T H E T H E O R Y AND P O E T R Y OF E N N U I :

LEOPARDI AND BAUDELAIRE

The theme of ennui has presented itself in innumerable nineteenth- and

twentieth-century literary works and has been, in particular, a significant
motif of modern poetry. Of the many poets from various countries who
treated the theme, none devoted more thought, theory, and verse to ennui
than did Leopardi and Baudelaire. To my knowledge, however, there has
been no substantial study devoted exclusively to the many parallels in the
portrayal of this idea by the two authors; yet the subject appears so ex-
tensively in their writings, they were so obsessed with it, and their con-
ceptions of its sources, evolution, and ultimate character are so remark-
ably similar ibat t~te question of analogies obviously merits exploration.
I shall first examine their hypotheses as to the causes and nature of ennui,
and I shall then compare their methods of translating their personal
experiences into poetic imagery.
~ Ennui indeed received the special attention of Leopardi and Baudelaire.
oth poets seemed at the same time horrified and fascinated by this most
intangible psychological and moral problem. Not only were they aware
of its insidious presence in their own lives, but they also came to recognize
it as the particular malady of the modern age in general. In attempting
to explain the sources of the problem, as we shall see, they linked the
concept of ennui with the entire question of antiquity versus modernity.
Upon close scrutiny of their contemporary periods, they found that tedium
pervaded all facets of life. However, the earlier eras appeared to be
significantly less melancholy in comparison. The works of Leopardi and
Baudelaire show in varying degrees a certain admiration for this "golden"
age of the past, where men were free from the bonds of ennui, and a vague
desire to return to the simpler life of former times. It is in the slow march
toward modernity that they perceive the initial development of ennui.
According to Leopardi, the first step on the path to ennui was the
destruction of the old illusions of mankind. He felt that the ancients were
happier than the moderns because they used their imagination to create
illusions which would hide the Truth - that life is without worth or hope.
The moderns, on the other hand, were filled with despair and ennui
because Truth was r~o~ attenuated or h~dden from them. Leopardi wrote
of the salubrious effects of the illusions which render life bearable "e senza
cui la vita nostra sarebbe la pi/J misera e barbara cosa. ''1 Not only did
happiness depend upon these illusions but such outstanding qualities as
virtue, magnanimity, and generosity were also developed and perpetuated
through them. This is why the peoples of former times seemed so much
more noble than the moderns, z
As Leopardi affirmed in his "Inno ai Patriarchi," men were more con-
tent in this earlier era. They were ignorant of their fate, and their illusions
Alan S. Rosenthal - Leopardi and Baudelaire 343

brought them hope:

Di suo fato ignara

e degli affanni suoi, vota d'affanno
visse l'umana stirpe; alle secrete
leggi del cielo e di natura indutto
valse l'ameno error, le fraudi, il molle
pristino velo; e di sperar contenta
nostra placida nave in porto ascese, a

Life in t h a t distant time was a b o v e all simpler a n d p u r e r because m a n

lived a c c o r d i n g to N a t u r e ' s laws, as n o t e d in the following verses f r o m
"Bruto minore":

Non fra sciagure e colpe,

ma libera ne' boschi e pura etade
natura a noi prescrisse. (Opere, I, 34)

Similar ideas can be f o u n d in the fifth p o e m o f L es Fleurs du Mal.

A l t h o u g h he was a c h a m p i o n o f m o d e r n i t y in art, Baudelaire did experi-
ence a certain nostalgia for the p r e - C h r i s t i a n era, when the w o r l d was
p u r e a n d h a r m o n i o u s . I n the p o e m , he c o m p a r e s t h a t age with sickly,
m e l a n c h o l y m o d e r n times. L i k e L e o p a r d i , he stresses the p u r i t y o f a
more natural and healthy era:

J'aime le souvenir de ces 6poques nues,

Dont Phoebus se plaisait 5. dorer les statues.
Alors I'homme et la femme en leur agilit6
Jouissaient sans mensonge et sans anxi6t6,
Et, le ciel amoureux leur caressant l'6chine,
Exer9aient la sant6 de leur noble machine. 4

A l s o , in a m a n n e r a k i n to L e o p a r d i ' s , he suggests t h a t life in the g o l d e n

age o f m a n k i n d was simple a n d carefree. H e renders h o m a g e to t h a t t i m e
w h e n the w o r l d was y o u n g :

A la sainte jeunesse, 5- l'air simple, au doux front,

A l'oeil limpide et clair ainsi qu'une eau courante,
Et qui va r6pandant sur tout, insouciante
Comme l'azur du ciel, les oiseaux et les fleurs,
Ses parfums, ses chansons et ses douces chaleurs! (Oeuvres,
p.12)

L e o p a r d i c o n t e n d e d t h a t the ancients were far m o r e v i r t u o u s t h a n the

m o d e r n s because they cultivated the illusion t h a t virtue a n d m a g n a n i m i t y
were real, while the m o d e r n s saw these as e m p t y ideals. H e felt t h a t his
c o n t e m p o r a r i e s should l e a r n to e m u l a t e the glorious examples o f the past.
L e o p a r d i p l a c e d considerable b l a m e on C h r i s t i a n i t y f o r the d e s t r u c t i o n o f
the illusions which m a d e men n o b l e a n d h a p p y , for in his view the a d v e n t
o f the new religion m a r k e d the end o f antiquity. C h r i s t i a n i t y coincided
with the beginnings o f the m o d e r n age, when m a n ' s ever-increasing k n o w -
ledge o f his w o r l d s t r i p p e d a w a y the illusions o f t h e ancients a n d cast
344 Alan S. Rosenthal - Leopardi and Baudelaire

him into a woeful state (Zib, I, 355-356). Baudelaire also lashed out at
the Christian era, claiming that the pagan era was more felicitous. In " L a
Muse malade," he suggested that this difference is manifested in the
poetry of each period. The modern muse is ill, unlike the robust ancient
muse. 5 In personifying the sickly nature of modern times, Baudelaire de-
picted the contemporary muse as sunken-eyed and haunted by madness,
horror, and fear. Unlike this wretched figure, the ancient muse was
healthier, and her poetry, more harmonious. There is a reference to
Christianity in the poet's desire to see the "Christian blood" of his
m o d e m muse flow more rhythmically, like the pagan blood o f the ancient
muse:

Je voudrais qu'exhalant l'odeur de la sant6

Ton sein de pensers forts ffit toujours fr6quent6,
Et que ton sang chr6tien coulgtt ~t riots rythmiques
Comme les sons nombreux des syllabes antiques
Off r6gnent tour h tour le p6re des chansons,
Phoebus, et le grand Pan, le seigneur des moissons.
(Oeuvres, p. 14)6

Leopardi and Baudelaire both thought that, concurrent with the rise
of Christianity, the burgeoning spirit of scientific progress in the modern
age contributed to the destruction of man's happiness and to the emer-
gence of ennui. The experience gained by dint of human intellectual
curiosity destroyed the illusions which made happiness possible. Leopardi
explained that in particular scientific discovery traced the limits of things
and thus erased forever the illusion of infinity, which was a profound
delight of the imagination. There exists art astounding parallel between
passages in Leopardi's poem " A d Angelo M a r ' and Baudelaire's "Le
Voyage" which illustrate how discovery and experience tear away illusions
nurtured by the imagination. 7 Employing identical ideas and images, and
with similar words, both poets express how the world (and everything in
it) seems smaller and less awe-inspiring to those who have witnessed its
many spectacles thart to the child, whose imagination paints a vast and
varied picture. Leopardi exclaimed:

Ahi ahi, ma conosciuto il mondo

non cresce, anzi si scema, e assai pifi vasto
l'etra sonante e l'alma terra e il mare
al fanciullin, che non al saggio, appare. (Opere, I. 19)

Almost thirty years later, Baudelaire wrote:

Pour l'enfant, amoureux de cartes et d'estampes,

L'univers est 6gal h son vaste app6tit.
Ah! que le monde est grand h la clart6 des lampes!
Aux yeux du souvenir que le monde est petit ! (Oeuvres, p. 122)

Continuing, Leopardi refers to the voyage of Columbus, who discov-

Alan S. Rosenthal - Leopardi and Baudelaire 345

ered a whole new world, despite Nature's obstacles. A desire for progress
and knowledge overcame these barriers; however, the discovery shattered
the illusion that the world was boundless and the sea, infinite. The Truth
was revealed and mankind was one step further along the road to ennui
and despair:

Nostri sogni leggiadri ove son giti

dell'ignoto ricetto
d'ignoti abitatori, o del diurno
degli astri albergo, e del rimoto letto
della giovane Aurora, e del notturno
occulto sonno del maggior pianeta?
Ecco svaniro a un punto,
e figurato 6 il mondo in breve carta. (Opere, I, 20)

In "Le Voyage," Baudelaire also laments that experience obliterates the

illusion of infinity. M a n has aspirations toward the infinite, which he
seems to perceive on the sea. However, he soon learns that the sea gives
only a semblance of limitless space; it is in reality limited: " E t nous
allons, suivant le rythme de la lame, / Bergant notre infini sur le fini des
mers" (Oeuvres, p. 122). The infinite is actually a desire within mart him-
self, and the voyage proves this desire to be illusory.
N o t only is life made unbearable by the destruction of the old illusions,
but baseness of character and action ensues. The modern age is marked
by corruption, sloth, apathy, and other moral ills. Materialism runs
rampant; spiritual qualities are dead. In several pieces, Leopardi depicts
the melancholy results of man's slavish devotion to material things. He
portrays the deathlike torpor into which the world had sunk in the
"Dialogo d'Ercole e di Atlante," where Hercules and Atlas toss the
globe about but see or hear no one (Opere, I, 473). In his p o e m to Angelo
Mai, he castigates his tired century, "questo secol morro, al quale incombe
tanta nebbia di tedio" (Opere, I, 16). The quest for power and riches has
buried all thoughts of virtue, and utilitarianism has blinded men to
beauty and emptied life of substance, as he states in "I1 pensiero dominan-
te":

Di questa eth superba,

che di vbte speranze si nutrica,
vaga di ciance, e di virtil nemica;
stolta, che l'util chiede,
e inutile la vita
quindi pifa sempre divenir non vede. (Opere, I, 116)

Baudelaire matches Leopardi's condemnation of the baseness of con-

temporary society in "J'aime le souvenir." He finds the cause of the
melancholy and ugliness of the modern age in bourgeois utilitarianism
and its adoration of material progress. Comparing the hideous human
forms of his time to the graceful beauty of the ancients, he demonstrates
how the quest for material gain corrupted men:
346 Alan S. Rosenthal - Leopardi and Baudelaire

O monstruosit6s pleurant leur v6tement!

O ridicules troncs! torses dignes des masques!
O pauvres corps tordus, maigres, ventrus, ou flasques,
Que le Dieu de FUtile, implacable et serein,
Enfants, emmaillota dans ses langes d'airain!
(Oeuvres, p. 12)

Materialism, utilitarianism, and "progress" are found to be particularly

detrimental to art. Leopardi states in "Ad Angelo Mai" that his con-
temporaries have abandoned great art. Poets such as Tasso are forgotten
because men prefer computations to poetry (Opere, I, 22). Baudelaire
echoes this sentiment in his plans for a preface to the 1861 edition of Les
Fleurs du Mal. Ridiculing the modern idea of progress and utility, he
writes: "La France traverse une phase de vulgaritr. Paris, centre et
rayonnement de batise universelle. Malgr6 Moli~re et Brranger, on
n'aurait jamais cru que la France irait si grand train dans la voie du
progrrs. - Questions d'art, terrae ineognitae" (Oeuvres, p. 184). And, in
a letter to Victor Hugo, the champion of progress: "Mais en un temps off
le monde s'61oigne de l'art avec une telle horreur, off les hommes se laissent
abrutil par l'idre exclusive d'utilitr, je crois qu'il n'y a pas grand mal ~t
exagrrer un peu darts le seas contraire." s
Baudelaire and Leopardi both foresaw that progress, in robbing man-
kind of spiritual substance, would render existence mechanical. With un-
canny perception they anticipated the era of machines and computers. In
FusOes, Baudelaire predicted that in the future, existence would hardly be
worthy of the name. There would be no vital energy in men, such as there
was in ancient times; instead, there would exist a society of robots: "La
mrcanique nous aura tellement amrricaaisrs, le progrrs aura si bien
atrophi6 en nous route la partie spirituelle, que rien parmi les raveries
sanguinaires, sacrileges, ou anti-naturelles des utopistes ne pourra atre
compar6 h ses rrsultats positifs" (Oeuvres, pp. 1262-63). In the "Proposta
di premi fatta dall'Accademia dei sillografi," Leopardi ridiculed the con-
cept of modern progress and satirically demonstrated how machines
would soon replace man in a completely mechanized society. He proclaim-
ed the "age of machines," not only because men would live in a more
mechanical fashion than those in the past, but also because machines
would be used in so wide a variety of situations that "oramai non gli
uomini m a l e macchine, si pu6 dire, trattano le cose umane e fanno le
opere della vita" (Opere, I, 479).
Leopardi and Baudelaire were particularly dismayed by the newspapers
of their day, which were the self-proclaimed heralds of progress. Baude-
laire took particular delight in attacking Le Sikele, whose pride in its
positivistic philosophy was unbounded. He maintained that while modern
newspapers boast of progress, they manifest in their pages the horror and
baseness of m o d e m society. Leopardi also attacked the newspapers, often
in a satirical manner - as in "Palinodia," where he turned his sarcasm
Alan S. Rosenthal - Leopardi and Baudelaire 347

against the vanity and outrageous optimism of the gazettes, which an-
nounced to the world the marvels of the most glorious of ages.
The ultimate conclusion of both Leopardi and Baudelaire was that the
idea of progress and perfectibility is absurd. It is in reality a phenomenon
inspired by man's vanity, and it is a source of his misery. Baudelaire
levied a final assault against progress in "Le Voyage. ''9 He suggested that
man is egotistical and thinks he can do everything. In truth, man is just
as foolish as he has always been: "L'Humanit6 bavarde, ivre de son g~nie,
/ Et folle, maintenant comme elle 6tait jadis" (Oeuvres, p. 125). Leopardi
also scorned the vainglory of mankind in the final poem of his own
collection. In " L a ginestra," the ruins of Pompeii provide an incontro-
vertible refutation of the modern concept of progress. One small blow
from Nature can wipe out centuries of accumulated work, as Leopardi
observes while contemplating the ruins around Vesuvius:

Dipinte in queste rive

son dell'umana gente
le magnifiche sortie progressive. (Opere, I, 154)

Man's quest for progress and knowledge ends in frustration and tra-
gedy. All hope of happiness is erased; and all that is left is the anguish of
seeing reality as it actually is - hopeless, vain, monotonous. Both poets
knew the pain o f discovering the emptiness of life. The realization that
everything was meaningless, and that there was no hope for anything
better, left Leopardi and Baudelaire in a desolate state. Rejecting every-
thing around them, their minds turned inward; and they were engulfed
by ennui, the malady which they felt to be synonymous with modernity.
The ennui of Leopardi and Baudelaire was of course not just boredom,
but something much more profound. It was a deeply-rooted, paralyzing
affliction permeated with the sentiment of the vanity of existence. Baude-
laire gave this condition the name of spleen. 1o In describing his anguish,
he stressed his dejection, inaction, indifference to everything, and the
almost complete paralysis of his will, as in the following letter to his
mother: "Ce que je seas, c'est un immense drcouragement, une sensation
d'isolement insupportable, une peur perprtuelle d'un malheur vague, une
drfiance complbte de mes forces, une absence totale de drsirs, une impos-
sibilit6 de trouver un amusement q u e l c o n q u e . . . Je me demande sans
cesse: ~ quoi bon ceci? ~t quoi bon cela? C'est l~t le vrritable esprit de
spleen" (CG, II, 108). And on another occasion: "Je ne travaille encore
qu'avec distraction, et je m'enrmie mortellement. I1 y a encore des mo-
ments 06 tout m'appara~t comme vide" (CG, I, 400).
Leopardi experienced many of the symptoms which Baudelaire identi-
fied with spleen, and he went even further than Baudelaire in theorizing
about his ennui, or noia. Like his French counterpart, he expressed his
disenchantment with everything and his dejection at discovering the
emptiness of existence. 11 We have, for example, the following expression
348 Alan S. Rosenthal - Leopardi and Baudelaire

o f his discouragement in a letter to his friend Jacopssen, where he wrote

(in French): " P e n d a n t un certain temps j'ai senti le vide de l'existence
c o m m e si q'avait dtd une chose rdelle qui pes~t rudement sur m o n ~me. Le
n6ant des choses dtait p o u r moi la seule chose qui existait. II m'dtait
toujours prdsent c o m m e un fant6me affreux; je ne voyais q u ' u n ddsert au-
t o u r de moi, je ne concevais c o m m e n t on peut s'assujettir aux soins jour-
naliers que la vie exige, en dtant bien stir que ces soins n ' a b o u t i r o n t
jamais ~t rien. Cette pens6e m ' o c c u p a i t tellement, que je croyais presque
en perdre m a raison. ' u 2
Above all, a letter to Pietro Giordani provides a startling parallel with
Baudelaire's description o f ennui. Here, ennui has become the moral
illness referred to by Baudelaire as spleen. Evident are the torpor, inaction,
paralysis o f the will, discouragement, numbness, and desperation that
tortured the French poet. Ennui is so intense that it resembles a gnawing
pain:

Sono cosi stordito del niente che mi circonda, che non so come abbia la forza di
prendere la penna per rispondere alia tua del primo. Se in questo momento impazzissi,
io credo chela mia pazzia sarebbe di seder sempre cogli occhi attoniti, colla bocca
aperta, colle mani tra le ginocchia, senza n6 ridere n6 piangere n~ movermi, altro che
per forza, dal luogo dove mi trovassi. Non ho pi/a lena di concepire nessun desiderio,
n~ anche la morte; non perch'io la tema in nessun conto, ma non vedo pi/a divario tra
la morte e questa mia vita, dove non viene pi/1 a consolarmi neppure il dolore. Questa
la prima volta chela noia non solamente mi opprime e stanca, ma mi affanna e lacera
come un dolor gravissimo, e sono cosi spaventato della vanith di tutte le cose, e della
condizione degli uomini, morte tutte le passioni, come sono spente nell'anima mia, che
nevo fuori di me, considerando ch'6 un niente anche la mia disperazione.
(Epistolario, 1,240)

Leopardi theorized that ennui actually fills the void between pain and
pleasure; that is, when we are neither h a p p y n o r suffering, we are prone
to ennui. A poetic example o f this line o f reasoning can be found in
" C a n t o n o t t u r n o . " The shepherd envies his flock, which lies contentedly
at rest. W h e n he himself is at rest, he is overwhelmed by ennui, even
t h o u g h he is not particularly sad n o r in pain (Opere, I, 107). In fact,
Leopardi felt that suffering was better t h a n ennui. He considered noia an
illness which was far worse than any bodily disease, as he wrote in a letter
destined for his father: "Voglio piuttosto essere infelice che piccolo, e
soffrire piuttosto che annoiarmi, tanto pig c h e l a noia, madre per me di
mortifere malinconie, mi nuoce assai pifi che ogni disagio del corpo
(Epistolario, I, 217).
Analogous thoughts were expressed by Baudelaire. In a manner remin-
iscent o f the Leopardian theory, he intimated that ennui fills the void
when one feels neither pain nor pleasure. He stated, for instance, in a
postscript to one o f his letters: "Je ne vais ni bien ni mal. Je m'ennuie"
(CG, V, 133). He also implied, as did Leopardi, that suffering is preferable
to ennui. In the p o e m " L e Jeu," we see a portrait o f the gaming tables.
Alan S. Rosenthal - Leopardi and Baudelaire 349

He observes with fascination the anguish of the gamblers. Although they

are in a sense addicted to gambling, he envies them; at least they have a
passion, albeit a horrid one. He has none - he is indifferent and bored by
everything. He is thus less fortunate than the gamblers, as pain is better
than ennui. Their tortured agitation is excruciating, but Baudelaire would
prefer to experience this agony rather than the moral death or ndant in
which he finds himself:

Enviant de ces gens la passion tenace,

De ces vieilles putains la fun6bre gaiet6,
Et tous gaillardement trafiquant ~ ma face,
L'un de son vieil honneur, l'autre de sa beaut6,
Et mon coeur s'effraya d'envier maint pauvre homme
Courant avec ferveur h l'abtme b6ant,
Et qui, sofil de son sang, pr6f6rerait en somme
La douleur ~ la mort et l'enfer au n6ant ! (Oeuvres, p. 92)

Although they were crushed by the paralyzing weariness of ennui,

Leopardi and Baudelaire drew great poetry from their respective experi-
ences. Remarkably, their perception was sharpened by their struggles
with ennui; and they became even more fully aware of the true nature of
existence through their efforts to comprehend the illness which was de-
vouring their spirit. The thoughts and sentiments put forth in their
works are indicative of a dilemma they shared in common. In tracing the
various symptoms of ennui through their verse, we find that there are
parallels, not only of sentiment and idea, but of style, imagery, and
phraseology as well.
First of all, we see a primary manifestation of ennui in the poetic
portrayal of the seeming m o n o t o n y of life. Leopardi and Baudelaire dis-
covered a dulling sameness in everything that came before them, and it
appeared that there was nothing new to hope for. The more they observed,
the more they were convinced that all existence boiled down to nothing,
no matter how varied it might have appeared on the surface. Leopardi,
typically, blamed this sad state on the loss of happy illusions and the
progress o f mankind. He claimed in the "Storia del genere u m a n o " that
after they lost their illusions, men voyaged extensively in search of some-
thing new and better; but they found that all the earth and all people were
essentially the same (Opere, I, 455-456). The discovery of the m o n o t o n y
of life is pictured in the p o e m "Ad Angelo Mat" precisely by means of a
voyage, which reveals a depressing sameness in the world: "Ecco tutto
simile, e discoprendo, / solo il nulla s'accresce" (Opere, I, 20). The Baude-
lairean parallel occurs in " L e Voyage." The poet asks the voyagers to
alleviate the burden of his ennui by describing all the wondrous sights
they saw during their extensive trip. The travelers admit that despite the
apparent diversity on earth, they became bored by the monotonous
similarity of existence in every part of the globe:
350 Alan S. Rosenthal - Leopardi and Baudelaire

9 Nous avons vu des astres

Et des riots; nous avons vu des sables aussi;
Et, malgr6 bien des chocs et d'impr6vus d6sastres,
Nous nous sommes souvent ennuy6s, comme ici.
(Oeuvres, p. 124)

The monotony and emptiness of life are also represented in the poetry
o f Baudelaire and Leopardi by the image of a desert, or wasteland. The
endless stretches of barren land resemble their desolate, empty souls. In
" L a Destruction," Baudelaire pictures himself broken with weariness in
the middle of a deserted plain9 The monotony of the landscape is the
equivalent of the monotony he finds in life: "Haletant et bris6 de fatigue,
au milieu / Des plaines de l'Ennui, profondes et d6sertes" (Oeuvres, p.
105). And in "Le Voyage," he again emphasizes the dulling vacuity of
life with the image of the desert9 Man, depraved and corrupt, is surround-
ed by ennui:

Amer savoir, celui qu'on tire du voyage!

Le monde, monotone et petit, aujourd'hui,
Hier, demain, toujours, nous fait voir notre image:
Une oasis d'horreur dans un ddsert d'ennui! (Oeuvres, p. 126)

Leopardi suggests the barrenness of his soul by the same image of desolate
land in "I1 risorgimento." Describing his past torments, he claims that
to him the earth resembled alternately an arid desert and the Arctic
wastes :

Piansi spogliata, esanime

fatta per me la vita;
la terra inaridita,
chiusa in eterno gel;
deserto il di. (Opere, I, 86-87)

Another aspect of ennui is the subsequent result of this tedium - the

inaction and paralysis of the will which locked the poets in a state of im-
mobility 9 Both depict this by images of stone, which suggest heaviness
and rigidity. In one of the "Spleen" poems, Baudelaire pictures his spirit
as a pyramid, and then as a cemetery (with its gravestones), to illustrate
poetically the deadly paralysis instilled in his soul by ennui:

C'est une pyramide, un immense caveau,

Qui contient plus de morts que la fosse commune.
- Je suis un cimeti~re abhorr6 de la lune. (Oeuvres, p. 69)

Later in the same poem, he pictures himself as a granite sphinx, petrified

in the desert of life. There is neither will nor energy left in him, as he is
permanently and irrevocably trapped in ennui9 In his poem to Pepoli,
Leopardi also suggests the paralyzing heaviness of ennui and its immova-
ble, permanent presence within his soul by employing an image of stone.
Alan S. Rosenthal - Leopardi and Baudelaire 351

He portrays ennui as a massive, unshakeable column in his breast:

Ahi, ma nel petto

nell'imo petto, grave, salda, immota
come colonna adamantina, siede
noia immortale. (Opere, I, 81)

A n d in " L a vita solitaria," he claims that his heart is like stone. A l t h o u g h

at times it m a y appear to beat again, it soon returns to a state o f torpor.
This stupor is so persistent that Leopardi calls it iron-like:

A palpitar si move
questo mio cor di sasso: ahi, ma ritorna
tosto al ferreo sopor; ch'6 fatto estrano
ogni moto soave al petto mio. (Opere, I, 68)

W i t h the victim locked in a state o f inertia, unable to react to things

a r o u n d him, all feeling drains away. Leopardi and Baudelaire b o t h use
images o f darkness to depict the morose insensitivity o f the soul. In "I1
risorgimento," Leopardi compares the state o f his spirit to a dark, star-
less night:

La tacita
nolte pifl sola e bruna;
spenta per me la luna,
spente le stelle in ciel. (Opere, I, 87)

Again, in "Aspasia," he proclaims that life to him is a cold winter night,

without stars. He is in the blackest o f moods, emptied o f any feeling:

Che se d'affetti
orba la vita, e di gentili errori,
notte senza stelle a mezzo il verno. (Opere, I, 130)

Baudelaire presents similar images in " L ' I r r 6 p a r a b l e . " Here, he por-

trays the g l o o m y existence in which he is entrenched by painting a dark,
starless sky:

Peut-on illuminer un ciel bourbeux et noir?

Peut-on d6chirer des t6n~bres
Plus denses que la poix, sans matin et sans soir,
Sans astres, sans 6clairs fun6bres?
Peut-on illuminer un ciel bourbeux et noir? (Oeuvres, p. 53)

A n d in " D e profundis clamavi," his weary heart has fallen into a dark
abyss. The atmosphere is leaden, as he languishes in ennui: " C ' e s t un
univers m o r n e ~t l'horizon plomb6, / Off nagent dans la nuit l'horreur et
le blasphbme" (Oeuvres, p. 31).
Images o f ice and snow are also used to suggest the numbness felt
while under the cruel reign o f ennui. Leopardi conveys the idea that all
feeling left him by the image o f a frozen land, in "I1 risorgimento":
352 Alan S. Rosenthal - Leopardi and Baudelaire

Quante querele e lacrime

sparsi nel novo stato
quando al mio cor gelato
prima il dolor manc6!
Mancftr gli usati palpiti,
l'amor mi venne meno,
e irrigidito il seno
di sospirar cess6! (Opere, I, 86)

In " L a vita solitaria," he again depicts his once ardent heart how b o u n d
in ice: " I n ghiaccio ~ volto / nel fior degli anni" (Opere, I, 67).
Baudelaire employs identical imagery to represent his b e n u m b e d soul.
I n " D e profundis clamavi," he evokes the frigid wastes o f the polar region.
Just as Leopardi proclaimed that his heart, once so warm, had become
cold, Baudelaire suggests the same idea with the image o f a sun that gives
off no w a r m t h :

Un soleil sans chaleur plane au-dessus six mois,

Et les six autres mois la nuit couvre la terre;
C'est un pays plus nu que la terre polaire. (Oeuvres, p. 31)

Again, in " C h a n t d ' a u t o m n e , " we see the polar sun, which corresponds
to his frozen heart:

Tout l'hiver va rentrer dans mon 6tre: coler6,

Haine, frissons, horreur, labeur dur et forc6,
Et, comme le soleil dans son enfer polaire,
Mon coeur ne sera plus qu'un bloc rouge et glac6.
(Oeuvres, p. 54)

Under the black influence o f ennui both poets sink to the depths o f
despair. All desire is gone, and the apparent uselessness o f everything is
before their eyes. The next step in this spiritual descent is the renunciation
o f life itself, which is stated in two poems o f an analogous nature - " L e
Gofit du n6ant" and " A se stesso." Both are short, and both delineate
stupefied resignation before the vanity o f life. H o p e has disappeared; and
numb, weary hearts lapse into somnolence. Life no longer tempts the
poets, as they withdraw into the g l o o m y recesses o f their own souls.
Baudelaire addresses his listless spirit:

Morne esprit, autrefois amoureux de la lutte,

L'Espoir, dont l'6peron attisait ton ardeur,
Ne veut plus t'enfourcher! Couche-toi sans pudeur,
Vieux cheval dont le pied ~ chaque obstacle bute.
Rdsigne-toi, mon coeur; dors ton sommeil de brute!
(Oeuvres, p. 72)

I n m u c h the same way Leopardi tells his heart that it can sleep, because
there is nothing left to hope for. Life is n o t worth its travails:
Alan S. Rosenthal - Leopardi and Baudelaire 353

Or poserai per sempre,

stanco mio cor. Peri l'inganno estremo,
ch'eterno io mi credei. Peri. Ben sento,
in noi di carl inganni,
non chela speme, il desiderio 6 spento.
Posa per sempre. Assai
palpitasti. Non val cosa nessuna
i moti tuoi, n6 di sospiri ~ degna
la terra. (Opere, I, 125)

Finally, having renounced the daily pursuits of life which sometimes

diverted their attention from the pure tediousness of existence, Leopardi
and Baudelaire now face the cruelest form of ennui. Because they must
live each day with nothing to hope for or look forward to, they become
acutely aware of the slow movement of time. Each succeeding moment
adds to their torture, and ennui seems eternal. In the poem " A un vincitore
nel pallone," Leopardi alludes to the "putrid and slow hours" of life. And
in his poem to Pepoli, he claims that animals are not burdened by the
slowness of the hours; only men suffer as they inch their way through
existence:

Cosi de' bruti

la progenie infinita, a cui per solo,
n6 men vano che a noi, vive nel petto
desio d'esser beati; a quello intenta
che a lot vita ~ mestier, di noi men tristo
condur si scopre e men gravoso il tempo,
n6 la lentezza accagionar dell'ore. (Opere, I, 80)

For his part, Baudelaire stresses in one of the "Spleen" poems the endless
length of each dark day. He is crushed under the weight of the slowly-
moving hours, and ennui takes on the proportions of immortality:

Rien n'6gale en longueur les boiteuses j ourn6es,

Quand sous les lourds flocons des neigeuses ann6es
L'ennui, fruit de la morne incuriosit6,
Prend les proportions de l'immortalit6. (Oeuvres, p. 69)

And in "De profundis clamavi," we find a parallel with Leopardi's poem

to Pepoli. Just as Leopardi affirmed that animals did not suffer from the
tedious passing of the hours, Baudelaire claims that he envies the beasts,
who do not notice the slow unwinding of time:

Je jalouse le sort des plus vils animaux

Qui peuvent se plonger dans un sommeil stupide,
Tant l'6cheveau du temps lentement se d6vide.
(Oeuvres, p. 31)

Thus, the torture of ennui for Leopardi and Baudelaire was heightened
immeasurably by the endless length of time. Numbing melancholy dark-
ened every perspective of life, and the poets' feeling of nothingness emp-
354 Alan S. Rosenthal - Leopardi and Baudelaire

tied every moment of its substance and reduced it to a meaningless meas-

ure of time. Before their eyes the vacuous minutes, hours, and days
stretched slowly out to infinity. Ultimately, this seemingly hopeless
situation generated desperate efforts on the part of both Leopardi and
Baudelaire to escape the iron-like hold of ennui, all of them more or less
inefficacious, until they contemplated the final evasion in death.
Although they are perhaps the foremost portrayers of ennui in West-
ern literature, Leopardi and Baudelaire did not consider their own cases
unusual; as has been noted, they regarded this malady as a generalized
ill of the modern age. Yet it struck a personal and responsive chord
within them. So thoroughly was this obsession implanted in their souls
that they felt its deadly poison to the very core of their beings. One might
wonder why these two men in particular had such similar conceptions of
ennui, felt it so profoundly, and expressed it so often and in much the
same terms in their works. The answer, I believe, lies in their character
and sensibility. They approached life with many of the same attitudes and
hopes, and consequently experienced similar disillusionment. Ever in
search of the ideal, their extraordinary sensitivity revealed to them the
vanity and triviality of everything in their path. The destruction of the
aspirations they cherished hurled them into a state of spleen from which
they struggled to extricate themselves. Leopardi himself noted that the
sensitive and imaginative individual - such as each of our poets - is per-
haps the most likely to fall victim to ennui (and hence to indifference and
insensibility). The reason for this is that he consumes life voraciously,
exhausts it quickly, and soon finds that there is nothing of inteiest or
worth to experience. As the Italian wrote: "Egli resta vuoto, disingannato
profondamente e stabilmente, perch6 ha tutto profondamente e vivamen-
te provato: non si 6 fermato alle superficie, non siva affondando a poco
a poco; 6 andato subito al fondo, ha tutto abbracciato, e tutto rigettato
come affettivamente indegno e frivolo: non gli resta altro a vedere, a
sperimentare, a sperare" (Zib, I, 1071-72). This plunge to the depths of
existence and the resultant rejection of everything in life as being without
value was also characteristic of Baudelaire. Jacques Cr6pet, citing Emile
Mont6gut's portrait of the ennuy~, stated that it was a perfect description
o f Baudelaire: "Tr~s sensible /t toute chose et tr~s indiff6rent ~ toute
c h o s e . . , prompt ~t s'abandonner, il se passionnait en un instant pour un
systbme, pour un principe moral, pour une oeuvre d'art nouvelle, pour
un ami de la veille; mais il p6n6trait rapidement au fond des choses et
voyait rapidement le peu que cela 6tait. 'ua The similarity between this
description and the sentiments expressed by Leopardi above is obvious.
Having begun with similar illusions, Leopardi and Baudelaire tested
life and found it wanting. After shattering disappointments, they dis-
covered a void in the world around them which matched the void inside
their own souls. The ensuing ennui, or spleen, was much more profound
and complex than the commonplace theme of taedium vitae, so prevalent
Alan S. Rosenthal - Leopardi and Baudelaire 355

a m o n g t h e writers o f t h e i r age. T h e e n n u i o f L e o p a r d i a n d B a u d e l a i r e was

c o l o r e d by a n u n d e r l y i n g s e n t i m e n t o f h o r r o r - at t h e f u t i l i t y o f all activity,
t h e uselessness o f h o p e , t h e d e p t h s to w h i c h t h e spirit h a d sunk, a n d t h e
a p p a r e n t i m p o s s i b i l i t y o f finding a w a y o u t o f t h e m o r a s s . T h e i r p o e t r y
p r e s e n t s a l m o s t i d e n t i c a l s p i r i t u a l crises. T h e n u m e r o u s p a r a l l e l s are q u i t e
a p p a r e n t , a n d t h e y i n v i t e us to c o n s i d e r t h e p o s s i b i l i t y o f influence.
U n f o r t u n a t e l y , t h e q u e s t i o n c a n n o t be r e s o l v e d at this t i m e , d u e to a
general lack of documentary evidence; but there can be no doubt that
B a u d e l a i r e r e c o g n i z e d L e o p a r d r s d i l e m m a as his o w n . P e r h a p s this is
w h y he c o n s i d e r e d the I t a l i a n p o e t t o b e a m o n g t h e m o s t significant in
modern literature - a compliment Leopardi most assuredly would have
r e t u r n e d h a d h e l i v e d l o n g e n o u g h t o k n o w t h e w o r k o f B a u d e l a i r e . 14

University o f M a r y l a n d
Baltimore County A L A N S. R O S E N T H A L

Notes

1. Giacomo Leopardi, Zibaldone dipensieri (Milan: Mondadori, 1937), I, 78 - h e r e -

after cited as Zib.
2. Actually, this golden age alluded to by both poets is not always the era of classical
antiquity, in a more general sense, it can be called the pre-Christian period. Leopardi,
for instance, noted two ages before the advent of Christianity: the primitive state and
antiquity.
3. Giacomo Leopardi, Opere (Milan: Ricciardi, 1956), I, 46.
4. Charles Baudelaire, Oeuvres complOtes (Paris: Biblioth6que de la Pl6iade, 1961),
p. 11 - hereafter cited as Oeuvres. Except for his correspondence, all citations from
Baudelaire's works are to this edition.
5. It is noteworthy that this particular contrast of ancient and modern poetry can
be traced back to the origins of German romanticism, especially to Schiller, who
developed the theory in his essay, Ober naive und sentimentalisehe Diehtung.
6. We observe that Baudelaire employed the image of Phoebus, the god of youth,
beauty, and poetry, to evoke antiquity - here, and in a poem previously cited ("J'aime
le souvenir de ces 6poques n u e s , / Dont Phoebus se plaisait ~t dorer les statues").
Leopardi did likewise in "Alla primavera," lamenting that Phoebus (febo) no longer
shines on us: "Ottenebrati e spenti / di febo i raggi al misero" (Opere, I, 37).
7. Several scholars have noted this parallel. The first to do so was probably Vittorio
A. Arullani in "Leggendo il Leopardi e il Baudelaire," Fanfulla della domeniea, Vol.
32, No. 32 (Aug. 11, 1901), p. 13.
8. Charles Baudelaire, Correspondance g~n~rale (Paris: Conard 1948-53), II, 344 -
hereafter cited as CG.
9. Baudelaire ironically dedicated "Le Voyage" to Maxime du Camp, who was a
firm believer in progress, as Baudelaire confessed to Charles Asselineau: "J'ai fait un
long po6me d6di6 ~t Maxime du Camp, qui est h faire fr6mir la nature, et surtout les
amateurs du progr6s" (CG, iI, 274).
10. Francois Porch6, in La Vie douloureuse de Charles Baudelaire (Paris: Plon,
1926), pp. 184-185, offered the following description of Baudelaire's spleen: "Lorsque
l'ennui, comme chez Baudelaire, est synonyme de spleen, il n'a rien de commun avec
le d6soeuvrement passager, la fatigue momentan6e dont le mot ennui, dans son accep-
tion courante, ~veille pour nous l ' i d 6 e . . . Non, l'ennui de Baudelaire est un sentiment
infini; c'est un ennui si absolu, si 6ternel, que, selon son expression, il 'prend les propor-
tions de l'immortalit&'"
11. It is interesting to note, however, that Leopardi proclaimed ennui to be a
"sublime sentiment," to which only the greatest of souls is susceptible; because every-
356 Alan S. Rosenthal - Leopardi and Baudelaire

thing seems small and insufficient in comparison with the vastness of his spirit (Opere,
I, 731-732). Baudelaire, on the other hand, was not as restrictive; and he claimed in
the well-known lines of " A u Lecteur" that his reader was familiar with ennui: "Tu le
connais lecteur, ce monstre d61icat, [ - Hypocrite lecteur, - m o n semblable, - mon
fr~re!" (Oeuvres, p. 6).
12. Giacomo Leopardi, Epistolario (Florence: Le Monnier, 1892), I, 454.
13. Jacques Cr6pet, ed. Les Fleurs du Mal, by Charles Baudelaire (Paris: Corti,
1942), p. 258.
14. In his plan for a rebuttal to an article by Jules Janin, Baudelaire praised the
great foreign poets of recent years and said that France had nothing to compare to
them. Among these poets, listed by Baudelaire, were "Byron. Tennyson. E. Poe.
Lermontoff. Leopardi. Espronc6da" (Oeuvres, pp. 805-806).