Baudelaire's Knowledge and Use of Dante

Author(s): James S. Patty

Source: Studies in Philology, Vol. 53, No. 4 (Oct., 1956), pp. 599-611
Published by: University of North Carolina Press
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 BAUDELAIRE'S KNOWLEDGE AND USE OF DANTE

By JAMES S. PATTY

In the century which has passed since Les fleurs du mat were first
published, no comparison has been more frequent in the criticism
devoted to Baudelaire than that between him and Dante, except
perhaps the comparison between Baudelaire and Pascal.1 Com-
parisons of Baudelaire with Dante occurred in about one-fifth of the
one hundred thirty or so prefaces, reviews, essays, and books which
have been examined in an effort to obtain a cross-section of Baude-
laire criticism. On this basis, it is reasonable to call the Dante-
Baudelaire rapprochement a veritable leitmotiv in the body of
critical work devoted to Baudelaire.
The theme and tone were established within a few weeks of the
first publication of Les fleurs du mal in volume form (1857). Two
critics were responsible for this. On July 14, 1857, Edouard Thierry
wrote in Le Moniteur Universel:

S'il l'appelait la Divine Com6die, comme l'aeuvre de Dante, si ses pecheresses

les plus hardies 4taient placdees dans un des cercles de l'Enfer, le tableau
m8me des Lesbiennes n'aurait pas besoin d'8tre retouche pour que le
chatiment f-ft assez severe. Du reste, et c'est par la que je termine, j'ai
deja rapproche de Mirabeau l'auteur des Fleurs du mal, je le rapproche
de Dante, et je r6ponds que le vieux Florentin reconnaltrait plus d'une fois
dans le poete frangais sa fougue, sa parole effrayante, ses images implacables
et la sonorit de son vers d'airain. Je cherchais i louer Ch. Baudelaire,
comment le louerais-je mieux? Je laisse son livre et son talent sous
l'austWre caution de Dante.2

A few days later, Barbey d'Aurevilly, evidently smitten with this

rapprochement, elaborated it in a manner quite in keeping with his
florid personality and militant Catholicism:

1 All references to Baudelaire's works, except for Les Ileurs du mal, are
taken from the Jacques Crepet edition of Les WEuvres compLetes de Charles
Baudelaire (Paris: Conard-Lambert, 1922-1953; 19 vols.), the individual
volumes being indicated by easily recognizable abbreviations. For Les tleurs
du mal, I have used the Crepet-Blin edition (Paris: Corti, 1942). All
quotations from the Divine Comedy are taken from C. H. Grandgent, ed.,
La Divina Commedia (Boston: D. C. Heath, 1933).
2Articles justiflcatifs pour Charles Baudelaire, auteur des Fleurs du mal
(Paris: Dondev-Dupre. 1857). p. 3.

599

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 600 Baudelaire's Knowledge and Use of Dante

II y a du Dante, en effet, dans l'auteur des Fleurs du mal, mais c'est du

Dante d'une epoque d4chue, c'est du Dante ath6e et moderne, du Dante
venu apres Voltaire, dans un temps qui n'aura point de Saint Thomas.
Le poete de ces fleurs, qui ulc6rent le sein sur lequel elles reposent, n'a
pas la grande mine de son majestueux d6vancier, et ce n'est pas sa faute.
II appartient a une epoque troublee, sceptique, railleuse, nerveuse, qui
se tortille dans les ridicules esperances des transformations et des metem-
psychoses; il n'a pas la foi du grand poete catholique qui lui donnait le
calme auguste de la securite dans toutes les douleurs de la vie. Le caracttere
de la po4sie des Fleurs du mal, i l'exception de quelques rares morceaux
que le desespoir a fini par glacer, c'est le trouble, c'est la furie, c'est
le regard convulse, et non pas le regard sombrement clair et limpide du
Visionnaire de Florence. La Muse du Dante a reveusement vu l'Enfer,
celle des Fleurs du mal le respire d'une narine crispee comme celle du
cheval qui hume l'obus! L'une vient de l'enfer, l'autre y va. Si la premiere
est plus auguste, l'autre est peut-etre plus 6mouvante.3

Here, as often happens, the rapprochement of Dante's name with

Baudelaire's leads to contrasts as well as comparisons.
Before Baudelaire's death, three other critics, all of them appar-
ently influenced by Thierry and especially by Barbey d'Aurevilly,
sounded the theme. Leconte de Lisle, for example, spoke of " cercles
infernaux encore inexplores " and "ce cauchemar dantesque " in
his review of the second edition of Les fleurs du mal.4 It is some-
what odd, however, that in the welter of obituary articles which
appeared at Baudelaire's death, only two contain the Dante-
Baudelaire comparison.5 And, more oddly still, after Baudelaire's
death, there appears to be a gap of several decades in the history of
critical rapprochements between Dante and Baudelaire. But around
the beginning of this century, the leitmotiv is heard more and more
frequently-in the criticism of Shanks, Poizat, T. S. Eliot, Suares,
Thibaudet, and Fowlie, to mention the best known.
Almost without exception, these and other critics of the second
generation of Baudelaire's admirers, counting the Symbolists as
the first, have simply restated the basic theme (or themes) with
surprisingly little effort at variation. Some content themselves with
vague generalizations, calling Baudelaire a "modern Dante" and

"Ibid., pp. 15-6.

4 Leconte de Lisle, Derniers poemes (Paris: Lemerre, n. d.), p. 283.
For the other two references, see W. T. Bandy, Baudelaire Judged by his
Contemporaries (1845-1867) (New York: Publications of the Institute of
French Studies, Inc., Columbia University, 1933), pp. 46, 179.
6 See W. T. Bandy, Baudelaire Judged by his Contemporaries, pp. 116, 127.

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 James S. Patty 601

Les fleurs du mal "the modern Divine Comedy."6 Some have

given a certain substance to these comparisons by pointing out that
Baudelaire and Dante have in common their concern with the
world of sin and their emphasis on the spiritual death which is
the wages of sin.7 This is indeed perhaps the favorite line of
argument followed by those critics attempting to relate Dante and
Baudelaire. One critic has even expanded Thierry's reference to
"les cercles de l'Enfer" by claiming to see in Les fleurs du mal
a series of circles, complete with guardians and penalties.8 Yet,
though many have been willing or even eager to see in Baudelaire
a new explorer of the dolorous kingdom, not a few have insisted
that the faith which sustained Dante on his infernal pilgrimage
was absent in Baudelaire.9 One of the favorite variations on this
theme consists in finding Baudelaire's despair superior to or at
least more moving than Dante's firm confidence. Barbey himself
had first stated this idea, and writers in the Angst-ridden twentieth
century have generally agreed with him in finding a greater
emotional resonance in Baudelaire's poetry: in their view, Dante
dealt with the problem of sin and evil in an abstract, impersonal
way, while Baudelaire found Hell and Satan within himself or
near at hand.'0

6 For example, Alfred Poizat, " Charles Baudelaire," Le Correspondant,

CCLXVIII (25 aofut 1917), pp. 686, 701; Andre Suares, "Baudelaire et les
Fleurs du mal," preface to Les Fleurs du mat (Paris: L'Artisan du Livre,
1933), p. xiii; and Robert-Benolt Cherix, Commentaire des " Fleurs du
mal ": essai d'une critique integrale (Geneve: Pierre Caillier, 1949), p. 11
(this latter item will hereafter be referred to by the short title, Corn-
mentaire des FM).
7So T. S. Eliot, " Baudelaire in Our Time," For Lancelot Andrewes
(London: Faber and Gwyer, 1928), pp. 97-8, and Wallace Fowlie, Clowns
and Angels (New York: Sheed and Ward, 1943), p. 105.
8 Gonzague de Reynold, Charles Baudelaire (Paris: Cr6s, 1920), pp.
136-91.
9 So Eugene Benson, " Charles Baudelaire, Poet of the Malign," The
Atlantic Monthly, XXIII (1869), 175; Louis de Mondadon, " Le cath-
olicisme de Baudelaire," Etudes, CLXVI (20 fe6vrier 1921), 488; and Jean
Prevost, Baudelaire: essai sur l'inspiration et la cr6ation po6tiques (Paris:
Mercure de France, 1953), p. 126.
10 See, for example, Louis Fiere, Charles Baudelaire (Valence: Jules
CUas, 1903), p. 36, and Benjamin de Casseres, "Baudelaire: Ironic Dante,"
Forty Immortals (New York: Joseph Lawren, 1926), p. 206.

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602 Baudelaire's Knowledge and Use of Dante

But when the critics have finished making their rapprochements

and their comparisons and contrasts, it yet remains to discover the
hard core of the Dante-Baudelaire relationship. The situation
is somewhat like that described in Fontenelle's story of the gold
tooth-scholars and critics started out with generalities and con-
clusions and only later got around to hard facts. As will be seen,
the facts are much less interesting than the sonorous generalities of
Barbey d'Aurevilly, Leconte de Lisle, Suares, and Fowlie. Yet it
is well for us to know the facts, so far as they can be determined
or surmised, so that in the f-uture more solid structures of criticism
can be raised. This paper will undertake, therefore, to answer in
some detail these questions: what did Baudelaire know of Dante
directly, and in what form did he know him? to what extent did
he assimilate ideas and images from the Divine Comedy or other
works of Dante? Recent commentators on Baudelaire have given
some partial answers to these questions, especially the latter one,
but I believe that this is the first attempt to assemble in one place
the factual details and reasonable conjectures which will allow us to
answer them in full and with some assurance.
Examining the body of Baudelaire's work, we do not find many
direct references to the great Florentine. Once he coupled Dante
and Homer as examples of the versatility of epic poets: " Ainsi le
poete epique, HomeZre ou Dante, sait faire egalement bien une
idylle, un recit, un discours, une description, une ode, etc." [CE,
p. 111]. In three different places, Dante's name occurs without
comment in a list of the literary sources of the paintings of Dela-
croix [CE, p. 291; AR, p. 8; CG, IV, 227]. In a "Causerie"
which Baudelaire probably wrote, the author describes Gautier
as returning from a trip to Spain " sombre comme le Dante " [OP,
I, 131]. In his unpublished diatribe on Villemain, Baudelaire
questioned Villemain's characterization of Dante as the first poetic
genius of the Middle Ages, but his discussion of the matter is
entirely contained in four words: "Est-ce bien sutr?" [OP, I,
3261. In 1859 Baudelaire wrote to his friend the photographer
and balloonist Nadar expressing surprise that Gustave Dore should
have undertaken to illustrate the Divine Comedy: "Comment a-t-il
pu choisir le poete le plus serieux et le plus triste?" [CG, II, 317].
This is Baudelaire's only critical comment on Dante, and it is
neither profound nor well-informed. If these references to Dante

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 James S. Patty 603

represented the full extent of Baudelaire's knowledge of Dante and

of his interest in the Florentine poet, we would have to conclude
that this knowledge and interest were meager, that Baudelaire had
probably never read a word of Dante, that his judgment of him was
confined to the merest banalities-" sombre comme le Dante," " le
poete le plus serieux et le plus triste "-and that for Baudelaire
Dante was the poet of the Inferno only.
Fortunately, there is one passage in Baudelaire's work which
proves that Baudelaire had some direct knowledge of Dante and
which at least leaves the question of influence open for discussion.
In the Salon de 1846, while reviewing one of Delacroix's paintings
based on a passage from Dante, Baudelaire quotes in full the
passage in question (Inferno, IV, 64-102):

" Nous ne laissions pas d'aller, tandis qu'il parlait; mais nous traversions
toujours la forkt, epaisse for8t d'esprits, veux-je dire. Nous n'etions pas
bien eloignes de l'entr4e de l'abime, quand je vis un feu qui pergait un
h6misphUre de tenebres. Quelques pas nous en s6paraient encore, mais je
pouvais diljh entrevoir que des esprits glorieux habitaient ce sejour.
"-0 toi, qui honores toute science et tout art, quels sont ces esprits
auxquels on fait tant d'honneur qu'on les s&pare du sort des autres?
" II me repondit:-Leur belle renommee, qui retentit la-haut dans votre
monde, trouve grAce dans le ciel, qui les distingue des autres.
" Cependant une voix se fit entendre: "Honorez le sublime poete; son
ombre, qui 6tait partie, nous revient."
"La voix se tut, et je vis venir A nous quatre grandes ombres; leur
aspect n'ktait ni triste ni joyeux.
" Le bon maitre me dit:-Regarde celui qui marche, une 6pee I la main,
en avant des trois autres, comme un roi: c'est Homere, poete souverain;
l'autre qui le suit est Horace le satirique; Ovide est le troisiMme, et le
dernier est Lucain. Comme chacun d'eux partage avec moi le nom qu'a
fait retentir la voix unanime, ils me font honneur et ils font bien!
"Ainsi je vis se reunir la belle lcole de ce maitre du chant sublime,
qui plane sur les autres comme l'aigle. Des qu'ils eurent devise ensemble
quelque peu, ils se tourn&rent vers moi avec un geste de salut, ce qui fit
sourire mon guide. Et ils me firent encore plus d'honneur, car ils me
regurent dans leur troupe, de sorte que je fus le sixi6me parmi tant de
genies. [CBE, pp. 115-6]

For this text, Baudelaire used the translation of Pier Angelo

Fiorentino, which first appeared in 1841, was republished without
change in 1843, and come out with some slight alternations in the
text and with the Italian original en face in 1846. A comparison of
Baudelaire's text with those of the three editions of Fiorentino's

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604 Baudelaire's Knowledge and Use of Dante

translation reveals that Baudelaire followed the edition of 1841-

1843. In transcribing Fiorentino, Baudelaire made several slight
changes in punctuation and also took the more important liberty
of altering the last word in the passage from genie, the singular,
to genies, the plural. He probably thought he had improved on
Fiorentino or even corrected a typographical error: he obviously
did not know that Dante had used senno, a singular.
In the original edition of the Salon de 1846, Baudelaire accom-
panied his quotation from Fiorentino with a footnote which praised
the translation as " la seule bonne pour les poetes et les litterateurs
qui ne savent pas l'italien " [CE, p. 477]. This morsel of critical
comment certainly suggests that Baudelaire had really read Fioren-
tino's translation and perhaps other translations as well, at least
in part. It leaves us entirely in the dark as to whether Baudelaire
meant to include himself among the poets and litterateurs not
knowing Italian. Suffice it to say that, in reading all the way
through Baudelaire's work, I have come across no evidence to
support the idea that he knew Italian.
We have seen that it was Delacroix's representation of the meeting
of the great poets of antiquity in the underworld which drew from
Baudelaire his most extensive and direct allusion to Dante. But
another of Delacroix's paintings with a Dantesque subject, the
more famous Dante et Virgile aux Enfers, aroused a greater
enthusiasm in him. He referred to this somber evocation of the
eighth canto of the Inferno on a number of occasions [CE, pp. 14,
100-103, 109, 242, 244, 292], and usually in the most eulogistic
terms. Friederich's study of Dante's fame amply reveals the depth
and breadth of Dante's vogue in France during the Romantic period
and suggests that the possible sources of Baudelaire's knowledge
of and interest in Dante were legion.1" But it is quite possible that
he first explored Dante as a result of his admiration for Delacroix.
This admiration was one of the great passions of Baudelaire's
intellectual life, and the fact that Delacroix saw fit to draw upon
the Divine Comedy for subject matter could only have intensified
Baudelaire's interest in the Italian poet, if it did not inspire it
in the first place.
It is quite noticeable that Baudelaire's only critical comment on

11 Werner P. Friederich, Dante's Fame Abroad (1350-1850) (Roma:

Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, 1950), pp. 131-79, 568-71.

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 James S. Patty 605

Dante-" les poete le plus grieux et le plus triste "-and his sole
quotation from the Divine Comedy suggest a Baudelaire who knew
only the Inferno, an emphasis which has shaped Dante's fame down
through the centuries and which was especially marked in the
Romantic era. If we turn to a consideration of the actual influence
of Dante on Baudelaire, we find nothing to suggest that the French
poet ever made the journey through Purgatory or Paradise.

A number of passages which may reflect Dante's impact on

Baudelaire have been pointed out by various commentators. I
see little merit in Randolph Hughes' attempt to find a Dantesque
source for line 64 of "Benediction" [Les fleurs du mal, p. 288],
in Crepet and Blin's allusion to the tombs of Inferno, IX, in
connection with the coffin-lid of " Le couvercle " [Les fleurs du mal,
p. 557], and in most of the specific parallels put forward by
Cherix [Commentaire des FM, especially pp. 306, 404, 457]. More
promising is H. David's suggestion [Les fleurs du mal, p. 323]
that lines 7-8 of " Don Juan aux Enfers,"

Et, comme un grand troupeau de victimes offertes,

Derri6re lui trainaient un long mugissement,

owe something to Inferno, V, 46-9, particularly in the form given

by Hugo in the epigraph for "Les Djinns ": "Et comme les
grues, qui font dans l'air de longues files, vont chantant leur
plainte, ainsi je vis venir, tralnant des gemissments, les ombres
emportees par cette tempete." And there is some plausibility in
Crepet and Blin's rapprochement [Les fleurs du mal, p. 437] of
" L'irremediable," lines 3-4 (" Dans un Styx bourbeux et plomb6/
Oiu nul oeil du Ciel ne penetre ") with passages from the Inferno,
especially the following lines:

L'acqua era buia assai piii che persa;

E noi, in compagnia de l'onde bige,
Entrammo giu per une via diversa.
In la palude va, c' ha nome Stige,
Questo tristo ruscel, quand' 6 disceso
Al pi6 de le maligne piagge grige. [VII, 103-8].

It seems to me that Cherix [Commentaire des FM, pp. 12-3] has

hit upon a very likely parallel-that between the three allegorical
beasts of Inferno, I, and "la menagerie infame de nos vices "

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606 Baudelaire's Knowledge and Use of Dante

depicted in the "Au lecteur" (lines 29-30): "les chacals, les

pantheres, les lices,/Les singes, les scorpions, les vautours, les
serpents." 12
None of these parallels is completely convincing, and the same
stricture may fairly be made against the suggestions which I wish
to add to those above. First, it seems to me that these lines from
the "Au lecteur" render a somewhat Dantesque sensation:
Chaque jour vers l'Enfer nous descendons d'un pas,
Sans horreur, A travers des t6n6bres qui puent.

Baudelaire is here describing the present Hell (life) rather than

the future one, but he projects the shadow of the latter over the
former. The gradual descent and the darkness are vaguely remi-
niscent of Dante, but then, too, it must be admitted that they are
commonplaces of infernal literature. Perhaps something could be
made of the " tenebres qui puent." To be sure, Baudelaire, sensitive
as he was to olfactory impressions, hardly needed any literary
sources for his descriptions of odors, but it is worthy of note that
Dante mentions the stench at various points in his journey through
Hell (notably Inferno, IX, 31; X, 136; XI, 4-5; XVIII, 106-8).
It would be rash to draw any very definite parallels from the
Dantesque passages in " L'imprevu "-the description of Satan
as "enorme et laid comme le monde " (cf. Inferno, XXXIV, 28-36)
and the Dore-like impression created by the landscape of Hell 13
"l'epaisseur de la terre et du roc," " les amas confus de votre
cendre." In a similar vein is the landscape of "La Beatrice ":
" des terrains cendreux, calcines, sans verdure." Finally, I would
point to the possibility of a reminiscence of Dante in the tercets
of " Duellum ":
Dans le ravin hantk des chats-pards et des onces

-Ce gouffre, c'est 1'enfer, de nos amis peuple!

12 The equation of animality with evil is very frequent in Baudelaire.

See especially AR, p. 93; Fus6es, XI (OP, II, 67); Mon coeur mis a nu,
XI (OP, II, 93), XXVII (OP, II, 106) ; CG, I, 370, IV, 68.
13 " L'imprevu " was written about 1862-1863, that is, just a year or so
after the original publication of Dore6's illustrations for the Inferno (1861).
As we have seen, Baudelaire expressed an oblique interest in Dord's work
even before it appeared. If he did go so far as to examine it, he found
Fiorentino's translation being used as the text which accompanied Dor8's
illustration.

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 James S. Patty 607

The "'ravin hant6 des chats-pards et des onces" is certainly

suggestive of Dante's encounter with the three beasts (one of them
a leopard, called a lonza 14 by Dante) on the lower slopes of the
Delectable Mountain [Inferno, I, 31-60], whence he is driven back
"in basso loco " [Ibid., line 61].
The reference just above to the poem " La Beatrice " [Les fleurs
du mal, CXV] leads us to consider a group of three poems whose
titles evoke the image of Dante's donna angelicata. First, the
poem we have just mentioned; second, the poem which now bears
the title " De profundis clamavi " [Les fleurs du mal, XXX] but
which was originally (1851) called " La Beatrix "; finally, the
poem now known as "Le vampire" [Les fleurs du mal, XXXI]
and originally (1855) entitled " La Beatrice." How do these
poems reflect the Beatrice of Dante's prose and poetry? Apparently
Baudelaire knew but little of her directly; Beatrice does -not appear
in the Inferno (save indirectly in Virgil's speech, II, 53-99), and,
as we have seen, Baudelaire probably did not read beyond the
Inferno. And what of the Vita nuova? Sainte-Beuve had expressed
admiration for it in his poem " A mon ami Antony Deschamps"
(Les consolations, 1830),15 and Baudelaire, who confessed to Sainte-
Beuve that he was " muri par vos sonnets, prepare par vos stances "
[OP, I, 16], must have read this poem. Whether it inspired him
to examine Dante's book for himself is another matter. In any
case, the first French translation of the Vita nuova appeared only
in 1841, the second in 1843.16 One or both of these translations
may have caught Baudelaire's attention. But the fact remains that
there is no clear-cut reference to the Vita nuova anywhere in
Baudelaire. If any of the three Beatrice poems contains a remi-
niscence of some actual passage in Dante's book, it is the one which
still bears the title " La Beatrice." The poet, or rather the speaker
in the poem, is taunted by " un troupeau de demons vicieux " who
mock him for his self-pity and for his efforts to arouse sympathy
for his woes in the world of nature. This mockery he could have
endured or ignored,

1' French once and Italian lonza are etymologically identical, both
deriving from Latin lyncea.
15 Friederich, Dante's Fame Abroad, pp. 163-4.
16 Ibid, pp. 143-4.

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608 Baudelaire's Knowledge and Use of Dante

Si je n'eusse pas vu parmi leur troupe obscene,

Crime qui n'a pas fait chanceler le soleil!
La reine de mon coeur au regard nonpareil,
Qui riait avee eux de ma sombre d6tresse
Et leur versait parfois quelques sale caresse.

It is barely possible that Baudelaire is here travestying one or more

scenes from the Vita nuova. The most likely passage is the one in
section 14 where Dante sees Beatrice at a wedding-feast and is
mocked by her and the ladies around her: " Io dico che molte di
queste donne, accorgendosi de la mia trasfigurazione, si cominciaro
a maravigliare, e ragionando si gabbavano di me con questa gentilis-
sima." Admittedly, this parallel is a far-fetched one. In Baudel-
aire's poem, the mocking ladies are represented by the taunting
demons, and this change alone is a telling argument against any
Dantesque reminiscence, for there is no parallel in Dante for the
filthy caresses which Baudelaire's Beatrice bestows on the demons.
My feeling with regard to all of these Beatrice poems is that
Baudelaire merely used the name of Dante's lady as a conventional
term for his beloved, giving it, to be sure, an ironic twist: he calls
the woman of the poem Beatrice in order to emphasize bis painful
and humiliating relationship with her. In " De profundis clamavi "
he implores her pity " du fond du gouffre obscur ofu [son] cceur
est tombe "; in " Le vampire " he recognizes his perpetual enslave-
ment to his unworthy mistress; in " La Beatrice," as we have just
seen, he is the victim, not only of her mockery, but of her shame-
less infidelity. One suspects that, if there is any biographical basis
for these poems, it is Baudelaire's love for Jeanne Duval, a passion
which but shrinkingly lends itself to a dolce stil nuovo treatment.
The nearest thing to love poetry of a Dantesque sort in Baudelaire
is surely to be found in certain poems addressed to Madame
Sabatier: "Que diras-tu ce soir . . ." [Les fleurs du mat, XLII],
and " Le flambeau vivant " [Ibid., LVIII]. But the influence of
Petrarch, perhaps assimilated through French love poetry of the
Renaissance, is a good deal more likely than that of Dante.17 As
we observed, Baudelaire probably did not read far enough into the
Divine Comedy to see the full flowering of the Beatrice-Dante

17 For Petrarchism in Baudelaire's poetry, consult the index to Les

fleurs du mal. There are two references to Petrarch in Baudelaire's letters
(CG, I, 103; VI, 6). Jean Prevost (Baudelaire, pp. 224-5) denies the
presence of any courtly love or dolce stil nuovo elements in Baudelaire's
love poetry.

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 James S. Patty 609

relationship in the Purgatorio and Paradiso, and it cannot be shown

that he was even aware of the existence of the Vita nuova.
To break this series of negative or tentative conclusions, there
is one poem of Baudelaire which seems definitely to bear the imprint
of Dante's influence. We find this imprint in the finale of " Femmes
damnees: Delphine et Hippolyte " [Les fleurs du mal, CXXXI]:

-Descendez, descendez, lamentables victimes,

Descendez le chemin de l'enfer eternel!
Plongez au plus profond du gouffre, oiu tous les crimes,
Flagelles par un vent qui ne vient pas du ciel,

Bouillonnent pele-m8le avec un bruit d'orage.

Ombres folles, courez au but de vos d6sirs;
Jamais vous ne pourrez assouvir votre rage,
Et votre chAtiment naitra de vos plaisirs.

Jamais un rayon frais n'eclaira vos cavernes;

Par les fentes des murs des miasmes fie'vreux
Filtrent en s'enflammant ainsi que des lanternes
Et penetrent vos corps de leurs parfums affreux.

L'apre sterilite de votre jouissance

Altere votre soif et roidit votre peau,
Et le vent furibond de la concupiscence
Fait claquer votre chair ainsi qu'un vieux drapeau.

Loin des peuples vivants, errantes, condamnees,

A travers les deserts courez comme des loups;
Faites votre destin, ames desordonnees,
Et fuyez l'infini que vous portez en vous!

Even the most casual student of Dante will recognize at once a

striking resemblance between these lines and the scene in Inferno,
V, where Dante and Virgil come to the circle of the lustful. The
darkness, the eternal agitation, the furious wind whipping the lovers
and symbolizing their inner perturbation, remind us vividly of the
second circle of Dante's Hell:
Io venni in luogo d' ogni luce muto,
Che mugghia come fa mar per tempesta,
Se da contrari venti e combattuto.
La bufera infernal, che mai non resta,
Mena li spiriti con la sua rapina;
Voltando e percotendo li molesta.

Di qua, di la, di giu, di su li mena;

Nulla speranza li conforta mai,
Non che di posa, ma di minor pena [Lines 28-33, 43-5].

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610 Baudelaire's Knowledge and Use of Dante

But there are other resemblances, less noticeable perhaps (because

they reflect ideas which are implicit rather than explicit in Dante's
text) but more important, for all descriptions of Hell will inevitably
resemble each other to some extent in their external and physical
features (darkness, suffering, etc.). It is in the area of moral
qualities that Baudelaire's Hell resembles Dante's. As in Dante,
the lovers can never satisfy their passionate desire: " Jamais vous
ne pourrez assouvir votre rage." Dante does not state this idea
openly, but the yearning for spiritual calm which is implicit in
the whole canto and especially in the Paolo-Francesca episode is
nothing more than unfulfilled passion. The last tercet quoted
above makes it clear that the lovers long for peace as well as for a
lessening of their pain. And Dante addresses Paolo and Francesco
as " anime affannate " (line 80). Francesca, in her reply, says
that she and Paolo would pray for Dante's peace if they could-
that is, they desire for him the thing they miss so greatly themselves
-and she seems to envy the river Po and its tributaries the peace
which they find in the sea (lines 98-9). Thus, though joined in
everlasting embrace, the two lovers are everlastingly denied the
peace they so ardently desire. Then too, Baudelaire joins Dante
in proclaiming that the very passion the lovers feel and gratify (on
a purely physical level) is its own punishment: " Et votre chati-
ment naltra de vos plaisirs." In Dante we understand that the
very love which drives Paolo and Francesca irresistibly together
is the insurmountable obstacle to the peace they seek, for Dante's
Hell is truly Hell and if his lovers are together we must consider
this a part of their punishment and not a mitigation of it.
If we are correct in seeing Dante's influence in this passage of
"Femmes damnees," we are obliged to acknowledge that Baudelaire
gave his source material a penetrating reading and that he found
the hidden implications as well as the obvious externals. In view
of the power of Baudelaire's lines and the originality which infuses
them (particularly in the image of the lovers' skins snapping in the
gale like an old flag), we may regret that Baudelaire did not
devote a thorough study to Dante. Such a collaboration might well
have produced the "modern Dante " that so many critics have
professed to see in Baudelaire.
Such wishful thinking is futile. A decent regard for logic and
for historical realities obliges us to recognize the following limits

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 James S. Patty 611

to Baudelaire's knowledge and use of Dante: Baudelaire read some

portions of the Divine Comedy, but probably no more than the
Inferno; he seems to have known- Dante only in French translation,
more especially in Fiorentino's version; he quoted nearly fifty lines
of this translation in the Salon de 1846; he made some half-dozen
brief allusions to Dante which reveal no unusual admiration or
knowledge of the Florentine poet; it is possible but by no means
demonstrable that there are some relatively insignificant reminis-
cences of Dante in Les fleurs du mal; finally, and most importantly,
one passage of " Femmes damnees: Delphine et Hippolyte "
seems to have been markedly influenced by the fifth canto of
the Inferno and indicates that Baudelaire was at times a sensi-
tive and discerning reader of Dante-a conclusion that need not
surprise any serious student of Baudelaire. But the dominant
reality is that the facts and conjectures. above represent a strangely
small legacy from one great writer to a kindred-spirit and a
fellow-poet.
Thus the effort to see in Baudelaire a 'r modern Dante " appears
to be misguided and uninformed. Certainly it is not based on
facts suggesting that Baudelaire ever extended to Dante the pro-
found admiration he felt for Poe, De Maistre, Delacroix, or Wagner.
Much less is there any indication that he assimilated any con-
siderable portion of Dante's language, imagery, or thought. We
might conclude with some reason that Baudelaire, accepting as he
did "tout l'homme moderne, avec ses defaillances, avec sa grace
maladive, avec ses aspirations impuissantes, avec ses triomphes
meles de tant de decouragements et de tant de pleurs," "I was
himself too much of a modern man ever to be a modern Dante,
ever to be the poet-apostle of reason and revelation.

The University of Tennessee

1l C Discours prononc6 par M. Theodore de Banville," Charles Baudelaire:

souvenirs, correspondances, bibliographie (Paris: Rend Pincebourde, 1872),
p. 136.

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