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Verlaine's Opéra Bouffe
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
Abstract
Laughter, in Verlaine's early work, has a major function in the creative process, both as a means and an end in itself. In two uncompleted Opéra bouffe librettos composed in collaboration with Emmanuel Chabrier, Verlaine satirizes Napoleon Ill's regime but, through laughter, replaces the Second Empire with a clown's world. His development of a comical “tyrantclown” theme to effect this transformation parallels the sinister “clowntyrant” theme of the early poetry. Whereas, in the latter, laughter resolves itself in silence and death, in the Opéra bouffe it creates and animates a timeless life of innocence and freedom. Comparison with “tyrant-clown” passages in Hugo's Châtiments further reveals Verlaine's effort to convert the world against which he revolts into a sanctuary where a buffoon's laughter can reign absolutely.
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- Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1968
References
1 Verlaine's friends observed his extravagant gayety: Gustave Lerouge and F.-A. Cazals, Les derniers jours de Paul Verlaine (Paris, 1923), p. 212, call him “un émule de Sapeck et d'Alphonse Allais”; Edmond Lepelletier, Paul Verlaine; sa vie—son œuvre (Paris, 1907), p. 378, speaks of his “fonds de gaîté, même un peu vulgaire et vaudevillesque.”
2 Lepelletier, pp. 452–453, leads the way into confusion: “Il ne faut pas plus prendre au sérieux et au définitif ses exubérantes farces que, dans d'autres moments, ses élans pieux et ses repentirs ultra-édifiants.” Recent studies and editions, however, bring out the unifying force at the heart of his poetry; see, notably, Octave Nadal's Introduction, Œuvres complètes de Paul Verlaine, I, ed. H. de Bouillane de Lacoste (Paris, 1959) and his Paul Verlaine (Paris, 1961), Ch. ix. Jacques Borel, in the latest revised Pléiade edition—Œuvres poétiques complètes, ed. Y.-G. Le Dantec (Paris, 1965)—incorporates Nadal's views on the unity of revolt and poetry.
3 For Verlaine's early taste in music, see his letter to Léon Valade, 1869, in Correspondance de Paul Verlaine, ed. Adam Van Bever (Paris, 1922), I, 257, hereafter cited in my text as Correspondance. Tristan Leclerc, in “Les Musiciens de Verlaine,” Revue Bleue, xx (14 Nov. 1903), 633–635, and Ruth L. White, “Verlaine et les musiciens,” unpubl. diss. (Univ. Of Paris, 1951), omit the opéra bouffe; Pierre Fortassier, in “Verlaine, la musique et les musiciens,” Cahiers de l'Association Internationale des Etudes Françaises, No. 12 (June 1960), pp. 143–159, concludes that Verlaine was not at home in this genre; Georges Zayed, La Formation littéraire de Verlaine (Paris, 1962), p. 213, says that opéra bouffe appealed to Verlaine's “veine canaille,” whereas Wagner satisfied “les hautes exigences de son âme.” The appeal of Wagner seems to have been overstated; for this point of view, see Léon Guichard, La Musique et les lettres en France au temps du wagnêrisme (Paris, 1963), pp. 79–86, 289, n. 4, and André Cœuroy, Wagner et l'esprit romantique (Paris, 1965), pp. 283–284.
4 V. P. Underwood, in “Sources théâtrales de Verlaine,” Revue d'Histoire Littéraire de la France, No. 2 (April-June 1957), pp. 196–203, points to an earlier preoccupation with opéra bouffe and its influence on the composition of Fêtes galantes.
5 Lepelletier, pp. 83–85.
6 The 1965 Pléiade edition follows here the lead of Bouillane de Lacoste's edition of the Œuvres complètes, 1959.
7 Y.-G. Le Dantec published this fragment, revealed in the “Catalogue Heilbrun,” Nov. 1948, No. 140, among the “Premiers Vers” in the third printing of the Œuvres poétiques complètes (Paris: Pléiade, 1951); see his notes, pp. 896–897.
Biographies and editions of the poetry use both spellings of the title, sometimes give Lucien Viotti as Verlaine's associate and Charles de Sivry as musical collaborator, sometimes neither; see François Porche, “La Jeunesse bourgeoise de Paul Verlaine,” La Revue Universelle, 1 Dec. 1932, pp. 573–585; his Verlaine tel qu'il fut (Paris, 1933), pp. 82–93; and Jacques Borel's “Avant-propos,” p. xiii; and notes, pp. 1069–71, in the 1965 Pléiade edition.
8 Some fragments of these manuscripts were published by Chabrier's student, Robert Brussel, in “Emmanuel Chabrier et le Rire musical,” Revue d'Art Dramatique, 5 Oct. 1899, pp. 55–63; 20 Oct. 1899, pp. 81–109. Brussel likely sent Verlaine's “Chanson de l'homme armé” and “Couplets du Poussah” from these manuscripts to J.-G. Prod'homme for the unsigned article “Paul Verlaine et Emmanuel Chabrier,” Revue Franco-Allemande, 25 Nov. 1899, pp. 303–309. Since then, only other musicologists have studied this collaboration; see René Martineau, Emmanuel Chabrier (Paris, 1910), pp. 12–15, 107; Francis Poulenc, Emmanuel Chabrier (Paris, 1961), pp. 21–33; Yvonne Tiénot, Chabrier (Paris, 1965), pp. 20–22. They place the composition of both opéras bouffes, with various spellings of the titles, in the period 1863–65. Although support for this early date can be found in a letter from Chabrier to Verlaine's publisher, Léon Vanier, and in a note pencilled by Chabrier in his copy of Jadis et Naguère (1891), all evidence suggests that Chabrier's memory failed him. His collaboration with Verlaine began prior to 1869, but not likely before 1865. Martineau, p. 107, gives a photocopy of the letter; the copy of Jadis et Naguère and manuscripts of Vaucochard et fils Ier and Fisch-ton-kan are now in the possession of the eminent musicologist André Meyer, to whom I am indebted for permission to consult and use these documents.
10 Œuvres poétiques complètes, ed. Y.-G. Le Dantec (Paris: Pléiade, 1965), p. 41. Quotations of the poetry and page references to it in my text and notes follow this edition.
10 Verlaine describes a similar caricature, drawn by himself, in one of his “vieux Coppées”: “Tête pâle appuyée au revers de sa main, / César rêve d'hier et pense au lendemain” (p. 297). Independent of satire, Bobèche is also likely the subject of “Le Pitre” (p. 327). Before Verlaine, Le Journal pour rire and Charivari had cartooned Napoleon III as a ridiculous, but sinister clown or mountebank; and the name “Bobèche” enjoys a privileged place in the invective hurled by Hugo at political lackeys of this “Empereur de tréteau.” Verlaine's “Veaucochard” may even be related originally to Hugo's “Beauharnais,” designating an Emperor whose illegitimacy was the source of much satire.
11 The imagery and language of Hugo's satire directly inspire these lines resembling Vaucochard's speech to his subjects; cf. “Nox,” ii, vv. 37–42, in Les Châtiments (Paris: Imprimerie nationale, 1910), iv, 13. References in the text and notes are to this edition and volume.
12 Cf. “La Reculade” in Hugo's Châtiments: “l'empire, c'est la peur,” p. 244; “le fier-à-bras tremblant se blottit dans son antre,” p. 247. This image has its satirical counterpart in Verlaine's “image d'Epinal” of “Napoléon III terrassant l'Anarchie,” p. 166.
13 Pélikan and his “bâton poli” allude possibly to General Cousin-Montauban, elevated by Napoleon III in reward for his victory in China in 1860 to the rank of “Comte de Paikao”; his fall came as Minister of War ten years later.
14 “Le Pal (No. 11),” M. Roulleaux D., MS. 3909 (Legs H. Imbert), Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. The six-lined “Chanson du Pal” given by Bouillane de Lacoste and Le Dantec comes from Chabrier's L'Etoile (1877).
15 Here, as with the preceding pieces, I have necessarily omitted lengthy passages of the libretto given by Chabrier. I have also eliminated some repetition and filler added apparently for the music's sake. Consequently, occasional adjustments of punctuation have been unavoidable.
16 Fisch-ton-kan's frustration, for example, is scarcely more comical without Chabrier's music than the tragic version of it in Verlaine's Vive le Roy I: “… la honte me dévore /Et la rage autant que la douleur” (p. 1047).