¹ Besides the many paraphrases to be found in biographies and general essays on Nerval, there are four recent studies which deserve special mention in any consideration of “El Desdichado.” In order of increasing importance they are: (a) André Lebois, “Vers une elucidation des Chimères de Nerval,” Archives des Lettres modernes, March 1957, 3–9; (b) L. Cellier, “Sur un vers des Chimères: Nerval et Shake speare,” Cahiers du Sud, N& 311 (1952), 146–153; (c) Gérard de Nerval, Les Chimères: Exégèses de Jeanine Moulin (Genève, 1949), pp. 3–19; (d) J. Richer, “Le luth constelle de Nerval,” Cahiers du Sud, N& 331 (1955), 373–389.

Lebois' short monograph is fragmentary and, at times, tendentious. M. Cellier's article, to which we shall refer in fuller detail later, sheds much light on verse nine, and deplores the failure of his predecessors to take into consideration questions of morphology and syntax. Mme. Moulin's exegesis contains a useful summary of what was said on this poem before 1949, but it sometimes confuses sources with meanings, and contains some errors which will be considered in detail below. Since we shall have frequent occasion to refer to this work, we shall cite it simply as Ch., with the page number. M. Richer, in his article, the fruit of many years of research on Nerval, considers “El Desdichado” as a kind of horoscope poem in which almost every word has a biographical, an astrological, and a metaphysical significance. The article goes beyond astrology, frequently bringing into focus symbols which had, in the past, remained obscure. Our text of “El Desdichado” and all references to other works of Nerval are taken from the excellent Pléiade edition, tome i (réimpression) 1956, and tome n, 1956, brought out by Albert Béguin and Jean Richer, hereafter cited as Pl., with the volume and page number. In presenting the text of the poem we have respected the punctuation given by these editors. There are two extant manuscripts of this poem which contain variants to the final version proofread by Nerval and presented in the Pléiade edition. Punctuation changes (mainly small initial letters in the words “Ténébreux,” “Veuf,” “Inconsolé,” etc.) can be ignored since, as we shall try to demonstrate, Nerval wanted the capitals in the corrected text of the poem to indicate that the word in question was a symbol. Wording variations, which will be mentioned with the appropriate verse, show steps in poetic creation, and indicate Nerval's striving for purity in the final form. The marginal notes in the poet's own handwriting are most interesting since they have been taken as glosses or cues to meaning. These will be discussed at fuller length as they appear.

² In reality, Richer's explication is on three levels (the biographical, the metaphysical, the astrological). Presumably each of these is of equal importance, but the author's emphasis, particularly in the second part of the article, is on the astrological interpretation. John W. Kneller

³ “Dumas prétendait que Gérard l'avait composé à la rédaction et laissé comme carte de visite” (Pl. I, 1178). It was first published in the Mousquetaire, 10 December 1853.

⁴ In “Nerval et la psycho-critique,” Cahiers du Sud, N& 293 (1949), 76–79. An evaluation of most of the psychoanalytical studies on Nerval was made by Jean Richer in “Nerval devant la psychanalyse,” an address given beforethe sixth meeting of the Association des Etudes Françaises, in Paris, 23 July 1954.

⁵ As will be seen from our explanation, Jeanine Moulin's commentary on the title is misleading: “… ‘E1 Desdichado’ (le déshérité [sic] en espagnol) … Le poète emprunta [letitre] à VIvanhoé de Walter Scott (chap. viii). Le roi Jean, on s'en souvient, avait dépossédé un de ses [sic] chevaliers d'un château que celui-ci tenait de Richard Cceur-de-Lion; dès lors, le guerrier destitué orna son bouclier d'un chêne déraciné et d'une devise: El [sic] Desdichado” (Ch., p. 7).

⁶ The Eluard manuscript of this poem bears over the word “Veuf” the words “olim: Mausole?” (“in other times: Mausolus?”). This has been considered by many critics as a; loss indicating that Nerval envied the fate of Mausolus, the Persian satrap, ruler over Caria (c. 376–353 B.C.), after whose death his wife, Artemisia, erected at Halicarnassus the famous tomb which was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Although it is easy to produce evidence that Nerval was struck by the character of Mausolus and by the admirable example of widowhood set by his wife, this evidence is extrinsic to the final version. It is of interest mainly to an understanding of the genesis of the poem; it does not elucidate the poem itself. Certainly “le Veuf” is not Mausolus, who was never widowed, and certainly Nerval could not be comparing himself to Artemisia.

⁷ “ ‘Le Prince d'Aquitaine’ est-ce Waifre d'Aquitaine, célèbre pour ses malheurs, fuyant dans les forêts du Périgord (terre d'origine des Labrunie) son ennemi Pépin le Bref?” (Ch., p. 10.)

⁸ Gérard signed the accompanying letter of the sonnet “A Madame Sand,” “Gaston Phébus d'Aquitaine.” This fact has led some to conclude that Gaston III, Count of Foix, is the “Prince d'Aquitaine” here, and the “Phébus” of verse nine. The “tour abolie” does not apply to this historical figure, hence the inappropriateness of the specific reference here. We shall take up the question of “Phébus” again in connection with verse nine.

⁹ It is so listed in the Larousse du XX“ siècle, vi, 600 (1933).

¹⁰ G. Le Breton, “La Clef des Chimères, l'Alchimie,” Fontaine N& 44 (1945), 441–460. One of the most important sections (447–459) of this article is an application of the game of tarots to “El Desdichado.” Cards 15, 16, and 17 are, respectively, “le diable,” “la Maison-Dieu ou la Tour foudroyée,” and “l'Etoile.” The first three verses, accordingto Le Breton, correspond to these three cards. Interestingas possible sources of “El Desdichado,” these cards do not explain the poem's symbols, in our view.

¹¹ Etudes littéraires (Mexico, 1944), p. 35. The Mallarmé meaning, which we cannot go into here, is somewhat different from Nerval's.

¹² H. Meschonnic, “Essai sur la poétique de Nerval,” Europe, 36e Année, N& 353 (1948), 32.

¹³ Pl. i, 19.

¹⁴ Hugo's Melancholia, a long poem published in Les Contemplations in 1856, after Nerval's death, uses the engraving as a pretext for a discussion of social problems, but does not describe it.

¹⁵ “La blonde étrangère le détourne un instant de la ‘nuit du tombeau,‘ son éternelle tentation” (Ch. p. 14). Interpreting la “nuit du Tombeau” as suicide does not make sense in this poem.

¹⁶ In the article quoted in note one, M. Cellier tries to establish the proper syntax for this quatrain as follows: “ ‘Dans la nuit’ se rapporte-t-il à consolé' ou à 'rends-moi'? A l'un et l'autre, dira-t-on; nous refusons de l'admettre. Pour ceux qui comprennent Nerval 'dans la nuit' se rapporte indiscutablement à ‘rends-moi’ … mais Mme. Moulin le rattache à ‘consolé‘ ” (148).

¹⁷ According to M. Verneuil, Dictionnaire des symboles, emblèmes, et attributs (Paris, 1897). This source is quoted by André Rousseaux in “Sur trois manuscrits de Gérard de Nerval,” in Le Monde Classique m (1946).

¹⁸ “Malgré la glose du manuscrit … nous pensons que cette fleur est bien Vangsoka ou flamma sylvarum pergrina de Rumphius, dont il est question dans Aurélia.” Cahiers du Sud, N& 330 (1955), 384. According to M. Richer, Nerval (who preferred the spelling anxoka) found this word in the Choix de poésies orientales of Francisque Michel. John W. Kneller

¹⁹ The fact that Nerval wrote “Jardin du Vatican” next to this verse must not be taken as a gloss, for it would detract from the spell of the Neapolitan scenery, and falsely shift the point of view of the poem. The reading on the Eluard manuscript, “Et la trielle où la rose à la vigne s'allie,” is an unenlightening variant, and the Mousquetaire variant, “Et la treille où le pampre à la vigne s'allie,” is probably, as André Lebois has already said, a slip (p. 4).

²⁰ The fact that he did not serves as a point of departure for Léon Cellier in the article quoted above.

²¹ The first to identify “Amour” with the lover of Psyche was Otto Weise in his Romantik und Symbolismus (Halle, 1936). Léon Cellier, in the article quoted, accepts Weise's interpretation.

²² For Jean Richer, Cahiers du Sud, N& 331, 385, the fact that the Eluard manuscript has two horizontal lines under the o of “Amour” proves that it is the god (and not love in general).

²³ L'Aurélia de Gérard de Nerval (Paris, 1926), p. 117.

²⁴ In the margin next to this verse Nerval wrote “Reine Candace?” Candace is the name of several queens of ancient Ethiopia. Since this line of sovereigns was supposed according to tradition to have descended from the union of Balkis with King Solomon, some critics have used the note to support their contention that Nerval is referring here to the Queen of Sheba. But in view of the poet's insistent search for the general idea rather than the specific reference, this interpretation does not appear justified. John W. Kneller

²⁵ Cahiers du Sud, N& 331, 384. The variant, “verdit,” instead of “nage” would have introduced an odd color in this black, white, and red sonnet; this, in our view, explains its replacement.

²⁶ A list of Gerard's internments and hospitalizations is provided by the Pléiade editors, I, 28–29. The variant “vivant,” in the place of “vainqueur” is very clear, but much less rich in connotation than its replacement.

²⁷ The variant, “Modulant et chantant …” is repetitious, since “modulant” is itself a refinement of “chantant.”