"L'Après-midi d'un faune": Mallarmé's Debt to ChateaubriandAuthor(s): John OrrSource: The Modern Language Review, Vol. 51, No. 1 (Jan., 1956), pp. 77-80Published by: Modern Humanities Research AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3718266 .

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Miscellaneous Notes 77

to the contrary, for, while Keats may have hated Akenside so strongly, he had certainly read his works, and, moreover, had read them with some profit, little though it was.R ARTHUR POLLARD MANCHESTER

'L'APRES-MIDI D'UN FAUNE: MALLARMI'S DEBT TO CHATEAUBRIAND

It is perhaps natural that critics who have discussed the 'sujet limite mais engageant' -to quote Henri Mondorl-of the sources of Mallarme's Apres-midi d'un Faune should have tended to concern themselves chiefly with the principal character, and that the two others, the Nymphs, should, in the main, have been left in the shade to which the Faun finally consigned them. It is this tendency, no doubt, which explains the short and rather disdainful reference2 made by M. Mondor in his delightful book to a suggestion put forward by Professor Kurt Wais in the Zeit- schrift fur franzosische Sprache und Literatur (vol. LXII, 1939, pp. 182 if.), and repeated cursorily in his Mallarme (2nd ed., 1952, p. 226), that Chateaubriand's encounter with the two 'Indiennes' related in the Memoires d'Outre-Tombe is one of the chief promptings of Mallarme's inspiration.

Having arrived independently at the same conclusion as Professor Wais, I propose to redress the balance in favour of the two nymphs as important elements in any discussion of the origin of the poem, and to that end reproduce and comment briefly on the relevant passage of the M omoires.

First, however, let it be said that Albert Thibaudet, although, as we now know, he went astray in claiming Boucher's Pan et Syrinx in the National Gallery as the mainspring of the poem-the gallery acquired the work long after Mallarme's stay in London-did at least stress the, to him, symbolic value of the two nymphs.3 One, he implied, represents Love, the other, Poetry, and the Faun, i.e. Mallarme, wrongly tore them asunder. We may doubt the aptness of this interpretation which scarcely tallies with their contrasted qualities: the one 'inhumaine', the other 'timide', 'chaste', 'petite', naive'; for the 'inhumaine', or, as she appears in the first known version of the poem, the 'mauvaise' can scarcely symbolize Love, while 'naif', to Mallarme-

Naif baiser des plus funebres-

spells the negation of all true poetry. Be that as it may, and irrespective of any possible symbolic value that Mallarme may ultimately have attached to them, the fact remains that there are two nymphs-a rather large order, as indeed it proved, for one faun to handle-and that they are sharply contrasted; no more sharply however than Chateaubriand's 'Indiennes', as we shall see.

The following passage is taken with a few abridgements from V. Giraud's edition of the Memoires d'Outre-Tombe (Geneva, 1947), pp. 227-31. Long as it is, and although the more essential passages are italicized, it should be read in extenso,

1 Histoire d'un Faune (Paris, 1948), p. 16. 2 '...d'autres... avec moins d'entrain et de vraisemblance, [ont retenu] l'image de deux

jeunes indiennes dans Chateaubriand.' Ibid. p. 18. 3 La Poesie de Stephane Mallarme (Paris, 1926), p. 400.

Miscellaneous Notes 77

to the contrary, for, while Keats may have hated Akenside so strongly, he had certainly read his works, and, moreover, had read them with some profit, little though it was.R ARTHUR POLLARD MANCHESTER

'L'APRES-MIDI D'UN FAUNE: MALLARMI'S DEBT TO CHATEAUBRIAND

It is perhaps natural that critics who have discussed the 'sujet limite mais engageant' -to quote Henri Mondorl-of the sources of Mallarme's Apres-midi d'un Faune should have tended to concern themselves chiefly with the principal character, and that the two others, the Nymphs, should, in the main, have been left in the shade to which the Faun finally consigned them. It is this tendency, no doubt, which explains the short and rather disdainful reference2 made by M. Mondor in his delightful book to a suggestion put forward by Professor Kurt Wais in the Zeit- schrift fur franzosische Sprache und Literatur (vol. LXII, 1939, pp. 182 if.), and repeated cursorily in his Mallarme (2nd ed., 1952, p. 226), that Chateaubriand's encounter with the two 'Indiennes' related in the Memoires d'Outre-Tombe is one of the chief promptings of Mallarme's inspiration.

Having arrived independently at the same conclusion as Professor Wais, I propose to redress the balance in favour of the two nymphs as important elements in any discussion of the origin of the poem, and to that end reproduce and comment briefly on the relevant passage of the M omoires.

First, however, let it be said that Albert Thibaudet, although, as we now know, he went astray in claiming Boucher's Pan et Syrinx in the National Gallery as the mainspring of the poem-the gallery acquired the work long after Mallarme's stay in London-did at least stress the, to him, symbolic value of the two nymphs.3 One, he implied, represents Love, the other, Poetry, and the Faun, i.e. Mallarme, wrongly tore them asunder. We may doubt the aptness of this interpretation which scarcely tallies with their contrasted qualities: the one 'inhumaine', the other 'timide', 'chaste', 'petite', naive'; for the 'inhumaine', or, as she appears in the first known version of the poem, the 'mauvaise' can scarcely symbolize Love, while 'naif', to Mallarme-

Naif baiser des plus funebres-

spells the negation of all true poetry. Be that as it may, and irrespective of any possible symbolic value that Mallarme may ultimately have attached to them, the fact remains that there are two nymphs-a rather large order, as indeed it proved, for one faun to handle-and that they are sharply contrasted; no more sharply however than Chateaubriand's 'Indiennes', as we shall see.

The following passage is taken with a few abridgements from V. Giraud's edition of the Memoires d'Outre-Tombe (Geneva, 1947), pp. 227-31. Long as it is, and although the more essential passages are italicized, it should be read in extenso,

1 Histoire d'un Faune (Paris, 1948), p. 16. 2 '...d'autres... avec moins d'entrain et de vraisemblance, [ont retenu] l'image de deux

jeunes indiennes dans Chateaubriand.' Ibid. p. 18. 3 La Poesie de Stephane Mallarme (Paris, 1926), p. 400.

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78 Miscellaneous Notes

as it is important that the general atmosphere should be appreciated, as well as the more relevant details.

Nous 6tions pousss par un vent frais. L'Ohio, grossi de cent rivieres, tant6t allait se perdre dans les lacs qui s'ouvraient devant nous, tantOt dans les bois. Des iles s'elevaient au milieu des lacs. Nous fimes voile vers une des plus grandes: nous l'abor- dames A huit heures du matin... Au moment ou nous nous y attendions le moins, nous vimes sortir d'une haie une flotille de canots, les uns a la rame, les autres a la voile. Ils aborderent notre ile.... Les Indiennes qui d6barquerent aupres de nous, issues d'un sang mele de Cheroki et de castillan, avaient la taille elevee. Deux d'entre elles ressemblaient a des cr6oles de Saint-Domingue et de 'File de France, mais jaunes et (lelicates comme des femmes du Gange. Ces deux Floridiennes, cousines du cote paternel, m'ont servi de modeles, l'une pour Atala, l'autre pour Celuta.... Les chasseurs etant partis pour les occupations de la journee, je restais avec les femmes et les enfants. Je ne quittais plus mes deux sylvaines: l'une etait fiere, et l'autre triste.... Elles vivaient dans une atmosphere de parfums emanes d'elles, comme des orangers et des fleurs dans les pures effluences de leur feuille et de leur calice. Je m'amusais d mettre sur leur tete quelque parure: elles se soumettaient, doucement effrayees; magiciennes, elles croyaient que je leur faisais un charme. L'une d'elles, la frere, priait souvent; elle me paraissait demi- chretienne. L'autre chantait avec une voix de velours, poussant a la fin de chaque phrase un cri qui troublait. Quelquefois, eles se parlaient vivement: je croyais demeler des accents de jalousie, mais la triste pleurait, et le silence revenait....

Le soleil approchait de son couchant. Sur le premier plan paraissaient des sassafras, des tulipiers, des catalpas et des chenes dont les rameaux etalaient des 6cheveaux de mousse blanche. Derriere ce premier plan s'elevait le plus charmant des arbres, le papayer, qu'on efit pris pour un style d'argent cisele, surmonte d'une urne corinthienne. Au troisieme plan dominaient les baumiers, les magnolias et les liquidambars.

Le soleil tomba derriere ce rideau: un rayon glissant A travers le dome d'une futaie scintillait comme une escarboucle enchassee dans le feuillage sombre; la lumiere diver- geant entre les troncs et les branches, projetait sur les gazons des colonnes croissantes et des arabesques mobiles. En bas, c'etaient des lilas, des azaleas, des lianes annelees, aux gerbes gigantesques; en haut, des nuages, les uns fixes, promontoires ou vieilles tours, les autres flottants, fumres de rose ou card6es de soie. Par des transformations succes- sives, on voyait dans ces nues s'ouvrir des gueules de four, s'amonceler des tas de braise, couler des rivieres de lave: tout etait dclatant, radieux, dore, opulent, sature de lumiere.... A notre droite etaient des ruines appartenant aux grandes fortifications trouvees sur l'Ohio, A notre gauche un ancien camp de sauvages; l'ile ot nous 6tions, arretee dans l'onde et reproduite par un mirage, balanqait devant nous sa double perspective. A l'orient, la lune reposait sur des collines lointaines; a l'occident, la vofte du ciel etait fondue en une mer de diamants et de saphirs, dans laquelle le soleil A demi plonge, paraissait se dissoudre. Les animaux de la creation veillaient; la terre, en adoration, semblait encenser le ciel, et l'ambre exhale de son sein retombait sur elle en rosee, comme la priere redescend sur celui qui prie.

Quitte de mes compagnes, je me reposai au bord d'un massif d'arbres: son obscurite, glacee de lumiere, formait la penombre oti j'6tais assis. Des mouches luisantes brillaient parmi les arbrisseaux encrepes, et s'eclipsaient lorsqu'elles passaient dans les irradiations de la lune. On entendait le bruit du flux et reflux du lac, les'sauts du poisson d'or, et le cri rare de la cane plongeuse. Mes yeux etaient fixes sur les eaux; je declinais peu A peu vers cette somnolence connue des hommes qui courent les chemins du monde: nul souvenir distinct ne me restait; je me sentais vivre et vegeter avec la nature dans une espece de pantheisme. Je m'adossai contre le tronc d'un magnolia et je m'endormis; mon repos flottait sur un fond vague d'esperance.

Quand je sortis de ce Lethe, je me trouvais entre deux femmes; les odalisques etaient revenues; elles n'avaient pas voulu me reveiller; elles s'etaient assises en silence d mes co6ts; soit qu'elles feignissent le sommeil, soit qu'elles fussent reellement assoupies, leurs tetes etaient tombees sur mes epaules.

Une brise traversa le bocage et nous inonda d'une pluie de roses de magnolia. Alors la plus jeune des Siminoles se mit d chanter: quiconque n'est pas suir de sa vie se garde de

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Miscellaneous Notes 79

l'exposer ainsi, jamais! on ne peut savoir ce que c'est que la passion infiltree avec la milodie dans le sein d'un homme. A cette voix, une voix rude et jalouse repondit: un Bois- BrldE appelait les deux cousines; elles tressaillirent, se leverent: l'aube commengait & poindre....

A midi le camp fut leve....Dans cette confusion, je fus s6pare des Creeks....Tout a coup, j'apercois de loin mes deux Floridiennes; des mains vigoureuses les asseyaient sur les croupes de deux barbes que montaient a cru un Bois-Brfile et un Siminole.... Les cavales prennent leur course, l'immense escadron les suit....Mes Floridiennes disparaissent comme la fille de Ceres, enlevee par le dieu des enfers.

Voild comme tout avorte dans mon histoire, comme il ne me reste que des images de tout ce qui a passe si vite.... La solitude me parut vide apres ma mesaventure.... Je me hdtai de quitter le desert, oiA j'ai ranime depuis les compagnes endormies de ma nuit. Je ne sais si je leur ai donne la vie qu'elles me donnerent; du moins, j'ai fait de l'une une vierge, et de l'autre une chaste 6pouse, par expiation.

One can readily imagine the effect of this glamorous passage on the young Baudelairian, Mallarme, how he would find in the luxurious setting, the lapse into somnolence, the mingled languor and passion, almost a realization of the 'Luxe, calme et volupte' of his master's dream. It is not suggested, of course, that there is, in the Apres-midi d'unfaune, any direct imitation of our extract. It is sufficient to

suppose that its magnificence had deeply stirred his imagination, that he had read, reread, and pondered it, and that its details had sunk into his mind, fruitful seeds destined to bloom again and adorn a masterpiece of his own making.

It is indeed remarkable, despite the obvious differences in theme and arrange- ment, how many details are common to Chateaubriand's idyll and the Aprds-midi, and how aptly Baudelaire serves as a link between the respective authors. Diamonds and sapphires (O pierreries!), incense and amber, perfumes, effluences, creoles and

odalisques, Lethe, are not these the very stock-in-trade of baudelairism? The

mingling of religious sentiment-

La terre, en adoration, semblait encenser le ciel, et l'ambre exhale de son sein retombait sur elle en ros6e, comme la priere redescend sur celui qui prie

and sensuous love, is not this too of the very essence of Baudelaire's poetry, and, combined with the rest, the exotic setting, the golden glory of the sunset, the

resting moon, the showering petals, likely to have appealed to the author of Les Fleurs, of Apparition, and of these lines from Sa fosse est fermee (1859) that prove his early familiarity with Chateaubriand:

C'6tait l'ame de tout! la France au ciel d'azur A pleur6 de la voir fuir son beau soleil pur. Son lac am6ricain oh le Niagara brise L'algue blanche d'ecume, a gemi sous la brise... ?

What then are the features common to the American idyll and the Sicilian

eclogue? First, the lighting: in both, everything is 'eclatant, radieux, dore, opulent, sature de lumiere'. Then, the decor: water, 'le bord d'un massif d'arbres', 'une

pluie de roses de magnolia'. Finally, the actors: one male and two female parts. In both, the principal actor lives 'avec la nature dans une espece de pantheisme'; in both, he is overcome by sleep, in both, he is aux prises with two sharply con- trasted female partners; in both, passionate love and music are conjoined; in both, the play ends in doubt, disappointment, or frustration; in both, the hero revives his lost loves( ?) by a 'poetic' resurrection. And what of the female characters? It will be remembered that they are discovered by the Faun locked in the 'extase d'etre

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80 80 Miscellaneous Notes Miscellaneous Notes

deux' (first version), or (second, third, and more typically Mallarmean version) 'meurtries De la langueur gofite a ce mal d'etre deux'), a situation reminiscent of certain of the censored poems of Les Fleurs du mal. Remembering that Mallarme is the author of Une Negresse...it is no wild assumption to suppose that the budding Baudelairian read into:

Quelquefois, elles se parlaient vivement: je croyais demeler des accents de jalousie, mais la triste pleurait,

more than, or perhaps as much as, Chateaubriand intended. All this, I would claim, is strong evidence that Mallarme in his lovely poem has

woven his 'arabesques mobiles' round a theme he found, in part, in Chateaubriand. The reader familiar with the Apres-midi will find hints of further parallels that it were perhaps unwise here to stress. I would only add that a possible verbal reminiscence, the word sylvain (cf. 'mes deux sylvaines', supra) found in the first version of the Apres-midi has disappeared from the poem in its final form.

One cannot but wonder at the strange alchemy of art that transmutes two 'Floridiennes', two 'filles peintes' as their companions bluntly call them, on the one hand into the chaste heroines of Atala and Les Natchez, on the other, into the perverse and evasive victims of Mallarme's Faun.

JOHN ORR EDINBURGH

REMARKS ON SOME ENGLISH LOANWORDS IN GERMAN

As additions to the word-histories given by P. F. Ganz in M.L.R. XLIX (1954), 478-83, the following remarks on some English loanwords in German may be of interest.

In the German-English Dictionary by Johann Sporschil,l published in 1830, the words Redingote, Reporter, Review, Schrapnell, Sherry, Speech, Standard, Steward and Viadukt are not listed.

The word Shawl is given in this spelling, which is still to be found in Duden (1926) beside the nowadays more usual spelling Schal. As plural form Sporschil gives only Shawle (pl. -e) while Duden records both -e and -s as plural endings of Schal (for Austria only -s).

The word Tost Sporschil gives in this simplified spelling without a plural form (Duden offers only the spelling Toast with the plural in -e). Sporschil also gives the hybrid compound Tostgestell for 'toast-rack'.

The word Twist is listed in Sporschil, also without a plural form (in Duden -e) being given.

Among the other English loanwords to be found in Sporschil-Miss (but neither Mister nor Mistress, which are listed in Duden), Whist (with the compounds Whistspiel and Whistmarke) and others-there are some perhaps more interesting ones.

1 The full German title-there is also a corresponding English one- is: Vollstdndiges Englisch- Deutsches und Deutsch-Englisches Worterbuch, enthaltend alle in beiden Sprachen allgemein gebrduchlichen W6rter. In zwei Theilen. Theil II. Deutsch und Englisch. Nach den anerkannt beaten Schrifttellern, insbesondere nach Heinsius grosaem, volksthiumlichen Wrterbuch der deutschen Sprache bearbeitet von Johann Sporschil. Leipzig, bei A. G. Liebeskind, 1830.

deux' (first version), or (second, third, and more typically Mallarmean version) 'meurtries De la langueur gofite a ce mal d'etre deux'), a situation reminiscent of certain of the censored poems of Les Fleurs du mal. Remembering that Mallarme is the author of Une Negresse...it is no wild assumption to suppose that the budding Baudelairian read into:

Quelquefois, elles se parlaient vivement: je croyais demeler des accents de jalousie, mais la triste pleurait,

more than, or perhaps as much as, Chateaubriand intended. All this, I would claim, is strong evidence that Mallarme in his lovely poem has

woven his 'arabesques mobiles' round a theme he found, in part, in Chateaubriand. The reader familiar with the Apres-midi will find hints of further parallels that it were perhaps unwise here to stress. I would only add that a possible verbal reminiscence, the word sylvain (cf. 'mes deux sylvaines', supra) found in the first version of the Apres-midi has disappeared from the poem in its final form.

One cannot but wonder at the strange alchemy of art that transmutes two 'Floridiennes', two 'filles peintes' as their companions bluntly call them, on the one hand into the chaste heroines of Atala and Les Natchez, on the other, into the perverse and evasive victims of Mallarme's Faun.

JOHN ORR EDINBURGH

REMARKS ON SOME ENGLISH LOANWORDS IN GERMAN

As additions to the word-histories given by P. F. Ganz in M.L.R. XLIX (1954), 478-83, the following remarks on some English loanwords in German may be of interest.

In the German-English Dictionary by Johann Sporschil,l published in 1830, the words Redingote, Reporter, Review, Schrapnell, Sherry, Speech, Standard, Steward and Viadukt are not listed.

The word Shawl is given in this spelling, which is still to be found in Duden (1926) beside the nowadays more usual spelling Schal. As plural form Sporschil gives only Shawle (pl. -e) while Duden records both -e and -s as plural endings of Schal (for Austria only -s).

The word Tost Sporschil gives in this simplified spelling without a plural form (Duden offers only the spelling Toast with the plural in -e). Sporschil also gives the hybrid compound Tostgestell for 'toast-rack'.

The word Twist is listed in Sporschil, also without a plural form (in Duden -e) being given.

Among the other English loanwords to be found in Sporschil-Miss (but neither Mister nor Mistress, which are listed in Duden), Whist (with the compounds Whistspiel and Whistmarke) and others-there are some perhaps more interesting ones.

1 The full German title-there is also a corresponding English one- is: Vollstdndiges Englisch- Deutsches und Deutsch-Englisches Worterbuch, enthaltend alle in beiden Sprachen allgemein gebrduchlichen W6rter. In zwei Theilen. Theil II. Deutsch und Englisch. Nach den anerkannt beaten Schrifttellern, insbesondere nach Heinsius grosaem, volksthiumlichen Wrterbuch der deutschen Sprache bearbeitet von Johann Sporschil. Leipzig, bei A. G. Liebeskind, 1830.

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