the vogue of jean baptiste rousseau composition
You are likely to have difficulty in finding a stranger case of the growth and decline of the vogue than that of Jean-Baptiste Rousseau as a lyric poet. Before an individual verse of his poetry had been printed he was getting referred to as “Rousseau, fameux poète. “1 When the first release of his poems appeared, in 1712, he was in disgrace, in exile, nevertheless the poems were avidly read and quickly he was staying spoken of the way: “le seul poète qui nous-m�mes reste dans notre siècle”1 and “il faut avouer que nous-m�mes n’avons de véritable poète que Rousseau. ” Yet the style of the apparent “grand lyrique français” provides so declined that when the Tuffrau revision of the Lanson manual of French materials appeared (1931), with the announced intention of treating only important statistics (“seuls des écrivains de premier prepare ont trouvé place dans le march� de le manuel”), the hundred or more authors treated did not include Jean-Baptiste Rousseau. This individual suffered the indignity of not being actually mentioned, certainly not receiving a passing reference, not really a footnote.
It is rarely the purpose of this study to rescue Jean-Baptiste Rousseau from the oblivion in which the manuals plunge him or even to plunge him in further, rather its purpose is to examine seriously his style as a interested clinical case of the severe vicissitudes of the literary status. First it will eventually relate and classify the symptoms and after that it will try to make a diagnosis, with the hope which the result will be something of interest to registrants of literary history: a demonstration in the interplay from the factors that affect a writer’s standing, among which factors we shall consider the actions and writings of friends and enemies, within taste, and last, but is not least, strictly fortuitous instances. Before Rousseau fled from Paris to Switzerland (in December, 1710) his continue to unpublished poems had won him enough well known to trigger him to be referred to as “fameux poète. ” This vogue had not arrive to him from his dramatic disposition, for, if through deficiency of merit or for other reasons, they had hit with little achievement. Though the information is not as finish as it might become, it is evident that Jean-Baptiste’s poems distributed in manuscript for a number of years ahead of their publi- cation. 5.
In a letter of 17117 to his friend Boutet, the poet person says: De tous les ouvrages os quais j’ai tout jamais faits, � peine s’en trouve-t-il cinq ou six dont la propriété me soit restée, et ce seront ceux don’t la taille les a sauvés entre ma mémoire maligne d’un tas de coquins, devant quel professionnel j’avais la complaisance para les réciter. Il sumado a en a d’autres never je n’ai pu refuser des copies � vos coll�gues véritables quel professionnel pourtant n’ont pas european le valor de l’ensemble des refuser � dautres, ou par l� les ont fait circuler innocemment entre les mains de regla plus durs ennemis, qui aussitôt en ont usé comme sobre leur muy bien, ou, pour mieux terrible, comme d’une conquête, sobre les mettant en pièces.
As to just how complete the manuscript clones of Rousseau’s poems had been, a manuscript of Troyes, which seems to have been consisting before 1712, gives all of us an indication. ® This manuscript contains several 175 epi- grams, that about half are erotic or obscene, working above all with erring monks and nuns. On a number of occasions Rousseau admitted having written years before—in 1712, he said twenty-five years before10— êpigrammes libres towards the number of twenty five to thirty-five. He under no circumstances, however , allowed any of them to get published in authorized editions of his works. The Troyes manuscript contains most of the thirty-seven epigrams which Rousseau published in his own initially edition. Unless of course the poet, in admitting that he previously written indecent epigrams, decreased their number tremendously, it truly is obvious that over half of the epigrams in the Troyes manuscript are not by him. Completely apparently end up being the custom to attribute to Rousseau all extant epigrams of a certain sexual type. Moreover to epigrams the Troyes manuscript consists of several of the odes, such as the Ode � la Bundle of money, but none of the paraphrases Rouillé man Coudray, A La Fare, A Une Veuve, A Chaulieu), two of the epistles (Epttre sur lamour, Epître au comte d’Ayen), an whodunit (La Volière), and several various other poems, which two are most often spurious. The Mercure of mai 1711 published five of the ballade sacrées (ofcourse not including, strangely enough, one of the most admired, the Cantique d’Ezéchias), and the issues of Come july 1st, August, Oct, and January published every single a few poetry, including two more odes and several epigrams. Thus a fairly consultant collection of Rousseau’s poems was presented, except for the cantatas, possibly the the majority of generally adored of all, none of which were given. It goes without saying that the Mercure pub- lished non-e of the indecent epigrams.
The poet’s protests against this syndication of his works were moti- vated not only by displeasure at failure to ask his authorization. Several of the poems were spurious. 1* Others received in flawed versions, and several were offered in such a way concerning contain personal satire of a type that Jean-Baptiste averted carefully in all of the editions of his works published under his personal supervision. 18 He had currently suffered so much—justly of unjustly—from issues involving personal satire, that he was particu- larly careful. In the preface to the 1st edition of his poetry, he talked about the difference among a generalized satirical portrait and personal �pigramme:
Car enfin qu’est-ce qui caractérise la satire? votre n’est autre chose que le nom de ceux qu’on y attaque. Complet portrait, quelque ressemblant qu’il puisse être, n’a jamais mérité votre nom para satire, quand personne n’y est attaqué nommément, autrement il faudrait traiter sobre libelles les comédies des plus innocentes.., At the same time that Dufresny was publishing his version of Rous- seau’s poems, the gazettes of Holland announced that an copy of Rous- seau’s performs would shortly be released in that country. This decided the poet to publish a traditional version of his works as soon as is feasible. Although facilities in Swiss were limited, he succeeded in getting the work out before the announced The netherlands edition. In January, 1712, there made an appearance, from the engages of Ursus Heuberger of Soleure (Solo- thurn), a tiny volume entitled Œuvres potpourri du sieur R. It was, typographically, lacking in elegance, yet correct and authentic. The preface mentioned that it covered all of the author’s poems, besides 32 êpigrammes libres and an type entitled le Masque de Laverne.
Proof is not lacking as to the immediate accomplishment of the work. There arc eight known diverse editions bearing the “Soleure, 1712” imprima-arc nine known different versions bearing the “Soleure, 1712” imprima-tur, nineteen which indicates the fact that demand was sufficiently gTeat for it to bereprinted many times. It must be kept in mind also that the volumewas soon in competition with the illegal edition printed inHolland. 20 Curiously enough the periodicals of the time usually do not seem tomake any mention of the book. 21 But we have statements of both enemiesand friends of Rousseau as to the interest the fact that public required in this. Gacon, or perhaps his publisher, in the Instruction preceding the Anti-Rousseauof 1712, spoke of “l’empressement qu’on a témoigné pour l’ensemble des Œuvresdu sieur Rousseau “
A couple of albhabets written to the poet simply by theGrand Prieur Philippe para Vendôme toss an interesting lumination on thereception accorded the book for Lyon, in which the Grand Prieur was thenliving: De Lyon ce 2 février 1712Votre livre, quoique nouveau venu, a été presque dévoré hier au soir � unsouper os quais j’ai fait ici gr�ce � trois systems quatre sobre mes camarads. Michon en faisait lalecture. Il était si enthousiasmé qu’il l’a lu cette nuit dans le march� de son lit jusqu’àsept heures du matin… Je suis aussi chargé de vous dire la cual vous feriez un smart plaisir � cetteville d’envoyer 200 exemplaires que les joueurs n’auriez qu’� m’adresser ou dont la dis-tribution ne languirait pas… De Lyon ce 18 février 1712La véritable modestie ne peut jamais o qual mériter des louanges, cependant puisquecelles la cual nous donnons tous ici � cet livre seront exemptes sobre flatterie, vouspouvez sans craindre d’être soupçonné d’amour-propre admettre l’hommagesincère o qual nous rendons � la vérité… Nous attendons avec impatience vos200 volumes never la distribution ne languira passing… *A related enthusiasm to get Rousseau’s job was expressed by his oldfriend the marquis de La Fare. He said: je suis enchanté plus encor par la véritéPar l’heureuse variété, Quel professionnel règne en toutes tes maximes, La recherche, la nouveauté Et confond la malignitéEt la noblesse sobre tes rimes, De les familles qui t’a vient imputéInsolemment leurs cleans crimes…
Inside the correspondence of Brossette and J. -B. Rousseau we discover several symptoms of the growth of Jean-Baptiste’s fashion in the years between 1712 and 1723, when the poet person put out another and bigger edition of his performs. We have offered above (on p. 139) the excellent opinion ascribed by Brossette to the Regent about 1719. In his first letter to Jean-Baptiste (1715), Brossette explains to how he came to enjoy the poet’s works. After mentioning his acquaintance with Boileau he admits that: C’est dans la chat de votre grand personnalit� et par la préférence qu’il donnait � vos talents os quais j’ai commencé � les joueurs connaître, et cette idée s’est adecuadamente perfec- tionnée dans la suite similar la address que j’ai faite sobre vos ouvrages…
A short time afterwards he says a wealthy patron of letters of Lyon called Mazard, who placed in his study the portraits of Rabelais, Molière, La Fontaine, Racine, and Boileau, wished to add that of J. -B. Rousseau. * Brossette asked the poet person to have his portrait colored (at Mazard’s expense) and sent about. The symbol was colored in Vienna by truck Schuppen and sent to Lyon in the early spring of 1716, where, in accordance to Brossette, it was received with excitement:
J’ai sans d�lai reçu cet portrait… Une infinité sobre gens de mérite se sont renseign� un plaisir de votre voir, ain quoique l’ouvrage soit fortification beau, les joueurs jugez m�me si la curiosité est moins pour la peinture que pour votre nom ou la personne de celui qu’elle représente. M. l’abbé de Villeroy, notre archevêque, a voulu en avoir la première vue, quelques-uns de otono amis ont même déj� pris des mesures pour en poss�der des clones, en algun mot, les joueurs devez être content entre ma distinction où vous êtes parmi nous-m�mes….
