greer cohn. l'aprés-midi. exegesis by chilsholm. r

8/10/2019 Greer Cohn. L'Aprs-midi. Exegesis by Chilsholm. R.

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Mallarm's L'Aprs-midi d'un faune: An Exegetical and Critical Study by A. R. ChisholmReview by: Robert Greer CohnModern Language Notes, Vol. 75, No. 7 (Nov., 1960), pp. 632-634Published by: The Johns Hopkins University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3040239.

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ideas. Moreover,manyof the poemscontain strong

thical lement,

statedmuch more explicitly

han in the Fleur-s

ui

mal. Not infre-

quently, moral conclusion, ouched n rhetoricalprose, tends to

weaken he poetic mpression,

or t appears as an unnecessary

nter-

vention n the part of theauthor: e. g. in Le Vieux saltimbanque

and in Mademoiselle

istouri. It would be therefore

mportant o

define audelaire's omewhatmpulsive ngagement,

hich endsupon

occasion o makehimthe spokesman f the downtrodden

hosedignity

he upholds gainstthe

vulgarity f the bourgeoisie.

And perhaps he

essential lement

n

the

prosepoems s theirdeephunmanity

r

rather

their

xploration

n

depth

f

humanrelations.

n

conclusionl,

t

might

be

said

that

Baudelaire who, n the Fleurs

clumal, subordiniated

nd

instrumentalizedis moi in order o achieve stheticuccess,makes

use, n the Spleende

Paris,

of his own ego

in order o

enter

nto

close

relationship ith other

beings. It is moreoften

han not

a

question

of situatinghis own person

n an already existent

world,for which

he has some responsibility,ather han the creation

f

an

imaginary

or

surnaturalistic

universe.

University of California, Lo8

Angeles

JUDD

D. HUBERT

A.

R.

Chisholm,

Mallarme s

'Apres-midi 'un

faune:

An

Exegetical

and

Critical

Study (New

York:

Cambridge

Univ.

Press,

1959.

35

pp.

$.95.

Originally

ubLe

n

1958by

Australian

HumanitiesResearch

Council,

2).

IN this

briefstudy

t is

fun

to

see

the

Professor

Emeritus

f French

at

Melbourne

University, ho

has devoted

many

valuable

nd

pioneering

ages

to

Mallarme, eturn

o

the prime ources

of his literaryfeelingand speak with such admiration nd hence

juicily

refreshednsight

f the

poem

which

Valery

once called

the

most accomplished

f

the

French

language.

Some

of

the

newer

voices on

the

subject

sound sapless by

comparison.

Consider for

example

he cacophonous

omments

f

Professor

.

A. Hackett

n the

Introduction

o his

Anthology

f Modern

French

Poetry;after

having

read

throughhe

poemwithout

ewardhe quotes

four

inesand brings

himself

o allow that

these

are rather

nice:

That we are

surprised

by thevitality s somemeasureof the emotional ridityof muchof

Mallarme'swork.

And,

later:

Mallarme's

accomplishment

s

pri-

marily

technical

ne.

Personally,

versince

my

ater teens

have

always

found

L'Apres-midi

d'un fauneas ravishingly

ensual,

from

thefirst

enoir-like

pparition

f

Cesnymphes

to

the erotic

limax,

as Debussy

obviously id.

For

true emotional

ridity

ne

maysafely

632

Modern

Language

Notes

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3/4

recommend he academic critic, ncluding hat sophisticated

new

varietywhich s so sensible, ivilized,mature-and murder o beauty

or invention. In this as in other quartersromantic, idealistic

commitmento rock-bottomalues is givingway to empty erbaliza-

tion. Justas an eminent tylist ike Pascal knew hat there re times

when t is

appropriate o repeatwords, rofessor hisholm, espite

lifetime f teaching, nows hatthere re moments t which t is right

to comeout and say the

Apres-midi

s one of the mostexquisite nd

reallypoeticpoems verwritten.

Chisholm's atest

contribution, hileofferingeassuring vidence f

heart, s modest n scope. Mondor's listoire

d'un fctune

as much

more to

say

about

the probable ources nd the surroundingmilieu,

Noulet's Uiuvrepoetiquede Mallarmegoes farther nto textual con-

siderations. But this little plaquette s useful anyway: t identifies

and

accurately races ome main themes sensuality,memory, ream,

art), pins down omedetailsof

decor

or topography, nd effectively

captures

he mood of

the wholefor valuablereappreciation.On the

otherhand, the poem calls

for a

richer ommentary;he actual close

scrutinizing

f

the text here runs to a few pages only and speaks

directly

f

only

a

veryfew ines. Moreover, t almostevery oint of

his commentaryMallarme'smeaning goes well beyond Chisholm's

indications;

nd

not ust to over-subtleccentrics ut to sober cholars

who

have lluminated

hese

meanings

n

previous ssays

n the

subject.

For

example,

t

is

not clear

whether he

illusion

(lines 10-11)

which

escapes

from

he blue

eyes

of the

chaster

ymph

s

enhanced

or

dissipated-and

so much

the

better

poetically.

Mauron

plumps

for

the

heightening, hisholm he lessening,why not either,

n the

Faun's unsure

mind?

Considering

hat

Mallarme'

s

indeed,

as

Chisholm

vers,trying

o take back his own frommusic in this

piece,1

uch

a

fluttering

entative

uery, erhaps n

an

unsure

key

or

modeor

through

he

unresolved

hords

f

appogiatura,

s

of

the

essence

of

good

music

(Brahms,Debussy),

and

poetry

an

afford ome

of

it.

Likewise

for an earlier

passage:

Mon

doute,

amas

de nuit

ancienne,

s'ach6ve

En maint

rameau

subtil, qui,

demeur4

les

vrais

Bois m6mes....

Chisholm

omments: The heaviness f

sleep (amas

de nuit

ancienne)

has

left

he Faun

uncertain.

But

his

uncertainty

eems

o

be

dispelled

1

It

would

be

pertinent

to

recall

his

rejoinder

to someone's

remark that

Debussy

had set his

poem

to music: Je

croyais

I'avoir

mis

en

musique

moi-

meme.

VOL.

LXXV,

November 1960

633



4/4

(mon

doute

'acheve)

as he

grows

more

ucid and

alert.

This

is fine

but scarcely

ufficient.

n earlier

version f

the poem,

mprovisation

d'un faune,

had:

Mon

doute,

loin

ici de

finir,

e

prolonge

En de mornes rameaux; qui, demeur6s ces vrais

Massifs noirs....

In other

words,

made

possible

by the

ambiguity

f the

finalchoice

s'acheve,

we maybecome

ware ofa counterpointed

heme f

familiar

Mallarmean

metaphysics:

ld

Night

pushes

fingers fnegation,

ike

the ink-strokes

f the

tree-etching

hich s beautifully

reated

here-

with,

nto awareness

s doubtor

analytic

onsciousness

hich ells

the

Faun

he musthave

been

dreaming.

Which

does not so much

contra-

dictChisholm s add to our wonder t the old magicianMallarme.

Wearily

ne must repeat

that

this

is not

just

an arid

game-though

theexegete,

orced o

delve nto proofs,

mayseem

to

be playing

ne-

f

r

a

sensitive

eader

undoubtedly

ntuits

hese

concurrent

nd fluidly

interwovenhemes

ust

as he does

n

music,

houghhe

might

be hard

put

to

demonstrate

hem.

Thereare various

ther uch

complex

mages

-the lily,the

divided

tuft,

he

grape-skins,

he

pomegranate-to

which

Chisholm

ould

well

havedevotedmoreofhis space. But, as he promised s furthertudies

of

this

kind on

the Apres-midi

'wrt

aune and Mallarme

generally,

we probably

ught

not to quibble

about

what

he has

lnot

done

but

applaud

what

he has.

And wish

therewere

more

ike

him.

Stanford

University

ROBERT GREER

COHN

ReubenA. Brower, d., On

Translation

(Cambridge,Mass.:

Harvard

Univ.

Press,1959.

xi

+

297 pp.

$6.50.

Harvard

Studiesin

Cormn

parative

Literature,

3).

SAY

what one will

of the

inadequacy

of translation,

wrote

Goethe

o

Carlyle

n

1827,

it remains

ne

of

the

most mportant

nd worthiest

oncerns

n the totality

f

world

affairs.

That pithy

udgment

ould

be juxtaposedto many

others

(e.

g.,

translation

s

sin

)

culled

from

he valuable

and

provocative

critical

bibliography

ollectedby B. Q. Morgan

at the

end

of this

volume. Few will doubtthat Goethewas rightas theyfinish his

collection

f

essays

by established

uthorities

n many

facets

of the

problem.

Discounting

those few, all of the

rest of us should

be

2

Some of

these

have

been

considered

passim

in my

(Euvre

de Mallarme'

which

also deals

at

length

with

the

sound-symbolism

and

general

poetics

Chisholm

seems

to imply have never been discussed

(p. 34).

634

Modern Language

Notes


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