitterness is no more than desire gone rancid; in short the man who would vrid
deprivation in Paris, living rough around the
markets of Les Hailes. Eventually his educational to live and whom the egoism o f the chosen casts eternally into outer darkness.
qualifications got him a menial government ...Rictus’s poor-man is certainly inclined towards anarchism. Since he is deprived
office job and he had the good fortune to meet
Albert .^main, who helped him materially and o f all material gratifications, great principles leave him cold. The Socialist in an
with publication. His existence was still overcoat and the Republican in afrock-coat inspire in him an identical contempt; ani
precarious and itinerant, even as he began to
make a small living out of journalism. He he can barely conceive how the poverty-stricken, smoothly deluded byfa t politicians,
specialised in pro-anarchist articles, can still listen without laughing to the shameful promise o f a happiness as illusory asit
interviewing several of the most famous
activists. It was partly his political stance that
isfuture.
caused him to change his name and abandon ...It is genuinely difficultfor me to accept the patois, the argot, the errors in speQrn^
Symbolism in 1895 to write chansons using
the elisions, everything that, offending against thefo r m o f the sentence or the word, of
popular language and argot. His most famous
collection Les Soliloques du pattvre ( 1896) drew on necessity impair its beauty. Or, i f I accept it, that would he by way of a jest now,art
his own experiences at society’s bottom He
does not jest, it is grave even when it laughs, even when it dances. One must still
successfully performed these songs in the
Montmartre cabarets for several years, using his understand that, in art, everything that is not necessary is pointless, and everything
extraordinary appearance (tall, cadaverous, a that is pointless is had.
poverty-stricken dandy) to great effect. Despite
the popularity of his poetry, especially among ...All this does not prevent me fr o m recognising the very individual talent of
poilus during the war, his work went out of Rictus. He has created a genre and a type. He has set out to raise the everyday sped
fashion and he led a penurious and fotgotten
existence thereafter, working on one immense o f the people to the level o f literary expression, and in this he has succeeded asfar u*
unfinished poem for the last 12 years of his possible; it is worth our while making af e w concessions and departing, although
life. Our extract is a chapter from his only
novel Fil-de-Fer ( 1907) an autobiographical him alone,from a rigour without which the French language, already ntuchfouted
account of his early life. and scorned, would become the servant o f mountebanks and buffoons.
 \\
V JEHAN RICTUS
i Achapter which w ill shine a vivid light on the ideas pro­
fessed hy La Marquise de Tirlapapan-Ribbon-Ribbette
In any event, he’dgo to the had.
No, no, not that, Lisette.
Iconcerning education: The Axiom. Tender-hearted stroke a nettle, And it stings you fo r your pains.
It was now or never.
m ■- Madame de Saint-Scolopendre* employs a favourite
L - 1 axiomthat is hers by right and which She constantly "Who’s blacked your eye?” she asks Fil-de-Fer
, x i inundates, in a majestic tone: imperiously one evening as, slipping in, he presents a
|k 1 visage streaked with a few scratches and with his right
N J ■ "Nobody other than myself has the right to beat my
kl jpiild!”
I She could, Fil-de-Fer soliloquises, she could add that
eye slighdy swollen
Fil, who had attempted, unsuccessfully, to hide the
visible traces of a fight, and who feared a comple­
1 She discharges this right on the general behalf, that She
■ acts, in a way, by delegation, and that, in the accom- mentary thump on the other eye, the one on familiar
terms with conjunctivitis, Fil blurts out:
M plishment of this task, none can replace her. "It was the butcher’s little apprentice, but it doesn't
She alone, too, possesses the correct method, She
MtU ^ alone knows the sensitive spots on the miserable matter,” he pleads, “I knocked two of his teeth out.”
I anatomy of her child and those that must be spared, “Ah! So that's it!” Madame de Saint-Scolopendre
seeing that these lkst have been hardened by a daily cries.
M tanning, already of long standing, which renders any (Fil is already resigning himself to receiving the other

III
P ^ | | chastisement illusory. shiner; for, in similar cases, this was his recompense:
It is thus a privilege of justice, high and low, that but no, She has another idea.)
Madame de Saint-Scolopendre, Marquise de “Ah! So that’s it! Come with me. We'll see about
that. Nobody other than myself has the right to beat
' ^ l Tirlapapan-Ribbon-Ribbette reserves to herself over my child.”
l i ^ f Fil, and She is determined that nobody* let this be well
understood, nobody shall deprive her of it! Well now! There she is, embarked upon the exercise
What would become of us, great God! if Somebody of her ordinary offices and prerogatives and, after all,
usurped Our Authority to correct him. not at all put out that the occasion should arise to win
Suppose, perhaps, that that other should strike not herself something of a reputation in the neighbour­
» ' jj hood.
quite as hard? There and then, the prestige She retains
m of that young human creature would vanish So, seizing Fil-de-Fer by the hand, she leads him
right away. unceremoniously to the butcher's.

,75 JEHAN RICTUS

 She arrives at the opportune moment, the shop is full this? Which of them would have beaten Fib Wk » i
of customers. The assistants are busy cutting, weighing, this about? ^
wrapping cutlets and escalopes; one of them, artisti­ But Madame de Saint-Scolopendre is providing!^
cally, with the point ofa knife, is trimming a dressed and less information.
brisket of beef; the butcher himself is boning a shoulder She paces about, threatens, gesticulates, fumes
of mutton and giving it a resounding slapping; the shop shakes her fist under the noses of each and all, two or
is packed with housewives, waiting or making their way three times gets her chignon caught in the legs of
to the cash-deslc “A pot-au-Jm, that'll be one franc mutton hanging from the ceiling (the line of which, Fil
seventy-five!’' reckons, resembles the backsides of children awaitinga
As for the little apprentice, the cause of the thrashing), repeats her celebrated axiom, makes as ifto
impending fracas, he has been sent on some errands. leave, returns, begins over again, gathers the passers-by
Irruption of Madame de Saint-Scolopendre, hanging together in a crowd, creates an enormous, unforgettabi
onto her captive son and bursting upon them suddenly, scandal, without anybody making a move, so spell­
like a cyclone. But at first they take her for a customer. bound is her audience.
“What would you like, Madame?'' —Death and At length, her breath and her rage exhausted, She
blood! goes off in triumph, taking Fil-de-Fer with her,
Madame explodes in ferocious yells—which are wretched and ashamed, wishing the earth would
incomprehensible, because She neglects to recount the swallow him up.
tale of the little apprentice. And, as they dispersed, the gawpers— who remem­
What She would like: that nobody other than myself beat my bered of the scene only the fateful apophthegm—the
child, is that understood? gawpers exclaimed:
The butcher, the butcher's assistants, the customers, “What a splendid mother!”
who are at a loss, stare at her, dumbfounded. What's — Translated by Iain Mto.

T H E B O O K OF MASKS
 At a time when small-minded plagiarists of the philoso
,
pher Seneca stockbrokers, people’s advocates, professors
retired on an inheritance, millionaires, ambassadors !
tenors, ministers and swindlers, when all the “republican
H ugues Rebell, aka George Grassal (1867-
royalty,” hypocritically glad to be alive, are moved with a
1905). A rather forgotten figure whose fierce tender concernfo r the (Clot of the humble, ” at the same time
character mightily impressed his contem­
poraries. A rich Breton semi-aristocrat, he as they place theirfoot upon their necks, in times like these}
spoke several languages, travelled extensively
and generally applied himself to exhausting his it is pleasant to hear somefrank words, and Hugues
fortune by indulging in a lifestyle dedicated to
satisfying his every appetite. He also worked Rebell speaks out: “I wish to enjoy the life that has been
obsessively at literature producing a substantial
body o f prose poems and novels of a more or given me, in complete accord with the whole of its richness
less lubricious nature.
Arthur Symons offers this portrait in his its beauty, itsfreedom, its elegance; I am an aristocrat...”
Memoirs: "His force was frantic, almost
elemental. An insensate thirst intoxicated him
with the desire to drink in all the perfumes and
Transported into works of imagination, the aristocrat -
all the madness and all the vice and vehemence ism of Hugues Rebell becomes vague, merges wilfully with
that exist upon the earth, together with a
frenzied appetite and an audacity which re­ moral licentiousness. One is rather disconcerted....
minded me when I saw him now o f Nero, now
o f Caligula, they gave to the man himself an This writer is liable to surprise us in more than one
exasperation which showed at least the atrocity
o f his nerves. He was one of those to whom way with all he has in him by way of freedom of spirit, oj
love and hate were interchangeable words... He
was an absolute type o f Abnormality." daringflights of imagination. But even now his originality
Unluckily for Rebell his fortune was
exhausted before his life, he was rescued from is visible and incontestable: he is one who prefers the silkffl
starvation more than once by his friends, in
particular Barr£s, but died literally in a gutter in mantle to the cotton shawl, the purple carpet to the socials
the Marais, then a particularly loathsome slum
quarter of Paris. straw-matting, beauty to virtue, the splendour of the
The two texts here are from Dizzy Spells
(1888). naked Venus to the <(m ournful eyes of pale Virginity .
 h u g u es rebell

£ , Surprises Head leaned upon the upholstery of the

tenderly merciful that drops of my blood dripped onto

11
m
p carriage and bathed in light, my soul
scattered amid things by the wild flight of the train, a
kaleidoscope that unwinds moires of fairy castles,
the carpet I then genuflected before her beauty and
grace: "My pretty litde black cat, barely a year old, and
you already know that great maxim of our deepest

■ landscapes upon landscapes; the sweet hesitation of my

dreams against the white smoke, sylph-filled, folding in
human wisdom—give a slashing for a kindness; return
evil for good!”
n ' onitself, brushing up against the sun, and vanishing in
the immensity of a close-cropped plain; a stream lost
h i4 amid the great mysterious forest to the horizon with its
'ofilsJ soaring white wings; and, very far away, my heart raises
its chalice toward the royal triumph of the violet
Always look for a woman beneath everything! setting
great store by complementary arrangement and familiar
Mfistay archipelagos which swim upon a golden sky with the art of dressing well, he wished himself to select
balancing—like an enormous lamp— a bleeding for his well-beloved mistress the black silk bodice,
w ii October sun; but all at once, the locomotive comes to narrow and low, which allowed her to bare her breasts;
anabrupt stop, collision o f carriages, one against the then he slipped in three real camellias which seemed to
U jj
other, in front of a brick pavilion, and above it all the surge up as a laughing blossoming of flesh; lasdy he
pij blissfully ribald laughter o f red faces with brown rolled her blonde hair into twists and sprinkled over it

■ moustaches, indifferent to the pale beauties strewn

about in the glory of a too divinely vaporous evening,
as if accidentally, tiny rose-buds; and then backed away
to appraise reflected in the parquet floor the feet
consecrating their nullity with sparks of gold and sweedy shod in white satin, the tight silk of the blouse,
W§
flames. the smooth and supple throat on which the light played
|| with a softness of moonlight, when, about to raise his
eyes from the shoulders of his beloved, he exclaimed, as

0 My pretty litde black cat, when I had given her a

though speaking to himself: "Truly, the costume goes
far on this charming body, but fails, alas, to distract

I Vagrant biscuit, in the guise o f thanking me, sprang

onto my hand, securing herself with steely claws so
from the ugly face!"

■ 179 HUGUES RESELL

 ? The child, always against his milestone, continu Fa
moan indistinctly. Confronted with this spectade Ale*
A little lad in yellow rags beneath a rain that rattles the delightful to a contemplative soul, I think about piaf
gutters, and makes the red bricks, the worn doorsteps, beautiful nuptials, snow-white and sunny, of rosy stafl<
the doors without paint on the old houses with long figures beneath white veils, caresses which this mouth
roofs, shine. In the grey sky, the great chimneys of the stinking from wine and growling had been the objectof roari
factories spit billows of black smoke which the wind in a wedding bed. I think too on the thousands of hystt
sways, tears and scatters on every side. Beneath an similar creatures who fill up the earth with their filth, ChaJ
accumulation of filth, bones, shoes without soles, and their howls, and their ugliness, endlessly drawing from Bi
gnawed-at rubbish, stagnant streams exhale putrid their obese stomachs miscarried beings, horrible and opcr
miasmas into the narrow streets. idiotic; and then I think back, with a beatific smile to Irme
The child remains motionless, his back set against a those lovable amateurs o f philosophy who, reclining amic
milestone, arms dangling, the fingers raw, with pinched upon soft divans, and inhaling the aroma of their tea, adva
lines and a face which looks like the legs of a lady crab remark, in blessing the name o f God: "Infinitely good whic
from his beatings. He pushes on with plaintive cries, and powerful Lord, everything is perfect in this, the whei
the same note prolonged for a long time, which he best of all possible worlds." *sta
repeats, rising and falling an octave, as if his voice now A
loses its vigour, now acquires new force. thro
What's he doing there? From a low door giving S
access to a descending stairway, there appears, as if M y room! No ugly room furnished with bookcases and
whc
from a trap, a woman of uncertain age, olive-skinned, covered in dust! Your tables and chairs, however banal fort
her black mop of hair poorly imprisoned in a grimy in carving and design, are as precious to me as the altar
pto
hairnet, which allows a few short locks entangled with and the sacred vessels are to a priest, because they assist SOU
white hairs, to escape from two large tears. From her in the cultic ceremonies, with different mysteries but
Nc
darned and greenish slip slender waxy legs emerge, just with the will of a holy spirit, that I celebrate in a
in-
like spider legs, plunging into sabots without laces; and triumphal fete. Simply: with the blinds of the windows
int
her hands, riddled by warts, sticky as if with tar, are lowered, I have attempted in a moment—rare
raised with menace and promises of chastisement in the magician— to efface the ugliness of ambient things; and f
direction of the motionless kid. Her yellow creased I bid the occult world arise. to
throat, overspread with hideous knobs which in­ Sesame— open up! Rushing to the fore, foul and
decently overhang a blue and green striped are the grotesque bourgeoisie of Zola and Balzac, wearing
handkerchief, emits a voice hoarse from drinking their stupidity like a crown,” winking as if to say:
brandy; "Hark runt, I’ve a mind t' kick yer arse!" Aren’t I a pretty booby?"

180
THE BOOK O F MAS KS 1
 1 Falstaff* gets stewed in the company of Coupeau, Night Night. All alone by the fire which flares up
Alcestis drinks with Timon, Homais embraces Thomas momentarily, I am seated in an old armchair
^^■piafoirus and M. Prud’homme, gigantic, upholds the where my grandfather used to sit, and my lamp traces a
IB1 standard of theory. luminous circle upon the ceiling. Alarming, this miserly
Avaunt] Driving out these ignoble monsters, with the brightness that reserves for itself so small a portion of
■ roaring of the damned, flamboyantly red, twisting in space; and the shadow-filled draperies that have seen so
Hhysterical convulsions, it’s the diaboliques—Barbey* and much grief and joy* in passing, seem to shudder at the
B Charles Baudelaire. Oh hell! gloomy sniggering of spectres.
4 But the cymbals ring out, the indigo of Oriental skies Silence, the silence of an empty house causes me
opens up and the shining backdrops of Baghdad and anguish. For the doors must surely swing open, and
yMi lrmensul unroll, strewn with roses from Ispahan, and faces will appear; but whose? Doubtless yellow, bony
amid the standards, bugles and lances, a chariot ones, exuding the rot of the tomb, gnawed at by
advances pulled by caryatids with human hands, to hideous worms, the, faces of those whom I once loved
which unicorns are harnessed, the rolling chariot and those I think about in my waking hours.
wherein Herodias, the Queen of Sheba and Akedysseril Right next to my own, the room in which my
* stand wracked in a luxurious embrace. mother died; above it, that from which they bore my
A cry (is it human?) boring into the azure, pierces sister, a few days before her final agony. I look to my
through the banality o fa popular refrain. right, to my left, and above me; and the alcove, the
Sinister collapse, fading away of the dear phantoms piled-up books, the big armoire all appear from their
who are my joy—back to my chamber in your vulgar shadows; stars with the eyes of ghosts are fixed upon
forms! Hell! Yes! You, loafer who execrates the silence me. Then, in fear, I rise to bolt the door, because I
^propitious to spiritual flights, and you, music-hall sense that someone is prowling in the corridor; and that
songbird, who contribute to the propagation of pale shadow passing the window—whose face was that,
Nonsense, shouldn't the two of you really be whipped which vanished before my eyes?
in some public place for making a criminal attack upon Poor leeches! How is it.that you ate forgotten except
intelligence? At any event it's only wise to forbid the when you come to terrorise us in visions?
entryways of the streets to these shameless clamourers, Fear now seizes me; in this solitude I have the
these sacrilegious violators o f that most sacred of sensation of being brushed by the wings of a malefic
temples, THE DREAM! angel, and stalked by assassins with knives; panic makes
me throw the door open once more, I leave the house
that is making me shiver and feel so bad tonight. On
the frozen streets I wander through the sleeping city,
beneath a street light whose shade—monstrous
 beast— crawls toward me when its sinister flame half-light, in its midst the triumphant whiteness oftk
vacillates with each gust. bed spreads itself out.
Mister, Mister wait” the voices implored. — No M y companion has guessed at my weary
not tonight, girls; I don’t want to think any more concupiscence; and, as soon as I plunk down my g0[j
tonight, and the sight of you distresses me. Instead I’ll she commences with real joy to strip off each piece of
make tracks for the house of a certain rich courtesan costume, piece by piece, in a moving wave of perfume,
whose luxury and beauty creates pleasure from distress. I felt as though I’d soon have become bored, were it
I hope she will be beautiful, as beautiful as Leconte de not for the knowing coquettishness of her apparel; the
Lisle’s Leila, or Salome, or Flaubert’s queen of Sheba; woman diminished in direct proportion to the progress
above all I hope she’ll have a face that’s dream-like and o f her unveiling; all but dropping away with the lace-
filled with mystery—such as Baudelaire used to work o f her expensive cambric slip.
attribute to his exotic lovers, and Poe to his divine And yet, she is beautiful, as the veiled lamplight from
creations— Berenice, Ligeia, Eleonor! a rosy globe brushes against her smooth white skin:
Because I have been trying fo r hours to forget, and bluish reflections flow through her abundant ebony
more than anything else, I must loose m yself in ecstasy. hair, and her nostrils have contracted with pleasure...
W hen I was a child, I used to seek out the caresses of But I search her look— even upon the blood-red lips of
my sister, I used to love her words, so sweet, and all this stranger— for the mystery I have loved, for that
those sexless kisses, confidences passed between souls; woman-beyond-women all men dream of—and I
but now, desperate fo r any tenderness, I have come haven't found her here. T his one has nothing, nothing
here, drawn to a unique beauty. for all her airs; she is as banal as her surroundings, her
luxury is a parvenu’s delight. H er gimcrack furniture
apes the antique, her Japanese vases are strictly
imitation, and her bronzes are either grossly lascivious
After that vulgar prelude, I am here, restored by the or else stupidly sentimental.
odour of opopanax permeating the silken hangings of And now, as she wallows upon the bed, awaiting my
the salon and by the exquisitely vivacious face of my embrace, I calculate how soon I’ll be able to leave her,
hostess, a desire is bom within my soul, to see when m be far from this woman who speaks nothing
completely naked the body now buried in clothing. I to my imagination. It's a strange joy that condemns
want to undo long black hair and see what strange itself to such repugnant embarrassments as these! But
voluptuousness gleams in her pupils: and my eyes glide then it's the torture of these women to have to suffer
to her room where we may recline, plunged in a restless either forceful violation or Almighty Hunger.

THE BOOK OF MASKS

 Jean Lorrain (1855-1906). Bom into wealth,
He began as a painter, then turned journalist There must be things that areforbidden and things that are permitted, otherwise those
and man-of-letters. As a novelist and short-
hesitant or slothful in their inclinations would halt at thefirst vine~arbour, lie down
story writer he oscillated between the Natu­
ralist and Decadent camps, his most famous on thefirst lawn they encountered. It is perhaps social morality that has created crime,
decadent novel being Monsieur de Pbocas (1901). and sexual morality pleasure. That a pasha should be virtuous in the midst of three
A dandy, society lion, overt homosexual, ether-
drinker; as a satirical journalist his pen was
hundred women! I have always thought that the destruction o f Sodom was a volun­
much feared and highly profitable. Always in tary immolation, the suicide (fa people weary o f always seeing desire implacably
the public eye, he had a scandalous and success­ ripening in the tedious orchard o f voluptuousness.
ful literary career until sued for defamation by
the artist Jeanne Jacquemain who recognised From this etemalfruit, Jean Lorrain, rather than devouring it whole, has manu­
herself in one of his novels: the court seized the factured syrups, jellies, cranes,fondants, but blended in his pastry, I know not what
opportunity to bring low one who had showed
so little respect for society's proprieties, its unknown ginger, what unfamiliar saffron, what mysterious clove, which transforms
vengeance took the form of punitive damages.. this amorous sweetmeat into an ironic and heady elixir.
The last ten years of his life were dominated by
It seems to me that the masterpiecefrom that laboratory is Lorrain’s little volume
financial problems and failing health.
The nature of Lorrain’s provocations are Dans TOratoire: never did a work go farther in the meticulous dosage of sugar and
exemplified by the preface to a later work cayenne pepper, (frose-petaljam and red pepper. Another |dish o f spices”* more
which bore this splendid dedication:
authentic and less innocent, it seems to be out o f the pocket o f one o f those damned
To human hypocrisy and cowardice: to the rapacity of the
honest and the honesty of the self-made, to the self- abbes capable o f drinking sacramental winefrom their mistress’s slipper; a poisonous
appointed defenders of virtue, to the upholders of marriage
and the other pimps who earn their rentfrom prostitution
and smiling book, a deceptive breviary in which every vice has its rubric and its
and morals, to the redressers of wrong and the seducers of antiphony, and which draws its <(lessons”from the martyrology o f Lesbos....
the innocent, to the matrons whose seclusion has remade
their virginity, to thou ranting detractors of the vices they Bom in art, Monsieur Lorrain has never ceased to love his native land and pay it
have lmown only too well; I dedicate thesepages of melan- frequent visits. I f he has a weaknessf o r the hussy,f o r excursions into the shady side of
w chofy and dissolution—a dissolution of whosefrightful
^^^^nguish and incurable tedium they lmow nothing—in the Parisian life,for elegant putrefaction, the world o f |the obol, the plait and the wash-
^Birm expectation of, andflattered in advance hy, the
stand/’ the ravages o f which a Greek rhetorician (Demetrius ofPhaleron) has already

r
^jndignant cries which will rise up in their throats at this
fheart-rending chronicle of a slow and appalling chronicled in literature, i f he has, more than any other, and with more talent than
destruction of the human spirit.
Dom Reneus, propagated the cult o f Saint Mucosa, if (in an undertone) he has sung
what he modestly calls %izarre loves,” it was at least in a language which, being of
TO THE CHEATMEN OF MY TIME I DEDICATE THIS
COMPASSIONATE WORK. good breeding, smilingly endured hisfamiliarities o f a recondite Oratorian; and if
Despite de Gourmont's eulogy to Dans certain o f his works are comparable to those startlingly blonde women who cannot
I'Oratoire, we have not used anything from this
raise their arms without exuding an odour injurious to virtue, there are others whose
book of critical essays, which contain too many
contemporary references, his comments apply scents are only those o f fin e literature and pure art; his tastef o r beauty has triumphed
to the entirety of Lorrain's output however.
over his tastef o r depravity.
This text is taken from Tales of an Ether-Drinker
(1900).
184
THE B O O K O F MASKS
 JEAN lorrain

Xhe Gloved It was fairly late at night, after a accompanied by vaguely disquieting glances and auto­
f l and bachelors' dinner-party. While putting matic gestures.
2»> away a good many goblets of sherry- “As far as I'm concerned," Sargine declared, “after
1soda, whisky soda and other American beverages, the eleven in the summer and nine in the winter, I can't hire
| talkers, some lolling on divans, others sitting on their a fiacre—a fiacre or voiture de cycle. I live on the Avenue
I haunches, propped up on piled masses of cushions, had de Wagram, near the Place Pereire. Without being all
slipped from politics and passing events, from the that far, it's not very close to the centre; to go home I
theatre and women, to the mishaps of morphine and unavoidably have to pass through some fairly desolate
ether; the case of Serge Allitof, obliged to quit Paris to quarters; in those parts, you’ll agree, on a foggy night in
escape from an obsession which, for him, made every November, there are some pretty sinister avenues;
human face seemingly take on animal features had for a leaving aside the Boulevard de Courcelles, there’s
good while afforded matter for the conversation and, nothing particularly amusing about the Boulevard de
from the monomania o f this unfortunate fellow, con­ Malsherbes—and as for the Rue Cardinet!... Well now,
strained to seek refuge in the M idi from a Paris let it be blowing or snowing, in the outer suburbs I
populated by men with the muzzles of wild beasts and prefer to make my way on foot, and I often have as
women with fowls* profiles, they had gone on to pass in much as fifty or sixty thousand francs about me. I'm
review all the nervous disorders cited, more or less, by well aware I have my revolver in my pocket, but a nasty
jfoctors Charcot and Lombroso; all, in most instances, encounter is a nasty encounter for all that, and a fiacre
psions of the brain giving rise to phenomena that are would cut all that short. But, there you are... Once I’m
sometimes curious; naturally they took into account the installed in that wretched coffin on wheels and the
factors of heredity and chance— the d elica cy of the cabby takes to the deserted streets, before you can say
mental organism is such that the most apparently trivial knife, I go odd in the noddle and an unshakable
incident may occasion the most serious troubles— and, conviction gets stuck in my head”—with his index
;ne personality of each in the end gaining the ascen­ finger he touched his forehead between the eyebrows
dancy in the general conversation, in fevered and — "one I’ve done everything to get shot of, and it’s not
%Hdy modified tones the eight men met there in the least pleasant, that idea, I’ll leave you to be the
ogether traded the most baroque confidences. It was a judge of that. No sooner am I trundling along through
usmayed exchange o f personal impressions of the the dark streets than I'm certain that the cabby is
errors of childhood, o f youth, and even o f yesterday, masked; and what sort of a mask is the cabby wearing?
A coloured mask, imitating human features, a false face,

85 J E AN L O R R A I N
 thefaulx visage o f the mercenaries of the sixteenth at one o'clock in the morning, on the Avenue de
century: and what I saw of his flesh under the confining Villars, behind the Invalides, and I having promised to
masses of his muffler and his collar becomes in my return to a ball to dance a cotillon with a friend’s wife
mind a face of wax or of cardboard screening the most Picture. It was freezing hard that night, fit to split the
abominable of schemes. Perched on that seat is a stones, and the moon stood clear, clear as day, in a sky
squalid footpad; thatfaulx visage is driving me, hell for traversed by inky clouds; I took this to be a nocturnal
leather, towards some horrible ambush. Only beyond attack and I pitched into the fellow.
the fortifications, in the sinister solitudes of "There you are; since then, I can't help it, it’s more
Aubervilliers and Saint Ouen will that nightmare fiacre than I can do to take a fiacre."
come to a halt, that accursed box on wheels whose To this de Martimpre countered:
cunningly contrived door resists all my efforts, that "A fiacre after midnight... there, beyond doubt, you
midnight hearse of which I can no more lower the have a state of mind that would definitely put a damper
sealed ventilator than force the concealed lock; and my on my evening excursions, I who live in Auteuil, and
hair stands on end, I’m running with sweat, choked am not inclined, on any pretext, to go home by rail; for
with horror, already in my imagination murdered, me that's something else entirely! It's in the first-class
robbed, battered about the head, left for dead, my carriage, the second-class carriage, the first carriage
brains spilling out in a pulp over the hard surface of the above all, that I go off my head and become literally
road. The fiacre stops, my worried cabby leaps down crazy in the bright lights. And the 12.40, the theatre
from his seat, opens the door: ‘You all right, guvnor? train, hadn't I taken it often enough, and loved and
Drop off then, did you?' I find myself in the street, at blessed it time and time again before my little
the door of my house, still shuddering from head to adventure of three years ago? Ah! Hadn't I many a time
foot; and I'm all too pleased to give the flabbergasted done as the inhabitants of Neuilly, Passy and
cabby a five-franc tip. Argenteuil do and thrown myself at 12.20 into a fiacre
"So now you know why I go home oh foot." so as to be in the booking-hall at 12.40, and at ten past
And, to a unanimous smile, in a toneless voice, one at the Boulevard Montmorency, at the end of the
Sargine went on: line of the last train! It's rather more reassuring, all in
"And all this is on account of having hired, one all, that half hour in the carriage, than sitting all alone
Mardi Gras evening, without noticing the fact, a cabby in a fiacre like a hearse, journeying across the equivocal
wearing a false nose, a poor inoffensive blighter who, to steppes of the Avenue de Versailles with its shady
celebrate the carnival, had adorned his boozers mug bargees' and tramps' dram-shops, with their shutters
with the traditional pasteboard accoutrement. There closed but the windows still gleaming at one or two in
was an accident; one of the harness traces broke; the the morning...
repair would take five minutes and he thought it his “Yes, it made my life a good deal simpler for at least
duty to warn me; I was half asleep. I opened my eyes, ten years, the suburbanites’ dearly-beloved western line:
and before me I saw that mask, that horrifying postiche... but then, three years ago, oh no! that was it! and it was

THE BOOK OF MASKS 186

 nolaughing matter! Nowadays I prefer to shiver, in the “I see were agreed. You grant me the spectral and
(fepths o f winter, in my furs, my feet benumbed on the truly horrible aspect of the lighting in our railway-
already frozen hot-water bottle of a night-time fiacre; carriages. Now I'll come to the point.
and I'm not an ether-addict like Allitof, nor am I an old "It was four years ago. I'd left the Theatre du Port
dotard like Sargine.” And the latter having bowed low Saint-Martin where I had been present at one of the
to indicate his gratitude, de Martimpre settled himself last performances of Cleopatre. Oh! the Botticellian
still more comfortably into his Hungarian-embroidered image Sarah evoked in those days, in her swathes of
armchair, crossed his legs, one over the other and, in his lame, fastened here and there with turquoise scarabs
habitual tone of unconcern continued: and Egyptian jewels. Never had her resemblance to the
"This is my litde adventure. Before I begin, you will Primavera of the famous Florentine fresco been so
ofcourse concede that there is nothing more preciously underlined and, despite my lack of any taste
unnerving—and I would go further and say for Sardou's drama, this was the tenth or eleventh time
macabre—than the lighting of the first-class carriages. I had seen it, drawn as I was by the unforgettable
"On the Western Line it's quite terrible; it has a plastic vision the great tragedienne presented.
brutality about it that emphasises every feature, and "If I stress which play it was that I had left, it is to
distorts them all. It combines something of the arc- make plain to you my state of mind that evening—in
lighting in the morgue and the diffused lighting of an no way gloomily inclined, very much to the contrary,
operating theatre. In it, every face is deathly pale; the seeing that a delicious artistic image still floated, almost
eyes are hollow and the eyelid s stand out in exaggerated living, before me. Thus it was that I climbed into a
relief, the nostrils are gorged with darkness and, in carriage that was almost at once filled-—on the last
those faces, become like death's-heads under the train the compartments fill up quickly—and we were
luminous discharge of the lamps, the mouths of the off. I had not so much as glanced at the seven
majority are like black chasms. Every little plane of the travelling-companions chance had thrust upon me. On
face's surface, the slightest prominence of bone or the theatre train there are always plenty of fur coats as
muscle, takes on a disquieting relief and, litde though far as the men are concerned and, as regards the
the travellers' faces lend themselves to it, without any women, not a few shimmering brocaded silk pelisses;
great effort of the imagination you might easily imagine the public, decked out in white ties, begloved and be­
yourselfin a hospital waiting-room in the company of jewelled, is elegant enough—indeed positively
the sick, people in a thoroughly bad way; of stiffs, if varnished; and so I paid them no more attention than at
you prefer, laid out in a dissecting-room.” any other time; we went on our way and, at every
"Charming, your prayer for the dying,” one of those station, couples alighted, and the compartment
present remarked, "but a bit on the long side.” De emptied.
Martimpre smiled complaisantly, uncrossed the right At Trocadero I thought that I was alone; then I saw
leg he had placed over the left and, having resumed the that, almost facing me, there was another traveller,
wme position in a reverse direction: dozing on the movable central seat: short, his shoulders
 hunched almost to his ears, the man sleeping there whites were staring at me; the man had thrust his hand
under the brutal light o f the lamp was of a terrifying into his pocket and, both his arms buried to the elbows
ugliness; a huge, pear-shaped head, broader at the base in the depths of his overcoat, motionless, without
than at the apex, a prognathous face with enormous uttering a word, he scanned me searchingly with his
jawbones, its narrow forehead overgrown with shiny, glassy eyes—and I saw then that he was asleep.
greasy black hair; olive-coloured features, with "Those were five minutes of unforgettable anguish.
drooping eyelids, heavy and puffy, the nose short and Oh/ that tete-a-tete with that strange somnambulist in the
abrupt, with, in his greenish pallor, the tumid cushions silence and amid the jarring motion of that night-train!
of the pair of thick lips, hideously pendulous, one of We were pulling into Auteuil; and the application of
those nightmare faces such as Goya has portrayed in his the brakes made my companion stagger on his short
drawings of comprachicos, such as are seen in the portraits legs; he all but fell; groaning, he lifted his hands to his
o f the late Habsburgs in the museum in Madrid, the eyes and, as if coming suddenly to himself, he made his
ugliness of the degenerates of a great line relapsed into way to a door and tried to alight on the wrong side of
the murderous ferocity of the brute. the train. They were shunting and, recovering at last
“I watched this man: his fashion of sleeping was from my fright, I thought I ought to warn him. "Not
repulsive; his heavy eyelids did not quite meet, and that way, this way,” I said, without touching his arm. He
between them one could see a little of the whites of his stifled another groan and, making no reply, rushed to
eyes; on e would have sworn he was looking out at one the far door, which was open; he descended into the
from behind the lattice of his lashes; and while he darkness... He was gone!
snored, as if to reassure me, with a beastly, deep- "What a strange traveller! I was about to alight in
throated snorting sound that it is more than I can do to my turn when my foot struck against something soft; I
describe, h e h eld across his knees a long, black-gloved bent down to look and found myself touching the
hand, a hand at once clenched and inert, immoderately hand, the horrible gloved hand the somnambulist had
long and extravagantly narrow, that seemed not to fit forgotten, immoderately long and extravagantly
with the white cuff of his shirt and that certainly could narrow, already cold, inert and clenched.
not be the hand that belonged to his body. "It was the hand of a woman, freshly severed—for it
"It was becoming an obsession: I could now no was still oozing and left reddish marks on the
longer take my eyes off that hand; suddenly the man cushions.” .
rose (it was after the Passy station and the train had just And de Martimpre added, in his languishing tone:
started moving again), took a few steps across the "That's why I never again took the 12.40 train!”
carriage and came to a halt directly in front of me. It — Translated by Iain White.
was horrible. His heavy eyes were rolled back and the

THE B O O K O F MASKS 188

 He was a young man of wild and startling originality\ a sick genius
Isidore Ducasse, Comte de Lautreamont
orfrankly a mad genius. Imbeciles go mad and in their madness an
(1846-1870). The known details of the life of agitated or stagnant imbecility remains; but in the madness o f genius
this enigmatic figure are certainly few. He was
bom in Montevideo, his father being a often genius is left; theform of the intelligence has been affected but not
secretary at the French Consulate; sent to
France to attend boarding school; parts of its quality. Thefru it infalling has been crushed; but it has kept all its
Maldoror appeared from 1868 onwards; he died peifume and all theflavour of its barely ripe pulp. Such was thefate
of unknown causes during the Commune. No
likeness existed until the discovery of a o f the amazing unknown, Isidore Ducasse...
photograph of him in 1977 (Vallotton's
portrait was imaginary); only one copy of his Les Chants de Maldoror is a long prose poem o f which only
second book, Poisies, survived from the first
publication, the one deposited in the French
thefirst six songs were written... It is a magnificent; almost
national library. inexplicable stroke o f genius, which will remain unique andfrom
De Gourmont was chiefly responsible for
rescuing Ducasse’s name from its Commune- now on belongs to that list o f works which, to the exclusion o f all
era grave, an early champion of Maldoror, he also
rediscovered the text of his second work in
classicism,form s the abbreviated library and only possible reading of
1891. However, his interpretation falls in with those whose ill-made spirits will not lend themselves to the everyday
the early romantic mythologising of Ducasse;
he was reputed (with no apparent evidence) to joys o f the commonplace; or o f conventional morality.
have composed his books by candlelight at the
piano, interspersing the phrases with dramatic Alienists, had they studied this book, would have classified its
musical discords.
It was left to later researchers to rescue
author among those trying topass themselves off as persecuted persons:
Ducasse from madness. The Surrealists he sees only himself and God in the world— and God thwarts him.
admired him unreservedly for his moral
ferocity, fantastic metaphors and sudden But one might also ask oneself whether Lautreamont is not a superior
flashes of dark humour. For them his desire to
"inter reason itself' was proof of sanity not ironistj a man moved by a precocious contemptfor men to sham
madness. The Situationists cited him as the
inventor of ditoumement, and numerous other
madness whose incoherence is wiser and more beautiful than run-of-
exegetes have laboured over the text of Maldoror. the-mill reason. There is in it the madness of pride; there is in it the
delirium of mediocrity. How many carefully considered and honest
Not without result, for they have revealed a
work elaborately constructed and carefully
executed: far from the interpretation of de
Gourmont and his contemporaries, who could pages ofgood and simple writing would I givefor these shovelfuls of
hardly be expected to appreciate the prophetic
nature of this book which seemed to appear as
words and phrases beneath which he seems to have wanted to inter
if from nowhere.
reason itself.

THE B O O K OF MASKS 190

i
 Having taken charge o f the literary columns in the "waning days o f Natu­
ralism, Edouard Dujardin led it along the two roads that had to rejoin
later on, the one side leading toward Ibsen, the other to French
Symbolism...
In the midst o f these multiple activities, and even during the hours o f his
Wagnerian apostolate, Dujardin did notfo rg et about himself: he wrote
stories, poems, a novel and a dramatic trilogy, The Legend o f
Antonia...
“One day, as I viewed thefa d ed portrait ( f a you n g g ir l in an album,
someone passed who spoke a name...
“And so I knew you; having heard y o u r name, you, I shall dream o f
r y o u .”
Thus begins a poem to the glory o f this woman o f dream whom one
Edouard Dujardin (1868-1933). Music and
its connection with vers libre were Dujardin’s recognises, memory or vision, “adorableface,” in many o f the other pages
main preoccupation. He was a co-founder of
La Revue voagneriennc which championed the
in which she is the symbol o f the ideal, the inaccessible. They are very sweet,
work of Wagner when any appreciation of these poems in lazily rhythmed prose and have great purity o f tone; and
"boche" culture was generally frowned upon.
Dujardin became an active historian of Antonia always rises in thefin a l lines, calling the poet to impossible loves...
Symbolism, chairing academic conferences on
As with his prose, D ujardin’s poetry is always wise, prudent and calm;
the movement and writing a study of the first
appearance of vers libre ( Les Premiers Poetes du vers i f there are lapses o f language here, experiments in syntax that are some­
libre, 1922). Dujardin's most famous work,
however, is his novel Les Lauriers sont coupes what daring, the thought is sure-footed, logical, reasonable...
(1888), it was there that James Joyce dis­ From logic, sincerity, will, gentleness and sentiment, with the disinter­
covered die “interior monologue" which he
later used in Ulysses. Three different trans­ ested love f o r art especially in its most novel form s, come the words in
lations have appeared over the years, including which w e can, I think, read the character o f Edouard D ujardin. H is
ones by George Moore and Stuart Gilbert.
The story here is from his first book, Les
literary works, although very wayward, remain alw ays very personal;
Hantises ( Obsessions, 1886). and that is a m erit without which all the others are null.
 EDOUARD DUJARD N

The Iron A woman once said to me: did not seem to be an old man. He was tall and thin, his
Maiden “Now and then, the men we love and who clothes were elegant, and his manners, careless. His eyes,
belong to us escape us. Suddenly, even as we are which were very black, seemed to shine and sparkle when he
speaking to them, we see that their gaze, suddenly vague, is became animated, at times a most disdainful smile caused
fixed upon nothing at all. As we tidy a lock of hair, their his lips to part themselves. His body remained hunched,
spirit is flying far away; what are they staring at so wild- bent forward, his arms folded over his thighs; he made no
eyed? What new sensation, what new idea is fascinating gesture; his voice was halting, ironic. Finally, there was a sort
them?... and then everything vanishes, the wicked vision of gloomy transport during which his eyes caught fire. And
effaces itself, and— there they are!— smiles, tenderness, he said to us:
attention. But we remain troubled and nervous, because we “Listen to the story I am going to tell you, and if it occurs
do not know the chimerical regions to which they have to you that I myself am its hero, believe it or not as you
flown, and we tremble, lest they return, shuddering, from please!”
unknown depths.”
That is what the woman said. After a moment's reverie I “It was the habit of my hero to rove the world in the
replied: company of his beautiful mistress: the two of them were
“Yes, now and then an extraordinary vision rises up be­ truly in love, parading together in joyful insouciance from
fore my eyes, sudden and clear; something terrible embraces city to city. They wandered through the voluptuous sites of
my soul, and steals into my blood, my marrow, my nerves Germany. Having crossed the heroic Rhine, the rolling hills
and my muscles. I remain, rooted in a vertiginous immo­ of Baden, the Main with its melancholy dales, they now
bility, prey to an atrocious intoxication, fuddled with found themselves in the merry old streets of Nuremberg,
anguish. Then, just as a spark will sputter out, it disappears. with sweet loves of bygone days.
The memory comes back, only much later, uncertain, as if in “That day they went to see the casde of Nuremberg.
a dream. But in my soul, I retain a fear that, if the vision had “All along the sunny route, some strangers walked along­
been prolonged by even a fraction of a second, my reason side in a pretty litde caravan: through a few overheard words
might have succumbed to the delirium of the hallucination. spoken in French they knew them to be fellow countrymen.
W e fell silent. Just then a man, who was seated with his There were two young ladies and their husbands. They
head bowed toward his knees in the comer of the artist’s joined together. And all of them, chattering and laughing,
studio, revealed his face. His back was bent, his cheeks were climbed, slowly, in pairs, toward the massive walls, where
pale and drawn, his face wrinkled and his hair grey, yet he the pink parasols and flounces were reflected.

197 EDOUARD DUJARDIN

 "In the castle they toured a museum o f torture instru­ itself with pranks, she, pluckily, through childishness,
ments. The full panoply o f medieval punishments was there through the petty bravado of a rebellious girl, in spite of the
on display: racks, wheels, pincers, spits, bellows, and other guide’s warnings, climbed in, cuddled herself against its
d evices both terrible and strange. Their aspect caused Lucy terrible sides, allowing her parasol and her white and rosy
to press h erself clo se against her lover’s breast. He squeezed skirts to become stuck to its cramped steel walls.
her pale hands more tightly, and dreamed o f those poor " ‘Close it, and everything will be ended,’ she said.
wretches who were once put to the torture beneath the "And there she stood in front o f her lover, laughing, be­
vaults. They studied the place in tender silence, and pity tween the two outstretched arms o f the colossus, like an
aroused their love so that their lips soon sought each other open coffin, ready for torture. That is how her lover— who
out in kiss after kiss. tried gendy, to restrain her, and called her mad, and scolded
“The guide returned to conduct the tourists into a hidden her—saw her.
room: after a few moments, in the centre o f the room, they "Then a haze arose inside his brain, it seemed to him as if
distinguished a human form in the darkness, upright, a the Maid of Iron had moved her arms. He seemed to see the
crudely formed statue o f wood and iron, a woman in a great Maid of Iron pulling in her frightful arms, and as she did so,
s tiff cloak. The guide proceeded to pull at two doors which closing them upon his adored mistress, and that she was
opened outwards from the centre o f the statue, revealing enclosed there, her sweet flesh pierced, torn, crushed be­
within, a space large enough for a man. The inner walls and tween the iron spikes, horribly shredded. He saw the horror
the two door-leaves bristled with long iron spikes. When the of the gaping wounds, the punctured eyes, the gashed
doors were closed, these points became transpierced and breasts, the blood trickling down the cherished flanks like
rent the eyes, cheeks, the bowels and all the rest of the con­ from a sieve. Grimacing, he saw the face of his beautiful
demned person's body. beloved, defiled, a spike staving in that mouth he had kissed,
“The little group of Parisians were silent. Lucy stole a and this beautiful body that he had feverishly covered with
peek from behind her gloved hands. She abandoned herself his lips, this beautiful perfumed body from which he had
in her lovers arms, her back curved and quivering, while he, breathed in every pleasure, he now believed, as a result of
supporting her, and breathing in the slight warmth o f her this sudden vision, he had seen kneaded beneath the nails of
hair, studied the monster. Becoming accustomed to it, she the Maiden of Maidens. And—mysterious magic of the
unshielded her eyes, shook her head, and, all at once, she heart—from this hideous contemplation which had so
cried, noisily. Finally she exclaimed that it was too clever. fascinated him with such a fierce pleasure, such an infernal
“The young woman approached it. She nonchalantly and diabolical elation, his being became so fuddled at this
walked up to the statue, slapping the bloody inner wall with point with the idea of her lost and himself damned, such was
a glove, and, with her finger-tips she tested, humorously, the the extraordinary intoxication of these thoughts of horrific
sharp points, undulled after centuries of usage. She posed sufferings, that with a savage, hoarse cry, he hurled himself
before the opening in a winsome way, stooping, she in­ at the monster, and, with his own two hands, sealed his
spected the interior; and, while the rest of the group amused beloved mistress in the death-embrace of the iron Maiden.

THE BOOK OF MASKS 198

 ...If there still remains; in some o f his pages, a touch o f rhetoric, it is
because Monsieur Kahn, even at thefe e t o f the Shulamite, has not
given up the idea o f surprising us with a mountebank’s and virtuoso’s
endlessly renewed adroitness, and if, on occasion, he treats the French
language as a tyrant might) this is because it has always shown him
all the obligingness o f a slave. To some extent he abuses his power,
giving to certain words meanings that are unduly wide o f the mark,
bending sentences to a syntax that is too peifunctory; but these habits
are not exclusively his own; he has borrowedfrom no one his knowl­
edge o f rhythm and his mastery o f the newly recast verse-line.
Was Kahn thefirst? To whom do we owe vers libre?* To
Rimbaud, whose Les Illu m in a tio n sftrst appeared in the pages o f
Vogue in 1886, to Laforgue who at that same time, and in that
same precious little review—which was edited by Gustave
Kahn—published Legende and Solo de Lune, and, lastly, to
Kahn himself... and above all to Walt Whitman, who had then
Gustave Kahn (1859-1936). Kahn founded La
Vogue in 1886, the most successful review of commenced to enjoy his majestic licence.
early Symbolism and the first to publish
Rimbaud's Les Illuminations and Une Saison en This tiny Vogue, which today sellsf o r the price o f an illuminated
Enjer, as well as Mallarme et al, he then founded
parchment, was then read beneath the arcades o f the Odeon— with
Le Symboliste and edited La Revue Independante.
Credited by Dujardin and others with the such jo y!— by timid young men intoxicated by the scent o f newness
creation of vers libre, the form in which his first
book of poems—which was already moving in that rosefro m its pale little pages!...
the direction of Decadence—Les Palais Nomades
(1887) was written. The prose poems included Words, words! without a doubt, but well-chosen ones and artfully
here are from this great collection and serve to mixed. Gustave Kahn is, above all else, an artist: which is sometimes
introduce the themes explored by the verse in
each section of the book. a disadvantage.
 G U S T A V E KAHN

Prose Inter­ Themes and Variations

ludesfro m
In the lofty chamber, beneath Recitative
Nomadic
candelabra blacken with smoke, in
Palaces A lull imposes itself, dreary and monotonous.
if the lofty chamber, hermetic with
the straight metallic pleats of heavy
curtains. Tiresome, this slumbering of the idea. In bluish
distance, memories glide along, so fragile, pale,
The fumes descend, gyre, twist elliptically, striate melancholy.
and vanish in a midnight echoing with copper tones, In a theatre somewhere unknown; figurines pass in a
dreams float heavy with flakes of smoke. sad apotheosis, bow, veer into oblivion.

One night in the memory strewn with the dead of Forcefulness lost, indulgence is at hand, and the
tentacular systems, and with the humus of the ancients, remembrance of unforgotten moments of silence,
identical, sufferings are revived; the useless pagodas, haunted by sweetness and sorrow, consolers of
constructed in haste from memories, have collapsed,* memory.
and along rivers impassable for twenty years, the boats
dismasted.

Ruins that vanish, implacable descent toward the

abyss. Muted, the memory wells forth outof legends,
and what was orchestral vapour becomes distinct, and a Interlude
motif, come to the moment of living, cries out. Ah! let the time come
When heartsJa il in love.
—ARTHUR RIMBAUD.

The evocative witchcraft of chance gives rise to simi­

larities.
 Memory vibrates, like an arrow feathered with captive, the one doomed to ill-chosen downfalls.
sorrow; the vision, the very same, of identicals, flows in After the crisis and the calm, in the momentary
light and shadow. The chalk-line of streets, the silence, listen in all serenity to its voices, the voices of
quietening of market-places and squares, are evocative. your times gone by.
Memory's sufferings are worsened, by simularities.
Present desire vaguely murmurs towards the past,
towards the distant; chimeras unfurl in the taverns; and
the bass of the harmonic development of peripatetic
chance, the smiles and effaced timbres of another cycle;
the similar arouses similar beings, only differently
labelled.
And, without seeking the exit from the labyrinth,
where the poor soul sleepwalks, perpetual rebirths, the
perpetual awakenings of cravings, deceptive rebirths are Song of Temporary Insanity
revived. The brief harmony beneath the bright branches is un­
done by slow sorrow.
The dispersed lassitude, which far-away hours en­
tombed in the spirit, adjusts a winter cloak to the flesh
not fresh enough.
Nothing survives this brief instant, the harmony
evaporates in regrets, the act is dissonant, then is re­
solved, nothing comes alive again nor flowers anew.
Soon, towards the far-away buried hours, this
moment too. Let us return to the necessary lassitudes.
Voice in the Park

Inflections o f dear voices that have died.

—PAUL VERLAINE.

Fleeting are the times of love; enduring the hoppings of

the little serf whose gaze you ennoble.
The long weariness of enslavements, and of muffled
struggles and of feebleness. Its wretched, paltry irony is
^ j ir
without a smile; a modicum of pity for the eternal

THE BOOK OF MASKS 202

 Lieier the illusion, the feeble feats, and always and everywhere
And since everything is alike, all the suns o f the years, the recent past returns, troubled and devastated.
all the sufferings o f the days, hear the soul of legend

M n.fi M i l :* ii'jrariJWI)
Which first moment threw us, feeble, at the feet of
rustle and fall.
clay; which ineluctable future commands that sorrow
The old dream stirs in an affectionate atmosphere,
and silence be separated.
with distant sorrows and facile forgivings; listen to your
dead brothers sm iling in time.
Everywhere and always the recent past, the moment
Observe the legendary garden, the deep eyes briefly
that perpetuates solitary fear.
glimpsed, and the eternal roving ships, and the song
that is heard on every road. Observe the motley garb of
the wayfarers, and beneath so many robes, so many
similar hearts.

Finale
And when will repose descend upon this poor being?
Must he wait, his back broken, his eye lifeless, and
the rags of his cloak in the pensive hands of a few
regrets, here and there, which moreover he ignored.
Memorial Collating scattered ephemeral glances, haunted by
To the instant o f luminous life, to the error sought out disgust, seated on the banal river bank, the ulcer of
and cherished, crossroads o f the voices of life, every­ memory loathsome, will he see the heavy barges of his
thing indefatigably returns. dreams forever crawling by?
W eary of the glass and cup, of landscapes and of the
Regrets that m ight have lacked some sweetness. So human, cosily bending his brow to the memory of
beautiful is everything that is lost, so regretted every­ hands, calming hands, so small and so sharply sinewed,
thing exiled, so desired all that is expelled, in the evil gaping on words that are lacking and no longer able to
hours o f loneliness. hear, a speechless Job, wreckage of his wreckage... W ill
the repose of this poor being be thus? Perhaps, for the
T o flee towards the past, and assert the veracity of poor fellow.

203 GUSTAVE KAHN

 In the unconsoled hovel that's never decked out for
any festival, the former masks are gathering dust in the
comers, and boredom is expunging in greyness the
useless tomes of the lovers of yesteryear; turning in the
void.
Of surmised Babylon, of the country never bom,
enumerate only brute forces. The curtain of forget­
fulness of preparatory deaths has fallen into the opacity
of silence and is no more than a memory of the Moloch
of adolescence.
The Phantasmagoria of the unelucidated times of
childhood, the passing memory of the disappointed,
the embers of the fires of yore, and blackness around
the eyes, before the eyes, is this everything then? and the
brutal undertow of who knows what ebb-tide.
 ;
Verlaine is a temperament and as such), indefinable. Like
his life itself, the rhythms he loves are broken or run~on
lines; he accomplished the disjoining o f Romantic verse
and—having rendered it shapeless, having hored into it
and unstitched it in order that he might allow entrance to a
greater variety of things: all the effervescence that bubbled
from his crazy head—he was, without desiring it, one of
the instigators of free verse. Verlaine’s verse, with its
Paul Verlaine (1 844-1896). Older than most
of the other authors in this selection, Verlaine words split between lines, its incidences, its parentheses,
was a vital influence, not only through his later
poetry but his encouragement and support of naturally evolved intofree verse; in becoming “fr e e ” it has
younger writers, especially, but not exclusively,
in Les Poetes maudits. only regularised its own condition...
He began publishing with the Parnassians,
married, encountered Rimbaud and embarked To confess one’s sins of action or of dream is not a sin;
on a messy homosexual relationship which
took him around the less attractive parts of no public confession can scandalise a man because all men
Europe on a drunken debauch which ended in
prison when Verlaine shot and wounded are alike and are tempted alike; no one commits a crime
Rimbaud. There he converted to Catholicism
but lapsed frequently afterwards and became a that his brother is not also capable o f That is why pious
familiar figure, absinthe-besotted, in the cafes
of bohemian Paris. Nevertheless he somehow journals or the Academy took upon themselves in vain the
seemed able to pick himself up and return to
poetry, composing numerous collections, in­ shame o f having abused Verlaine, still garlanded with
cluding erotic lyrics which have made recent
appearances in English. He was elected "Prince flow ers; kicksfrom the boots o f scoundrels, and the sac~
of Poets” on the death o f Leconte de Lisle, but
died himself of poverty and neglect soon after­ ristan as well, come to grief upon a plinth already o f
wards.
His prose is scarce, the present tribute to granite, while in his marble beard, Verlaine smiledfrom
Poe (from 1886) seems never to have been
translated before. eternity, with the look o f a Faun who hears bells tolling.

THE BO O K OF MASKS 206

 w

\ I

PAUL VERLAI NE

It stands there, signpost o f baleful highways. about my youth

CATULLEMENDES
which was not irrelevant to the matter in question. This
is it:
Xhe Edgar Poe told me, one day, with that "Business had called me to a little village a fair
Signpost lucidity of expression which never deserted distance from Paris, so that it was a stretch o f genuine
him in the midst of the greatest flights of his countryside I had to traverse on foot after alighting
magnificent imagination, that, in his opinion, the majority from the train. It was June. They were tossing the hay,
of our errors have their origin in thefacility with which our mind which spread an exhilarating scent in the cool air which
exaggerates or underrates the importance o f an object, because it is the nine-o’clock rays of the morning sun were warming.
unable to grasp exactly the relative closeness or distance o f that object. I soon reached a rather large wood, through which
—While doing justice to the considerable measure of there ran a broad, grassy walk, speckled here and there
obvious truth contained in that proposition, I could with pale patches of light. Song-birds, especially jays,
not forbear to contest the axiomatic form in which it were creating an uproar among the gently swaying
was cast, which seemed to me to set on one side a beeCh-trees and, in the distance, one could hear the
whole series of facts no less interesting than those laughter of women, cheerful at turning the hay, o f
which seemed to me admissible in the judgement my which wisps were flying up, soon to be snatched by the
shrewd friend had just pronounced. By that I meant the many swallows. On leaving the wood I caught sight of
hallucinations, visions or transfigurations of everyday a signpost which stood there, just where it should be;
objects produced by the moral forces of our being, con­ for, not having been there for many years, I had rather
science, foreboding, memory, and so on, and I contended forgotten the way. It was a signpost with four arms, set
that these facts hardly admitted of a categorical out in a cross. On each of the arms, painted white, as
explanation, and that the wisest course to pursue, when was the post, in letters of black, somewhat effaced by
faced with them, was equivocation, if not acceptance, foul weather, was the name of a village as well as the
pure and simple, and respect. Since I had employed number of kilometres to cover in order to reach it. It
some warmth and perhaps a certain eloquence in would take me a good quarter of an hour, and the road
setting out these ideas, Edgar Poe seemed to be
the signpost indicated was delightful. I followed it at a
listening to me with interest and, the conversation
leisurely pace, and soon I saw the steeple o f the little
continuing on that subject, I went on to tell him a story
village of J------. Yielding, then, to an access of made me resolve upon an "abduction.”
indolence, and tempted by the soft grass, I lay down on "Prudence demanding it, we set out at night, on
the ground, and I lay there for some time. When I rose, foot, comparable in the lightness of our baggage to
the air caressed my face, some birds pecking in a nearby robbers without booty, and happy as larks. A small
field were chirping, big white clouds, pierced by the bull's-eye lantern with a fairly far-reaching beam guided
sun, were floating in the azure distance; the scent of hay our steps. We held hands, conversing as we went. AH0f
came to me in heady whiffs and, deep down in the a sudden I felt my body bathed in a sort of cold sweat
valley, between the trees, the thatched roofs and the and, to the great astonishment of my companion, my
tiles of the village where excellent relatives awaited me, prattling ceased. At the same time I began looking
gleamed. A thrill of delight took hold of me and I about us. It was a dreadful night. The sky, of an
began thinking that, all things considered, here was obscurity more livid than dark, was blotched here and
happiness, and that it was a great mistake to live in there, with pallid patches like vast stains of mildew. A
towns. few blurred stars were glittering uncertainly. Austere, in
“I got up and, instinctively, my eyes focused on the a place apart, Saturn gleamed red. The earth, sodden
way I had come, while I stretched with that healthy from many days of torrential rain, was treacherously
pleasure that follows upon agreeable meditations. The slippery underfoot. At the same time something
wood, of which I have already spoken, was turning extraordinary was taking place within me: my
blue, some distance away, and, against that sombre conscience was reproaching what I was doing there and,
background, the signpost, of which I now saw only the for the first time, my liaison with the person accom­
arm pointing in the direction of J------, stood out; in panying me seemed like an evil deed. More, the
the state of mind in which I found myself) that imprudence and folly of that abduction was becoming
pointing arm seemed to me a benevolent exhortation self-evident to me. To all these arguments of the
on the part of Destiny to be on my way and make haste innermost heart, I could oppose only the justification
to the goal of my journey. Which I did, with eagerness, of revolutions: it is too late!-—and I was quickening our
and singing a sprighdy final chorus, heard once in some pace, grasping my mistress's hand more firmly, when
hilarious light comedy. the beam of my lantern raised up before my eyes the
“Three months later I left J------, retracing the road white spectre of a SIGNPOST whose arm, pointing
in question; this time I was no longer alone: a towards me, imperiously called upon me to turn about
charming, run-of-the-mill love-affair had occurred in and retrace my steps. The sensation of icy horror that
my life during those three months spent among the sight evoked in me is hard to credit: the arm of the
fields. I had lived, or rather we had been living happily, signpost was there, terrible and implacable in its
in all the conditions of security that could be desired, immobility. I quickly turned aside my lantern and the
when I know not what brutal desire for sole possession sinister vision vanished; but the impression remained

T H E B O O K O F MAS KS 208
 with me and, in the darkness, my eyes saw that thing, Charleston, where I was a penny-a-line scribbler, I was
very near, and black against the grey sky. The wood for a long time Edgar Poe's opium-companion and, to
was moaning lugubriously in the bitter wind. No a degree, his collaborator. Later, in my capacity as a
longer able to bear the shameful terror, and taking as slave-owner, I joined the Confederate army, in which I
my pretext the very imminent departure of the train, I became a colonel. Proscribed after the capture o f Davis,
urged my companion to run and, ran myself, ran like a and to some extent involved in the Booth -Lincoln case,
deer. A horrible impact pulled me up short: at the very I made my way to Mexico at the height of the Second
least my whole shoulder was grazed if not broken. War of Independence during which, without taking
Nonetheless, so great was my fear, that I had fortitude any side, I placed myself at the head o f a gang whose
enough not to raise a murmur. For it was the signpost exploits still, at this moment, arouse fear and trembling
that had— as a last warning— run at me so forcibly. We in Matamoros, Oaxaca and Querataro. Grown rich,
ran like madmen. About us the night continued indeed immensely rich after this venture, I judged it
appalling. Before long we plunged into the wood, an appropriate to return to the United States to take
into the unknown. advantage of the amnesties. On the banks o f the
“Several weeks went by, at the end of which I Hudson, I built a cottage among the trees. I lived a very
became the contumacious hero of one of the most comfortable life there, I assure you, but— if it need be
shocking judicial dramas ever to have diverted the said at all—not always at peace with my memories. Just
curiosity o f the citizens o f Paris. The investigating consider it] And reflect that I was often obliged to
magistrate and the public prosecutor had no reason, dream of the guillotine and of the gallows, that they
this time, to “find the lady.” The lady was there, in had all but shot me near Guadalajara, and that I had
glass jars, along with sundry other pieces of material spent months as a prisoner o f the savages!
evidence. , “But among all these terrible things there is none,
“M aitre------- , the pleader appointed by the court, when memory or sleep are unkind to me, none which
here made his justified reputation as an emotional fills me with so intense a terror, which so freezes the
orator. I, at that time, had hopped on a ship to marrow in my bones and the blood in my veins as that
America. white-painted signpost, seen long ago near a wood, in
“I lived there for twenty years, by turns banker and the beam of a bull s-eye lantern, one night when I was
cafe-waiter, journalist and swindler,! experienced every on my way to a railway-station in the company o f a
luxury and every ordeal, committed every crime, loveable young person.”
exhausted every passion, in a word, did everything. In ■ ■
— Translated by Iain White.

209 PAUL VERLAINE

 Possessing a non-compromising temperament; that of ironic observer, and a tendency toward
Rabelaisianjoviality, Aurierfound himself, during his early studentyears, taking part in a literary
grouping which appearedat least, to be utterly opposed to his inclinations... Aurier sinned less
through omission than throughyouth, and if he demonstrated a talent which was, perhaps; less
reliable than his intelligence, thefaculties of the soul do not develop at the same time; and in him
intellectfloweredfirst and drew to itself the best part of his vitaljuices..
In his study of Gauguin he developed the elementary principles o f Symbolist or Ideist art, which
he summed up thus:
The work of art will have to be:
I. Ideist, since its sole ideal wiU,be the expression i f the Idea.
1 2. Symbolist, since it will express this idea throughforms.
. 3. Synthetic, since it will set down theseforms, these signs, in accordance with a generally
understood practice.
4. Subjective, since the object will never be considered as an object, but as the sign of an idea
perceived by the subject.
; 5. (and consequently) Decorative: because decorative painting in its proper sense, as it was
understood by the Egyptians, and most probably the Greeks and the Primitives, is nothing more nor
George-Albert Aurier (1865-1892). A poet less than the manifestation i f art at once subjective, synthetic, symbolist and ideist.
and prosateur, Aurier contributed to most of the Having interpolated that decorative art is the only art, that “painting could not have been
important Symbolist magazines during his
created only in order to adorn the banal walls of man’s edifices with thoughts, dreams and ideas " he
brief life, and was a founder of the Mercure de
France. He is principally recognised today as an stillfurther imposes upon the artist the necessary gift of emotiveness, urging only “that
important art theorist and wrote the first essay transcendental emotivenessf so precious, so impressive, which causes the soul to tremble before the
on Van Gogh (1890), then totally unknown. ever-changing drama of abstractions.”
Articles on Gauguin, Pissarro, Carriere etc.
When graced with this gift, symbols, which is to say Ideas, surgefrom the shadows, become
followed, attempting to formulate the ideas
underlying Symbolist painting. He edited a animated\ take on a life that is no longer our contingent and relative life, but an essential life, the life
short-lived journal of his own Le Modemiste, of Art, the being of Being. Graced with this gift, art is complete, perfect; absolute,finally real.”
wrote a couple of novels, short stories (for one Doubtless, all this' at bottom, is a philosophy rather than a theory o f art, and I will be suspicious
of which he was prosecuted for outraging
public morals), verse, and dramas before his
of any artist, even onesuperUtively gifted, who applies himself to realize it through bis works;
premature death from typhoid, aged 27, nevertheless this is an exalted and possiblyfecund philosophy and perhaps afe w artists will be
Almost forgotten in this century, his works touched\ even through their armour of unconsciousness.
received renewed attention from the College de
...This was a man of more than ordinary talent, a superior spirit; he must not beforgotten: we
'Tataphysique which devoted an issue of their
journal to him in 1961. can still read his novels, sample more than a page o f his verse and,fo r a long time, his art criticisms
This text is from die Mercure of April 1890. will supply ideas, principles and a method.
 tfocturne And it is still, as everywhere, as always, beneath the writing desk!...
this banal heraldic ceiling and amid the undistin­ Look at them, male and female, taking their ease in the
guished sadism of these none too clerical stained-glass peace of their long-drawn-out deglutitions... Doubdess,
windows, it is still the same proud murmur of the crowd, the through a slow endosmosis, their liquid brains are flowing
same inane lapping of the ocean— an ocean whose waves away, bit by bit, with the beers gulped down... Their newly
seemto be grotesquely anthropomorphised... The seaside liquescent brains are running down into their bellies, and
resort of my soul, my poor sick soul!... Something, to tell the thence into the urinals..*
troth, like a psychological Trouville!... As for me, just now, I feel as though myriads of tor­
Set amid the old carved-oak panelling, the threadbare menting flies’ feet were titillating my trembling nerves, and
Flemish tapestries strut on the walls their faded verdures, my capillaries, and my medullae, and my fibres, and all the
their dwarfish drunkards, their beery and sluggish gaieties, cells of my brain (above all those of the circumvolutions
their whole charming gamut o f calm subdued hues that, . adjoining Rolando’s cleft, where, as we know, Hetzig has
brutal and frozen, the keen diamond of an Edison lamp located the psychomotor centres). Oh! The martyrdom!.-
illumines... This dissonance enchants me. It enchants me as The Others, they drink and digest.. I hear their stomachs
much as the little bomb-shaped chocolate-cakes, among all working very clearly... But it seems to me that, from minute
this very gothic furniture, and the disquieting cylinders of jet to minute, their heads are growing smaller, smaller, smaller...
that adorn the surging sea o f occiputs, as much as the ciga­ Why then am I convinced that the resultant mathematics of
rettes that smoulder between the unduly scarlet lips of those all those minute vibrations that are imprinting upon my
ladies over there, sumptuous and plaster-coated as the nervous system the tiny footsteps of flies’ feet, mentioned
facades... Why inconvenience myself and not simply repeat: above, is a very curious and even grandiose psychic
my soul has the colic. That such admissions involve ridicule, phenomenon, comparable, for example, to an earthquake, a
raillery, I know... In what way, though, are these simple volcanic eruption, a cyclone, an aurora borealis? Why, too,
words any more grotesque than the conduct o f that well- do I presume that all these people who surround me, lips
known herbalist who, in the words o f the poet, gave gaping, are bound to admire this spectacle, assuredly not at
all banal, with the satisfaction of English tourists who have
Ipecacuanha to a cockatoo... witnessed a lovely cataclysm?... But see how they are all
‘Would you bring me something to write with, eh?../’ laughing, and their laughter angers and devastates me like a
To write with? W hat's the point? In short, what's the blasphemy, or rather like an insolent imbecility! Certainly,
P°wt? Are the anthropomorphic waves not breaking over all of that’s far from being dear!...
^idermis of my soul? I'm at the seaside. W hy should I Moreover, the mysterious endosmosis is accomplishing
write? And for whom? And to whom? W hat do I know? But its work... From minute to minute, their heads are growing
I must do it! Certainly, I must. Ah! the eternal priapism of smaller, smaller, smaller... Look!... That gendeman over
 ^ 5

there already has no head, no head at all... bass of my body vibrating no longer... Piano, piano,
Ah! how they bruise my soul, all those walking sticks... pianissimo!...
creaturoids who do not seem to feel and who, indeed, do not Amid the worn-out Flemish tapestries... Ach! those little
feel the monstrous tortures of the flies' feet... My entire chocolate bombs!... endosmosis!... the voluptuous callipygj^,
body is vibrating painfully, as a supposedly hypersensitive psychological goitres! and Her, and her hair! and all the
double-bass might under the bow of a madman. rest!... In short, w hy all of this? Let's think it through...
Over there, in a comer, I catch a glimpse of three young Think it through...
lads, virginal and too pink, who are simpering and smiling. (A gap, a lacuna, a lethargy of perception. How many
Their eyelashes are adroitly heightened with pastel, and their times have you endured it? How long did it last?)
lips, with aquarelle. Their nails are as polished as priests' and Now, look there. She's speaking. She has a long nose,
their hands are boastful with gold rings. Their jackets, almost aristocratic, and a wide thin mouth, almost without
appropriately shortened, reveal voluptuous callipygies that lips, always laughing, pale as a scar, in the middle of her even
are almost Hottentot. Why, from the first wink, I got this paler face, of her pseudo-Anglo-Saxon face which has never
alexandrine which, for the moment, seems wholly sublime: known the stolid joys of roast beef... And all of it beneath an
extraordinary flavescent wig, ruffled, as I had already said,
The eternal strabismus o f stunted pansies!...
by the perfidious artifices of curlers.
But, I think, perhaps its all for the best that these three Oh! that horrible clicking of those dominoes...
young men have infamous morals!... She isn't very young. No, not a chance!... not at all young.
Be that as it may, this imbecilic crowd, this crowd of Unless she has a soul; I don't know that, nor do you, nor
dolts self-absorbed with their bellies, is beginning to give me does She, nor does anyone, not even God. Perhaps she's seen
a nausea akin to that of sea-sickness. a youthful thirty-six autumns, or indeed forty, or even a
She, alone... hundred or more! But her skin is pale and, though a bit dried
But then, why those smiles at the contented stupidity of out from the face-paint, the bismuths, the magnesias and all
her neighbour? Why the indulgence of her smiles for her the rest of the cosmetic gouaches, with no wrinkles visible to
neighbour's obvious goitre? Can't she see even her neigh­ me, and her hair as blonde as her soul must be, in the event, I
bour's psychological goitre?... —Oh! My God, after all, what repeat, that she has one; and I feel that if her littler teeth,
logical inference incites me to conclude that her pale mauve which the abuse of mercury has imperceptibly turned bluish,
eyes are anything other than stony opals, unable to transmit and her pale mauve eyes, cold and malevolent as opals,
the sensations of her soul? And does she even have a soul?... didn't laugh so insistently, amid the painful and pleasurable
She prides herself upon her blonde hair, blonde as hemp, a uproar of this stupid place, the monstrous goitre of her
little crimped, no doubt thanks to the artifices of curlers. unspeakable neighbour, perhaps she might one day become a
That's all! Absolutely all!... Sorceress, the sainted Sorceress a thousand times blessed
I feel myself slipping, slowly, into imbecility... The feet of whose divine philtre...
those flies are as near as may be to setting the double- Time, gentlemen!...
 B tfore he died\ Baudelaire had read Mallarme’s fir s t poems; he was disturbed; poets do not
Stephane M allarm e (1 8 4 2 -1 8 9 8 ). Quite
against his will Mallarme became identified as like leaving behind them sons or brothers; they w ould prefer to exist in isolation, and have
the leader o f the Sym bolist "school.” H e was their genius perish with their brain. But Mallarme was Baudelairean only tbroughfiliation.
certainly one o f its greatest poets and his works
his own precious originality soon affirmed itself; his Proses, his A p res-m id i d’un
have acquired new significance in the light o f
modernism and its explorations o f the limits of Faune, his sonnets cameforw ard, at over-lengthy intervals, to speak the marvellous subtlety
language and expression. o f his patient, disdainful, imperiously gentle genius. H aving voluntarily slain in himself the
M allarm e led a quiet life o f unspectacular
spontaneity o f an impressionable being, the gifts o f the artist gradually replaced in him those
poverty and toil as an English teacher, inter­
rupted occasionally by personal tragedies that o f the poet; he loved words f o r their possible meaning more thanfor their actual meaning and
deeply affected his work. H is Tuesday evening he combined them in mosaics o f rfin ed simplicity. One can easily say o f him that he is a
soirees attracted the greatest artistic and literary
difficult author, as Persius or Martial are difficult. Yes, and like Andersen’s gentleman who
minds o f the day and became the forcing house
for aesthetic theory over many years. Despite wore invisible threads, Mallarme assembles gem s coloured by his dreams, the lustre o f which
his enormous reputation, whose beginnings can our care does not always succeed in guessing at. B ut it w ould be absurd to suppose that he is
be dated from his appearance in Verlaine’s Les
Poetes maudits (1 8 8 3 ), M allarm e’s work is
incomprehensible....
slender and fragmentary. He spent much o f his Recently a question was posed, more or less in these terms:
life working on a vast project he called simply “Who w ill replace Verlaine— who had replaced Leconte de Lisle— in the admiration of
The Book which was intended to embody the
totality o f the world— hardly anything survives
young poets. ”
o f this utopian enterprise. Few o f those questioned responded; two-thirds abstained, motivated by the absurd phrasing
La Fausse vieiUe is one o f four Conies Indiens o f such an ultimatum. H ow could it happen, in effect, that a you n g poet should admire,
written in Paris and Valvins in 1893, but
which remained unpublished until 1927. They
0exclusively and successively,” three “masters” as diverse as those two and M onsieur
are adm ittedly minor works o f a major writer Mallarme'— the incontestable choice? Thus,f o r reasons o f conscience, m any w ere silent. But
and owe their existence to the fact that I cast my vote here, saying: greatly loving and admiring Stephane Mallarme\ I do not see that
M allarm e’s friend Mme. M ery Laurent was
fond o f a volume o f Indian stories, Les Contes et the death o f Verlaine should be the proper occasion f o r loving and admiring him more today
Legendes de I’Lnde ancienne by M ary Summer, than yesterday.
whose style M allarm e found wanting. This tale
For all that, since it is a strict duty always to sacrifice the dead f o r the living, and to give
is therefore an imaginative re-wnting o f
Summer’s original version o f an Indian fairy­ to the living, by a superaddition o f glory, a superaddition o f energy, the result o f this vote
tale, and has not been translated before. It is pleases me and w e who were silent ought perhaps to speak. What a pity i f so many abstentions
preceded by one o f the most famous Symbolist
poems ever penned, the so-called Sonnet in X”
were tofalsify the truth! For, informed by a circular letter, the press hasfo u n d in this news
whose arcane vocabulary is explained by the an excusef o r mockery a n d forfin d in gfa u lt in us, while, tossed on the inky waves o f intellec­
fact that the original French uses two very
tual darkness, but victorious over the wreckers, the name o f Mallarme, inscribed at last on the
difficult rhymes: "x” (the mathematical symbol
for the unknown) and "or" (in French: "gold," ironic elegance o f a racing-cutter, inf u l l sail now derides the waves and the bitter-sweet
alchemical symbol o f perfection). foa m o f raillery.

THE BOOK OF MASKS

 With upraised nails, chalcedonyx's hands
mg Lift midnight angst as an O lym pic torch
While final Phoenix-glowing pyx's brands
Sear twilight's flickered dreams with fierce-licked scorch

On chiffoniers where no lone ptyxis stands,

Nor ash-free amphora to shade night's porch
(The lord's out fishing tears on Styx's sands
W ith it, to climax Nullity's debauch).

A glint, through open shutters, fades unwrought

To harmonise where unicorns once brought
Emblazoned sparks to sift a nixie's strands;

Expired and nude, the mirror sees her fraught:

Oblivion's dark frame affixes bands
Where astral septets evermore are caught.

— Translated by Stanley Chapman.

g g ^ g ja p M A LLA R M fi
The In the kingdom o f Mathura, com- "Nonsense," the ogress insinuated: “who would j
Supposed parable to a peacock's tail, where the to risk the darkness o f this forest? And everyone f I
Old Woman sun, in place o f flowers, half-opens thirty leagues around fears us."
eyes o f emerald and o f diamond, there "I say again, Madame, I smell an odour that has
lived beneath this gaze, two little princesses, their already aroused my appetite."
mother having died young. Their father, a rajah with a “Your lips still have the odour o f blood on them:
grey beard, employed all his wits to wed in a second didn't you just dine on some tradesmen you en­
marriage a very beautiful and very wicked young countered in the jungle?”
woman. Detesting her stepdaughters, maltreating them. “Have it your way. I'm dying o f thirst and I'll g0 to
This enamoured and domineered greybeard let things the well to draw water; then I shall do my rounds, and
slide; each day brought its own torment. Their patience nothing worthwhile w ill escape me."
at an end, children resolve to run away; these two You can well imagine how the princesses felt during
clever-heads, o f fourteen and fifteen years, ripen a plan this conversation!
o f escape beneath their curls. Eluding surveillance, they The younger, o f a composure marvellous for one of
pass beyond the palace gates, those of the city and, on a her years, as soon as the amiable couple tramped to the
moonlit night, the two daughters of the king walk hap­ well, crept out softly. T he ogre, already clumsy with a
hazardly in the forest while the star with the tenuous troublesome digestion, occupied him self with sending
ray chills their artlessness. Unacquainted with gadding down the, bucket, and his consort, bent forward, with
about after adventures, as strolling actresses are, fright controlling the oscillations o f the rope. A gesture quick
seizes them, they begin to have regrets. as a flash, from the courageous child, seizes each of the
Suddenly, a sumptuous palace presents its threshold, married couple by the heel, tumbles them: wild-eyed,
they enter there, rashly: habitation o f a malevolent they fall down the hole, struggle in the water, cry out
rachka and his wife who is in no way second to him. with rage. Everything is silent, the ogre and his wife
The hosts absent; the house, empty. These fugitives, have ceased to live: we append no funeral oration. The
dying o f hunger, espy boiled rice on a silver platter, and house is overflowing w ith gold and silver, all that
they eat it with avidity. The meal finished, a great din remains o f the poor people the master has devoured to
arises o f the ogre and his wife returning. The sisters flee the bones. The children now possess these riches. With
onto a roof in the form o f a terrace; where, through an the superb residence, a single inconvenience: it is lost in
opening prepared in the wall, they see, hear everything the woods. In such a site, two young ladies such as
within. The appearance of the rachka, little reassuring: Lotus-flower and Dew-drop become very vulnerable.
his eyes blaze, a bristling beard down to his knees, the One remained in the house to attend to the cares of
enormous mouth gaped over sharp teeth. housekeeping, the other led the flocks into the fields.
By the thousand eyes of Indra," he roars upon That one, Lotus-flower, although the youngest, before
entering, “someone has been here, Madame, for I smell she set out, directed a thousand suggestions to the
fresh flesh." elder. Chiefly not to forget to put the bolt in place, an

THE BOOK OF MASKS 2,8

“if someone knocks, be sure to show him nothing but a write a letter of farewell: a veritable kidnapping. To
face powdered with coal dust, so that he does not dis­ Dew-drop there comes a sudden illumination, she
cover your beauty." could leave behind a trail for her poor sister who would
Fortunately no one ventured into the accursed place. return to find everything deserted She unthreads her
The darlings, by degrees grown fam iliar with their new necklace, tears a scrap of muslin and, in each shred
situation, felt reassured together. Carried away by the wraps a pearl; this precious weight will fix the material
ardour o f the chase, the son o f the King o f Hastin- to the grass. The journey of several days: all along the
apura*, one afternoon, passes before the dead rachka’s way she sows the pearls, dropping the last of them be­
palace. A prince o f the city o f elephants, in the flesh or fore entering the palace, the home of her future father-
sculpted in porphyry, having his strength and their in-law. The portal of wood and mother-of-pearl dosed,
endurance, is hard to frighten. H is entourage remaining she dreams, in her heart, of the forlorn state in which
at a distance, he calm ly w alks in the direction o f the Lotus-flower lives; then sobs within herself in unison
dwelling, intrigued b y its silence. The door remains with the fountain's jets.
closed to the pounding o f his javelin, and the royal The sun, its rays attenuated, was declining toward
hunter, who is not patient, mutters and threatens. Dew- the west, there, when the shepherdess gathered together
drop draws back the b olt with a tim id hand, she holds her flock; she is disquieted that, counter to a beloved
out to the adolescent the bowl o f cool water one offers custom, no one has come out to greet her; enters ere
travellers. U nrecognisable with her features masked by long, calls, searches in vain; and she tires herself out,
black dust, and tatters hurriedly rent on her clothing, only her echo awakened in the lonely house. The truth
one w ould have believed her to be the most vulgar of dawned on hen someone has earned off her com­
servants; the sly prince does not thereby let himself be panion. Rather than lament, she will sleep and post­
taken in: he scents a mystery and, without drinking the pone her inquiries until the next day. Astir, before
proffered water, suddenly throws it in the princess’ dawn, a first pearl perceived in the lawn at the end of
face. H er colour is restored, and her original bloom of the garden, she recognises her sister’s intentions. W alks
youth. I f his conduct was hasty, the lordly youth direcdy along a route eked out by sunlight and in the
excuses h im self as eloquently as only can a handsome dust. Sometimes she is more than an hour without
lad suddenly struck by love. H is heart, his hand and all finding any pearls. Out of charity some tillers give her
his treasures he offers to the beauty; who is silent, some handfuls o f rice and let her rest in the catde-shed;
intim idated, and thinking o f her sister's return. Not for in her headlong haste she has neglected to bring the
a moment does he adm it o f the idea that someone least amount of money with hen this is no pleasure-
m ight refuse to be the daughter-in-law to a king. That trip. The beauty of the wandering princess exposes her
blushing and those tears, he attributes to a chaste to dangers, such as being carried off by some terrible
embarrassment and nothing more; he gathers the person, lordship or robber, taken with dainty morsels.
darling into his robust arms. A litter awaits them in the On one occasion she is benighted in a ditch when she is
forest: Aw ay to Hastinapural— W had no time even to frightened by an old woman’s corpse lying there,

219 ST 6 P .H A N E M A LLA RM I:
 certaum{y dead hunger: a skeleton with stretched skin
revel in the return of her image, the renewal of her
Overcoming her repugnance to it is worse for her than memories, and make provision for herself, in secret, for
delicately lifting away the desiccated mask and washing a day’s work The old skin, washed, hung from a reed
it m a nearby pool: she had guided her blade so sk ilM y stem, dripped, fanned by the breeze. The day sparkles*
that it was like putting a hand in a glove; then, it is necessary to become ugly again, to stoop, to go
chopping off a stalk of bamboo, leaning on it, back back to the farmhouse and labour like a beast of
bent, and head nodding, she made her entrance, that burden.
morning, into the streets of Hastinapura. Henceforth Now a circumstance unforeseen by Lotus-flower, her
secured against any amorous approach. “What a daily visit is little by little robbing the patch of water of
wretched-looking female!” the passers-by exclaimed, its beautiful flowers; the king is greatly attached to it, is
turning away from her. Lotus-flower laughed beneath not long in taking note o f the pilferage: this was an
her wrinkles and tranquilly picked up a last pearl close event that was noised abroad even in the council of
to the palace; she had understood that her sister was ministers. The men o f affairs racked their brains in
not far away. She even attempted to get into the royal regard to a means for discovering the theft. The second
residence; the guards brutally drove her away. What son of the rajah, a valiant young man, declared that he
w ould an ugly brood such as yourself have to do with alone would take it upon him self to throw some light
the grandees o f the court?” "Another time" (she said to upon the affair. He would climb into a tree and,
herself) "fortune w ill favour me more.” sheltered by the greenery, watch for the connoisseur of
M eanwhile, to subsist— it was necessary— Lotus- calyxes. That same night, this plan was executed: the
flower took work with a fanner on the outskirts of the heavens glittered with stars, the lake scarcely rippled in
city. H eavy labour falling to her lot, nothing dis­ the breeze, stirring the king’s lotuses w ithout a petal
couraged her, as hardworking as a daughter of the falling.
fields. T he women pitied her and, because of her ugli­ At daybreak, the old woman appeared, whom the
ness, treated her benevolently. For weeks on end the prince, in the streets of Hastinapura, had remarked
child kept her mask and her secret, an improbable upon as a paragon of ugliness. “W ell now, there’s an
heroism; but coquettishness must needs reassert its oddity for you, who’d expect to find coquettishness
rights: and so, in the morning, early, she would steal there? What need of flowers has that monkey-face...
away from the pile o f grass, her bed, beneath the farm­ You’re going to have me to deal with, Madame Thief.”
house’s porch, to make her toilet in the crystal o f the Amazement! The wrinkled yellow mask has just fallen,
pond. Quickly to remove her borrowed skin, to plunge to reveal the softest, most childlike face that ever was
the voluptuousness of her countenance into the pure seen: bewilderment seizes the prince. W ho is this? An
water. H er long hair flowing, thus, down her flanks, to inhabitant of the heavens or the earth? So radiant an
co m b it and tie it up again, to stick a red lotus there; apparition had never yet haunted even his fancy.
because she has an immemorial fancy for that flower o f The innocent thought herself alone and tranquilly
her girlhood, w,th her very own name. Freely she would exposed her entire body to the curiosity of the intrusive

T H E B O O K OF M AS KS 22°
 outh She has come out from her bath, seated on one ecstasy when he passes, superb, in the streets; this
of the lower steps to the pool, while every drop evapo­ prince who can possess the most beautiful women in
rates, diamonds scattered over her. this supreme veil the world; to have fallen into tastes so depraved!" The
floats about her contours, wavers and vanishes like an king himself remains dumbfounded at such a strange
idealised cloud, leaving her more naked. Presendy she request: "You are losing your reason, my son!" he
raises her arms, stretching herself as if to cause the finally utters. "To marry this ancient beggar, a heap of
roundnesses of her breasts to jut, soon she amuses her­ abject bones, when the earth abounds with marvellous
self by plashing the waves beneath her litde white feet; princesses! Would you dare to impose this shame upon
it is as if, in their delight, a pair of doves were bathing. our noble race, whose sons have received a share in this
Then she slowly plaits her hair, black as the Indian bee. splendour?" "So be it, my father; you refuse me; I go
Now there are scarcely any flowers blooming in the directly to throw myself into the Ganges. May the gods
basin; with a pert hand she seizes one of the last within pardon you for my death!’
her reach and, in the naive mirror, she smiles and The queen, informed, intercedes for her beloved son:
admires herself. The rajah’s son misses none of this they should satisfy this whim of a sick spirit, a passing
graceful coquetry: trembling, in order to see better, he fancy, even if it should prove lasting. The daylight slips
pushes aside a bough of the fig tree in which he is away during these domestic tussles; the spoiled child
concealed... Ah! the thief may gather all the lotuses that finally triumphs. In the gleam of the candles, they go in
she wants with impunity: he doesn't dream of search of the supposed old woman, who dares not
punishing her. Suddenly either the kohila has emitted refuse such an honour, is at a loss; the betrothed of a
its matutinal song or else a cry is uttered by Lotus- king! truly this was the penalty for making herself ugly,
flower, the sun is blazing; the charmer has never been to arrive at such a result! at least she will take care not
so tardy: in a minute she readjusts the mask and flees. to remove her mask; the prince would see her as too
On his feet, leaning against the tree, the prince snatches beautiful for him to allow her to gad about the fields.
up the crumpled flower that the young girl has thrown He might forbid her to search for her sister, who more
to the earth: he is passionately in love and therefore than ever, she wishes to find.
disposed to every imaginable folly. Returned to the Two or three officers of the palace are present at the
palace, he steps gingerly onto the terrace where the king ceremony, which a venerable brahmin celebrates, a
holds counsel: "Sire,” he blurts out without any further priest descended from the royal line. The prince is
preamble, “I have fallen in love with the old servant radiant; he leads his hideous spouse into the bridal
who lives at the city gates, in the farmhouse of Your chamber and, in that wheedling voice that men know to
Majesty's tenant and, with your consent, I intend to assume on these occasions: "My best-beloved," he en­
marry her this very day." treats, "here we are alone at last; remove, I beseech you
The ministers, despite the respect due to sovereigns, that sorry skin that conceals your divine features from
were unable to suppress a gesture of astonishment. my mouth." “These words are a mystery to me,” the
"What! This young man whom every eye follows with princess, who does not know that her secret is revealed,
 icily insists. “I wish, alas, that I were more worthy of where perfumes were burning: it crackled with a sound
you; but what you see here is what I really am.” enchanting to his ear, and almost like kisses: “Burn,
“Enough of these pleasantries that are wasting precious lying pelt,” he hissed at it: “you've caused me vexation
time. Coquette, you are mocking my tenderness. I am enough!”; and, turning, playftd, to Lotus-flower, he
not a patient man, and I am usually obeyed. What! You jested: “You really are in a sorry state now that you’re
won't obey me? That tries my patience too much. Cast condemned to remain the most lovely and best-loved of
off the infamy of that disguise or I'll slay you forth­ women. Don't blush! I had discovered the secret of
with.”— “Slay me then, Sir; I am truly sorry, but I your beauty by the lustral lotus-pond, where I swore
cannot change my skin, even to please yomM ^ never to take any bride other than you.”
Supplications, threats, all fail before her obstinacy. A more heartfelt kiss than those of the night con­
The groom resolves to lay at his wife's side; contact cluded the prince's speech to Lotus-flower, who
with this withered flesh evokes the memory of the allowed herself to be taken without a grudge. The
nubile freshness that he glimpsed that morning; but, palace resounded, as to the sacred echo of a gong, to
vivid as an imagination might be, it sometimes cannot the happy news: the princess, restored to her childhood,
efface reality. was solemnly presented to the gaze of the entire family
That first night of marriage had its effect. To speak of the joy of the two sisters upon recognising
Before daybreak the princess, believing her husband each other and falling into each others’ arms would
to be asleep, slipped from the bed, to begin her require the accompaniment of that most tearful of all
ablutions in the alabaster of a neighbouring recess. The musical instruments, one strung with the very strings of
young man who was watching her rather than sleeping, loving hearts: certainly, after so many adventures, they
furtively followed his wife and, seizing the famous skin had merited happiness, which is silent.
that was lying on the floor, he flung it into a brazier
 This one dwells in an old Italian palace whose walls are covered with emblems and
figures. He dreams, passingfrom hall to hall; towards evening he descends the marble
staircase andgoes into thegardens, paved like courtyards, to dream his life amid the
ornamental lakes andfountains, while black swans are uneasy in their nests, and a
peacock, alone like a king, seems superbly to drink in the dying pride o f a golden twi­
light. Monsieur de Regnier is a melancholy and sumptuous poet: the two words that
most often ring out are or and mort; there are poems in which this rhyme, both
autumnal and royal, returns with an insistence bordering upon the alarming. In his
latest collection one could no doubt number somefifty lines ending thus: oiseaux
d'or, cygnes d'or, vasques d'or, fleur d'or, and lac mort, jour mort,
reve mort, automne mort. This is a very curious and symptomatic obsession,
quite the contrary of a possible verbal indigence, symptomatic rather o f an openly
declared love o f a colour particularly rich, and rich with a richness sad as that of a
setting sun, a richness that is about to become nocturnal.
Words impose themselves upon him when he wishes to express his impressions and
the colour o f his dreams; words also impose themselves upon whoever would define
him and above all that one word, already written but which still returns, invincible:
richness. Henri de Rignier is the rich poet par excellence — rich in images! He has
coffers o f them, cellars o f them, underground caverns o f them, and afile o f slaves in­
Henri de Rignier (1864-1936). Like cessantly carry opulent panniers to him which he empties, disdainfully, on the stair­
Montesquiou and Villien, Rignier came by his cases* bedazzled steps, multicoloured cascades which gush forth, then calm themselves to
aristocratic airs naturally, being the descendant
of French nobility. By virtue of his marriage to form iridescent lakes and ponds. Not all o f these are completely new. Verhaeren pre­
the daughter of the arch-Parnassian Jos£ Maria fers, above the most exact and beautiful metaphorsfro m the past, those he has himself
de Heredia*, Rignier had a foot in both
Symbolist and Parnassian camps, his later
created, even if clumsy, ill-formed. Monsieur Regnier does not disdain metaphors
works tending more to the latter. He was a from the past, but he refashions them and appropriates them to his own uses while
tegular at Mallarml's Tuesdays and a very
modifying their settings, while imposing new neighbours upon them, with y et un­
prolific and admired author in his day, his later
works being now not much regarded. known significance; i f among these reworked images one does discover virgin material,
The story here is from Lt TrifUNoir (Jit the impression such poetry gives will nonetheless be completely original. In working
Black Trefoil 1895), later republished in his
collected stones La Cantu it Jaspt (ThtJasper thus, one avoids the bizarre and the obscure; the reader is not brusquely thrust into a
Quit, 1897). The prose poem in italics forms labyrinthineforest; he regains his way, and his jo y at gathering new flo w ers is coupled
the preface to this collection.
with the jo y ofgatheringfamiliar ones...
 Preface There are swords , mirrors, jewels, dresses, crystal goblets rocks imperceptibly; it groans, suffering, worn out; the
& and lamps with, sometimes, the murmur o f the sea moan from its joints accompanies the sighs of the
outside and the breeze o f theforests. Listen also to the singing o f the cable, his scrawny arms lift nothing but an empty net.
fountains. They are intermittent and unceasing; the gardens which For days and even years he had often cast in vain.
they enliven are symmetrical. The statue there is either o f marble or o f The fish were not to be taken there, though the Fisher­
bronze; they ew is trimmed. The bitter smell o f box pefum es the man was
silence; the rose blossoms next to the cypress. Love and Death kiss each patient and careful to study the wind, the time of year,
other on the mouth. Water reflects thefoliage. Make a round of the and the tide with the utmost vigilance that his shadow
basins. Go through the labyrinth; wander about thegrove; and read might not overtake the boat and never once did he see
my book, page by page, as though, with the end o f your talljasper his reflection in the water.
cane, Solitary Stroller, y o u turned over on the dry gravel of the walk Sometimes, weary of inaction, he rowed toward the
a beetle, a pebble, or some dry leaves. high sea. The strongest waves awkwardly consoled his
melancholy; the deep water turned green. From the
open sea he saw the sandy coastline and the estuary.
The wind sighed in the rigging all day long. The fisher­
man persisted at his task.
On those rough and unavailing days, he preferred the
mediocrity of a derisory prize, fresh water fiy, the calm
of the current, the slow roll, the smooth, monotonous
The For a long while the Poor Fisherman was flight in which, one by one, straw, leaves, and a flower
Story o f to be seen standing in his boat, motion- pass by.
H erm agoras less in the river's estuary. Birds fly about him, having no fear. They were those
The water passes slowly along the bul­ grey larks with adventurous wingspans. The wagtails
warks and, coming from afar, from the depths of the skipping upon the sand banks cry out to him persis­
sylvan and fertile earth, it carries along straw, drifting tently. He wishes to go with them to the vast lands of
leaves, and maybe a flower too, herbs that stick fast to the interior where a different water murmurs from
the boat or else swirl around in the backwash. The sky springs at which the herdsmen drink: the soft mud
above this pale tide is grey; the sand from the banks around the ponds is trampled by the beasts; the scent of
goes out to rejoin the dunes along the shore; the boat hay mingles with the odour of the stables; there are
 hives o f bees in the gardens and the haystacks are even mastered the distant continuation o f the undulating
with the thatch; in die little square field where one digs peaks.
in the sun, there is nothing in front o f him above the For a long time Hermagoras heard nothing but the
living hedges, but the sky. Sweat runs down the face in wind in these solitudes, but one day he recognised the
warm drops, and the shade o f the trees is as refreshing echoes o f an axe, and by following the sound, he came
as a drink from a fountain. across woodcutters who were cutting down beech trees;
One evening dreaming thus while spreading his nets further on he saw a ro o f and smoke, and he saw at last
upon the sand around his beached craft, he heard the land o f which he had dreamt. T h e slow undulations
someone speak to him. It was a stranger his frame o f the hillocks, meadows alternating w ith wheat fields
supported by a stick; his weary features and his fustian lined with poplars; sometimes he heard the piping of a
cloak resembled the twilight. The man asked to buy the flute; linens dried beneath the w illow s and, at evening,
nets and the boat, and even as he spoke, counted out in everything seemed so calm that he dared not tread
the darkness, one by one, the pieces o f gold. upon the grass.

? The little field was situated on the slope o f a hill;

square, enclosed by hedges. H erm agoras cultivated it
A t dawn, Hermagoras the Fisherman stopped in the carefully. He sowed in the deeply ploughed land. All
middle o f a vast sandy plain hemmed in by bluish grass. winter long he was happy, but in the springtime, he saw
The river had rejoined him through a caprice o f its that the neighbouring fields w ould be more fertile than
meanderings, and its blue-green water flowed between his own. And so they were. T h e crop was barely
islands whose reflections seemed to take root with the enough for next season's sowing. T h e follow ing harvest
hair o f their inverted trees. A bird flew out o f a bush; looked even more meagre: the birds attacked it fiercely
butterflies fluttered about on their sleepy silken wings, and Hermagoras could be seen am id the sparse ears,
pink and grey, a few as yellow as gold. Hermagoras felt standing, as he once d id in his flat-bottom ed boat,
the sum that he carried in a cloth bag and set off. gesticulating and casting clods o f earth at the pillagers.
T w ilight came, and each evening the walker counted Sometimes he deserted his garden and travelled the
his humble treasure. countryside: fertile harvests ripened on a ll sides and the
A t the end o f a day in which he had crossed swampy privilege o f his m isery seem ed even m ore bitter to him.
meadows, Hermagoras saw the forests. Their massive The flock passed and he w atched them disappear to­
form shut out the whole horizon; everything within was ward the horizon like the ships o f old; their sails
silence and long shadows; sometimes the forest knowing all the w inds and, through distant seas, they
appeared to end and widen into a skirt; then he was travel to rich lands where their holds become
about to run, but the woods recommenced below some impregnated b y the scent o f their cargoes in order to
ravine whose crest and trees like clefts in the sky had enrich the pow erful m asters who, in residences adorned
simulated this bright interval from whence one w ith coral and charts, calculate the tides and their
ports-of-calL almost, by virtue of the cypresses standing at the
The following year was such that Hermagoras comers of each tomb, all of which were either pyramids
gleaned just enough to be able to sow. He went or blocks carved from stone. The first, those of the
through the fields bent beneath the sun. At last his women, were adorned with roses. Their perfume, a
sowings prospered; his field was gilded too, until one mixture of flowers and foliage, was at once bitter and
day, while he watched it preparing his prosperity the sweet, the scent of death itself. A solitary visitor passed
sky clouded over. The hail-storm broke; not a stalk slowly amidst the tombs. Her long yellow veil some­
remained upright, and Hermagoras, silent and pale with times caught on the branches of a cypress or the thorns
anger and despairs went off across the plain, his face of a rose, revealing her face, which was delicately made
deathly and his hands bloodied by the hailstones that up. Once she leaned over in order to read a name, and
had wounded them. the medallions of her bracelet tinkled upon the marble,
then she sat down and wept. Hermagoras approached
As he approached a spring in order to bathe his hen “Why do you weep?" he said to her.
wounds, he saw a man lying at the edge, asleep. It was "Wayfarer,” she responded, "where do you come
the same stranger who had once counted out pieces of from that you are in ignorance of my famous
gold for his boat and tackle; he still had the oars and mourning? I am spoken of in distant lands and you
the net, and Hermagoras, about to waken him so as to alone seem to know nothing of me. You do not know
enquire about his fortunes, noticed a half-opened purse who Ilalie loved. She loved that one who has departed.
next to the sleeper; coins were shining; some of them He is gone, and since then I wander through these
glowed between the fingers of his closed hand; he must precincts; he left one evening and abandoned me for
have been casting them into the water, because through poverty and wisdom. They say that he is now a
the transparency one could distinguish them resting on fisherman beside a river, near the Sea!”
the sandy bottom of the spring. The man slept forever. “I too have been a fisherman at the river's edge,”
Hermagoras picked up the purse and, having walked all Hermagoras responded. "I have laboured in an arid
through the night and into the next morning, arrived land and am tired of the ploughshare and the oar and I
toward noon in sight of a city. come here for gold and for love.”

The houses were clustered about a vast dome accom­

panied by other smaller ones. Palaces lined a wide river
traversed by cambered bridges; trees intermingled with Hermagoras who had slept naked amid the river reeds
the houses; sometimes they were lined up along long and rested his head upon a stone in the furrows of the
avenues or spilled into gardens. The waters sparkled field, who had been whipped by the wind, stung by
there. The streets were empty, deserted because of the bees and barked at by dogs, lay upon beds of bronze
heat. and slept upon woven silk. He was fanned with palms
Immense cemeteries surrounded the city; forests and lulled by song; perfumes smoked by his bedside.

227 HENRI DE RlrGNIER

 Those were amazing loves. And because there was a "Oh king,” the miserable one replied, “I was
secret and a cowardly desire on the part of those she observing the shadow at your feet cast by your glory ”
had rejected to at least see the lucky lover o f a woman And the king having lowered his eyes saw this shadow
they had all desired, Hermagoras became famous and A composite formed by his high crown, the rod of his
sought after. For Ilalie stalked through the dreams of sceptre, and the wings o f his cloak, it was deformed,
those young men like a haughty statue. One morning trapped, monstrous; in this chimerical form he
she was discovered upon her couch, naked and indeed appeared to be some aggressive but lowly beast,
white as marble, smiling as though she had died of joy. squatting at the feet o f the triumphant one who
Hermagoras did not weep for her. They admired the preceded it.
superiority o f his indifference, and rumours of the
fabled elegance she had kept him in reached all the way King Hermagoras understood the beggar’s allusion.
to the queen. She inhabited a palace surmounted by a He had, in this parody o f his body, beheld the very
vast dome surrounded by other smaller ones. image of his soul; and he wept. T h at very evening he
H ermagoras was ushered into her presence in secret, fled from the city furtively and, upon passing by that
and he often went there evenings and remained until spring where he had once robbed the sleeper, he threw
dawn. T he queen loved him and, because it was as his crown and sceptre into it. Finally he arrived at the
much her destiny as some disease, he became king, the tiny field where once he had laboured and, casting
one who had reigned being dead, beatified and idiotic, himself naked upon the hard earth, he let himself die
in the solitary pavilion where he had dragged himself there.
slobbering upon the paving stones. The grave o f the That year, an extraordinary harvest was heralded
deceased consecrated the accession o f the usurper; a throughout the countryside; children lost themselves in
few heads struck o ff consolidated the adventure. The the wheat. Only one little field rem ained barren; it was
arrogance o f the parvenu was to believe in his own situated upon a hillside, uncultivated and full of
predestination. T hey prostrated themselves before him; brambles, green on surrounding yellow , b ut when they
he was bored. had cut all o f the neighbouring w heat closely, they saw
One day as he crossed the great plaza o f the city, in that, all alone, an enormous stalk had grown there and
bright sunlight, crown on his head and sceptre in his they discovered a skeleton. T h e arms were spread in the
hand, he noticed a man proudly erect, though dressed form o f a cross and the m iraculous m arvel was growing
in rags, who smiled as he watched him. He recognised from the skull. A stranger from among the harvesters,
again the stranger who had purchased his boat, the one who worked for wages, came forward, plucked the
sleeper whose purse he had taken, one evening, by the stalk, then, on his knees, bow ing, he kissed the ivory
spring. Upon the order o f the king they brought the mask on the mouth. T h ey w atched him do this in
ragged one before him. silence and, when he failed to rise, they found, on
“W hy are you laughing?” Hermagoras asked. "What touching him, that he was dead!
do you want o f me— speak/” — Translated by Antony M elville & Andrew Mangravite.
 Jules Renard has given himself this name: the hunter
of images. He is a singularlyfortunate and
; ;
privileged hunter because alone among all his
confreres, he does not bring back animals great and
|
small but new prey. He disdains everything that is
1
known or he ignores it; his collection is only of rare
and even unique pieces, which he does not trouble to
lock up, because they belong to him in such a way
that any thiefs attempt to steal away with them
would be in vain. So keen and distinct a personality
Jules R enard (I 8 6 4 -I 9 I 0 ). A miserable child­
hood, followed by m ilitary service, then has something disconcerting irritating and, according
increasing success in journalism: Renard's
subsequent career seems to have progressed to a jealousfew , excessive about it. “Do as we do,
with remarkable ease. One o f the founders of
the Mercure de France, he contributed to most drawfrom the common treasure o f old accumulated
issues over many years. Poil de Carotte (1 894)
and other novels crowned his success. He
moved with his family to a small village outside
metaphors; it’s quick, and very convenient.” But
Paris where he presided as famous author and
town councillor.
Jules Renard doesn’t care to go quickly. Although
These prose poems are from Histoires
Naturelles ( 1896) which had a wide circulation very hard-working he produces little, and above all,
and went through a number of editions,
including ones illustrated by Lautrec and little at a time, like those patient engravers who
Bonnard; the first text was quoted in full in de
Gourmont's essay.
prepare the metal plate with a geological slowness...
 JULES RENARD

Family It was after traversing a sunburned plain that Chimney- Each day they give me a lesson.
o f Trees I m et them. swallows They stipple the air with cries.
t* T h ey do not dw ell by the roadside, on . They draw a straight line, put in a
account o f the noise. T h ey inhabit the uncultivated comma, then brusquely, a dash—
fields, beside a brook known only to the birds. They set the house in which I live between fantastic
From afar they seem impenetrable. As soon as I parentheses.
approach, their trunks disperse. T hey receive me Swift, so swift that the sheet o f water in the garden
prudently. I m ay rest and refresh myself, but I under­ cannot mirror their flight, they mount from cellar to
stand that they w atch and mistrust me. cockloft.
T h ey live mfamille, the oldest in the middle, the litde W ith light pen-feathers they scrawl inimitable
ones— those whose leaves are just budding— about flourishes.
them, here and there, but not straying far. Then, two by two, in accolade, they meet and mix
T h ey p u t o ff dyin g for a long time, and they prop up and become but a blot o f ink on the blue o f the
the dead till they fall to dust. heavens.
T h e y touch each other lightly with their long Only a friend’s eye can follow them, and though you
branches— lik e the blind— to assure themselves that all may know Latin and Greek, I-:—I can read the H ebrew
are there. T h e y gesticulate w ith anger if the wind written in the skies by the chimney-swallows.
storm s to uproot them. But among themselves no
dispute. T h e y m urm ur only in accord.
Snail Stay-at-home in the season o f colds, giraffe-
I feel that they should be m y true family. I should
*** neck drawn in, the snail bubbles over like a
soon forget the other. L ittle by little the trees would
full nose.
adopt me, an d to m erit it I should learn what needs to
be know n. W hen fine weather comes he takes the air, but
A lready I know how to watch the passing clouds. knows no better way o f w alking than on his tongue.
I know also how to keep m y place.
A nd I know , almost, how to hold m y peace. Dragon- She nurses her ophthalmy.
Fly From bank to bank o f the river sim ply
dips her swollen eyes in die fresh water.
A nd flickers as if flying b y electricity.

CS R E N A R D
I Toad Bred o f stone, he lives under a stone, and skirt dragging among the pebbles and tree roots, in the
there w ill dig him self a grave. depths o f noisome tunnels and stagnant cellars.
I visit him often, and whenever I lift his stone, I No comer where a fragment o f N ight does not
dread finding him, and dread also that he may no penetrate. T hom s pierce her, colds chap, mud be­
longer be there. smirches. A nd every m orning, when N ight arises once
But there he is. more to go, tatters fall from her, caught here and there
H idden in his dry, clean lodging, his very own, he by chance.
fills its every comer, fat as a miser’s purse. Thus bats are bom .
W hen the rain drives him out he comes to meet me. They owe their intolerance o f daylight to this origin.
A few clumsy jumps, then he sits on his haunches and A t sunset, when they take to the air, they unstitch
stares at me w ith red eyes. themselves from the o ld beams, where they drowsily
Though the harsh w orld shuns him as a leper, I squat hang by a claw.
down and put m y human face close to his. T heir awkward flight disturbs us. O n whaleboned,
T hen I overcome the last remnants o f repulsion and featherless wings, they throb about us, guided less by
stroke you— toad. their useless wounded eyes, than b y their ears.
T h e course o f one’s life offers harder things to M y friend hides her face, I turn m y head aside for
sw allow ! fear o f their obscene contact.
Nevertheless, yesterday I was tactless. He fermented, They say they w ould suck our b lo o d till we die, with
oozed: all his warts had burst. an ardour greater than love’s.
" M y poor friend,” I said, “I don’t wish to hurt your Such exaggeration!
feelings, but— Lord! you are ugly!” T hey are not w icked, th ey don’t tou ch us.
H e opened his toothless mouth, gave a soft, warm Daughters o f the N igh t, it is o n ly lig h ts they hate,
gasp and replied, in a slightly English accent: and, with the brush o f their little funereal shawls, they
“A nd you?” seek candles so as to b lo w th em out.

Ants Every one resembles the figure 3. Spider A sm all b lack, b ristly h an d , clutching a fistful
A nd there are so many... o f hair.
So very m any o f them...
A ll night, to the m oon’s signature, she affixes her
3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 ...to infinity.
seals.
— Translated by John Hurmtn.
B ats The night, poor dear, will wear herself out
with working.
Not on high, among the stars, but at ground-level,

THE B O O K OF MASKS 232

 Agreat many young men have believed in Barres; and even aJ ew who are not as
young as he. But what is the significance o f this? It was certainly not unscrupulous
ambition pure and simple. Here we find, in a youthful intelligence a primitive
nobility whichfin ds it unconditionally repugnant to hand over to Uje theforces of his
activity: to arrive, yes, but toward a victory and through battle. As an aim Monsieur
Barres indicated thefu ll possession andfu ll enjoyment o f one’s self; as a means, the
winning over o f the Barbarians who surround us, blocking our way, opposing, by
their mass, the development o f our activities and our pleasures. Too intelligent to
concern himself with what goes by the name o f social justice, too shrewdly an egoist to
dream o f destroying privileges into which he wished to enter, he had the people open the
door o f thefortress, which the people then believed they had taken.
I do not believe that Barres has ever written a book, unless perhaps at his debut, or
even a page, o f totally pure art, in absolute disinterestedness, and this is a true
originality and a very rare merit in occasional writings (tn the elevated sense that
Goethe gave to the term) but they have, with their value as ideas and as egoist
propaganda, a literary value equal to that o f works o f artless beauty....
Maurice Barres (1862-1923). Barres’ early ■ Somefollowed Monsieur Barres only asf a r as the cult o f the individual,
novels, collectively titled Le Cube du Moi, ex­
plored an individualist-anarchist position close
^inclusively; they propagated about them an individualism that was somewhat
to that of Max Stitner, otherwise the bulk of unsociable but which has bornefin e fru its; they taught ( this is again fr o m Goethe)
Bands' works are essays that read almost like
that the best way o f bringing about universal happiness was f o r each to begin by
novels, a highly felicitous form for a writer as
concerned with ideas as he; his total oeuvre runs creating his own happiness— afa n cy that must be worked over with patience to
to many volumes. His works'written while extractfrom ita d fin itive thought;finally they came in this w a y to know the
under the spell of Symbolism include Sous Voeil
des Barbares and D h Sang, de la voluple et de la mart elements o f an idealism o f the sentiments: Monsieur Barres has certainly rough-hewn
(1894, from which our excerpt is taken), a good many intellects. Other disciples went fu rth er in the understanding o f their
Barr£s soon moved to the far right As a
Catholic Nationalist his outraged protestations master and they learned that to achieve the happy life — which, as in Seneca, requires
during World W ar I: "They have dared to bomb our much gold and much purple— one must please, and that to please one must give the
churches!uwere the frequent target of derision
from the left. One of the most famous of the appearance o f making one’s thought coincide with what is generally felt.
Dadaist actions in Paris after the war was their ...The danger o f extreme opinions is that, issued fr o m the brain that engendered them,
trial of Barr&s for his betrayal of his earlier
ideals, which, along with his remarkable literary asfro m aflo w er in which they are agreeable, they g o their way, insensate seeds, to
style, had been much admired by diem. decay in the harshest o f terrains to produce grace and flow ers.

THE BOOK OF MASKS 234

 M A U RIC E BARRES

j j ate One can leam a lot about hatred on the

Jews and Protestants, he would not stand for a
Conquers benches o f the Assembly. Very few foreigner on the throne. In 1850, he failed in the
All displayed it during the long months elections, during which the worst insults were showered
when it was powerless, but, in December upon him, because he possessed valour. His daughter,
of 1892,1 saw it, in flashes, contorting various faces. still a child, knew the anguish of awaiting the
Panama, Panama!... I saw just such a speechifier pause, newspaper and opening it on a jumble of improbable
choked by a spasm o f delight, when an adversary scandals, there being always some filth that sticks.
passed, his eyes anxious, his cheeks pale, and down-in- One of her brothers was crippled in a duel. Then, in
the-mouth. Hatred, like a beast emerging from its 1869, with Don Carlos opening up the Northern
lurking-place, became evident to me in the eyes, Campaign and the party active in Andalusia, the police
between the teeth o f those vanquished the day before. implicated the old politician in a shocking case
And I recollected a harsh story from the Spanish involving vice. In broad daylight, he was dragged
civil wars. through Seville en route to prison, where he died,
In Seville, in 1869, there was a rich widow of noble choked by his desire for vengeance.
birth, one o f those women who spend their time in the Without delay, the young woman crossed the whole
shops, with a fine taste in clothes and further enlivening of Spain in order to rejoin Don Carlos in Navarre.
their charm with a pleasing air o f companionship. The Behold the avenger! In her mind’s eye, this prince was
elegant folds o f her dress were those of a Parisienne, as beautiful as the day— as the day on which she would
but, beneath it, her slightest movements revealed the make her enemies weep. She ran to him, her little fists
national salcro, that type o f violent suppleness, very clenched, in the fevered state that she might have
necessary in order to heighten desire in those experienced in running to the hanging of her father’s
Andalusian torpors, and which betray a spirit tense as a traducers and assassins.
coiled spring. She had a great deal to fear and to suffer on those
Her father sat in the assemblies as a member of the narrow paths of Navarre, because the Carlists who held
Carlist group, which should be understood not in a them were of a thieving temperament and they plagued
monarchist sense, but in a patriotic one. O f a race that, even women. In like manner they carried enormous
through the Inquisition, had delivered itself from the
pairs of scissors in their belts that were used to clip
mules, but w hich they used to cut o ff the long hair o f too ordinary.
the Basques suspected o f “liberalism .” A t dawn, left all alone, her soul and her body
Finally the coach, escorted by brigands through the defeated, but more touching now for having suffered
high rocks and along the narrow torrent, broke cover in many affronts, she made her way to the king.
the grim little tow n o f Estella, the fortress o f Carlisa. This prince o f twenty years, and very sensitive as
“Don C arlos is at confession, he w ill receive the regards women, was deeply moved by such harassment,
sacram ent tom orrow morning,” they tell her, with all He wiped away the d regs o f wine from the hair of his
the m yriad pleasantries o f soldiers, all those volunteers young partisan; for the lack o f women who might assist
who were thronging the dark arcades about the public her, he took it upon h im s e lf to undress her and to carry
square, and whose bold stares, in that sad hour o f the her, completely exhausted by now, to the only bed in
setting sun, were even more frightening than their talk. that poor house, the still warm royal bed.
H aving gained refuge, after much searching, in a Incapable, in h er affliction, o f keeping pace withso
miserable “fonda,” from which she wrote to Don many sentiments at the same time, she could only
C arlos, she expected to await the daylight without repeat to him:
further com plications. T his was to reckon without the “Such a way to treat me, one o f your own!" Pressed
draw backs o f a town in which there are more men than against the energetic breast o f her king, this person of
women. A dozen chiefs were gathered together on the twenty-six years fell into a state o f sleepy confidence. A
ground floor and, having drunk a great deal and kicked girl deprived o f her father, a young woman unloved, a
up a rumpus, they even grew weary o f violating the royalist insulted by liberals, she had so greatly desired
tavern-wench, as they had been accustomed to doing this protector! And, out o f an entirely natural modesty,
for the past fortnight, and so commanded that the she dwelt more on grievances in Seville than the more
stranger-woman be brought to them their recent outrages.
drunkenness causing them to confuse stranger and The investigation that was set in motion established
enemy in their minds. in less than an hour that the culprits were the most
She had no option but to go down to them. Her popular and vigorous chiefs o f Don Carlos' band. If
long hair, loosened for the evening's toilet, bore witness they had been lowly soldiers, they would have been
that she had sufficiently established her loyalty in the executed without delay. But it is reported that the
face o f the volunteer's scissors, but these debauchees young woman said to the pretender, who perhaps was
had nothing more in mind than another seduction. hesitant: “A score o f good soldiers can restore more of
After activities it would be ignoble to mention, nearly my honour than these have taken from me.” A
all o f them violated this elegant young woman whose thoroughly admirable response.
cries brought no aid, because, in Estella, as soon as the W hat is certain is that Don Carlos called the men
bells o f the angelus died away, such protests were all together, and six o f them being found, upon his

T H E B O O K O F MASKS 236
questioning them, to be bachelors, he invited the young sabres on his untouched breast, she accompanied him
woman to choose which o f them she would accept as a to his tent to wash away the blood and dust in which he
husband. was covered. He had strangled liberals with his bare
“Sire,” she asked him, “to which of them will Your hands! And, in the intoxication she experienced in
Majesty give the command o f the province o f Seville?” inhaling from upon him the scent of the slaughter of
And foreseeing an interrogation: “The fact is,” she dead enemies, she forgot the stench of the wine and
said, “that having two vengeances to pursue, I wish only those breaths by which, at their first encounter, she had
to abandon one in order the better to satisfy the other;' been sullied: she gave herself over completely to the
Upon the assurance that the husband of her choice image of a Seville soon to be terrorised.
would receive as a wedding present full power over the Eventually, the rogue was hanged at Pamplona. He
province o f Seville, she claimed the first braggart who was possessed o f every low quality and had not a scrap
had molested her. T h ey were married that same of virtue. But it is less their qualities than their common
morning, at the mass at which the king received hatreds that bind people together. Abhor such a man?
Communion. But Don Carlos, upon leaving the service, Ah! how strong a reason to love one another!
commanded the new husband to embark upon a Hatred is not a base sentiment, if one really takes the
perilous m ission. T h e chivalry o f a young husband who trouble to consider that it mardals our strongest
desired that so agreeable a woman should remain at energies in a unique direction, and that thus,
liberty. necessarily, it gives us an admirable disinterestedness in
She would, it seems, have had litde to attach her to other matters. Completely seized by a hatred, we are
her rough-and-ready husband. But that is to capable o f pardoning trivial affronts, as follows from
m isunderstand the fitness o f purpose o f a passionate this story o f the young woman who pardoned twelve o f
being. A fter two days, when the Carlist returned, them.
exhausted, his bayonet bent and his clothes slashed by
 O ne o f the most prolific and astonishing craftsmen o f image and metaphor.
Saint-Pol-Roux aka Pierre Paul Roux (1861-
1940). Something of an outsider even during Huysmans, seeking a new expressiveness tried to concretise spiritual\ intellectual
the Symbolist period, Roux was admired by ideas, giving his style a rather too heavy precision and an artificial brightness:"decayed
Villiers (who coined his nickname: "The
Magnificent"), Maeterlinck, Huysmans,
souls ” (as though they w ere teeth) and (icracked hearts” (like old walk); this is pictur­
Mirbeau... From the outset he rejected the dog­ esque, nothing more. The reverse o f this process is m ore attuned to the stale desires oj
matism and asceticism of his contemporaries, some to impart vague sentiments and an obscure sort o f consciousness to things; it re­
urging them not to turn their backs on life but
to render it more "magnificent" and indeed to mainsfa ith fu l to pantheistic and animistic traditions, without which art and poetry
correct God" by constructing the world anew are impossible, being a deep w ell at whose source all the rest replenish themselves with
through a poetic language driven by the imagi­
nation. In practice this meant a plethora of
the pure water transformed by a lesser sun into gem s livelier than an elfin ring. Other
metaphors that fuse the abstract and concrete, “metaphoristes” likeJules R enardrun the risk o f seeking out the single redeeming
uniting disparate aspects of reality and ex­
image, that one isolated detail which transforms and becomes the whole through the
posing relationships that are normally
concealed. transposition and exaggeration o f metaphors in everyday use;finally, there is an
In the 1890’s Roux published the first of "analogical” method which, whether w e wish it or not, m odifies the usual meanings oj
three volumes of Les Reposoirs de la Procession
(from which the prose poems here are taken) everyday words. Saint-Pol-Roux combines all o f these procedures and encourages
and then devoted himself to La Dame d la Faulx them to co-operate in thejormulation o f images which, though alw ays novel, need not
(1899), an extraordinary tragedy on death
which was never performed, despite a long
be always pretty.
campaign on its behalf by his most illustrious ...Saint-Pol-Roux is endowed with imagination and a nasty but exuberant sensi­
contemporaries. bility. Even i f all these images, some o f which are quite ingenious,fo llo w the poet’s lead
Disillusioned with literary Paris, Roux left
in 1898 for the far western tip of Brittany, throughout Les R eposoirs de la Procession, reading such a work as this will be
where he built the astonishing Manoir de difficult,f o r smiles w ill too often intrude upon one’s aesthetic musings; but these are
Coecilian, in which he lived for the rest of his
life. Here he became a legendary figure, both to slightflaws, lightly scattered about, and w ill hardly shatter f o r good the harmonies of
the local inhabitants, for his generously these richly-coloured, clever but serious poems. L e P elerin age d e Sainte-A nne,
eccentric behaviour, and to a new generation of
poets ready to appreciate his works, even written almost entirely in images, isf r e e fr o m any blemish and its metaphors possess
though, after 1907, he was unable to find a multiple meanings, y e t are bound together in a logical m anner; it is the very type and
publisher many of these works are only now
appearing for the first time. The Surrealists paragon o fa poem written in rhythmic and cadencedprose. In the same volume, the
admired him greatly (even forgiving him his Nocturne dedicated to Huysmans is nothing m ore than a vain chaplet o f incoherent
frequently Christian themes!), and organised a
famous banquet in 1925, which ended in a catachreses in which ideas are devoured by afrigh tfu l herd o f beasts. But
pitched battle between Surrealists and L Autopsie de la Vieille fille, despite a defect in tone, but C alv aire
Symbolists. His death followed the ransacking
of his beloved Manoir by German soldiers, some immemorial, but L'Ame saisissable are masterpieces. Saint-Pol-R oux plays
three months after one of them had assaulted upon a zither whose strings are perhaps too tight; a slight adjustment o f his clff would
his daughter, Divine.
allow our ears to rejoice profoundly.

T H E B O O K O F MA S K S 240
 SAINT-POL-ROUX

For Mme. Sarah Bernhardt See them searching there for g o l d o r s ilv e r h ea rts, b u t
meanwhile, tired out en route, t h e s w e e t F ia n cees w ith th e ir
The Five earthenware Lads, with skin o f cliffs,
long sheaves o f hair stretch t h e m s e lv e s o u t upon t h e g r a ss es
Pilgrimage to with eyes the colour o f subsiding sea, go,
and the moss.
Saint-Anne’s arm-in-arm, toward the painted chapel
& where the good Saint smiles pleasantly in an
But they do not find g o ld o r silver hearts in side th eir
old-fashioned way.
pockets, at the greeting o f the bells, th ey find, at b ottom ,
only coral, tinder, and their m edallions ; b u t hearts o f g o ld o r
In their Sunday best, m arjoram -scented, their five Fiancees
silver, none at all.
of dainty chinaw are accom pany them , arm -in-arm , pretty
toys whose apple cheeks shine— for they are in their stays,
Surprised, and paler than a surplice, th ey realize im m ediately
gloomy whalebone from vile orifices; healthy seamen are
that they must neglect an ex-voto for their village.
destined for th eir beds.
Then the sailors mourn, d ocile pilgrim s, none o f whom w ish
Then the young garland marches toward Saint-Anne’s,
to make widows for the gifts that the S ain t w ith th e su btle
through the ch ildish land, p ast flax and mills, hives, buck­
seaweed-coloured eyes sends them as rafts on those fragile
wheat, m illstones, m anors, plates o f brown bread, cows,
voyages— how pious one becomes before departure over
sheep and grandfatherly goats bleating.
blue seas beneath a splendid cross o f m ast and yardarm .

And, living souls, the people arrive at the chapel in which

In the breeze, ever low, Fiancees o f m arjoram -scented porce­
has been painted, in ancient fashion, the good Saint smiling.
lain are already asleep.

They come, these sons o f the waves, to present their offer­

ings; they come to present them to the Sponsor with the
subtle seaweed-coloured eyes, the Sponsor o f sailors, who
All at once, necks craning, the five earthenware Lads draw
saves them from the hungry wolves o f the Northwest wind,
from their waists five knives more brilliant than five Lorient
who guides their great wooden sheep to Cornwall's fold.
sardines and proceed, on tip-toe toward the five sleeping
virgins.
See how they search the bottoms o f their pockets during the
greeting o f the bells, see how they seek those golden or silver
hearts pledged to the reefs which have clothed in mourning Their ears, tangled among blonde tresses, resemble shells
those Fustian women going to weep at the fountain.,. drawn from the sable waves.

^NT-POL-ROUX
f
As if in jest, the five Lads kneel before the pretty ones who Naic and Madeleine.
dream on the grass that is as green as frogs. ofthesui
But the beauties do not turn around; Yvonne, Marthe bowed h<
Each young man having undone a blouse and a bodice Marion, Naic and Madeleine... and the villains run far' rascally r
awav. Isn’t t
wherein twin knobs of Quimper laugh, and beheld those
living breasts, they made subtle signals, with chandelier eyes, In the distance their caps, at first seagull wings, turn to Afini
and steel sardines plunge down into the source. wings of butterflies, then snow flakes cast on the horizon A bat
lamps to
flight, a
Spurting suddenly, from the rose, freshness of ancient The five earthenware Lads fall down in a swoon, while the
evokes, t
foam... one would think it a rose blush made by reflected five Fiancees of marjoram-scented porcelain vanish.
then fol<
light, from the bulwark’s iron sides, or that they had eaten Alrea
blackberries and raspberries, from gullet to gorge. moths ii
How
At last their hands plunge into fair bosoms and draw forth No longer possessing their hearts, they ceased to love: perfume
five Hearts, five Hearts beating like sails. Yvonne, Marthe, Marion, Naic and Madeleine. prayer c
Quimper; ] This
In the breeze Fiancees of marjoram-scented porcelain sleep leaving:
forever. culottes
Sinci
Then flesh is sewn up— with a thread of kisses through a better, }
needle of teeth— and the blouses and bodices, wherein twin A skeletoi
knobs of Quimper laughed, close... the five earthenware with sei
Lads enter the painted chapel to offer up the Hearts, the As ii
Hearts beating like sails, to the Saint of the subtle seaweed- For Jo ris-K a rl H uy smarts. shut up
coloured eyes who guides their great wooden sheep through Nocturne Darkness speaks. the tile
the hungry wolves of die Northwest wind to Cornwall’s beds ai
*** It might remind a schoolboy of that Appian
fold. 'Ill Book c
charcoal which is only put right after many a blunder and
Fro
buffeting.
fine ra
The frivolous breeze has decamped, having fixed her
lady w
imperceptible tresses into a chignon which will turn the
Alas! the sweethearts with their long flowing hair will no the fla
heads of the mills; but she has quite forgotten her litde girl
longer return once they have gone from the mosses and the An
a breezelet fit for dolls.
grass. catarrl
A magpie nesting in a chestnut tree opens and closes its masoi
wingsinvitingly.
All depart hence, depart along blank roads which unfold
from the villages in which the men coo. Silence fastens its clasps meanwhile, and a grit of
insects—most indiscreet of make-ups—lingers upon the
They summon them by name: Yvonne, Marthe, Marion, contours of the earth. Da
The vines compose themselves, as if the apoplectic
 f the sun had taken away their desire to smile. Through ...a summer's day viewed through dark glasses...
bowed hours the trees seem lost in contemplation; the ...a funeral where an en gagem en t is announced.
rascally rocks dream all alone. W hat i f w hite hairs w ere to sn ow d ow n from w h o-
Isn't this darkness mystery's own colour? knows-where?
A final flock o f crows passes by: a cemetery on the wing. What if th ey were stolen from invisible swans o r else
A bat scatters its extinguishing strokes upon the first from souls just barely visible?
lamps to show themselves, as if with an unsatisfied thirst. Its What i f th ey w ere the im m ense ro b e o f a w id ow w h ose
flight, a hybrid o f hesitations between muzzle and wing, breasts, just n ow caressed, will h en cefo rth w eep vain milk?
evokes, through its angles obtuse then acute, a ruler opened What i f the dead should shun their w inding-sheets? D o th ey
then folded up again by a velvet-ribbed carpenter. w eep over their nullity when, at rare times, the p o o l o f their
Already, on viol-bridges o f grass as well as by caresses, regrets overflow s ?
moths imitate cool stars. T hese hypotheses tear m y eyes and m y skull to p ieces!
Flowers are no longer distinguishable, but their Then a dancing o f spiders breaks ou t across m y skin so
perfume— a song for the nostrils— reveals them like a that everywhere... shivers?
prayer offered up by the grasses. No doubt caused by the dismal im m obility o f th ose
This egalitarian vesper makes o ff with my coloration, poplars...
leaving me a victim drowning in an atmosphere o f sans­ Ah/ there— from th e d e ca p ita te d w in d m ill: a c e le s tia l
culottes. sh a ft arising/— the orphaned morions s h o o t u p t o d e liv e r
Since darkness submerges our appearances, wouldn’t it be th eir captive members from th e dungeon o f m y I m a g in a tio n !
better, when tw ilight falls, to be without eyes, nails, hair, S u dden ly, a c h ild h o o d fea r in v a d es me, in fla m in g m y
skeleton or flesh— like a soldier unlucky in batde— and, d esire to take r e fu g e in Nurse's sk irts. I f I w e r e t o o p e n m y
with senses alone preserved, to be left wholly as spirit? mouth, maybe you w o u ld s e e m y heart a fla m e.
As if from an outraged sense o f decency, the houses are Hasn’t this underwood s p e w e d th e s a lty f e l l o w o u t to
shut up; the silken worms from the chimneys dry up among you, m u tely grasping the in to le ra b le tongue in h is fist?
the tiles. Like Chinese shadow-plays, people taking to their S ee— as if sleep w a lk in g, I fin d m y s e l f b e f o r e a p r e c ip ic e .
beds are revealed; certain images, set down in a long-ago Am I a bon-bon then, that th e a b yss y a w n s f o r m e w ith a
Appian
Book o f Hours, revive at the memory o f my hand. glutton's desire, a permanent a p p e tite?
der and Then the ecclesiastical c y c lo p s e s o f stone, with h o a r y
From a house in which a dowry is being plotted through
fine rains o f tears The Maiden's Prayer arises: some young ey es, chant bronze alexandrines over all t h o s e things dark­
:d her lady with tapering fingers is taming those decaying ivories, n ess giv es it s e lf to in lingering mantles.
mthe the flats o f a modern-day Tarasque. Within me a naive apprehension o f secular d e a th tig h te n s
litde girl And then, a mastiff, vicious trinket o f the portal, spits its the cords o f my arms which fe v er ish ly c r o s s th e m s e lv e s on
catarrh against a hand cart—pushed by a blaspheming stone my person.
loses its mason— which has in passing broken down. Purely by chance life is o ffe r in g me a mugful o f air, fa th er
Adam's cognac. Regaining my balance, I laugh
f sonorously— but I recall: sometimes courage is nothing but
on the the shining armour o f fear.
D arkness speaks... And now the whole o f nature is a n egress in a chemise
tic f e W
powdered with hoarfrost.

Darkness speaks. $
Duped by this semblance o f dawn, the cocks sound their
laborious whooping cough off into diverse bams. The
grooms grouse in the straw before their work begins. But
they have a venerable reply-in-kind o f their own; a quick For Emile Bergerat.
wink at the half-nocturnal union with the needles allows The Autopsy Upon the marble lay the aged and waxy
them to bury themselves in that Image-making which does On The O ld corpse: one might have said a soul, solid and
not see itself when eyes are closed.
Spinster perceptible.
Eye o f the firmament, I travel on. f> Three medical students in white aprons,
And my steps press their weight into excrement fallen pipes in their jaws, with the air o f a decisive tribunal, jeered
from the Omega o f louts who are without embarrassment or — O neighbour to the church with a green thumb for
anxiety. missals!... O honeysuckle in the flax o f a nun and a coif of
In the hollow o f the valley, between the breasts of the the valley!... O spokeswoman for dead leaves in the breezeL
hills, the pool stagnates, blurred like the eye of an O virgin without a shift!
androgyne. Here, on the bank, the two-horned tamarisk One wanted to see: could this be true?
mimics Hamlet on the Batdements; there amid the rushes, And those impious ones spread wide the legs of the aged
knowledge sets a filigree ambush for jolly fauns. and waxy corpse, as they would the needles of a compass to
At the water’s threshold and from all directions the frogs, make a calculation...
leaves o f living salad, bleat airs while the toads, fat cannons, THE BIRD HAD NOT MADE HIS NEST.
deign to drop a rare note in baritone. Having been thus disappointed, the students give voice to
Unexpectedly, a jeering snake spurts from a hollow elder this song of the cock:
tree and menaces the green gossipers with the draaught of
— That doesn’t prove a thing— fear o f the big belly that
his passing. attends the suckling-sin might have discouraged her; or, if a
Plic! plac! ploc!
prudent and wise gourmand, the hypocrite might well have
Confronted now by the pool's ironic wrinkles and long-
kept company with her greenish-blue desires behind drawn
nosed reeds, the serpent returns to the obscurity of his
Venetian blinds, but we proceed to be instructed!
failure. •
They were about to conduct a subtle autopsy—an
The dog has fallen silent, his catarrh cured by sleep; the
autopsy of the senses'as it were.
cock no longer sets his sonorous corn-poppy in the button­
hole of the hour; but once again, far away now, the tardy Lisping insects at twilight, the invisible steels—sharp
cart, guided along by that Capuchin of the Conveyances tongues o f vipers— immediately conjugate the corpse.
whose discipline lacks silence, breaks down. Winding from the pipes, cunning fumes, shaped like a
Darkness has spoken. moustache one might twirl, hang in mid-air in incredulous
waltzes.
Saint-Hairy, 1888.

T H E B O O K O F MASKS 244
 Her Feet revealed pilgrimages to the green hill where the
Firmament, under the seal o f her fleeting toes, inspired a
bouquet of consoling rain. From the Hands emanated the
frequent and capricious touchings of blessed objects and A
caresses of a rosary.
Inside her Nostrils were the fragrances o f incense, of
hawthorn, of candles, of sepulchral herbs, o f precious bone
ForJose~Maria de Heredia.
buried in glass coffins.
Behind her unsullied Teeth were found the savours of The The good breeze of reverie wafted me into
hosts, of fish with white flesh, of eggs— and an abstinence Im memorial adventure, amidst the thatched roofs, over
from wines and from all dainties. C alvary the solid river of roads that borders the
Her eyes exhibited, in shapes of diaphanous streamers, tender hope where those living distaffs, the
looks expressing ceremonies of celestial-hued chasubles, sheep, graze.
processions with laudatory banners, and similar compas­ On all sides beneath the metal cocks, in the divine keeps,
sionate visions in which flourish a Virgin with lilies, a Saint the gross pennies of existence, jingling to a uniform rhythm,
Peter with the keys, a splendid baby swathed in the breath of beat down the windmills’ sails and the ploughs* fins.
an ass. All alone, I went, giving way only once before the naive
The Ears yielded up many a sonorous ingot of Angelus, old coach: a wasp with a whip for its stinger, which flies
precepts of the flesh, organ notes and praises; but also, about from town to town, and gathers the animate booty
dimly, as though hardly heard, these words already fifty that the hive of the city will soon collect.
years old... tired words! And useless, from the lips of a proud
herdsman who passed one morning, marriageable, beneath At a certain bend in the road, doubtless a meeting place
the innocent and candid window: “Madelon-Madeleine, where conscripts made their farewells, I suddenly came upon
humbly I adore you; take this shepherd and his sheep, if my Calvary*
love is for you!” The Christ had to be guessed at, he was so worn!
•
Here he was set up hard by an ancient yew with little
berries like drops of blood.
Going down into the Heart disclosed the breasts, so But I was gready distressed because Jesus seemed to
nibbled by the teeth of her hair-shirt. suffer all the more in his decrepitude. He was no longer
A perfume o f rectories gushes forth. anything more than something hanging there; like a long
Then the heart appeared, pierced through by seven forgotten scrap of stone, and still more ancient, like a lad
swords like the Mater Dolorosa. from before the Age of Lances and Nails.
They knelt then, reverentially, amid the pipes fallen from
their jaws— and three signs of the cross, made by three red Great Flowers of Solitude slumbered all about.
hands upon three white aprons, vaguely recalled three I said;
Knights of Malta... “How I pity you, crucified one, in your devastation!... But
Saint-Hmry, 1891. why such skinny misery?... Why are you hanging, beautiful
 and grand, from a Sycamore of granite where I barely see and i f one day they were not able to harvest it«be c o lo u r o f t
you with the eyes of my soul? Answer me, o fraternal father, plough o f their kisses, th ese p ilgrim s m ight adore the bL. c o lic o f a r
will the form be layers of dust that the housewifely wings ofl phemous tares and forever lo o s e their faith in Paradise ” o f terro r.
the Birds of Time might in passing raise? Or else have you "O D ivine S ou l!” I c r ie d o u t lo s t like a divine lover In fro n t
been carved from the salt of tears, and will the long rain­ T h en , cla m b erin g u p th e m a rch es o f Calvary, I embraced tL squats d o u
drops dissolve you? Speak, paternal brother!... You spoke sycam ore r e d e e m e r a n d fu ll o f a rd o u r I k issed the scrap 0f the o th e r, <
well, in the time of palms, to the Woman of Samaria.” 101 stone a t the p la ces I b e lie v e d t o b e th e eyes, the hands, the C h ryso sto
Jesus answered me... feet, th e heart, th e b r o w — fo r , th e p o e t is th e whole o f reso n an t h
Oh! he did not speak, no longer living lips, tongue, Suffering H um anity. tum b les d<
mouth, oh! he did not speak... but the scrap of stone was So numerous were m y k isses th a t th e im age disappeared, bone co m ]
swarming with bees, and each bee was a vowel with two and at last th e D ivine S ou l g u s h e d o u t th rou gh the worn-out N ow, c
wings for consonants. form, the Soul fo r yea rs and yea rs ex p ected b y the spiritual Y o k els, c c
Now I understood this honey: m endicants w ith w ith ered flesh... h o p p in g t<
"No, it isn’t the rain, it isn't weather! Although I've been M y heart, su d d en ly ra vish ed b y this p rem ier diamond of m o uth s, w
here for centuries, erected by the pious women who would invisibility, opened ju st as w o u ld a fa na tical sunflow er faced sk ills w it h
be very old if they still lived, and who are, in Paradise, very with the sun.
young to be dead. No, it isn't the weather, it isn’t the rain! And I had to remain there, virgin a l, im m u ta b le, from age H I began
although it has oftentimes rained for the pleasure of;the to age. these e x tr;
flowers and the glory o f the apple-trees! No, that’s not it! I alone had seen the great F lo w ers o f S o litu d e. d o u b t th e
But, they have come to this cross-road for years and years, o f th e in v i
all the morose have come here. For years and years spiritual the d iv u lg
mendicants with withered flesh have come on pilgrimage to su gg estiv e
me; and all, clambering up the marches o f Calvary, feverishly puny b rai
kiss my health-giving image.” th in g s to<
"In truth, Jesus, the presence o f those kisses manifests un exp ecti
itself in the absence o f stone that has been worn away by the sib le glirr
passing lips." For Henri de Regtiier m o n etise
"There's more to it than that. Each kiss defines the d e lig h tin
sorrow that set it there. Thus the M ad kiss my brow, the
The Under the b lo o d -tin g e d tiles o f t h e M arket
gym nast;
Perceptible in my village— a. p yra m id a l carapace
Blind my eyes, the Dumb my mouth, the Deaf my ears, the b ein g, h;
Soul supported by fo u r pillars b e d e c k e d with
to su p er
Lame my legs, the One-armed, my hands and arms, and my
*** onions, garlic, tayoles and ga rish head-
heart receives the kisses o f the Magdalens. These sufferings
scarves— a Mountebank set up his stage.
brought together signify Suffering Humanity in its entirety, T hei
In the background, to the right, to the left, from the high
and their scattered kisses contribute to the same goal in ----T
floor o f the stage the modey Eccentrics tread, got up like
wearing away my benevolent stone.'' a m id st
affected birds or magic frogs, a childishly painted backcloth
"This goal, what is it, W ord made swarm o f bees?" in h ab it
hangs, upon which: Naine, a princess, m arrying King Geant;
"It is my Soul! my Divine Soul which ingeniously hatches decent]
an Explorer in a cornflower-blue greatcoat, a yellow
out under a terrestrial form, For them it is admirable Hope, sin ce it
umbrella under his arm, being gobbled up by a crocodile the
 of tender grass; a Redskin writhing in the abominable past: both eve and fecund morrow of the arid moment. The
liTof a reptile with oysters for scales, and other parodies eyes and the ears unique to their bodies brush past gaping,
o f terror. . .
neither seeing nor hearing my enigma, accessible to the
In fro nt of the
platform two crazy musicians. 1 he one capable senses of a subde spirit alone, ostensibly devout and
squats doubled-up on an ass metamorphosed into a drum, served by that fiancee of genius, comprehension. But if I
the other, evoking for me a derisive caricature of St John even attempted to invite them to understand me, the multi­
Chrysostom *, thrusts out and retracts great copper lips: a tude would indeed shun my divine leprosy. It appears then
resonant hailstorm like the rays o f the meridional sun that Charity, too sweet to the wayfarer, legitimate light of
tumbles down from the metallic bell, and this braying trom­ the poet, who divines the disinterested virtue of alms,
bone complements the drum. terrifies the basely imperious philistine, the eye of dread
Now, on the down-to-earth stones, a flock of smocked beholding a sack of coals roaring, in which a sack of
Yokels, congealed with ecstasy, breathless, with hearts diamonds smiles. The bringer of good news inspires the
hopping to escape through the shady lozenge of their mistrust of the prisoners of customary dogmas, and this sage
mouths, watch the tumblers demonstrating their fantastic seems malign, hideous, illogical: a phantom]
skills with dazzling capers...
A clown on the platform jeered.
I began thinking that the simple ones must have valued The keyboard of her pert little face played the whole
these extraordinary manifestations greatly, as being without scale of grimaces; the histrionic mouth puckered into a pout
doubt the finished print o f the infinite, the visible geometry like a chicken’s arsehole or stretched from ear to ear, in such
of the invisible, the perceptible pantomime of the mystery, a way that the Yokels, beautified by the gradual rainbow of
the divulgation o f the hieroglyphics, the presumable or laughter, span round in the hurricane of apish antics.
suggestive demonstration o f theorems rebellious to their For my part, I continued:
puny brains, in other words the spectacle, at a ready price, of ■ —When all’s said and done, one is always the enemy.
things too difficult to grasp, the divine Thule of the dream Rational grounds—and how!—because, truly, we are: they
unexpectedly placed at the mercy o f the profane, the impos­ the immediate fatherland, myself the exile. At each approach
sible glimpsed, the beyond surveyed and valued, the absolute I represent to them the one who returns from a supernatural
monetised; I came to the conclusion that the crowd was terrain, masked in a superhuman idiom; so my good news
delighting in the sadly evident fatigue of the jugglers and falls fallow upon their inhospitable sands: I am the Voice,
gymnasiarchs, become the final repose and the joy of its but they are the Desert.
being, having, fo r its proper and victorious satisfaction, only
to superficially observe. A rope-dancer, flitting nimbly through the void in the
guise of a dragonfly now set the homy-handed ones a-
Then: yelling in amazement—and a swift, inspiring light invaded
__These Yokels, shut up in the vale o f the contingent me.
amidst the very hour o f their banal life, I purred, these I had found the translation zone, in which we would be
inhabitants o f the transitory present are unable to relish able to understand each other.
decently the fruits o f my reason sufficiently for their age
since it partakes o f forever, vassal to the future and of the Venturing out to take refuge under the boards, in an
 obscurity propitious to enchantments, I enjoin, with the fastidious Soul vulgarises herself through the artifice of
imperious will o f a god, I enjoin my soul to appear—to be. transposition familiar to the Yokels whose entire be ' l
Suddenly a fabulous Girl springs forth from the clay of being stands attentive, on the threshold of their eyelashes I
my potter’s wheel! and see how, by means o f this commentary suited to their
M y wisdom took the place o f her beauty, my passions relative comprehension, they proclaim my nature, heretofott j
vivified her form with truth; and so perfect was the living negligible and ostracised, a charitable and necessary truism.
image that I believed her clad in bitter foam. Such is the success that the Yokels now desireand
Quickly I led her away behind the childishly painted piously glorify this soul, completely reviled by all the
backcloth. In a costume emanating— a dawn of tulle— from brutality of their ignorance: from each spectator long­
a half-opened trunk, I clothed my soul, then I cast the stemmed flowers o f admiration take flight to caress and
psyche, like a handful o f fortune, upon the empty stage. bless the wonderful creature. The rude hands, like cymbals,
The exclamation of the crowd, at seeing her appear, was a crash out eulogies, while, on the platform, the supple psyche ]
formidable silence strips off the leaves o f her revelatory algebra...
Then my Soul, with a seraphically nimble frolic through
the turns somehow resolved by limbs of the breeze, translated Finally, drunk with genuflections, the Yokels roar:
herself, defined herself, revealed herself to the eyes of the "Enough, for mercy’s sake, rare Girl!... W e’re already
Yokels, breathless at the sight of the adamantine salutation reeling, and our enthusiasm is so ardent that it’s going to
as if they had suddenly been bent over a mine of treasures. consume us if you don’t cease these marvels!...”
She is (by virtue o f the hereditary and common inter­
preter, the sign, understandable to lesser intelligences) a , Lenient, my Soul bowed to the delirious multitude, and
kaleidoscope in which, in a faithful interpretation, the armed with a glazed earthenware plate, she went down to
essence formulates itself, transcendence makes itself acces­ undertake the customary collection, with the material idea
sible, the abyss makes itself feasible, idea makes themselves of putting a value on apotheosis.
figurative. Each pirouette, each massive arabesque is the But, so as sufficiently to pay the Icon, and also so as
exoteric equivalent o f translated esQtericism; each gesture, as henceforth to see no more o f her, the Yokels removed their
if traced by white chalk on a black slate, is the adequate and eyes from their sockets and gently placed them in the
spontaneous contour o f an abstraction; and that evokes proffered plate.
thoughts o f the First Idea that the alphabet of intermediary Then, groping their way w ith canes, the Yokels
stars, sooner or later deciphered, will divulge. In the dispersed— with my vision in their memory.
twinkling o f the eye, a thousand eagles o f metaphysical wind
are restrained, birdlimed by the frost of the formal drawing Saint-Hmry, 1888.
o f miraculous lines.
— Translated by Andrew Mangravite 6* Iain 1W&
Thus, through that web of facile phenomena, my

f t
 Like all writers who have reached an understanding o f life, that is to say its immediate uselessness
Francis Poictevin, although a bom novelist; prom ptly renounced the novel. H e knows that everythin
happens, that one fa c t is not in itself m ore interesting than anotherfact, and that “the manner of
expression” alone matters....
The author o f Tout bas and Presque w ould have been able, like a ll the rest, to arrange his Jacques:
meditations into dialogues, to order his sentiments into chapters cu t at random into slabs o f lines\ to Dreams,
insinuate into sham-living characters a fe w animated gestures and have them convey, through Reveries
noticeable genuflections upon theflagstones o f a known church, the efficacy o f an unacknowledged
creed: in short to w rite "Mystical Novels11and to vulgarise f o r the “literary jou rn a ls11the practice of hole like a
Francis Poictevin (1 8 5 4 -1 9 0 4 ). The mysteri­ mental prayer. B y this means his books w ould have acquired som e popularity, which he certainly furniture a
ous and gnomic works o f Poictevin, so lacks, because, i f f e w writers are so esteemed,fe w , among those o f evident talent, are less well known
circling fli
accurately portrayed by de Gourmont, record a
quest which ended in disaster: his mental col­
and less seen in the bookshops. But in order to interest us, and alm ost alw ays excessively, Poictevin
being unal
lapse in 1894, and confinem ent in an
disdains all artifice outside o f the artifice o f style, a trap into which it is a greeablefor us tofall...
allow m y S'
institution until his death. H e continued H e visibly strives to go to the heart, to penetrate even to the vital centre o f theflow er-head o f the
against me
writing even then, but he was forgotten, except hortensia. Everywhere he seeks out the soul— and hefin d s it. No one is less o f a rhetorician than this
suffering s
by a few friends, and these manuscripts have
never been published. H is books, which are not
stylist,for the rhetorician is he who dresses up in stylish garm ents those solid commonplaces apt to caught.
novels, nor travel diaries, nor ricits, but some
support all the vulgar herd o f tawdry ornamentation, while M onsieur P oictevin w ould make a
In anot
intermediate form, appeared with perfect phantom still more diaphanous, a rainbow, an illusion, an azalea-flow er; this,f o r example: an enorm<
annual regularity between 18 8 2 and 1894. In
them Poictevin contrived to chronicle a
“Would the hand o f a consumptive, in the angustation o f its near-translucency, calm, not indolent\ quite une<
psychological and spiritual journey by means o f
but which no longerfeels, less exalted than before and indulgently returned, appear to w arn?’1 crowd wa
observations o f the external world: they are
Yes— how subtle he is!-—And w hy not w rite “like everybody else?11 hood, so
perfect demonstrations o f Symbolism, Alas, that isforbidden him— because he is a mystic, because he senses n ew affinities between perched,
everything here is symbol clothed in the skin o f
appearance. W ith hindsight his obsessive and
men, and things, and God, and because, veiled by the p a itfu l perfection o f a f o r m in which grace shirts, pr
repetitive observation o f detail, verging on
takes great pains over minute details, Poictevin is spontaneous. B ut there are, no doubt, things he has brows lil
synaesthesia, can be seen to foreshadow his not transcribed, not daring to, doubting his ability to capture its true, unique, very rare, unpublished seated pi
illness. essence!... looking
A Christian mystic and hyper-aesthete,
Pocitevin shared these characteristics with his
Everything in effect, in a work o f art m ust be as y e t unknown, even the w ords, in the way they all in bl;
close friend Huysmans, but applied them to his are arranged, to bring them round to new meanings— and one som etim es regrets having an alphabet thest rai
works in a unique way. Unfortunately for this known to too many illiterates. their br
anthology the impact o f his books is
A disciple o f the Goncourts, the preciosity o f w hose w ritin g he has still fu r t h e r heightened, ugly fas
cumulative. He has never before been
translated into English. Monsieur Francis Poictevin has rtfined his work to the poin t o f imm aterialisation. And in that lies them, fc
The texts here form two consecutive his genius, the expression o f the immaterial and the inexpressible: he has invented the mysticism o f precisic
sections from Dtmitrs songes (1 888). style. point v

250
THE BOOK OF MASKS
 FRAN CIS P O I C T E V I N

Jacques: That night he dreamt a black fowl was spot—I slipped, somehow or other, behind those hostile
Dreams, obstinately pursuing him. It was larger than beings, along the back of the highest tier and finally crept
R everies an ordinary fowL Where the head should into an angular and roofed passage. But there a wan, uneasy
2*> have been, in the severed neck, there was a light immediately made me fear I would be trapped. From
hole like a scooped-out eye. In the room, some pieces of second to second my fear increased, a terror now that they
furniture and even one or two people were obstructing my might discover me. And, through the thin wall of the for­
circling flight. And I felt saddened, with a sort of fury at tunately sinuous corridor, there infiltrated to me the
being unable to escape this terrible creature. Yet I did not anhelation of the crowd confusedly muttering.
allow myself—despite the fowl almost constantly brushing That night, in a dream, he was with an old friend, long
against me, and feeling in anticipation its clawing at me and since not seen, in the Luxembourg Gardens where, when we
suffering already the pain of it—I did not allow myself to be were reading law we liked to meet to read pages of the great
caught. poets. But in my nebulous, febrile vision the park was
In another dream he found himself in the upper tiers of levelled; extended into a solitary space, there remained only
an enormous amphitheatre, open to the sky and divided into a supposition of the phantoms of trees, offering no obstacle
quite unequal proportions. The arena was still empty: the to walking nor to seeing. Our gait had about it a morbid
crowd was waiting, inattentively animated. The neighbour­ languor. I saw that I was very thin, and I regretted that my
hood, so to speak, in which I saw myself confined, almost friend had retained his former appearance, rather stout de­
perched, was occupied by sick people wearing workmen’s spite his good breeding and his extremely well-informed
shirts, printed calico dresses, with head bandages on their intelligence. And, while we conversed to no purpose, able to
brows like people in hospital, and these men and women, convey only the certainty of our double isolation, impene­
seated promiscuously, rather stooped on the whole, were trable one to the other, I felt myself fading away into an
looking malevolendy in my direction: that bourgeois dressed irremissible weeping grief. And about us the breezes were as
all in black, holding himself aloof, as if apart from their fur­ if dead.
thest rank. Soon I divined a confused murmur rumbling in It was that night in the environs of the Place de l’Etoile,
their breasts, and already faces were becoming tense, in an on the comer of an aristocratic and somewhat isolated
ugly fashion, bearing down on me, against me. And, to flee street. Very close to me I heard an unfamiliar voice which
them, before they singled me out with an indubitable caused me no surprise, as if previously I had wished to hear
precision—for presendy, I sensed it, there would be no it, and yet that voice was literally unknown to me. “What
point whatever in my making myself look small on this does it avail you,” it said to me, “to be so calm and obser­
 vant, i f you pass by like that without a word of commis­ impression that one is traversing their brain, ill-naturedly within a
eration?..." It was a person difficult to put a name to, at once reduced in size.
humble and wise. The lucid eyes, of a lustreless grey, with a Und
chaste aura faindy brown, reddish, possessed a depth of At times the very small child, in its first few months, face the Chi
truth, they were gende, transversely they were intersected by raised, feet and hands in the air, fists clenched, eyes like a shadovi
a thin veil of obscure transparency. The face had a matt clouded glass, has a physiognomy that is ineffably inarticu­ speak,
quality, as if drained of colour, and bespoke a suffering re­ late, as if with a happy infinity. If, then, one tries to caress it, ’ form a
absorbed in thought. The hands, pallid with purity, seemed it is obvious that this is a disagreeable distraction; even the And it
in their apparent whiteness intermingled with a blackish presence of its mother seems intrusive, she is disturbing it in shadow
tinge, to indicate they were in no way idle. Dressed in grey, that speechless expansion with that which our dimmed eyes dirty,
her dress of no importance, she was neither a child nor a can no longer discern in the atmosphere, etherically peopled forke<
dwarf, although she was simple, small and singular, and for the baby with higher things absent for ourselves.
wholly engaging. She reminded me of nothing hitherto T\
experienced. Fundamentally her import had about it an Perhaps our black cat, with eyes of chrysoprase encirding delia
obsolete bewitching quality of someone superannuated and two variable black pearls, cat slipping unexpected, wheedling crink
prone to previsions. Suppose, I thought on waking, I were to and cautious, alongside objects, and whose splendid fur has eyes i
encounter her one day. But no, comparing the dream-vision at its tips reddish glints, likes to stop, to crouch on the man,
and the recollection remaining of it, I already sensed it mantel shelf almost next to the clock so that her somnolent catcl
evaporating, near-irrecoverable in the limbo of the awakened reverie might in some way be regulated by the sound hidden resui
memory. in that box, sound of a shifting fixity. won
tran
Finding oneself by chance in the situation just described ■That night my trousers, left tossed on an easy-chair, wad
with someone whose sentiments moreover have rather bothered me. I lit the candle again. Those legs: divergence, busi
escaped you, it immediately seems to youthat your spirit not sagging, the factitious vestige not perhaps so much of my dou
only perceives these latencies, but actually realises at that personal vanished legs as of a different form becoming dis­ othi
moment what the other must then be experiencing. Might torted, out of kilter, imprecisely suggested. liqu
that not be a proof that the visible side of beings is
adequately attached to their substance, that the one and the
5
Sounds horrifically slow and heavy of the nightsoil-carts, his
other are identical? when one wakes in bed, disturbed by that squalling of seai
shaken, jolted paving-stones. The sleeper, who ordinarily is fea
That compels one to observe diminishing within oneself dreaming, imagines himself in a hell hallucinatorily aug­ aln
the esteem one has for somebody to whom one owes mented by the darkness of the hour which itself is barely
gratitude. cul
awake. In a muffled commotion, deafening and distracting, Of
that juddering movement ignobly troubles the mornings ale
There are those whose disagreeable gaze gives one the final darknesses. And the fearfidness of the odour divined al\

T HE B O O K OF MASKS 252
 ^ and beyond the thundering of those carts. hibited a lassitude beyond enervation, lacking any further
impatience. When at length the solicited journalist arrived,
Under the electric lighting I am walking on the asphalt of our man got to his feet, still a trifle bowed, in a sort of dis­
the Champs Elysees, preceded by my strangely double gusted humility.
shadow. A blackish shadow enclosed within another, so to In the Cafe de la Regence, one afternoon, as we were
speak, of glass, as if the soul had slipped into the external entering, a painter and I, we saw, seated in a comer at a table
form and inwardly all that remained was a dark emptiness. with papers on it, a man still young, fairly slender, an opera-
And it seems to me that it suffers within my long, doubled hat on his head, wearing a dress-coat, and a mauve satin
shadow which is fleeing, shabbily, coldly white, somewhat cravat, blond and pensively sedate, his complexion unspoilt;
dirty, skimming the asphalt. All around truncated shadows, we observed that man, all things considered a well-bred sort.
forked, twisted, of branches, oscillate, rigid. He ceased writing, began again. In his buttonhole was dis­
played a decoration of the same hue as the cravat, flower or
That man, barely in his forties, of a leanness by no means ribbon, who’s to know. The people, the painter told me, call
delicate, greying already, his beard sparse at the sides and them, you know, those gendemen, scented fops. For my
crinkled towards the point, eye-sockets constricted with dull part I was interested in a minimum, the essential thing
eyes not unaccustomed to gleaming, that unhealthily lively fundamentally, in the uncertainty I thought I found in that
man, usually well turned out, sometimes accosts me before I individual, less affected perhaps than disguised and
catch sight of Him; he converses with me familiarly, as if unhappy.
resuming a conversation interrupted the day before, his On the Champs Elysees, of an elderly buck preceding me
words quickly insistent in his toothless mouth; without by a few paces, all I saw, in a ridiculously inverse direction of
transition he makes off again and I remain a second, thoughts from behind the head, was the waxed tips of his
watching that back which seems to be hastening towards moustache.
business not to be missed. However the fellow would no A woman, already old, whose nose rather contradictorily
doubt have wished for himself what he was telling me of an­ drooped rather like a beak, yet flabby.
other: not to eat, he scarcely fancied that at all, but to absorb In a wine-merchant’s, the shopkeeper’s voice seemed to
liquid... that he preferred. me to be corked and to be at one with that forty-year-old,
In the waiting-room of an important newspaper a man in fairly well-groomed citizen’s leaden skin.
his fifties, his large and long limbs emaciated, remained
seated, leaning forwards, on the settee opposite me. His Have you noticed how one listens sometimes almost
features had about them that haggardness that already complaisandy to persons who displease you and tell you
almost caves in on itself. One sensed that the pulled-down vexatious things? One even begins, at those times, to speak
cuffs of his high-buttoned frock-coat concealed the absence as they do, with an admixture of good faith. Deep down in
of linen. His eyes, not precisely lowered, looking before him your being, however, a voice, personal and alien, confusedly
a lm o s t at random, told of disappointments experienced, reproves you.
always foreseen in vain. In his inobdurate bearing he ex­
 Certain scents one Feels to be of an acute subtlety, but But I made off, almost fleeing from the obfuscated eyes 0f out, a m * 1;
veiled as in a muslin,* they reach you almost sifted, and one black pills that aroused thoughts o f hideous and dubious the white*1
fears they are becoming stale. poisons. This m
There are many oranges with a granular, florid skin, in k Concor
short, commonplace. Some are smooth and muffled in a In the cellars o f the Pantheon, in the round corridor fullness o!
faint dampness. Peeled, the quarters of oranges o f an where the custodian-guide, his lantern in his hand, lines up recalled s(
oriental provenance resemble a sober light, a matt amber the close-packed visitors in a file, the low vault describes a In the
daylight, an odorous daylight. uniformly turning curve. The echo o f the custodian s voice slowly dii
The petals o f the eucharis, a fragile cup-shape, are of a rolls and reverberates. And this absurd repetitive sound and one sense
whiteness shaded with humidity, sumptuous, from which, that curve, bare stone, smooth, insipidly whitish, leave you fountains
proud, there exhales a like perfume. At the heart, a discreet bewildered at their illusory flight. Under
blue fire subsists, peaceable. water of i
fountain
Under my gaze that oscillates before a cat’s-eye, Rue On th
Royale, there shifts in the midst of the precious stone, be­ mental w
tween one o f its sides, brownish-yellow, and the other, feet, are i
marsh-green, there shifts, phantasmally, a perfecdy oblong within tl
Parisian Sometimes, under a clear winter sky, in the
shadow. And it makes as if to divide, and is no more than a impressi
Landscapes Seine more grey than green, trunks of trees
minute swarming, and in my immobile vision it is already That
f immerse their shadows; they make way for
blending again into the suffused stone that lights up, but hadabot
each other, Licette mused, like swimmers; the water wets
dimly. barges a
them without traversing them. On other occasions, mused
In another goldsmith’s window three diamonds, along 01
Jacques, it was as if thin, impregnable and glassy laminae
grouped— the third, slightly lower, surmounted by an ultra- piles, in
were barely floating beneath the surface.
marine sapphire. This triple, luminous stone of non- arches,;
Today the Seine, under a a fine wind-borne rain, was
diaphanous water is unified, for me, into a family shining to be sv
rolling along, yellowish, with meanders o f shadow shading
with an inviolate purity. But the sombre sapphire dominates, reflectii
towards purple in, as it were, a surreptitious transparency.
spaciously alone. but aw;
At some steps where horses are led to drink, the water
Samari
breaks up, it halts, it wishes, so it seems, to take rest; and
In the window o f a pharmaceutical laboratory. At a point intermi
here it forms wavelets, long undulations only barely
on a small, wide-mouthed glass botde a glimmer of green themse
hollowed out, hesitant rolling waves: then, momentarily
light setded; uneasily deeper, somewhat turbid, amidst the pipe di
everything stirs again in a quickly lost eddy. And so there the
other similar bottles behind. Close by, a tubulated balloon- quay b
waters do not so much go astray as coagulate. Lazy ripples
flask contained, as if frozen, a minute residue of silver exhalai
that come together, and finally inconclude.
powder. In another narrow, rather long glass container, of the
Amidst the nitidity o f the snow on the lawns of the
some fallacious gum had the lustreless appearance of horn. towart
Champs Elys^es, the shadows o f the tree-trunks lie stretched

T H E B O O K OF MASKS 254 255

 | bluish, soft, hardly transparent but veiling still pointed roofs and the round towers reappear, implacable,
^e'whiteness beneath in a velvety lack oflustre. unmured, dry as law-digests.
rfcis morning the statues on the fountains of the Place de Under the arches of the bridges, a few stones of a slighdy
k Concorde were like negroes, blacker still in the frozen mildewed whiteness among the others, black. They seem
fallness of their mantles. Curved behind them, the fountain phosphorescent, almost like rotten wood exuding light.
recalled some Chinese representation. Morning. Between the bare walls of the houses, above
In the basins of the Rond-Point, among the lumps of scrap of wasteland, the white-coloured smoke of a factory-
slowly dissolving snow, melting ice, a greeny, steeped crystal; chimney was slowly drifting in tufts towards the mist-pale
one senses it growing dim. Frozen tears hang from the sky where, suddenly floating, ill-concealed, a globe appeared,
fountains, inwardly brilliant. seeming less of a sun than a moon. And that vaguely
Under a dismal afternoon sky, in the thawed and leaden gleaming speck was quickly effaced, receding into the sky’s
water of those basins, the reflection of the low, bushy high and even expanse. Along the Avenue d'lena the purply-
fountain had a whiteness of melting ice. russet tree-tops were sprouting, bushy in a drab sparseness.
On the sterile snow in the Jardin d’Acclimatation, orna­ Further on, almost above the Seine, faint wisps of factory-
mental white ducks, not too fat, with small orange-yellow smoke were still insensibly merging into the sky, itself of a
feet, are illuminated as if from within. A sort of melted light molten silverishness in places. The river, a faindy dulled
within those bodies of unruffled feathers and which gives an green, flowed along in a billowy haste, eddying in ebullitions
impression of expanding. behind the arches.
That morning, the air still not completely clear, the Seine Through that late-March afternoon, on the Place de la
had about it dubious charms. The ill-tarred blackness of Concorde, among the gusts of contrary wind, and warm, and
barges against the green water, barges immobile or slipping damp, interrupted gusts, recommencing, halted, off once
along on tow; circles of water against the smoothed stone more, as it were, towards the clouds, there were ripples
piles, in particular the blackish-violet shadows under the wandering from moment to moment across puddles on the
arches, a sort of luxury that hides itself away and makes off ground, infrequent passers-by, discords rather, hand on hat,
to be swallowed up in a neutralising green, and finally the coat-tails turned back or skirts pliant; in the sky a drama,
reflections of the trees close alongside that seem not asleep, resplendent and obscure: there, banks of clouds decking
but awake and watching, and, above all, close to La themselves out in rather fake gilt bindings, at the zenith
Samaritaine, dormancies of quiet water, almost level, severely sombre fragments, elsewhere, in the distance,
intermittendy shifting slighdy and faindy bestirring stretches of subdued violet-tinged silver, faded towards the
themselves in a deliciously chilly shivering. Next, a sewage- far horizon between the fine lines of blackish branches. The
pipe discharges its filthy ochre, turgid, from the wall of the eye willingly returned, almost above the square itself, to
quay below the Conciergeries; one imagines a liquefied some uniform whitenesses, intimately dissolving, steppes
exhalation of all kinds of crimes—the ultimate dissolution across which there slowly passed small, high, frayed, fluid-
of the pestilences of that Palais de Justice is making its way grey clouds. About us, irritating, carriages were threading,
towards the ocean. And, under the dissipating mists, the some of the fiacres’ scrap-iron jangling, raucous; and the
obelisk, a washed-out pink, was disconcerting in its un­ into it. From the swaying o f the tops o f the pine-trees, a
shaken fixity. Only the steeples of Sainte-Clotilde were at murmur was welling up, it swelled, spread out, for a few
one with the spirit of the scene: narrow openings in their moments became that places soul. And small drops of rain
greyer stone seemed, in their ascending diminution, fell, interweaving, fine, as if suspended and instantly
mystically to look out from the depths of an ancient sky. reabsorbed, percolating into the atmosphere. A white swan
That evening, from the Rond-Point, under the rain at the on the lake advanced towards the stroller, then, faced with
moment of sunset, in one of the lateral avenues, the not yet his empty and uselessly fr ien d ly hand, it turned, disdainful,
indistinct lines of the slighdy moving tree-tops were floating along on its way.
receding towards the distant east of a sky almost magically That first morning o f M ay, under a calm sky of timid
blue. rain, there was no dragging oneself from the parapet of the
That Easter Monday, the first fine evening of Spring, Pont-Royal. Behind the arches, after the foam-flecked
from the Place de la Concorde, I was watching the sun, swirlings o f the water, among the broken agitation of its
vanished in a crimson glow to the left of the Arc de litde waves, the Seine continued in smooth, rather placid
Triomphe. It was becoming indistinct, as if in a faded mist. sheets, slowly undulant. And thus the river communicated to
Above, the rosy tints of the clouds were expiring in a violet the soul the indefinite gliding trepidation o f its silence.
display from instant to instant shading away into a pale lilac Through the glass screen on the terrasse o f a boulevard
evanescence in the depths of the heavens. cafe, the budding trees, the bases o f their trunks apparendy
That evening, after an intermittent day of hail and sun, dissipated, take on an almost pallid mitigation o f impon­
from the Pont de 1’Alma, to the left of the sunset, some derables against a hazily blue sky. It is as if they were able to
clouds were massing their bushy, almost tenebrous summits, traverse it, and they appear, airy forms, like surprising,
aureoled in too dazzling a gold. Then, a litde more to the desired visions from the world beyond.
left, there was a curious crystal patch, imperceptibly bluish In the Montmartre cemetery that morning, in the blue
and already tinted grey; small clouds hung there, indecisively sky, where the as yet not vertical sun made the emptiness
straying, still adding a velvety tone to their frail lilac. around it still more limpid, in its very background that sky
That morning of shifting clouds, on the broad bank of remained ashen. An almost harsh immensity, yet more
the lake in the Bois de Boulogne, the moving water was desolate against the new foliage. And it blocks off the stars.
encroaching less deeply into that greenery, not extending — Translated by Iain Whitt.
 This one makes ballads. For the present, nothing more, nor less
need be demanded o f him. He makes ballads, and wants to make
ballads still, and to go on making ballads. These ballads scarcely
resemble those o f Francois Villon, or o f Laurent Tailhade; they
resemble no one else’s.
Printed like prose, they are written in verse, and superlatively
animated. This typography has given amiable critics the illusion
that Paul Fort has discovered the squaring o f the rhythmic circle
and resolved the problem that tormentedJourdain, o f w riting a
literature that would be neither prose nor verse; there is a good
deal of easy grace in this compliment, but it is only a compliment.
I f the line that separates verse and prose has been stretched, in
these lastyears o f literary development; to an almost invisible
Paul Fort (1872-1960). A prolific balladeer
over many years, Fort was an exceptionally thinness, it nonetheless persists; to the right, prose; to the left,
popular poet in his day, not only with the
public but also with his peers, who voted him
verse; non-existentfo r those who pass, their eyes unfocused, it is
"Prince of Poets" in 1912. His poems now there, and indelible,f o r those who see. The rhythm o f verse is
seem very dated however.
Fort was most important as one of the independent of the grammatical sentence; it places its strongest
founders of Symbolist drama at his Theatre
d'Art which functioned for four years before emphasis upon sound and not sense. The rhythm o f prose is de­
becoming the Theatre de l'Oeuvre in 1894,
where Fort’s influence continued to be strong. pendent upon thegrammatical sentence; it places its emphasis
In 1905 he founded and edited the review Vers
et Prose which lasted until the outbreak of war. upon sense and not sound. And as the sound and the sense are
This, the last great Symbolist review also rather
tentatively embraced the nascent modem only rarely able to coincide, prose sacrifices sound and verse
movement.
This story is from his first small publica­
sacrifices sense. This is a summary distinction which can, pro­
tion, Plusieurs Choses (1894). visionally, suffice...
 PAUL FORT

fle Q u e e n o f On account o f her being bathed

crown, jewels of every sort that were thrown to him i
from the tops of towers, with which, in silence, he
Queens (s’ her there from a tender age, a Queen,
adorned the depths of his waters.
lover the Great beautiful as a thousand queens,
One day he demanded more. — “I love your red
Blue Lake | loved a great blue lake. To see the finery, O my divine mistress," he said to the Queen. —
two o f them, it was as if their so uls “Slit the throats of your best soldiers over my waters,
were as limpid as their faces. The one, sparkling with give me the best blood in your realm to dye my blue
silver-blue facets and lying silkily in a casket of reeds, tunic. I too wish to be clad in red velvet!"
of moss and of small pink flowers; the other, with her The princess, who was good at heart, tried to
body of a red dragonfly— her velvety body—and her dissuade the king. To no avail. The idea was anchored
coal-black, diamond-studded hair, how beautiful they in his mind more firmly than the big ships in the port.
were, and more than beautiful! But the lake often grew She did indeed think to deceive the lake's cruelty and,
angry and did just as he wished with the Queen of the first night, they slit the throats of a hundred and
Queens. twenty lambs at the windows of the six towers on the
Ah! How many knights envied the fate of the lake banks of the lake. —But the wicked lake wanted the
with his treacherous waters! How many came, of an sacrifice in broad daylight, knowing full well that, in
evening, in their white damascened breastplates, flowing, this blood had not damned him and had not
proudly helmeted, their swords aflame, to combat that damned his lady-love.
too happy lover, and were drowned in the cold maw of Thus the captivated mistress had no choice but to
their rival? How many, in songs, wept unaffectedly for send for her finest warriors and have them killed in the
that beautiful princess ravished from men’s senses! flower of their youth. For three days, at sunset, three
Now the blue lake became very proud of his hundred were slaughtered, perhaps more. And, believe
conquest, and on feast-days one could see him me, fifteen would have died for the queen. But the six
amorously lifting up his lady-love s marvellous boat; towers where they drained the blood from the poor
and then everybody believed him happy. Oh! The heroes were dyed, as was the lake and the sun. The
deceptive delight of feast-days! The beautiful lake was country round about became red, and the white brows
the world's most demanding lover—he had already in a convent of nuns fifteen leagues distant also were
obtained from his beautiful lady-love her bracelets, her tinged with red.

^ y g N 'A U L FO R T
 The terrified people trembled, but, taking pride in so the terrible lover bellowed to his mistress that he m u st!
beautiful a queen, they were silent. — And then, their have her body, her beautiful body, to kiss it and stifle it ■
blood was brown, coarse blood, hardly of a delicacy to for joy in his innermost depths, even in his red mud.
tint a great blue lake bright scarlet, generally the colour Oh! How many then bewailed and came running!
o f the blood o f noblemen. But the window of the Royal Tower opened and,
The red lake was not long in coming to understand already, the red body o f the Princess appeared... And in 1
that one thing was lacking to enhance his colour. —His his delirium, the lake stretched out his hideous waves,
pretty mistress confined her svelte waist in a broad belt like arms.
o f pure gold. One evening he said to her. “To love you All at once fanfares, sweet as violets, sweetly made
better, I wish to resemble you greatly. Have a bridge in themselves heard and, in the midst o f a cortege of
gold filigree-work made, as long as my waist, from the beautiful ladies and handsome lords, softly coloured in
shore where you love me to that shore there where a the softest of tints, Amadis de Gaule, the good knight
black fox is going by. * ——“Wayward lover, can you in whom the poor must put their trust and to whom all
not ask o f me a thousand years of kisses on the edge of beautiful ladies confide themselves, on his proud battle-
your waves? Do you not realise the immense girth of charger, all in armour, opened with the edge of his
your waist? And that, between the shore where I love sword the Tower of the Queen o f beauties, who then
you and that one there, there is more than three fell on his two arms as on two strong and tender reeds.
leagues? Only the Celestial Artificer could erect here an Then the lake blasphemed and foamed! And, the
arch great enough to contain you— he who covers two troop fleeing, that was carrying away his lady-love-
oceans with a rainbow.”?-^—“I must have that belt,” the queen-of-beautiful-days-gone-by, in a single wave he
lake roared, rising up indignantly, “or I will inundate emptied himself in its wake and died, dried-up, on the
your realm and refuse you henceforth the youthfulness plain, for having wished for too much. And he felled
o f my heart.” Again she had to comply—and it was the the three great towers, among them that o f the judge
turn o f the poor villagers. Coictius, who at that very moment was reading the
Two thousand and one perished, and fell into the Metamorphoseon Itbri of that great master of love, Ovid.
cruel waters o f the wicked lake. While, in the distance, the fanfare o f new days was
But, when the people were already hatching almost dying away.
plots— one night, gripped by a terrible frenzy of love, — Translated by Iain White.

*
V
 Hello, through the absolutism o f hisfaith, is indeed a representative o f believing humanity 0fthe
humanity which, hardly having sown, bends, already anxious; over the secrets of thefurrow but
there is a curse on the womb o f the earth; it is perhaps rotten since the murder of Abel. The seed does
not ripen. And man begins again to throw seed into the rotten soil; he pours blood into it, he thrusts
his heart into it, he buries his soul there, he descends, complete, into that miraculous tomb, and there
untroubled beneath the terrible covering o f sterile weeds, he awaits, an incorruptible seed, the hour of
, divine germination. ...God is leaning over us. He is observing us as we observe an ant-hill. If they
fall, too heavily laden with the burden o f the chosen cross, he lifts up the believing ants, the ants that
are pure in heart, and even those ants who are sinners but in whom the breath o f sin has not extin­
guished all theflames of love. God speaks to hisfavoured ants; he encourages them; he predicts the
future to them; he reveals to them the cataclysms whereby the wicked will be warned and brought to
repent, if there is still time. Hello, an ant o f good-will, halts on the slope o f a straw and renders unto
God his loving gaze.
...Hello is a Christian and a Catholic absolutely; he is a genius at belief; he believes spon­
taneously, without effort, hut with the energy o f a boatman carried along by the current of the river,
and who believes in the current of the river. He knows that life is carrying him along and he knows
towards which country. The landscape along the banks hardly interests him, and it does not interest
him as a landscape. When he has seen a line o f willows, o f reeds, o f poplars, he closes his eyesfor a
long moment and meditates on the significance o f trees, o f hushes and plants. Having meditated, be
^understands,fo r he is qualified to understand everything, and he understands in a way contrary to
that of a man of science. The how of things does not concern him; he seeks the why, and he always
finds it, always satisfied by the simplest explanation, the eternal explanation with which the believer
Ernest Hello (1 8 2 8 -18 85). After a childhood contents himself: God has wished it so.
spent on a large Breton estate, H ello went to ...Ignorant, he is credulous: not having read him, he supposes that the admirable Darwin is a
Paris to study law, which he abandoned for
rascal after thefashion of Voltaire. He despises him, to exalt Benoit Labre and M onsieur Dupont
ethical reasons. He immersed him self in
theology and founded a newspaper, La Croistc in (de Tours), Not having principles other than principles exterior to himself\ he does notjudge; he
1859. After its failure two years later, and in accepts and explains. He has donned thefaith as one dons a vestment; he is decked out in super­
part due to his chonic ill-health, he returned to stitions as if with lucky charms.
the family seat where he devoted the next thirty
years to writing: meditations, essays and some
...But Hello, who possesses genius, is not genius. He will not (like Samson) cany the g a te s o f his
short fiction. This story is from Contes extraor- prison to th>emountain-top. His prison is thefaith. He lives there, he is happy there. Rather than
dinaires(l879). breaking thegates he adds new locks to them. Samson is the rebel; Hello the believer.
 porringer down close to her and lights ,his litde pipe to have
The N ight- T h e gulls are settling to roost on the asmoke. -
time Washer - deserted strand; their cries, piercing and
Pierre—that is the young man’s name—has just woken
woman. A harsh, and cold as the night, are audible in up. He rises.
Fantastic Tale the village o f Saint-Adrien. But in the “Where are you going?” says the old man.
** farmhouse where the Plemick family (we “To the Dolmen, to see to the nets,” Pierre replies.
are in the depths o f B rittany) are gathered together, only one “There won’t be any fish tomorrow, and it’s not safe to
person is listening. go near the Dolmen this evening,” the old fellow continues.
T h e peasants do not hear the sounds o f nature, and if one Breton peasants never expect an explanation for anything.
of them perceives a harm ony between the plaints of their Pierre sits down in the place he has just vacated
soul and those o f the tempest, that one is well on the way to The young woman looks up and gazes at the old man: she
no longer b eing a countryman. wants to question him, but her father’s look silences her.
U n d er the chimney-piece, his day’s work done, old The litde girl addresses the old woman, without for all that
Plernick is eating a porringer o f buckwheat porridge: next to looking at her, and says:
him, h is w ife is silently twisting her distaff. "What’s going on, then, this evening, at the Dolmen?”
In a com er o f the room, by an emptied cider-glass, a The old man tries to impose silence on his wife with a
young m an is sleeping, his head in his hands and his elbows gesture she does not understand; and, sighing as old people
on the table; he is the two old people’s son-in-law. Anna, his do when they .abandon themselves to memories of their
wife, is atten din g to the day's last tasks, putting the cottage ypung days, she makes ready to speak at length and, con­
to rights, preparing for the night; but I suspect I see in her versing half with herself, half with the others:
eyes a certain liveliness o f the glance, and in her gestures a "I saw it, my children,” she says. "They called that
vivacity alien to the peasant. She is working with a vigour woman the Mother of Money, because, they said, money bred in
th at seems to originate in her inner self, andfrom time to her house. You’d give her ten francs: at the end of the year
tim e she pauses. Is she listening to the gulls on the coast, to she’d give you back a hundred; a hundred and she’d give you
w hich she was not listening yesterday? Perhaps she is! back a thousand. It’s as true as I’m telling you. All the poor
T h e door opens and a fifth person enters, a child of fif- . people brought her their savings. It seems that when you
teen, p oo rly dressed, in tatters, a farm-girl they have taken went into her place you had to give an owl that was perched
on to do the heavy work: her name is Yvonne. on the door something to eat. It often happened that it bit
T h is child looks nobody in the face. you until the blood came. But lots of people made their for­
W ith o u t shifting from his place, the old fellow sets his tune until the day came when the old woman told the people
who came to ask for the interest on their money: would approach her with a suppliant air; but she, without
“That's it. There isn't any more!” answering, would stand there in the fireplace: one hand on
"As you'll imagine, the news that the Mother o f Money her shovel, the other behind her back, she had a look about
was no longer paying out spread through the district like her o f having some new horror in store; when she did utter a
wildfire. The poor people were losing everything at the same sound, it was a sort o f sneering giggle.
time, capital and interest. And I myself, if the cure hadn't "One day she d e cid ed to leave the district.The peasants
put me on my guard, I'd have done as the others did. No­ ch ased after her with pitchforks. Men, women, children,
body hereabouts slept that night. I'll never forget the day everybody jo in ed in, as th ey d o w ith m ad dogs, and they
that followed, as long as I live. They broke into the old caught up with her by the Dolmen. "To think I can't just
woman's house. She seemed to be deaf and dumb; she made kill her, once and for all!" an old woman yelled, lowering her
no answer, other than that the money was no longer there. arm, pitchfork in hand. The blow struck home on her right
They searched the house, in the bed, in the cupboards, they temple. The Mother o f M oney colla p sed , bloodied, and
ripped open the mattress, they even looked in the joints be­ leant against the great stone. They all fell back: they were
tween the boards, all without saying a word. But their faces frightened by their vengeance, because they all believed in
were pale. God. But it was too late. The old woman never got to her
"They found nothing. feet again.
"After the first chill o f terror, there came a sort o f fury. "That was forty years ago, m y children. But it seems that,
There were cries, tears, curses! I can still see, right in front of every seven years, at the full moon in December, at mid­
me, a woman who came to me, out o f her mind, tearing her night, those who go and look at the Dolmen see, in the
hair, howling like a wolf, and throwing herself at my knees moonlight, an old woman in rags standing up erect on the
as if it had been in my power to help her. She no longer stone. She lets out plaintive cries. Then, all o f a sudden, she
knew what she was saying. In a voice that rent my heart, she takes some silver ecus out o f her pocket and slowly walks
cried out: “I beg you! I beg you! M y husband's going to kill down to the sea. She dips the silver coins in it, washes them,
me! I hid my savings with her, so he wouldn't drink them in washes them again, looks at them in the moonlight, still
the dram-shop. I told him they were still in my cupboard. washes them. Then she draws from her dress a kitchen-knife
He’s going to ask me for my daughter’s dowry and I've and cuts open her breast; and, howling, she washes the silver
nothing to give him. I won't be going home any more." And, with her blood; she stiffens her arms and tears at hersilver
ripping her clothing, the woman climbed up on the Dolmen, as if it were cloth, looks at it, sharpens the point of her knife
from which she threw herself into the sea. They found her in on the Dolmen, enlarges the wound she has just made, tears
the morning, at low tide, her body all mangled. furiously at her breast as if the cold steel were invigorating
"And these difficulties were felt on all sides, from her; when she is drenched in blood, she amorously embraces
morning till night, from night till morning. People no longer the ecus and immerses them in the red blood.
spoke, they only wept. The countryside was like a cemetery. "They say that then she turns slowly in all directions and
They didn t kill the old woman, and moreover, they still looks about the countryside around her, and that those who
took care not to offend her, because one always hopes. They call her see her enter their home. She stretches out a hand;

T H E B O O K O F MASKS 264
jjic stretches out a hand, they put an ecu in it once again, as and which has only God as its witness, the sweet and
• former times. Next month, they are rich; but take care for immense joy of inward victories; in that moment she loved
the seventh year! It seems that some have seen her come in all mankind.
merely for thinking about her. They say she hears evil desires Yvonne got into bed without having prayed. She felt
the way dogs catch the scent of the dead.” alone. Still not taking temptation seriously, she amused her­
The old woman stopped speaking and there was silence self by letting herself be tempted: her eyes were fixed on a
in the room. The old man said nothing. Pierre was asleep gold coin she had taken into bed with her; she had brought
again. Anna was melancholy. that coin—the first she had ever had in her posses­
Given over to evening’s dangerous thoughts, to the frailty sion—back with her from the celebration. Who did she get
of that uncertain hour, she was lulled by that vague hope it from? That I do not know; but I know that she took
that believes itself still innocent because it does not know pleasure in hiding it among her sheets, then taking it out to
where it is going. “If you were rich,” the voice that always see it shining.
lies whispered in her ear, “there would no longer be poor "You haven't put out your candle, Yvonne,” the old
people hereabouts, and it is you who would renounce the mother shouted from her bed.
modest prosperity you enjoy.” "I’m putting it out, I’m putting it out,” replied the child
But she recognised the accent of the tempter. Accus­ who, obliged to renounce her joy, was gripping the golden
tomed to examining her conscience and to subduing her coin in her hands, fiercely and lovingly, as if she had it in
passions, she had amassed, as litde occasions offered them­ mind to infuse the metal into her blood. She snuffed out the
selves, in daily struggles, those forces that make ready for light. Midnight chimed on the Ploemeur church-dock. The
great victories. She had often enough vied with temptation twelve strokes rang out slowly in the silence of the night.
to treat it in advance as vanquished. Besides, she knew the The young girl picked up two pebbles she had instinctively
way: she made the sign of the cross. placed within reaching-distance and struck a spark so as
As for Yvonne, her eyes were shining. She too knew life s once more to see the yellow of the gold glittering; she felt
difficulties. She was accustomed to defeat. both pain and pleasure; she abandoned herself to a species of
“Suppose one was rich like that one who just got married agreeable swoon; her eyes lit up: what was going on in her
today?” she said. “Suppose one had a big house and ser­ inmost self?
vants?” She was speaking to herself) casting a bitter glance The gold was enticing her as the reptile does the bird, the
over her tom clothing, as if she regretted the party-clothes abyss the one who leans over it, the sight of blood the wild
of the celebration she had left: then her expression became beast. The spark was extinguished. "Now would be the
vague. time, Yvonne thought. She felt that uneasiness that pre­
The family went to bed. The two old people lay down as cedes a fall, comparable to a step that will lead one to
they always did. Anna went to sleep happily: after having felt despair. Then she hid herself under the bedclothes to hide
in the course of the day the first perturbations of.desire, she from some gaze that had followed her in the gloom. About
pressed herself tenderly against her happiness, took refuge in five minutes later she heard a key creaking in the lock. And
him; she was savouring that joy, hidden like all great joys, she felt herself going pale in the darkness.

ERNEST HELLO
 "Come in," she thought. impression of displaying, with I know not what pleasure the
She saw nothing, but she distinctly heard the sound of a deformities o f old age and illness. It was as if, by his wild
gnarled stick, like those on which old people lean. Then a beast’s posture, by the shamelessness o f his dress, he had
cold hand touched her on the neck. In the next room, Anna intended to put a stop to the impetuosity of happiness. His
was sleeping peacefully. Next morning, when Yvonne was body seemed lifeless; life had taken refuge in his gaze, in
dressed, Anna said: which a sombre fire sparkled. T hat gaze attested to all life’s
“I no longer see the golden cross you were wearing round vices, swarming in the bosom o f death, in a heart already
your neck.” frozen. He watched the young people laughing about him
To hide her pallor, Yvonne made a show of looking for with that smile peculiar to those who always hope to see joy
something in the cupboard. sullied and innocence lost; then, lowering his eyes, he stared
“Perhaps I lost it yesterday when I was dancing," she said at the ground like a man reflecting on the past. He was
unconcernedly; but her voice was tremulous. grieving over a daughter he had lost, and he no longer heard
what was going on around him; in his life he had known
only one affection: he had loved his daughter, if it is permis­
sible to use such a word o f such a man.
That child, dead at twenty, had nonetheless found the
time to be a monster. W ith her, and with her alone, the old
n. man had had nothing to hide. He opened up to her, he
found in her the complement to himself, he lovingly fostered
This is what happened at the big house on the day of the the still young vices o f she whom he had formed and in
celebration. whom he hoped to live on. He had counted on her to carry
Jean Kernorak married the beautiful and charming to completion the deeds he had envisaged; she had not
Louise. The peasant guests sang in the open air, in the sun­ disappointed him.
light, to the sound o f the old Breton bagpipes, wearing their When she died, he felt that the most living part within
holiday clothes, with the serious ardour of Breton festivals. him was extinguished. Hating the happiness of others, the
Jean and his wife , who were singing, beautiful and confident sun and the blue sky, he went over again in his mind the
as youth, paused and greeted an old man, collapsed rather summertime o f his life— the days when his daughter was
than seated in a black wooden chair. It was the father of still alive.
Jean, of the happy Jean and the beautiful Louise. The old The woman Hourra, the Mother o f Money, was his ten­
man turned away his head, as if the sight of his children were ant. He would often shut himself up with her for hours on
odious to him. end in some secluded comer. Only his daughter was allowed
The pallor of that man was livid; his hands were trem­ to enter. It appeared that an abominable amity and a mys­
bling, thick, clammy and cold as those of people to whom terious interchange united those three beings.
nothing is repugnant; his pendulous lips denoted the hide­ All o f a sudden the old man got to his feet, as if he had
ous frailties of a hasty and vacillating nature; he gave the returned to the days o f his first youth.

266
O F MASKS
 •^daughter!" he cried. Louise went into the blocked-up room; she remained
he threw his arms about Yvonne, who was passing there for a long time. The young woman returned to her
husband's room, asked how he was, and got no response.
by* „
"It's not all over then?" he said in a muffled voice. "She She left the room on tiptoe. But these precautions were
as telling me the truth— she who knew secrets—that my poindess; her husband would never again be bothered by any
daughter wasn’t dead, that I’d see my own flesh and blood sound. Perhaps he had made an unavailing effo rt to call out.
again” Meanwhile his father displayed neither surprise nor sor­
And, galvanised by a horrible tenderness, the old man row at that strange death; but h e becam e m ore sombre and
seemed about to forget his infirmities and take part in the before very long h im self died, cared fo r b y his daughter-in-
celebrations. law, Louise, and also by Yvonne, Yvonne the darling o f his
"Yes, you're my daughter," he cried. "Nature doesn't heart, to whom he left everything in his will.
make two people so alike! Come! Come with me!"
And he hurried her away to his house.
One particular day, rising from his meal, Jean, the young
bridegroom felt himself smitten with an unaccustomed
headache. Next day he no longer felt it, but he was still pale. ffl.
This pallor got worse and, after a month, without great pain,
without any known illness, he said to his young wife, who Seven years have gone by. The big house has a new owner.
no longer dared to look at him: What has become of the two old people, Pierre, Anna,
"Louise, I want this countryside, full of memories, to be and Yvonne? As to Pierre and the old people, don't ask me.
my last resting-place. When you see it's the end, have them Those who play no part in conflicts have no history.
carry me, I beg you, next to the clog-makers’ cottage. Forgive This is what was happening in the big house.
my father, and don’t revenge my death. Don’t interfere with The domestics were laughing, drinking, singing at a well­
what's bound to happen.” laden table. A cry was heard.
The young woman believed he was delirious; and besides, “Won’t we go and see?” said Marie, the younger o f the
despair does not seek to understand. two servant-girls.
"Listen," said the sick man. "don’t you hear anything?" “Ah, who cares,” said another domestic. "He shouted out
Louise listened. like that, our rightful master down there, the one who
"It's as if there was somebody speaking in the room that inherited everything, and she managed to see to it there was
used to be my sister's.” nobody there to help him. It’s a business that won’t be
“You’re right," said Louise. "And yet' I’ve heard that no­ cleared up for a long time yet.”
body has been in there since she died. The door’s been "Be quiet,” said Marie. "Don’t say things like that.”
blocked up.” "I know what I know,” the man replied.
Louise was by the window. W ithout recognising her, she Harsh and unjust to her staff, Yvonne had made herself
saw Yvonne, crossing the courtyard. The sound ceased. generally hated. She had made use of riches in the way those

267 ERNEST HELLO

 who have desired them immoderately do. the dead are only infrequently. Anna held a mirror to the
"Go and have a look, then." said Jeanne. “Who knows colourless lips: the mirror remained clear.
but that that cry won't be the last?" Between the two women there was a terrible silence.
“Go yourself, i f you fancy,” answered Julie, who had “If there’s something about this that’s more terrible than
turned pale. death, tell me the secret on your oath,” said Anna to Jeanne
The door opened and a woman entered. It was Anna. “If you want to know, it’s for you to give me your oath,”
Anna had never entered that dwelling without having been Jeanne said to Anna.
seized by that peculiar chill, which you perhaps know, and “Speak,” said Anna.
which is like the freezing caresses of an invisible hand. “You’re not to repeat what I’m going to tell you to any­
Likewise, she never returned home without experiencing a body. They’d laugh at me. |
feeling of joy and security. In her cottage she knew that “Go on then, speak.”
charm of simplicity that sometimes takes possession of our “That night, I was watching over Yvonne. At midnight I
hearts when we traverse a village we regret having to leave so woke up. I was cold. I heard a litde noise. I saw a light, but I
soon. Simplicity is touching. In Anna’s presence the thought it was the night-light that lit her room, the way it
domestics adopted a gravely contrite air. does every night. I got up to give her something to drink
“How is she?”the young woman enquired. Intending to warm some lime-flower tea, I went up to the
“Not at all well, my poor lady," said Jeanne. "Every day night-light and I saw it was out. And yet there was still a
she's paler than the day before, and the doctors don’t under­ light in the room. Then I looked by the bed and I saw in the
stand the first thing about what’s wrong with her.” alcove, I saw just like I see you, and in the place where I see
“And you leave her alone?” said Anna. you (Anna flinched involuntarily), I saw an old woman with
Nobody replied. wild eyes, like an owl’s eyes. I wasn't sleeping, I’m not mad,
“Madame,” said Jeanne in a subdued tone, “I wouldn’t and I’m not lying. Yvonne was struggling with her. The old
advise you to go in there.” woman was holding out a little golden cross to her, drawing
Without replying, Anna started off in the direction of it back and giggling, while this one here,” Jeanne said,
Yvonne’s room, and Jeanne followed her, almost involun­ pointing to the dead woman, “while this one here was trying
tarily. to grab hold of it, and she said: “Haven’t I paid you for this
When they were alone: nasty litde thing that’s not worth a couple of brass far­
“Jeanne,” said Anna, “You ought to admit to me you things?” Then the old woman came up close. She rooted
didn't dare sit up with her any more. I’d have replaced you.” about with her nails in the woman’s chest, round about the
“I watched,” said Jeanne, “really I d id ” heart, saying: “Now would be the time, my pretty one: the
They reached the sick woman’s room. Anna opened the moon is rising, there’s a few drops left, near the heart, and I
door, despite Jeanne, who instinctively held back her hand need them for my washing.”
Yvonne was lying on her bed, pale as the living never are, as
 The w ord most characteristic o f Emile Verhaeren’s verse is hallucinated
From page to page this w ord crops up; one entire collection entitled Les
C am pagnes hallucinees has still not delivered himfro m this obsession-
exorcism was not possible, because it is the nature and even the essence of Emile
Verhaeren to be the hallucinated poet. Taine* said, “Sensations are hallu­
cinations that are true ” but where does the truth begin and where does it end?
Who would dare to circumscribe it? The poet, who has no psychological
scruples, neither lingers over nor takes care to separate the true hallucinations
fr o m thefa lse ;fo r him, they are all true, i f they are acute or clever, and he
recounts them with ingenuity— and when the account is set down by Emile
Verhaeren, it is very beautiful Beauty in art is a relative result and is obtained
by a variety o f the most diverse elements, often the most unexpected. O f these
elements, only one is permanent and stable; it m ust turn up again in all the
Emile Verhaeren (I855-I9I6). A Belgian, he combinations: and that one element is novelty. A work o f art must be novel
studied law but abandoned it for literature,
writing for LeJeune Belgique after a period and one recognises the novel quite simply as that which gives y o u a sensation not
travelling round Europe. His early poems were
y etfelt.
deeply pessimistic and his incipient depression
was becoming problematic until he married in I f it does not give that, a work, however perfect one judges it, is everything
1891 and discovered an interest in social prob­
lems. He became a socialist along with his
that is the worst and most contemptible; it is useless and ugly, fo r nothing is
fziend Eekhoud and this period coincides with more absolutely ustful than beauty. With Verhaeren, beauty is made up of
his most Symbolist works, including Les Villages
illusoires (1895) from which the vers libre poem
novelty and might; this poet is a sturdy character and, since the V illes
Rain is extracted. With Maeterlinck he was the tentaculaires surgedforth with the violence o f a telluric upheaval, none
most famous Belgian author o f his generation,
his later collections o f poems became simulta­ would dare contest his position as a great and glorious poet. Perhaps he hasyet
neously more mystical in thought and more to achieve completely the making o f the magical instrument he hasforged for
naturalistic in expression, returning to
evocations of the landscape of his native twenty years. Perhaps he has not yet attained complete mastery over his lan­
Flanders. The outbreak of war shattered his guage; it is inelegant; he permits his most lovely pages to grow dull with inop­
vision of a more equitable world and he
stooped to penning patriotic verse. He was portune epithets, and the most beautiful poems entangle themselves in what was
killed in an accident in Rouen railway station.
The story is from a posthumous collection Cinq
once called prosaism. Still the impression remains, o f grandeur and might, and
Reeits (1920, but dating from much earlier). yes: this is a great poet...

THE B O O K O F MASK S
270
 j l e H orse-Fair a t O pdorp

Every year, in June, there is a spectacular horse-fair slowly home from the ponds and pastures. Behind them
and sleek and w ell groomed are the exhibits—in the the drover whisdes his tune. There is a loud mooing
little village o f O pdorp, on the boundary line between and lowing. A gate creaks open and shut. No other sign
Flanders and Brabant. of animation save, on Sunday, the church bell
A ro un d a w ide m all w ith smooth-shaven green grass promising a richer, better life. The people crowd to
and elm , ash, an d w illow trees, is the circle of mass, vespers, and compline. On Monday die village
houses— th eir w alls like white coats, their roofs like red relapses into tedium and pursues its regulated and
caps— a n d th ey gaze at each other with the bright eyes monotonous round.
o f th eir spotless w indows. A t one end of the oval stands But the annual fair makes Opdorp famous. In the
the church w ith its steeple and glittering gold weather­ first grey of morning awkward foals are to be seen
cock, a n d ab o u t the church lies the humble unfenced gangling into town at the heels of their mothers; then
buryin g-grou nd . come formidable stallions led with a halter by peasant
T h e v illage is sleepy, sedate, unpretentious. Men go lads; then the work brutes, obstinate and powerful
ab o u t th eir m onotonous work unhurried, putting forth slaves which have survived God knows how many
th eir leisu rely hands a s if to unravel the precious web of struggles through the thick Flemish mud.
tim e w ith o u t tangling it. They file along past the booths, and the jackpud-
O n w eek-days an arom a o f butter and cheese streams dings frighten them with booings, thwack them on the
o u t o f the cellars. A t night the herds o f cows wind rumps with lath swords, joke about their coarse
 excitement, th e fair is less and less frequented. Pe0 ]
have a reason fo r sta yin g away.
H i

breed and make merry over their woolly tails and their
hoofs, big and round like immense mushrooms and
looking the more cumbersome for their matted fet­
locks. A battle rises between peasants and clowns. The In their times the b ish o p s o f G hent and Tournay
former lash out their fists with right good will, the sent their riding-masters to this fair, th e abbots o f
latter deftly skip away and counter with a mocking Aberbode and P erck found here the c h o ice st o f their
flick on the nose. There is deafening uproar within and animals, and above all, the undertaker o f the little city
of Termonde, every five years, sent his handsomest
hearse, drawn by four lean, s e e d y black mares which
after several years o f hard serv ice m ust b e replaced that
th e p o m p o f a w ell-d irected funeral might have nothing
to fear from critics.
As soon as the coming of the hearse was heralded,
the jackpuddings jumped back onto the stages and
outdid themselves in follies. Four g ild ed skeletons hung
at the sides of the veh icle; o n e clown reached out and
chucked them u n d er th e chin, another thrust flowers
without the placarded tents, and in the streets and lanes between their flesh less ribs The musicians with swelling
the mingled whinnying o f th e horses and the thud of cheeks, blew their most doleful funeral march. Excited
the rattling gallop on the pavement. As soon as the monkeys frisked chattering up and down the standards
trumpets, trombones, and bass drums make themselves of the booths. The snake-charmer, wrapping her boa
heard the festival turns into an orgy. It is as if the entire constrictor around her waist, seized th e monster's head
village had been transformed into a gigantic wreath of and turned it, w ith w id e o p en jaws, tow ard the dark
clamour in which shrill squeals, insolent whistles, and vehicle approaching.
yodelling catcalls represent the lurid flowers. The equipage proceeded slo w ly past the grotesque,
Nevertheless, notwithstanding the fun and cyn ical masquerade. T h e plumes and black hangings

272
THE B O O K OF M AS KS
 brushed the tawdry bunting and shamed the staggering jaunty to combat
posters and flaring streamers. The hearse was full of It happened, it must have been twenty years
good-for-nothing boys and girls of the streets, dancing ago—and since then the annual fair has been as if
and pushing each other around the trestles which at accursed—that the new horses were fiery and ungov­
other times served to sustain the coffin. In front of the ernable and dashed through the village like a tornado.
church a couple of sextons were added to the retinue. They darted around the booths and among the stands
And that the sacrilege might be complete, the dead and further along, on the highway, they took fright at a
lights burned ghastly and unnecessary. wayside scarecrow and ran away. The people who had
The hearse stopped at the inn of die Three Kings. As climbed into the hearse were panic-stricken. A few, to
soon as he had unhitched, the driver sold his horses, avoid the danger, jumped off into the soft earth of the
which looked at the knacker with furtive eyes. The roadside embankments, others, huddling against each
other, uttered such unearthly cries that people rushed
out of the farmhouses wringing their hands and
imploring heaven. In broad daylight, with flying
curtains and pelting wheels, the hearse, a living black
clatter, hurtled past. The lamps josded their supports,
the cross, jolted out of its standards, was shaken from

hearse driver quickly bought four others without

haggling over the price, because the undertaker of
Termonde was rich.
And hardly was the landlady paid, a glass hastily
emptied, the harness furbished up, the girths
lengthened to fit the plump new animals when the reju­
venated equipage set itself again in motion, the seats right to left and from left to right, the silver fringe
and running boards occupied by street boys and church became entangled in the bushes, and black tatters were
wardens. It went back the way it had come, but this left hanging on the branches.
time the masqueraders ceased their buffoonery and From the ramparts in Termonde the approaching
stood respectfully as if awed by its now formidable whirlwind was observed. Great was the terror. Par­
appearance. Women could be seen crossing themselves. ticular anxiety was felt for the church wardens, worthy
Death, which a moment ago had limped along forlorn dignitaries not nimble-footed enough to jump out of
and superannuated, now seemed to step forth trim and the way.
 The mad hearse traversed the entire city. There were
shrieks and cries. The panic spread from house to
house, from quarter to quarter. Women, stretching out
to aid their own imperilled boys and girls, were caught
up and carried along on the dashboards. An old man
was run over. The streets were rapidly emptied. Pale
faces were pressed to the windowpanes. People ran
along, breathless, behind the hearse. The bell-ringer in
the main square thought to ring the alarm-bell, but During the interminable winter the city was
devastated by an unknown fever, and the Scheldt over­
flowed three times. The streets through which the
hearse had come were the most heavily smitten. The
path of affliction extended straight back to Opdorp.
How quickly the neat litde village lost its aspect of
peace! Every day there was a death. This lasted for
months and months until the cemetery had to be
enlarged. Even today the recollection of this black
event has not been dimmed: it is even said that in a few
years the famous fair of Opdorp will have to be
death ran too quickly and in its lightning flight soon stricken out of the calendar.
struck the opposite end of the suburbs.
The mad horses, white with foaming sweat, bloody-
muzzled, stopped for the first time at the wall of a
cemetery. One of them fell down heavily. A little girl
was killed. A church warden had his leg broken. All the
others sustained some injury. Only the driver came off
unhurt, without so much as a bruise, and as his horses,
for their part, had recovered from their fright, he, in the
end, laughed over the adventure.
But the townsfolk could not so easily be reassured.
What unhappy event was foreshadowed by this signifi­
cant accident? Prayers and devotions were redoubled. — Translated by Keene Wallis, illustrations from woodcuts by
To no avad. Frans Masereel.

THE BOOK OF MASKS 274

 And the wild breeze
Buffets the alders and the walnut-trees;
Knee-deep in water great black oxen stand,
Lifting their bellowings sinister on high
T o the distorted sky;
As now the night creeps onward, all the land,
Thicket and plain,
Grows cumbered with her clinging shades immense,
And still there is the rain,
The long, long rain,
Like soot, so fine, so dense.

T h e long, long rain,

R ain — and its threads identical,
A nd its nails systematical,
W eaving the garment, mesh by mesh amain,
O f destitution for each house and wall,
A nd fences that enfold
Th e villages, neglected, grey, and old:
C haplets o f rags and linen shreds that fall
In frayed-out wisps from upright poles and tall,
Blue pigeon-houses glued against the thatch,
A nd windows with a patch
O f d in g y paper on each lowering pane,
H ouses w ith straight-set gutters, side by side
Across the broad stone gables crucified,
Mills, uniform, forlorn,
Each rising from its hillock like a horn,
Steeples afar and chapels round about,
The rain, the long, long rain,
Through all the winter wears and wears them out.
Rain with its many wrinkles, the long rain
W ith its grey nails, and its watery mane;
The long rain of these lands o f long ago,
The rain, eternal in its torpid flow!
— Translated by Alma StretteU.

T H E B O O K OF MASKS
 Some love to repeat, an awkward testimony to a piously troubled
admiration, and even to base paradoxical articles upon this
maxim: “Villiers de Vhle-Adam was neither of his place nor his
time” That seems atrocious,for after all a superior man, a great
writer is inevitably, through his very genius, one of the syntheses
Auguste Villiers de LTsle-Adam (1838- of his race and his epoch, the representative of a momentary or
1889). An aristocratic dandy by inclination,
the loss of his family’s fortune condemned him fragmentary humanity, the mind and the mouth-piece of a tribe
to poverty, only sometimes ameliorated by the
products of his pen. A precursor of the
and not afleeting monster. Like Chateaubriand* his brother in
Symbolists rather than a participant in the
movement, his early plays were hardly
race as well as in glory, Villiers was the man of the moment, of a
commercial ventures and he therefore wrote a solemn moment; both of them, with differing views and under
diverse appearances, re-createfor a time the soul of the elite: the
great number of stories for journals ( Cruel Tales
being the best-known collection in English).
His great drama of ideas Axil and a
philosophical "science fiction" romance I/Eve one by giving birth to Romantic Catholicism and that respectfo r
future are also both translated. During his last
years he was frequendy saved from starvation
the ruins of tradition; and the other, the idealist dream and the
by the subscription of his fellow writers. He
lived with an illiterate "charwoman" (as his
cult of interior antique beauty; but the one was still the proud
biographers would have it) and conducted a
death-bed marriage with her to safeguard the
grandsire of ourferocious individualism; and the other still
future of their son. He wavered in his Catholic teaches us that the life around us is only clay to be worked.
Villiers was of his time to the extent that all of his masterpieces
beliefs, frequendy altering the pessimistic tone
of Axil according to his present state of mind.
When stomach cancer was diagnosed and he
realised he might never finish his life's work he are dreams solidly based upon science and modem metaphysics,
turned against God, even planning a lawsuit
against Him in protest1
like L'Eve future, or Tribulat Bonhomet, that enormous,
This self-contained story (which is
dedicated to "the lovely indifferent ones") is
admirable and tragic buffoonery, wherein all the gifts of the
taken from TribuUt Bonbomet (1887), his satire
on bourgeois positivism and the illusions of
dreamer, ironist and philosopher converge to make up perhaps the
progress. most original creation of the century...
 Swans understand the signs. memory alone. And Bonhomet watched them in silence for a
VICTOR HUGO, Les Miserable*. long time, smiling at them, too. Was he—ever the perfect
Swan- In the course of reading Natural History books, dilettante—dreaming even then of hearing that last song
K iller Doctor Tribulat Bonhomet, our illustrious with his own ears?
friend, had learned that “a swan really does sing Sometimes—at the stroke of midnight on a moonless
before dying.” In fact (he reccndy acknowledged to us), ever autumn night—Bonhomet, troubled by insomnia, would
since hearing this music, it alone could help him endure the suddenly rise and dress himself specially for the concert he
disappointments of life, and everything else seemed to him hoped to hear. The doctor, bony but lanky, first concealed
nothing more than a Wagnerian din. his legs in enormous rubber boots that stretched, seamlessly,
into a full but bulky, almost impenetrable frock-coat; a pair
"How did he manage to procure this dilettante's
of steel gaundets, taken from a suit of medieval armour, glit­
pleasure?” Here’s the answer.
tered upon his hands, gaundets that he was pleased to have
On the outskirts of the ancient walled town in which he
acquired at the price of thirty-eight sous—on a
was living, this practical old man had, one fine day, dis­
whim!—from a passing pedlar. This done, he clapped on his
covered in a centuries-old, abandoned park, beneath the
large modem hat, blew out the lamp, descended, and, the
shade of the great trees, an old sacred pond—a gloomy
key to his lodgings snug in his pocket, set out for the edge of
mirror upon which some twelve to fifteen of those serene
birds glided—and had dreamily studied the surroundings, the abandoned park, like any other citizen.
At length he ventured down gloomy paths towards the
Contemplated the distances, observing above all else a black
desired singers’ retreat—toward the pond whose water was
|lwan, their elder, who slept, sequestered by a sunbeam.
Throughout each night this swan kept its large eyes open, not deep, and everywhere well-sounded, and nowhere
burnished a stone in its long rosy beak, and, at the slightest reached higher than his waist. And beneath the canopies of
movement signalling some danger to those whom it guarded, leaves that bordered the banks, he muffled his footsteps,
it would, with a motion of its neck, roughly toss the alarm feeling for dry twigs.
stone into the lapping water, into the midst of the white ring Finally reaching the edge of the pond, slowly, very
of slumberers: and the troop, guided once more by this slowly—and without a sound!-—he made his way through
signal, would fly off into the gloom of the deep walkways, the water with unprecedented caution, such caution that he
toward some far off sward where some fountain reflected scarcely dared to breathe. Exacdy like a music-lover
grey statues, or to some other asylum known to them by straining to hear an imminent cavatina. So that, in order to
complete the twenty steps that separated him from his dear "How fine it is to encourage these artists!” he said very
admired virtuosos, it actually took him between two and softly to himself.
two-and-a-half hours, so afraid was he of awakening the Almost three quarters of an hour that ecstasy endured,
careful vigilance o f the shadowy watcher. one which he wouldn’t have traded for a kingdom.
The breath o f the starless sky plaintively agitated the Suddenly, the ray of the Morning-Star glistened through the
lofty branches in the darkness surrounding the pond. But branches, illumined, unexpectedly, Bonhomet, the black
Bonhomet, without allowing himself to be distracted by the waters and the swans with dream-filled eyes! The watcher,
mysterious murmuring, drew imperceptibly ever closer, so filled with terror at the sight, let fly the stone... —Too
much so that, towards three in the morning, he found him­ late!... Bonhomet, with a great horrible cry, which tore away
self a half-step away from the black swan without his ever his syrupy smile entirely, hurled himself, claws raised, arms
having taken the slightest notice of his invisible presence. wide, into the ranks of the sacred birds! —And the em­
Then the good doctor, smiling broadly in the darkness, braces of the steel fingers of this modem warrior were rapid;
softly, very softly, barely touching it with the tip of his the pure snowy necks of two or three of the singers were
medieval index finger, raked the still surface of the water, in traversed or broken before the radiant flight of the other
front o f the watcher!... And he raked it so softly that the bird-poets. Then the souls of the dying swans exhaled
watchful swan, though forewarned, did not judge so slight themselves, oblivious of the doctor, in a song of undying
an alarm worthy o f throwing the stone. It listened. Its hope, and deliverance and love, toward the unknown
instinct, in the long run, being vaguely impressed by the idea heavens.
o f danger, its heart, alas! its poor ingenuous heart began to The rational doctor smiled at this sentimentality, of
beat frightfully—which redoubled Bonhomet's jubilation. which he did not, as a serious connoisseur, choose to savour
And now the beautiful swans, one after another, shaken by anything except for: THE TIMBRE. Musically, he prized
that sound from the depths of their slumber, stretched their nothing except for the singularly sweet timbre of those sym­
heads out sinuously from beneath their pale silver wings— bolic voices, which vocalised Death like a melody.
and, from beneath the weight of Bonhomet’s shadow, were Bonhomet, eyes closed, breathed the harmonious vibra­
imperceptibly enveloped by their anguish, having who tions into his heart: then, staggering, as if in a spasm, ran
knows what confused consciousness of a mortal peril aground on the bank, stretched out upon the grass, on his
menacing them. But, in their infinite delicacy, they suffered back, in his heavy and impermeable clothing.
in silence, like the one keeping vigil—unable to take flight, And there, this Maecenas of our era, lost in a voluptuous
because the stone bad not been tossed! And all of the hearts of these torpor, savoured anew, and to his very depths, the memory
snowy exiles began to beat in a muffled agony— intelligible of the delightful song— though tarnished by a solemnity out
and audible to the enraptured ear of the excellent doctor of fashion in his eyes— of his beloved artists.
who, knowing full well himself that its moral cause was his And, reabsorbing his comatose ecstasy, he pondered in
simple proximity to them, took delight, as if from a peerless this perfectly middle-class manner on his exquisite
itching, in the terrific sensation to which his immobility impression until sunrise.
made them submit.

280
T HE B O O K OF MASKS
 The world is aforest <f differences; to understand the world is t
know that there are noform al identitiesan evident principle and
Marcel Schwob (1867-1905). A scholar
(particularly of Villon), linguist (and anglo-
phile), poet and novelist, Schwob was
immersed in books from an early age. He was a
one which realises itselfperfectly in man, since the consciousness
valued friend to a wide circle of writers: Valery,
Jarry, Mallarme, Stevenson, Meredith,
of being is nothing other than the consciousness of being different.
Barbusse, Colette, Louys, etc. His life was fairly There is, then} no science of mankind; but there is an art of
uneventful, broken only by great encounters:
with his future wife, the actress Marguerite mankind. Marcel Schwob has said things concerning this which I
Moreno; and with Louise, whom he called
Monelle, a young consumptive girl “of the would like to declare definitive, this onefo r example: “Art is the
streets" whom he met in 1891: their
relationship lasted two years until her death.
opposite of generalised ideas, it describes only the individual'
His grief pervades The Book of Monelle with an
atmosphere of loss and nostalgia; when it
desires only the unique. It does not classify; it declassifies...”
appeared in 1894 it was an immediate, i f mod­ The particular genius of Marcel Schwob is a sort of tremen­
dous complex simplicity; that is to say, through the arrangement
est, success and quickly became identified as
the “golden book” of the movement and as “a
condensation of all the Symbolist charac­
teristics."* All this is perhaps surprising since and harmonising of an infinite number of precise and correct
Monelle is a very odd book; as autobiography, it
is as resolutely fictional as Schwob's collection
details>, his tales offer the sensation of a unique detail; in the
of biographical inventions Imaginary Lives
(1896). It begins with a section The Words of
pannier of flowers there is a peony, and that is all that one sees
Monelle, which are certainly sayings that she can amid the annulled others; but if the otherflowers were not
never have uttered. The second section The
Sisters of Monelle consists of a number of barely grouped around it, one would not see the peony...
Marcel Schwob’s books encourage one to meditate, after they
connected stories which seem intended as
symbolic representations of aspects of Monelle
and her relationship with Schwob (four of
these are included here, the others have the have pleased by way of the unexpectedness of their tones, upon
tides: TheFgoist, The Voluptuary, The Faithful, The
Dreamer, The Romantic and The Selfless). The last
their words, theirfaces, their garbs, their lives, their deaths, their
section, Monelle, describes their encounter, again
in heightened mode.
attitudes. This is writing of the most substantial sort, from the
The final text here is from one of Schwob's
numerous short story collections, Le Roi au
decimated race of those who always have upon their lips some
masque J'or (1892). new words ofgoodlyfragrance.

282
THE BOOK OF MASKS
jjtin Long 88 unending threads, the long-drawn rain
^ Interminably, with its nails of grey,
Athwart the dull grey day,
Rakes the green window-pane—
So infinitely, endlessly, the rain,
The long, long rain,
The rain.

Since last night it continues unravelling

Down from the frayed and flaccid rags that cling
About the sullen sky,
The low black sky;
Since last night, so slowly, patiendy,
Unravelling its threads upon the roads,
Upon the roads and lanes, with even fall
Continual
Along the miles
That between meadows and suburbs lie,
By roads interminably bent, the files
Of waggons, with their awnings arched and tall,
Struggling in sweat and steam, toil slowly by
W ith oudine vague as of a funeral.
Into the ruts, unbroken, regular,
Stretching out parallel so far
That when night comes they seem to join the sky,
For hours the water drips;
And every tree and every dwelling weeps,
Drenched as they are with it,
W ith the long rain, tenaciously, with rain
Indefinite.
The rivers, through each rotten dyke that yields,
Discharge their swollen wave upon the fields,
Where coils o f drowned hay
Float far away;

£ mile VERHAEREN