Jules Laforgue and the Ironic Inheritance by Warren Ramsey

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Lze the basaltmonumental, exotIc-mventorymg aspects of Flaubert's style, the style of 'HerodIas,' Salammbo, and the huntIng epISode 10 'La Legende de Samt Juhen l'HospItaher' But his own style m Stepbtme Vasszltew IS heavy WIth Flaubert-the perdurable Flaubert Stephane IS traced m these strokes' touJours des Ill1nes souffreteuses, en toute saISon des foulards d6hcats au cou, tres '-the very frueux, montant pour un nen a l'mfirmene rhythms WIth wruch Flaubert acrueved the same conClSlon The relatIonsrup between Stephane's underlymg attltudes and those of hIS creator IS clear It IS unhkely, however, that this work gIves an accurate ImpresslOn of Laforgue's day-to-day eXIstence at the College Impenal de Tarbes We have the testlmony of an observmg school fnend, Jean Peres, a future psychologISt, who pamts a qUlte un-Vasslhew-hke portraIt of Laforgue as a schoolboy 'He had his share of mtsehtef showed no lack of spontaneIty, the repartee that makes one somebody 10 the schoolboy world I can even say more these youngsters [Jules and Enule] 24 J'LLES LAFORGUE AND THE IRONIC INHERITANCE \vho had come from the other sIde of the ocean to pass theIr boyhood wIthIn the walls of a French lycee enJoyed a certam prestIge In the eyes of theIr comrades because of a touch of newness, freshness dIfficult to descrIbe, and because of the VISIOn of another world they conJured up In the Crusoesque mInds of the schoolboys of those days' 11 There was a profound reserve about the temperament of Jules Laforgue-the ultunate cause of rus defensIve Irony FrIends whom he saw almost dally In BerlIn dId not know that he wrote verse untIl they found hIm correctIng proof for the Complazntes It IS not surpnsmg, Indeed qUIte true to character, that dunng rus school days he should have kept rus deeper feelmgs to hImself UnlIke Stephane, Jules and EmIle had someone to be responsIble for them on Thursdays, fete days, and dUrIng vacatIons ThIS was Pascal Darre, the retIred Montevidean baker, theIr father's first cousm, now hVIng a leIsurely hfe on an acacIa-planted property across from the Massey Gardens Pascal was on the horny-handed SIde and assuredly dId not spOll hIS young relatIons On the other hand, he saw to It that they had regular paIntIng lessons, encouragmg a bent for plastIc art In both boys It IS hard to thInk of the poet as havmg been uncommonly mIserable durIng these years At least one teacher took an Interest In hun, a young studyhall master named Theophile Delcasse, ill spIte or because of an InaUSpICIOUS event One day Jules, turntng around suddenly as the morutor came up behtnd, knocked off h1s eyeglasses, was thunderously reprImanded and sent to detentIon room He took to calling the young man 'Cafardmet' (Snoopy), but student and teacher became good frIends nonetheless Later on m Pans, Delcasse &d hIS best by dmt of pnvate lessons to get Jules through the baccalaureate It was long supposed that the onetune teacher was the author of a frIendly reVIew of the Complttmtes, though It now appears that Laforgue wrote It hunself At least Delcasse let hIS name be used l And It was beCOmIng a well-known name HaVIng tned hIS hand unsuccessfully at playWrIttng, De1casse turned to pohtlcs, where he dtd much better, servIng several tunes as foretgn 1ll1ruster and becommg the archItect of the Anglo-French Entente CordIale 'FOR THE E):E'S DELIGHT' Jules fell 10 love Her name was l\Iarguente A story of somewhat later vrntage than Stepbane, 'Amours de la qUIOZ1eme annee,' 12 relates 'how at fifteen one changes l I slupped class to go far from town, to roll on the grass and ,,,eep causelessly And every Sunday mornmg, regularly, I found myself stand10g outsIde the church after mass was over, watchmg the gIrls fly off on wmgs of wlute dresses A cntlcal penod, as Joseph Prudhomme well observes, and It was precIsely at thIS tIme that a novel by Balzac took It lOto Its head to fall 1Oto my hands Un Grand H O11'OIze de provtnce aParts I devoured It, I dreamed of It, I had an 10tuItlve VISIon of ParIS That faraway 1Oferno fasclOated me, for Its sake I forgot to eat and drInk LUCIen de Rubempre "as a poet I would be a pa10ter l 'And ImmedIately I broke WIth my comrades, whom I thenceforth regarded as vIle seed of grocers and petnfoggers I spent my spare tIme sketchIng, eIther at the lIbrary or at the museum At rught I worked very late copy1Og Then I began to pamt.

They dId well, smce otherwIse thIs record of one of the memorable lIterary aSSOCIatIons mIght have contInued macceSSIble for some tIme Nearly forty years before, m Symboltstes et Decadents, Kahn had told how, one sprmg day m 1880, at a meetIng of the Qub des Hydropathes-one of those tentative groupmgs of WrIters that preceded the flood tIde of SymbolIsm-he had notIced a young man 'd'aspect un peu clergyman,' 1 somewhat too well dressed for the occasIOn, who lIstened WIth great attentIon to the unremarkable verse that was beIng recited 'HIS qUIet gray eyes lIghted up and rus cheeks grew pmk whenever the poems offered the slIghtest Interest' Smce the author happened to be Kahn, he took note of the appreCIatIve lIstener, and after the readtng of Ins verse was over, wlnle another Hydropathe was dec1anng lamblcally that henceforth he would love only women of stone, he struck up a conversatIon He was as much Impressed by the scope of Jules Laforgue's knowledge and the delIcacy of hls feelmgs as by hls al'tlStlc fervor 'He told me that he wanted to devote rumself to the fustory of art, and was further contem- a 32 PREsE,,"CES MD ABSE....

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