Baudelai·re and the
Experience of the
Abyss
Benjamin Fondane
THE
tragedy of Baudelaire lies in this-he could not real–
ize perfectly his idea of poetry, while the tragedy of Mallarme
lies in the fact that he realized his idea of poetry to perfection.
Mais, helas! lei-Bas est Maitre
•
exclaimed Mallarme; and he slowly climbed the steps which
led to his ivory tower, clinging
a toutes les croisees,
D'ou l'on toume l'epaule ala vie .
..•
and at his desk, before his lamp, rejoined
Le ciel anterieur ou fleurit
la
Beaute
•.
Fortunate Mallarme! He achieved what Baudelaire had only
dreamed
of achieving, his art is "the tangible manifestation of
the Idea", there is nothing in his work that is not graceful
melancholy, pure desire and noble despair-the three postu–
lates which Baudelaire's poetic art "borrowed" from Poe·s
Poetic Principle.
"My mind moves in the Eternal," he wrote,
"after having found nothingness, I have found the Beautiful."
At the age of twenty-four Mallarme had looked at nothingness
and turned from it, he moved in Eternity. And until his death
his chief difficulty was not to maintain himself there-for he
had taken firm root!-but to "return" to earth: "Farewell, dear
friend," he wrote Coppee,
"I'
don't know whether I will see you
again some day,
tuned to the key of things, returned."
In a
trice Mallarme realized Spinoza's dream: to triumph over his
mode
and become
substance;
he experienced "the bliss of con–
templating Eternity and feeling inner joy while alive." Could
there be a more magnificent illustration of the Hegelian philo-
1
Buc alas! Here-Below is master
'
to all the casement windows
From whir.h nnp turns his bar.k tn life
...
1
The anterior heaven where Beq,uty flowers.
410
