Thornton, „Decadence in Later Nineteenth

Ü “Das transatlantische fin de siècle”
Timo Müller, M.A.
Dekadenz und Symbolismus: Materialien
1. Lionel Johnson, “A Note Upon the Practice and Theory of Verse at the Present Time
Obtaining in France” (1891)
In English, decadence and the literature thereof, mean this: the period, at which passion, or
romance, or tragedy, or sorrow, or any other form of activity or of emotion, must be refined
upon, and curiously considered, for literary treatment: an age of afterthought, of reflection.
Hence come one great virtue, and one great vice: the virtue of much and careful meditation
upon life, its emotions and its incidents: the vice of over-subtilty [sic] and of affectation, when
thought thinks upon itself, and when emotions become entangled with the consciousness of
them. Now … poetry becomes a matter of infinite pains, and of a singular attention: to catch
the precise aspect of a thing, as you see or feel it; to express, not the obvious and barren fact,
but the inner and fruitful force of it; this is far from easy, far from trivial.
2. Arthur Symons, “The Decadent Movement in Literature” (1893)
To fix the last fine shade, the quintessence of things; to fix it fleetingly; to be a disembodied
voice, and yet the voice of a human soul.
After a fashion it is no doubt a decadence; it has all the qualities that mark the end of great
periods, the qualities that we find in the Greek, the Latin, decadence: an intense self-consciousness, a restless curiosity in research, and over-subtilizing refinement upon refinement, a
spiritual and moral perversity. If what we call the classic is indeed the supreme art—those
qualities of perfect simplicity, perfect sanity, perfect proportion, the supreme qualities—then
this representative literature of to-day, interesting, beautiful, novel as it is, is really a new and
beautiful and interesting disease.
3. R. K. R. Thornton, “‘Decadence’ in Later Nineteenth-Century England” (1979)
What becomes clear from even a brief survey of the decade on its Decadence is the centrality
of the notion of what I would like to call the Decadent dilemma. The Decadent is a man
caught between two opposite and apparently incompatible pulls: on the one hand he is drawn
by the world, its necessities, and the attractive impressions he receives from it, while on the
other hand he yearns towards the eternal, the ideal, and the unworldly. The play between these
two poles forms the typical Decadent subject matter and is at the root of much of the period’s
manner and particularly its mannerisms.
4. Arthur Symons, from “Idealism” (1897)
from “Mundi Victima” (1897)
Her body now a silent instrument,
That ’neath my touch shall wake and make
for me
The strains I have but dreamed of, never
known.
The world is made for dutiful restraint.
Its martyrs are the lover and the saint,
All whom a fine and solitary rage
Urges on some ecstatic pilgrimage
In search of any Holy Sepulchre.
5. Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Brief an Gustav Schwarzkopf (1892)
Um 1890 werden die geistigen Erkrankungen der Dichter, ihre übermäßig gesteigerte
Empfindsamkeit, die namenlose Bangigkeit ihrer herabgestimmten Stunden, ihre Disposition,
der symbolischen Gewalt auch unscheinbarer Dinge zu unterliegen, ihre Unfähigkeit sich mit
den existierenden Worten beim Ausdruck ihrer Gefühle zu begnügen, das alles wird eine
allgemeine Krankheit unter den jungen Männern und Frauen der oberen Stände sein.
6. From Punch, October 15, 1892
POST-PRANDIAL PESSIMISTS.
SCENE—The Smoking-room at the Decadents.
First Decadent (M.A. Oxon.). "AFTER ALL, SMYTHE, WHAT WOULD LIFE BE WITHOUT COFFEE?"
Second Decadent (B.A. Camb.). "TRUE, JEOHNES, TRUE! AND YET, AFTER ALL, WHAT IS LIFE WITH
COFFEE?"
7. From Punch, December 24, 1892
SNUBBING A
DECADENT.
He. "A—don't you find
Existence an awful Bore?"
She. "A—well, some
People's existence—most
decidedly!"
8. From Punch, February 2, 1895
'The Queer and the Yellow
Book', by Max Mereboom.
Picture by our Own YellowBooky Daubaway
Weirdslay …
9. William Blake, “Mock on, mock on, Voltaire, Rousseau” (1803)
Mock on, mock on, Voltaire, Rousseau:
Mock on, mock on: ‘tis all in vain!
You throw the sand against the wind,
And the wind blows it back again.
And every sand becomes a Gem,
Reflected in the beam divine;
Blown back they blind the mocking Eye,
But still in Israel’s paths they shine.
The Atoms of Democritus
And Newton’s Particles of Light
Are sands upon the Red Sea shore,
Where Israel’s tents do shine so bright.
10. Stéphane Mallarmé, “Renouveau” (1866)
Le printemps maladif a chassé tristement
L’hiver, saison de l’art serein, l’hiver lucide,
Et, dans mon être à qui le sang morne préside
L’impuissance s’étire en un long bâillement.
Des crépuscules blancs tiédissent sous mon crâne
Qu’un cercle de fer serre ainsi qu’un vieux tombeau
Et triste, j’erre après un rêve vague et beau,
Par les champs où la sève immense se pavane
Puis je tombe énervé de parfums d’arbres, las,
Et creusant de ma face une fosse à mon rêve,
Mordant la terre chaude où poussent les lilas,
J’attends, en m’abîmant que mon ennui s’élève …
--- Cependant l’Azur rit sur la haie et l’éveil
De tant d’oiseaux en fleur gazouillant au soleil.
11. Stéphane Mallarmé, “Soupir” (1864)
Mon âme vers ton front où rêve, ô calme sœur,
Un automne jonché de taches de rousseur,
Et vers le ciel errant de ton œil angélique
Monte, comme dans un jardin mélancolique,
Fidèle, un blanc jet d’eau soupire vers l’Azur !
--- Vers l’Azur attendri d’Octobre pâle et pur
Qui mire aux grands bassins sa langueur infinie
Et laisse, sur l’eau morte où la fauve agonie
Des feuilles erre au vent et creuse un froid sillon,
Se traîner le soleil jaune d’un long rayon.