Mallarmé: The Poet and His Circle 9781501728211

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The Poet and His Circle

Rosemary Lloyd

Cornell University Press Ithaca and London

Copyright © 1999 by Cornell University All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850. First published 1999 by Cornell University Press First printing, Cornell Paperbacks, 2005 Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Lloyd, Rosemary. Mallarme : the poet and his circle I Rosemary Lloyd. p. em. Includes index. ISBN 0-8014-3662-l (cloth: alk. paper) ISBN 0-8014-8993-8 (pbk. : alk. paper) l. Mallarme, Stephane, 1842-1898. 2. Poets, French19th century-Biography. I. Title. PQ2344.Z5L56 1999 841'.8-dc2l [B] 99-35644 Cornell University Press strives to use environmentally responsible suppliers and materials to the fullest extent possible in the publishing of its books. Such materials include vegetable-based, low-VOC inks and acid-free papers that are recycled, totally chlorine-free, or partly composed of nonwood fibers. For further information, visit our website at www.cornellpress.cornell.edu. lO Cloth printing Paperback printing

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Facing Page: Dedication of La Musique et les lettres by Stephane Mallarme. The Academy, to which the volume is inscribed, was an English periodical founded in 1869. Edmund Gosse published an article on Mallarme in it on january 7, 1893. Courtesy the Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington.

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Gaude and Vincenelte Pichois

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With these keys we may partially unlock the mystery. -Edgar Allan Poe, Eureka

If a man does not make new acquaintances as he advances through life, he will soon find himself alone. A man, Sir, should keep his friendship in constant repair. -Samueljohnson, quoted injames Boswell, Life of Samuel johnson Facts have their importance. -But that is where the biography comes to grief. [... ] Therefore, as things are, the best method would be to separate the two kinds of truth. Let the biographer print fully completely, accurately, the known facts without comment: Then let him write the life as fiction. -Virginia Woolf, Notebooks

Contents

Illustrations

ix

Acknowledgments

xi

Abbreviations INTRODUCTION: Corresponding

xiii 1

INTERLUDE ONE • Reading in Mallarme's Letters

19

CHAPTER ONE • Writing in Exile

27

INTERLUDE TWO • Depression

66

CHAPTER TWO • Finding a Voice

77

INTERLUDE THREE· Father and Daughter

109

cHAPTER THREE • Forging an Aesthetic

121

INTERLUDE FOUR· Love and Friendship

156

cHAPTER FOUR· Becoming a Symbol

166

INTERLUDE FIVE· "A Passerby Seeking Refuge": Poetry, Politics, and Bombs

202

coNcLUsioN: Remembering the Dead

217

Appendix: "Crise de vers"

227

Notes

235

Selected Bibliography

245

Index

255

Illustrations

Following Page 108

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Portrait of Mallarme by Edouard Manet

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Portrait of Paul Verlaine by Louis Anquetin

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Drawing ofVilliers de l'Isle-Adam by Paterne Berrichon

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Caricature of Fran(ois Coppee

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Illustration from Le Corbeau (1875)

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Cover of La Plume (1893)

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Drawing of Stuart Merrill

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Caricature of the publisher Leon Vanier

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Drawing of Georges Rodenbach

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Paul Nadar photograph of Mallarme toward the end of his life

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Drawing of Henri Cazalis

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Drawing of Henri de Regnier

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Painting of Mery Laurent by Edouard Manet

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Photograph of Genevieve Mallarme

15.

Fan signed by Mallarme and others

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Saxony clock

Acknowledgments

This book could not have been written without the immaculate scholarship of Lloyd Austin, whose edition of the correspondence is such a fascinating source of information for anyone interested in fin-de-siecle thought and art. To him, and to the numerous scholars, librarians, and friends who have shared their knowledge and insights with me, I owe a great debt of gratitude. Earlier versions of certain chapters in this book were read to audiences in Toronto (Canada), Edinburgh (Scotland), Stockholm (Sweden), and Iowa City (United States), and I am grateful for the comments I received. I would also like to express my thanks to Nancy Boerner of Indiana University's main library; Lisa Brower, Julia Simic, Saundra Taylor, and all the wonderful staff of the Lilly Library; Genevieve Moly-Averso and Marie-Anne Sarda of the Musee Mallarme; Marie-Therese Stanislas, whose interest in Genevieve Mallarme was of special help to me; Bernhard Kendler of Cornell University Press; and my colleagues and friends Jill Anderson, Mylene Catel, Mary Ann Caws, Ross Chambers, Jane Fulcher, Michael Graf, Michele Hannoosh, Bertrand Marchal, Gordon Millan, Larry Porter, and Jean-Luc Steinmetz. It's a special pleasure to record my thanks to Jan Mitchell, who gave me invaluable help as my research assistant, and to Bill Cagle, who over many years as Lilly Librarian built up the wonderful collection of nineteenth-century French books and manuscripts housed in Bloomington's Lilly Library. Some of the letters from which I quote excerpts appeared in an earlier form in my Selected Letters oJStephane Mallarme (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988). © 1988 by the University of Chicago. All rights reserved. I am grateful to the Press for permission to use these excerpts here. The National Endowment for the Humanities awarded me a fellowship that enabled me to devote myself full time to this project, and to them, as well as to Indiana University, which granted me a sabbatical, I am deeply grateful. As always, my husband, Paul, deserves more thanks than I can express. Claude and Vincenette Pichois have long provided leadership and unstinting friendship to dix-neuviemistes throughout the world, and this book is a small token of appreciation for all they have given.

Abbreviations

Mallarme's punctuation, capitalization, and syntax are idiosyncratic, but part of his meaning. I have preserved them in my translations wherever possible. All translations are my own except where indicated otherwise. A translation of Mallarme's "Crise devers" (Crisis of verse) is included at the end of the volume.

Annales

Carr. CC

DSM

EL HC LML OC

VM

Henri de Regnier, Annales psychiques et occulaires (Unpublished diaries) (Paris: Bibliotheque nationale, MSS nouvelles acquisitions fran