GAUTIER.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1265, 21 October 1911, Page 9

GAUTIER.

' Therr hnve been, in the French press (says tin New York "Nation"), reßjimscences and anecdotes in plenty ot ibeophilo Gauticr, the centennial of whose birth 101 lon August 31. ile was reco--hisocl as a great poet in his lifetime, but his audicaeo -was-never a-very-largo one. The popular conception of hiai jvas of a wild-eyed romantic; in reality 1 there wa? a fine intell/genco, coupled with his ?r----centricitios of belief and behaviour. I used to wear my hair too long when I was young," lio oncc; said, "and _th.il isas d'>i>e rtie such irrepirable harm in the eyesot fchn bnnn:«oH that I havo never been able to arrive." And again, speaking of the famous red waistcat of Hernani, 'I put that waistcoat i:n only once, but T havo worn it all my life.". 'In grammar as in' life he was a rebol. He scoffed :il the purists. . "I throw my phrases inti the air like so ninny rnts; X am suro they will land on their feet." And once lo Emilo Bw-ierat, "Von young fellows will be grateful to mo some day -when you see what, an ■ admirable instrument I hi t left in you: hails., Toy. niii defend i; v fair" fame against thnso undergraduates of literature who, having no ideas to express and no emotion to coniey would reduce us to the ono hundred words .if tl.'" liacinian vocabulary." Tho eccentric appears in an anecdote of Gautier related by Mnxin'c du Camp. Gautier refused to appear for tho brief annual period of militia dnty incumbent on all citizens, and was once condemned to twenty-f:our hours in prison. He went for advice to Du Camp, who suggested that the ensiest way "ut was by complying with the law. ""Never!" said Gautior. "I have no right to destroy the beauty of my limbs by encasing them in a ridiculous uniform. I am already sufficiently humiliated in being forced to wear a frock coat like n bailiff without dishonouring myself by putting on a tunic with epaulettes and a shako with a plume. In 1832 I was on tho point of embracing the Socialist teachings of Saintpinion. But when I, that I would have to put on white trousers, a red waistcoat, and a blue coat, I shrank back in horror and I renounced tho religion of the Father-and-Mother-God. I ' shall never'join- a sect that misuses-col-our. I shall serve only in an army which entertains respect for the human form. I'd rather perish in fcllo Bnstile' than prove falso.to my principles." Epigrams by Gauticr and on him are numerous, lie said, "I used to love cathedrals on the strength of Notre Dame, but tho sight of the Parthenon cured mo of the Gothic malady, which never was strong in mo." "Nature is not tho .'end of art', but rather the means." "Ideas are born noble even though they are born in garrets." "To possess talent - one must exaggerate, his faults til! they assume tho dimensions of qualities." "They have never spoken of my real merit, which consists in this: that I am a man for whom tho external world exists." sainte-Beuvo said of Gauticr that ho was not a liar; tlnat quality he "lacked." His danghler Judith writes: "Sometimes we children would gel' into a temper, pout, refuse to speak to him. This would niako. him furious. 'In just one hour this gamo must stop, and vou will love me as before or I shall run amucli,' he would cry. 'I owe you no love,' I would say. 'The Biblo is explicit on tho.point. It says I should honour my father and mother; it does not mention love.' Thereupon he would pursue mo with, objurgations, throw his pipe at me, his slippers, anything light that came to hand, crying all the time, 'Will you put a stop to this comedy? You will immediately cen=p exhibiting resDCot to me!'" The anniversary of the birth of the adorable Gautier (says a "Manchester Guardian" writer) sots ono reflecting upon that theory of art for art's _ sake, which, though not invented by him, is so invariably associated with his name. Thus formulated it is a contradiction in terms: "art" signifies means, and means for means' sake is absurd. As practised by Gauticr it means little more than art for word-picture's sake. A volume of his poems is like a glass case _ full of tho most curiously carven precious stones, coins beautifully designed, and cameos dug up in some Italian ruin._ Thus when Rainte-Benve devoted a series if sympathetic articles to a consideration of his work, and, analysing, it, found an amorous, a sentimental, and an elegiac element, Gauticr, while appreciating _ the great critic's compliment, ' complained both of what ho had found and of what ho had failed to find in his poems. For ono thing, ho had found a personal element, whereas Gail tier's great principle was detachment. As distinguished from the other great romantics who were selfconfessors a outrancc and poured out tho most secret feelings and experiences of their heart, it was Gautier's pose lo stand apart from his work and to be as jealous of tho intrusion of himself into it. as tho sculptor who wears a lamp on his forehead lest his own shadow should fall upon tho marble he is carving. On tho other hand, Saintc-Bcuvo had not considered tho pictorial aspect of Gautier's poetry, and had not cared to turn over with loving admiration the contents of that little casket of gems "Ernaux et Cameos." "All tho plastic side of you escapes bim," commented tho Goncourts, and it was on the plastic sido of his genius that Gautier prided himself.

One of tho limitations of Gautier—and thero were many—was that ho failed to recognise that there is not only a visible but what Shelley calls an "intellectual beauty." Ideas aro not only distinguishable from ono another as true or false, but also as beautiful or tho reverse. We pronounco an idea true according as it coincides with our own conception. We pronounco it beautiful according as it appeals to our aesthetic emotions. Moreover tho Keatsian identification of truth and beauty is disputable. Waiving the question whether an idea may be true without being beautiful, thnt it may bo beautiful although it is false may be easily shown. Thus of the multitude who admire as ono of tho pinnacles of English poetry Wordsworth's "Ode," few believo in its main thesis that tho individual soul has pre-existed and that tho subtle emotional experiences of childhood arc of an anamnestic nature. Those who are of that opinion, indeed, \'ill take moro pleasure in reading tho poem, but is thnt increment of pleasure which the fact of their being of tho same mind with tho poet brings a specially poctic pleasure? Evidently not. Tho theory of art for art's sake, therefore, as thus extended, would mean that while a poem may be the vehicle of a truth, it is not a poem because its idea is true, but bccauso it is beautiful.