By Gahriei Vicaire ami Henri Beauclair

2. Revue Bleue, Un. 1,1888. In 1888 there also appeared «Nos poetes » by Jules lellier; but the public at large did not know Teliier as be was one of Hie younger writers.

3. Revue des Deux Mondes, Nov. 1, 1888, Symbolistes et Decadents T. Ijo Symbolisme contemporain, April I, 1891.

THE NEW POETRY IN FRANCE 287

M. Anatole trance in the « Temps » % M. Psichavi in the « Revue Bleue » and M. Huret in his sixty-lour interviews, wnch appeared in the « Figaro « made Verlaine and Mallarmé, the tree verse and symbolism fashionable, made them the lorced material for conversation at the dinner of the « bourgeois ». Symbolism and the symbolists became a living topic, one ol these Parisian curiosities of which the provincial or stranger is ashamed not to have heard. A Dutchman. W. G. C. Byvanck, who came to Paris at the time, went in search of the poetry of the future, seeking it in the wine-shops of Montmartre and the Latin Quarter, and published his discoveries in a curious book \ Finally in 1893, an editor was hold enough to offer the public a selection of the works of Stéphane Mallarmé “ ; and a most significant tact is that he made money by the venture.

But the « Jeunes » had not yet carried the day. The public observed them, and that was all. But the inclinations of this public were singular indeed ; beneath the snobbery that Mas content Mith shoMong that it was up to date, there M as a curious mixture of amused scoffing and routine in revolt, of cautious scepticism and timid respect. And what was more marked than any other sentiment, an amazement at not understanding, in close touch with the secret desire that there might be nothing there to understand. The critics and reporters confused the public rather than enlightened it ; the critics, in order to M’in sure triumphs for themselves in the doctrinal discussion, and the reporters that they might give spice to their copy, applied themselves to bringing to the light all that Mas most obscure and unreasonable in the works and formulas of symbolism, all that was most eccentric and immoral in the manners and lives of the symbolists themselves. Without quoting Verlaine’s beautiful poems, they pointed out his mask of a faun, his Bohemian fashions, his strange lodgings, his debauches,

1. Vie littéraire, April 19, Aug. 16 and 30, and also. Les jeunes poètes, notices et extraits. Sept, and Oct.

“2. Le vers français et les poètes décadents, .lune 16, 1891.