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Page 1 of 11928 · PDF PAGE 97
… to describe to you this un- forgettable evening. Fanciullo proved to me in a peremptory and irrefutable manner that the intoxication of art is apter than any other to veil the terrors of the abyss; that genius may play its part upon the edge of the tomb with a joy which prevents it from seeing the tomb, lost as it is in a Paradise which excludes all idea either of death or of destruction. The entire audience, right world-word and frivolous as it may have been, soon surren- dered itself to the all-powerful domination of the artist. Nobody thoug…
1928 · PDF PAGE 40
XII CROWDS IT is not given to everybody to bathe in the man-ocean; to enjoy the crow is an art; and he only can revel in their vitality at the expense of the human race in whom, while he lies in his cradle, a fairy has breathed the taste for trav- esty and masquerade, the hatred of home and the passion of travel. MultitudeSolitude: these terms are equivalent, and are convertible by the active and fertile poet. He who does not understand how to people his solitude is equally ignorant of the art of being alone in a crowd. The poet enjoys this in…
1928 · PDF PAGE 127
…he only question worth consider- ing. In order not to feel the horrible burden of time which breaks your shoulders and bows you down to earth, you must intoxicate your- self without truce, but with what? With wine, poetry, or art?As you will; but intoxicate yourself. And if sometimes upon the steps of a pal- ace, or upon the green grass of a moat, or in the sad solitude of your own room, you awake, intoxication already diminished or disappeared, ask of the wind, of the wave, of the star, of the bird, of the clock, of all that flies, of all tha…
1928 · PDF PAGE 96
Signor Fanciullo excelled above all in silent parts, or those of few words, which are often the principal parts in those fairy dramas whose object is to represent symbolically the mystery of life. He came upon the scenes lightly and perfectly at his ease; a fact which tended to confirm in the mind of the public the idea of grace and pardon. When one says of a comedian, There is a good comedian, one employs a formula which implies that beneath the person represented the comedian may still be found; that is to say, there is art, effort, will. N…
1928 · PDF PAGE 165
erty, Thou the Sovereign who dost allow, Thou the Judge who dost pardon, Thou who art full of Motives and of Causes, Thou who hast (it may be) placed within my soul the love of hor- ror in order to turn my heart to Thee, like the cure which follows the knife; Oh Lord, have pity, have pity upon the mad men and women that we are! Oh Creator, is it possible that monsters should exist in the eyes of Him alone who knoweth why they exist, how they have made themselves, and how they would have made themselves, and could not?
1928 · PDF PAGE 17
…y regret and by desire. It is something like twilight; somewhat blue, somewhat rosy. A dream of pleasure at the hour of the eclipse! The articles of furniture have long, low, lan- guid shapes; one would say that they dream; they seem endowed, as vegetables and miner- als are, with a somnambulistic life. The cover- ings speak with the same silent language as flowers, skies, and sunsets. On the walls no artistic abomination; as compared with pure dream, unanalysed im- pression, definite and positive art is a blas- phemy. Here everything has the s…
1928 · PDF PAGE 156
… for the dead and their divine rest! Accursed be your ambitions, accursed be your calculations, impatient mortals, who come to study the art of slaying so close to the sanctu- ary of death! If you knew how easy the prize was to gain, how easy the mark was to hit, and how all is nothing except death, you would not take so much trouble, O toilsome folk that are alive, and you would trouble less often the slumber of those who long since have hit the mark, the sole true mark of detestable life.
1928 · PDF PAGE 169
… with the books that were fashionable at that timeI speak of sixteen or seventeen years ago; I mean the books in which is discussed the art of making everyone happy, wise, and rich, in twenty-four hours. I had then digested swallowed, I suppose I should sayall the lu- cubrations of all these happiness-furnishers, both those who advise the poor to make them- selves slaves, and those who persuade them that they are all dethroned monarchs. You will then not find it surprising that I was in a state of mind approximating to giddiness or stupor. I…
1928 · PDF PAGE 136
me;the Water, the Clouds, Silence, Night; the vast green Sea, the shapeless water that hath many shapes; the place where thou art not, the lover that thou knowest not, mon- strous flowers and delirious perfumes, cats that swoon at music and groan as women do with harsh, soft voice. And thou shalt be loved of my lovers, courted by my courtiers. Thou shalt be the queen of those men whose eyes are green and whose throats I have clutched in my nocturnal caresses: of those who love the sea, the vast, tumultuous sea, the shapeless water that hath m…
1928 · PDF PAGE 80
…nths of a great city, twinkling of stars or outbursting of lamps, you are the fire-work of the Goddess Liberty. Twilight, how sweet thou art and tender! The rosy lights which linger still on the horizon like the death-spasm of Day trampled by the victorious car of Night; the torch-like flames which stain with their dull red the expiring glo- ries of the setting sun; the heavy curtains which some invisible hand draws from the depths of the East:these are but imitations of all the complex feelings which struggle within the heart of man in the so…
1928 · PDF PAGE 50
… of vitality. Here only, absolute wretchedness; wretchedness dressed, to crown its horror, in comic rags, where necessity, far more than art, had introduced the contrast. He did not laugh, poor wretch! He neither leapt nor danced, nor gesticulated nor cried. He sang no song, either merry or sad; he made no supplication. He was dumb and motionless. He had given up the game; he had abdicated: his fate was come upon him. But what a gaze (how profound, how unfor- gettable!) he cast upon the crowds and the lights, whose moving flood stopped a few pa…
1928 · PDF PAGE 61
… lemnity. Upon glittering panels or upon gilded leather, darkly rich, live pictures; pictures blesséd, calm and deep as the souls of the art- ists which created them. The setting suns which so richly colour the dining-room or the drawing-room are sifted by fair stuffs or by high windows of stained glass; the furniture is vast, curious, bizarre, weaponed with locks and with secrets, like refined souls. Mirrors, metals, stuffs, jewelry, porcelain, play a silent and
1928 · PDF PAGE 62
…to it as in the house of a man who has well toiled and has deserved well of the whole world. Strange country, superior to all others, as Art is to Na- ture, where nature is re-formed by dream, where she is corrected, beautified, re-moulded. Let them seek, let them still seek; let them ever push back the limits of their happiness, these alchemists of gardening; let them pro- pose their prizes of sixty and one hundred thousand florins for whoever shall solve their ambitious problems; for me, I have found my black tulip and my blue dahlia. Incompa…