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GAUTIER, THEOPHILE (1811-1872)
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See also:GAUTIER, See also:THEOPHILE (1811-1872) , See also:French poet and See also:miscellaneous writer, was See also:born at See also:Tarbes on the 31st of See also:August 1811. He was educated at the See also:grammar school of that See also:town, and afterwards at the See also:College See also:Charlemagne in See also:Paris, but was almost as much in the studios. He very See also:early devoted himself to the study of the older French literature, especially that of the 16th and the early See also:part of the 17th See also:century. This study qualified him well to take part in the Romantic See also:movement, and enabled him to astonish Sainte-Beuve by the phraseology and See also:style of some See also:literary essays which, when barely eighteen years old, he put into the critic's hands. In consequence of this introduction he at once came under the See also:influence of the See also:great Romantic cenacle, to which, as to See also:Victor See also:Hugo in particular, he was also introduced by his gifted but See also:ill-starred schoolmate See also:Gerard de See also:Nerval. With Gerard, Petrus See also:Borel, See also:Corot, and many other less known painters and poets whose personalities he has delightfully sketched in the articles collected under the titles of Histoire du Romantisme, &c., he formed a See also:minor romantic clique who were distinguished for a See also:time by the most extravagant eccentricity. A flaming See also:crimson waistcoat and a great See also:mass of waving See also:hair were the outward signs which qualified Gautier for a See also:chief See also:rank among the enthusiastic devotees who attended the rehearsals of Hernani with red tickets marked " See also:Hierro," performed mocking dances See also:round fIe bust of See also:Racine, and were at all times ready to See also:exchange word or See also:blow with the perruques and grisdtres of the classical party. In Gautier's See also:case these freaks were not inconsistent with real See also:genius and real devotion to See also:sound ideals of literature. He began (like See also:Thackeray, to whom he presents in other ways some striking points of resemblance) as an artist, but soon found that his true See also:powers See also:lay in another direction. His first considerable poem, Albertus (183o), displayed a See also:good See also:deal of the extravagant See also:character which accompanied rather than marked the movement, but also gave See also:evidence of uncommon command both of See also:language and imagery, and in particular of a descriptive See also:power hardly to be excelled. The promise thus given was more than fulfilled in his subsequent See also:poetry, which, in consequence of its small bulk, may well be noticed at once and by anticipation. The Comedic de la mort, which appeared soon after (1832), is one of the most remarkable of French poems, and `though never widely read has received the See also:suffrage of every competent reader. Minor poems of various See also:dates, published in 184o, display an almost unequalled command over poetical See also:form, an advance even over Albertus in vigour, See also:wealth and appropriateness of diction, and abundance of the See also:special poetical essence. All these good gifts reached their See also:climax in the Emaux et camees, first published in 1856, and again, with additions, just before the poet's See also:death in 1872. These poems are in their own way such as in favour of " philosophic " treatment, comment upon him has sometimes been unfavourable. But this injustice will, beyond all question, be redressed again. He was neither immoral, irreligious nor unduly subservient to despotism, but morals, See also:religion and politics (to which we may add See also:science and material progress) were matters of no See also:interest to him. He was to all intents a humanist, as the word was understood in the 15th century. But he was a humorist as well, and this See also:combination, joined to his singularly kindly and genial nature, saved him from some dangers and depravations as well as some absurdities to which the humanist See also:temper is exposed. As time goes on it may be predicted that, though Gautier may not be widely read, yet his writings will never cease to be full of indescribable See also:charm and of very definite instruction to men of letters. Besides those of his See also:works which have been already cited, we may See also:notice Une Larme du diable (1839), a charming mixture of See also:humour and tenderness; See also:Les Grotesques (1844), a See also:volume of early criticisms on some oddities of 17th-century literature; Caprices et zigzags (1845), miscellanies dealing in part with See also:English See also:life; Voyage en Espagne (1845), See also:Constantinople (1854), Voyage en Russie (1866), brilliant volumes of travel; See also:Menagerie intime (1869) and Tableaux de See also:siege (1872), his two latest works, which display his incomparable style in its quietest but not least happy form. There is no See also:complete edition of Gautier's works, and the vicomte Spoelberch de Lovenjoul's Histoire See also:des oeuvres de Theophile Gautier (1887) shows how formidable such an undertaking would be. But since his death numerous further collections of articles have been made: Fusains et eaux-fortes and Tableaux a la plume (188o); L'Orient (2 vols., 1881); Les Vacances du lundi (new ed., 1888); La Nature chez elle (new ed., 1891). In 1879 his son-in-See also:law, E. Bergerat, who had married his younger daughter Estelle (the See also:elder, Mme See also:Judith Gautier—herself a writer of distinction—was at one time Mme Catulle Mendes), issued a See also:biography, Theophile Gautier, which has been of ten reprinted. With it should be compared Maxime du See also:Camp's volume in the Grands Ecrivains See also:francais (189o) and the numerous references in the See also:Journal des See also:Goncourt. See also:Critical eulogies, from Sainte-Beuve (repeatedly in the Causeries) and See also:Baudelaire (two articles in L'See also:Art romantique) downwards, are numerous. The chief of the decriers is Emile See also:Faguet in his Etudes litteraires sur le XIX' siecle. In 1902 and 1903 there appeared two respectable See also:academic doges by H. Menal and H. Potez. (G. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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