Comments (Notules)
A study of Victor Hugo by Fernand Gregh.
"A critic is a person who involves
himself in what does not concern him", said Mallarmé in one
of his profound and frivolous comments which, in his work, set
against his dark poetry, act as a delightful counter-balance of
lightness.
But, indeed, he involves himself in "what does concern
him", a poet, a true poet, when he reads aloud to us the
work of Hugo, making each verse touch us, tingle and shine like a
stone without flame, shows us, in each emerald, that it
"conceals in its facets"
an undine with a clear brow
and helps us to continue to make sport, in the jewels with
which the most opulent of our contemporary poets adorn
themselves, of such a similarity with undines which here he
denounces secretly and there he salutes fraternally. Here is a
beautiful book that M. Fernand Gregh has just written, with a
simplicity, with a frankness, one is tempted to say, in the good
and popular sense of the word, with a vulgarity, which is like a
supplementary promise of its longevity:
"For posterity home-baked bread is worth more than
delicacies", said Sainte-Beuve, who will ever remain a
pastry-cook.
In the midst of this beautiful prose, the
celebrated poetry of Clartés humaines: Rêve stands out
in a pure harmony of light, like a rock among the waves, bathed
with their reflections, extending their shadows thither. The
poetry of the thinker is at ease and in its element in the midst
of this prose of the poet who has at every turn added some
graceful embroidery to it.
"The foam casts its white muslin over a
rock".
And in this robust and neglected book, F. Gregh
has placed the entire depth of his intelligence and all his
surest sensibility, all his heart and all his charming spirit.
Marc Antoine.
Article appeared
in Gil Blas, Wednesday 14 December 1904 and reprinted in Chroniques
(Libraire Gallimard, 1927).