hamlet and un coup de des. mallarme´s emerging constellation

8/10/2019 Hamlet and Un Coup de Des. Mallarmes Emerging Constellation

1/19

"Hamlet" and "Un Coup de Ds": Mallarm's Emerging ConstellationAuthor(s): Richard WeisbergSource: MLN, Vol. 92, No. 4, French Issue (May, 1977), pp. 779-796Published by: The Johns Hopkins University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2906810.

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2/19

"FIs AMLET"

AND"UNCOUP

DE

DES":

MALLARME'S

EMERGING

CONSTELLA-

TION

t

RICHARD

WEISBERG

t In

hisrecent

work on Un Coup de

Des,1

Robert Greer Cohn cites several

suggestions

which had

made

(in

an

unpublished

paper)

regarding

the understanding

f

Hamletwithin

Mallarme's

poem.

The present

study

is

an elaboration

of

that earlier

paper,

centering

on

an

exegesis

of Un Coup

deDes

in

termsof

the play,

but also

indicating

the bases of

Mallarme's

interest

in

"le prince

amer."

This

relationship

has been

the topic

ofseveral

studiesto

date,

but none

with the specific aim

of seeing

Hamlet

character

and

play)

as a

formative

lement

n Mallarme's

great poem.

No followerof Mallarme's developing poetic enterprisewill be

surprised

o discover

n almostcomplete

ntegration

f the

Hamlet

idea into

Un Coup

deDes.

The

imagistic nd

thematic

ssociation

of

the

poet

withthe

prince

can

be seen

from

his earliest

poems,

and

from uch

extra-poetic

tatements

s

the

following:

Que

vous

serez

desillusionn6,

uand

vous

verrez

cet

individu

maussade

ui

reste es ournees

ntieres

a

tete

ur e marbre

e

la

chemin&e,

ans penser;

ridicule

Hamlet

qui

ne

peut

se

rendre

compte e son affaissement.Letter oCazalis,1862

)

The identity,

n the

highest

personal level,

continues throughout

Mallarme's ife:

1

Mallarmr'sMasterwork

Paris,

1966), pp. 62-69.

I

would also like

to express

my

gratitude

to

Yves Bonnefoy,

Paul

de Man, Jean Jacques

Demorest

and

W.

W.

Holdheim, whose suggestions

bout earlier

versions

of

thispaper were

nvaluable.

2

See for example,

Henri de

Regnier,

"Hamlet

et Mallarm6,"

Mercure

e

France,

mars,1896; Wallace Fowlie,Mallarme s Hamlet New York, 1949); Fowlie,Mallarme

(Chicago,

1953),. pp. 218-22

(where

he very helpfully nalyzes

in Un

Coup

de

De's

what he sees

as only

fragmentary eferences

o Hamlet) and

244f.; and

a series

of

analyses on Igitur

nd

Hamlet,mostrecently

erhaps

Louis Bolle, "Mallarm6,

gitur

et Hamlet," Critique,

XI (Octobre,

1965), pp.

853-63.

3

Mallarme:

a Correspondance

Paris,

1959), p. 25.

MLN 92

(1977) 779-796

Copyright

1977 by The Johns

Hopkins

University

ress

All rights f reproduction

n any form

eserved.

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3/19

780

RICHARD WEISBERG

L'adolescent

6vanoui

de nous

aux commencements

de la

vie et qui

hantera

es espritshauts ou

pensifspar le deuil qu'il

se plait a

porter,

je le reconnais, qui se debat sous le mal d'apparaitre: parce que

Hamlet exteriorise,

ur des

planches, ce personnage

unique d'une

tragedie ntime

t occulte,

on nom meme affiche

xerce sur

moi, sur

toi qui

le lis,

une fascination,parente

de l'angoisse.

(Crayonne au

theatre,18864)

From the earliest

poems,

too, until the last

masterpiece,

this

fascination

finds frequent expression.

The

"ridiculous"

and

"gloomy" figure

who cannot

even define

his own

weakness

becomes the paradigm

for

Galanterie acabre

and Safosse

estfermee.

The firstversion of Le Guignon, writtenapproximately at the time

of the Cazalis

letter,

expresses

in the language

of the

correspondence

the association of the

troubled

poet

and

prince:

Quand

chacun a sur eux

crache

tous

ses

dedains.

Nus,

assoiffes

de grand,

et

priant

e

tonnerre,

Ces

Hamlet

abreuves

de malaises

badins

Vont ridiculement

e

pendre

au

reverbere.5

The "eux" refers

to the

"mendieurs d'azur"

of the poem's

third

line, that is, to the class of poets in general. These individuals set

their

sights

constantly on

a

goal

which

they

choose

to

define as

inaccessible.

They lead a

life

of insult

("Des enfants

nous tordront

en

un rire

obstine"')

but

the best among

them

remain

loyal

to their

search.

What compels

these poets to

continue

in

their

enterprise?

Mallarme

answers

by

using

the

dual

image

of Gerard

de

Nerval

(who

had

hanged

himself

on a

lamp-post)

and Hamlet:

Us marchent ous le fouet d'un

squelette

rageur

..

Et

ce squelette nain,

coiffed'un

feutre plume

Et botte,dont l'aisselle

a pour poils

de longs vers,

Est pour

eux l'infini

de l'humaine amertume.

The skeleton

may well

recall Yoric

and Hamlet's

graveside

thoughts

on

the fruitlessness

of

human

glory

later invoked as

the

"gouffre"

in

Un

Coup

de

Des. (Indeed,

as

early

as

1865,

Mallarme

comments

on

a

play by

Villiers de

l'Isle-Adam

by saying

that

"quant

aux

dernieres

[scenes],

elles

egalent

la scene

du

cimitiere

4

Essay

on Hamlet,Oeuvres ompletesParis,

1945), p. 300.

5

The text

for Mallarmes poetry nd prose

is the

La

Pk6iade

dition

Paris,

1945),

p.

1410Of.



4/19

M L N

781

d'Hamlet."6)

The

model

for

all

poets

is the

protagonist

with

his

"feutre a plume" (specificallypresent in the long poem in his

"plume

solitaire perdue" and

"velours chiffonne,"

Hamlet's

stage

dress);

his is

the

destiny depicted

in the phrase "de longs

vers,"

evoking

both useless verbosity

nd

spiritual

putrefaction.

The

poet voluntarily

ollows

n the path of those

whose

sense of

failure has

resulted in infinite

bitterness.

The inheritance

from

Hamlet (and

Nerval)

is, for Mallarme,

a dismal

sensationof almost

perpetual

rancor based

on a

knowledge

of certain

failure at

a

chosen task:

Malheureux,ans 'orgueil 'uneausterenfortune,

Dedaigneux

e venger

eurs s

de coups

de

bec,

Ils convoitent

a

haine

et n'ont

ue

la rancune.

Such poems as

Les

Fene'tres,

ngoisse nd Las

de l'amerrepos,

ll

written etween

1863-66, elaborate

upon this

theme.

The concept

of

reaching

for

an

ideal

chosen for ts

very lusiveness

s furthered

by an

ensuing

consciousness

of paradox,

complexity

and

artificiality.

erhaps

the finest xpression

of

thisperpetual nternal

"hantise" n Mallarme prior toUn Coupde

Des,

and a poem which s

alluded to frequently

n

the

atter, s Le Pitre hatie'.

he persona

of

the poem represents

the artist

who has come

to

feel himself

incapable of

achieving

pure mastery ver

his craft.

His attempts

o

reach

perfectionhave

been only

"gestes,"his enterprise

mbodied

in

a single role, that

of "le

mauvais/Hamlet "7

n an

attempt to

escape

the

part,

he considers

throwing himself

nto the water,

hoping through

his

mergerwith purer

element

to rid his mind

of

the awful impulse to fail at the creative process. (The words

"comme si dans l'onde j'innovais," and "vierge"

are

re-invoked

on

page

6a-b of

Un

Coup deDes.)

The proposed

marriage

with purer

substance,

reference

o another favorite

f Mallarme's,

Ophelia,

is

broken off

when the artist omes

to

realize the necessity

or him

of the

original

role, however

absurd:

6

La Correspondance,

etter o Des Essarts,p. 154.

7

See Jean-Pierre

Richaid, L'Univers imaginairede

Mallarme (1961),

p.

445.

Mallarm6frequentlynterlaced he fate of Hamlet with hatof a clown, pecifically

Yoric. For a contemporarydepiction

of the Hamlet-Yoric

duality, ee Grass, Die

Blechtrommel,ook 3.

8

Essay on Hamlet,

Oeuvres,p. 299. See also Mallarmes

reference to an 1863

English countryside

visit, dans un de ces petits coins

d'ombre et d'eau verte

oiu

Ophelia

a dfi se

noyer,"

La

Correspondance,

. 95.



5/19

782

RICHARD WEISBERG

...

c'ktait out

mon

sacre,

Ce fard

noy6

dans 1'eauperfide

es

glaciers.

The "fard"withwhich he clowncovershimself s the mask of the

man

who has rejected reality

n

favor of

a

goal self-consciously

defined

as impossible

to

achieve.

It

is

a

"deuil

qu'il se plait 'a

porter," o

recall

the essay on Hamlet. Indeed, Hamlet's attraction

for Mallarme

probably

lies

precisely

n

his being the

first ragic

protagonist consciously to raise his given task to a level of

impossibility,nd to findbeauty n thatcomplexity. ompelling to

the modern

sensitivities f

a hermetic

poet,

whose own ideal

(the

"azur" of the lyrical poetry) has little to define it except its

unreachability, Hamlet's example is both

a

warning

and

a

compulsion.

Before entering he pages of the last masterpiece, ne does well

to

recognize

that

Mallarme's

view

of

Hamlet

parts company

with

that of his

romanticpredecessors.

The

symbolist oet admits

that

Hamlet has every reason to achieve his goal-that not to kill

Claudius

is

unnatural for him-but finds dignity omehow in the

artificial

making complex"

which time

and again distractsthe

protagonistfrom his purpose. For poet and prince, the quest for

achievement f

a

task

whicheach

chooses

to define as

unreachable,

creates

a

paradox of cosmic proportions.9

The "maitre" of Un Coup de Des rather thoroughlyrefines the

Hamlet association of the earlier passages. And, although

he is

introduced onlyat the top of Page

4a10

of

the

poem,

the

exposition

of

the

first

hree

pages

creates a fateful

tmosphere specifically

reminiscent of

Hamlet. The

throw of

the dice

represents

the

willingness o perform

that act whose

significance

will define an

existence.The attempt ograspthe reinsof one's destinymusttake

place

in the midst

of

the

most

adverse natural conditions. The

storm nd the

shipwreck

f Mallarmes

introductory ages

are an

evocation

of Hamlet's

famous

phrase

"to take arms

against

a

sea

of

troubles";

the

negation 6jamais@"

n the

central

phrase

of

the

poem

("Un coup

de

des

amais

n'abolira

e

hasard")

reflectsHamlet's

Act

One

forebodings,

It is

not,

nor

it

cannot come to

good" (I, ii).

But

even

if

the

protagonist

realizes

the

ultimate

futility

of

his

9

For an elaborationof this hematic nd other comments

n Hamlet in thispaper

see my "Hamlet

and

Ressentiment,"

mericanmago, V. 29 (1972), pp. 318-37.

1'

The

present pagination

s based on the

1914 edition of the

poem

in

11

double

pages. Oeuvres, p.

457-77.



6/19

M

L N

783

dice-throw,

he

testof

him as a

man will ie

in his capacity

to

make

the attempt.

The dramatic

natural

surroundings

iterally set

the stage"

for

the maltre-as-Hamlet.

The

captain

of

the

storm-tossed

hip

is

described

as

a development

from an older

type

of mailtre;

humankind

has

been

dealing

withthese

"circonstances

ternelles"

for

millenia,but the

mailtre

f thissituation

s neither

the

man he

once was nor

the

man his ancestors

used to

be. He is rather

"hors

d'anciens

calculs,""1

utside

of

the mode

of action "la

manoeuvre

oubliee")

which,

n similar ircumstances

would grip

the

helm,

eap

into thefray, nd emerge proud.

Thus the action

of

the first alf

of page

4a-b describes

an earlier

version

of

the maitre,

eminiscent

f

Hamlet

in

I,

iv:

Myfate

ries ut

And

makes

ach petty

rtere

n

this ody

As

hardy

s the Nemean

ion's

nerve.

But how short-lived

n this page,

as how

briefly

n

Act One,

does

the

protagonist

exist

in

this

proud

condition

of

spirit

For

the

principalverb on Page 4-a, modifying he modern mailtre,s the

word

"hesite."

Over a short

period

in his own

life,

but over

a

lengthy

scope

in man's

development,

the mailtre

has

become

hesitant.The concept

of the "unique

Nombre qui ne

peut pas/etre

un autre" puzzles his

will

and prevents

his arm

("cadavre

par le

bras")

fromrising o

the

task

of the

dice-throw.

For this hesitant

ambivalence

there are

present as

well

as past

foils:

"plutot/que

e

ouer/en

maniaque chenu/la

partie/au

om

des

flots."

The new

maitre characterizes

his active

ancestor and

contemporaries s maniacal, ust as the "men of action" inHamlet

always

have a touch

of the

madman

to

them:

...

young

ortinbras

Of

unimproved

mettle,

otand

full

I, i)

The ocean,

overpeeringf

his ist,

Eats notthe

flatswithmore

mpiteous

aste

Than young

aertes,

n a

riotous

ead,

O'erbearsyour

fficers.IV,

v)

"

Bernard Weinberg, n The Limits f SymbolismChicago, 1966), translates hors

d'" as "arising out of," and hence comes to quite different onclusions about

the

meaning of the phrase, p. 264.



7/19

784

RICHARD WEISBERG

But the

present protagonisthas nothing

eftof his

hoary-haired

ancestor,

nor of his

more assertive ontemporaries.12

e lacks

the

"Esprit/pour e jeter/dans la tempete/enreployer la division et

passer fier."His incapacity

o

throw he dice

is

perfectly rticulated

at

the

top

of

Page

5-a:

ancestralement

n'ouvrir as la main

crisp~e

par delA inutile kte

legsen la disparition

a quelqu'un

ambigu

A more fitting escription

f Mallarme's

ifelongview of

Hamlet

is not to be found

in the

poet's earlier

statements n

the Prince.

The paradigm

is cosmic.

The

new

malitre tands

n

themidstof

the storm,

his fistclenched next

to

his

head, an

inhibitory rgan

which,

in these

circumstances,

contrives

against

him. The

alternative

earlier

mode,

the

ancestry

of the

protagonist,fights

within

him

to assert

the spirited activitywhich

it

has passed on

through

he

years. But thisparticular

descendant s

the

ambiguous

man par excellence,hat precisemoment n the development of the

individual

or

the

species

in

which heroic

action becomes sublimely

problematical,

nd

in

which

mpossibility ecomes

idealized.

No better

pposition to thisman can

be found

than

n

his ancient

ancestors.

t

may

well

be that

Mallarme

had

Pyrrhus

n

mind for

this older

type, hat same Pyrrhus

whom Hamlet insists

n

having

described by

the traveling players.

Albeit

a

warrior

bent

on

revenge, the Pyrrhus

described

in the player's speech which so

moves Hamlet

is also influencedby his

rational faculty:

For o, his sword,

Whichwas declining

n the

milky ead

Of

reverend riam,

eemed

'

the

ir to

stick,

So as a

painted

yrant,yrrhustood,

And

ike neutral

o his

will

nd

matter

Did nothing.II,

ii)

Nothing

Again that negation

which we associate

with both

unfolding

dramas.

But

if

Hamlet and

the later

maitre will

never

be able to act effectivelyHamlet being, in Mallarme's words,"le

12

A

contemporaneous

narrative work, Melville's

Billy

Budd, Sailor, affords a

stimulatinglyimilar

dichotomybetween

twomodes of action at sea, those

of

the

heroic Admiral Nelson

and the more

complex and pragmatic

Captain Vere.



8/19

M L

N

785

seigneur

atent ui ne

peut

devenir"13), yrrhus

s

still oo

much

the

ancestral hero

to delay long

his vengeance;

in

the

midst

of

sea

imagerywhich Mallarme, afterShakespeare, associates with the

earliest

and most

natural

type

of man, Pyrrhus

throws

he dice":

But

as we often

ee, against ome

torm,

A

silence

n theheavens,

herack tand till,

The bold winds

peechless,

nd theorb below

As hush

s death,

nonthedreadful

hunder

Doth

rend

the

region,

o after

yrrhus' ause,

A

rousedvengeance

ets

himnew work,

And

never id thecyclops'

ammers

all

On Mars's rmor, orged orproof terne,

With essremorse

han

Pyrrhus'

leeding

word

Now

falls n

Priam.

Out, out,

thou

trumpet

ortune

II, ii)

In direct

ontrast

o thismode

standsthe

problematicalnew

type

of

tragic

protagonist.

he modern

herowould ct,

often

eems

capable

of success by any objective

standard, yet

he

does not:

Now

might do it pat, now

a

is a-praying,

And

now

'll do't ...

Up, sword,nd know hou morehorrid ent. III, iii)

Unlike Pyrrhus,

Hamlet

liftshis sword

over his

enemy's head only

to return

t

to his sheath, one

of the most

mportant ransitions

n

all of modern literature.14

As

the

poem

continues

on

page

5-a,

the relationship

etween

the

ambiguous hesitater

and

his fiery ancestor

is elaborated.

"l'ulterieur demon immemorial/ayant/de

ontrees

nulles"-The

three

ines taken as a whole introduce

the

poetic

reification

f

the

ghost in Hamlet. The father-sonrelationshiphas already been

evoked

in the

"legacy"

image of the top

of

this page.

The

father-ghost,

sensing

and partially

responsible

for his son's

ambivalence,

returns rom

(t)he

undiscoveredcountry"

Mallarme

uses

the

very

noun which Hamlet

employs

when he describes

13

Essay

on Hamlet,

Oeuvres,

. 300.

14

The "modernity"

f this

decision to sheath the

sword s epitomized

n a passage

from another seminal work concerning an overly-complex protagonist,

Dostoyevski's

Notes romUnderground.

n Part

Two

of

that work, the hero, sensing

himself

nsulted,

picksup

a

bottle

of wine to throw

t his tormentor. I picked

t up

...

and

poured

myself

drink."See

my

An Example

Not to Follow: Ressentiment

n

Notes rom

Underground,"

odern iction tudies,V. 21 (1975-76),

pp.

553-63.



9/19

786

RICHARD WEISBERG

death's locus at III, i). His aim is to induce

the mailtre o open his

hand and to throw

he dice:

Do notforget. his visitation

Is but to whet thy lmost blunted purpose. (III, iv)

"le vieillard"-A

continuation f the ironic theme of "old age

in

youth,"previously

lluded to

in

the

"barbe

soumise."

The

father

must nstillyouthful

nergy nto his own son.

"vers cette conjonction

supreme avec la probabilite"'-That

moment precisely

when man must o battle

even with probability,

that

is, the knowledge

that he may not throw

the

right

number.

Hamlet, whose most legitimate and lucid moments reveal the

insight that a man

must act propitiously,

defines this cosmic

conjunction

to

the

ghost as follows:

Haste me

to

know't,

hat

,

with

wings

as swift

As

meditation

r

the thoughts

f love,

May sweep to my revenge. I, v)

So

far

does he come

(and so quickly )from hismagnificent esolve,

that

his fathermust

re-visit

im

to remind him of his destiny.

"son ombrepuerile"-The offsprings buta poor shadow ofthe

father-ghost.

This diminution is expressed

in four additional

adjectives

which

follow

mmediately,

caressee/polie/rendue/lavee."

Cohn

observes

that

the feminine

nding

of each word deliberately

arranged to modify

ombre") adds to the implication

hat the

son

has been "'spoiled,"

5

a softenedversionof the ancestor. Each word

may be read as a specificreference to

Hamlet's relationshipwith

Gertrude.

Quite literally,

nd

as

late

as

the final

scene

of the

play,

she

is still

seeing

to his

personal hygiene (c.f. V, ii, 289).

This

feminine nd feminizing nfluence s the subject of the next few

lines of the poem, "assouplie par

la

vague/soustraite/aux

urs os

perdus

entre es ais."

But the errant nd spoiled offsprings

nonetheless

till

beholden

to the

memory

of

the

masculine past.

The

mailtre

feels

the

atmosphere

of the

hearty

ncestor

n

the

veryboards

of the

ship.

The "durs os" symbolically

require

the

old

values

of

heroic

response;

but

they

re now "entre

es

ais,"

also a directreferenceby

Mallarme to the stage-planksbetweenwhich the ghost agitatedly

commands Hamlet:

15

See on this ine, and

generally,R. G.

Cohn's immenselyperceptiveMallarme's

"Un Coup

de

De's": An

Exegesis Yale, 1949),

p.

60.



10/19

M

L N

787

Ghost

ries nder he tage.Swear.

Hamlet

... You hear this fellow

n the cellerage.

... Canst work ' th' earth so fast?

A

worthy ioner

I, v)

As Page 5-a develops

to itsconclusion, he concept of the

"unique

Nombre" is re-invoked. The new

protagonist is

not wholly

incapable of action; but nowhere

does he throw the

necessary

number.

With "ainsi que le

fantome

d'un geste," the maitre

attempts o emulate his real

fatherby making

certain "ghosts of

gestures."

The

"pitre chatie's" geste

of throwing

himself

nto the

water may now

be understood

in

this light as well; the

malitre-princeaises his hand to hishead, but his gesturewillgo no

further. hese half-actions,

hich

on

a moral

plane

are

as

good as

no actions t all, propel

the

protagonist

long the road

to the "folie"

which

awaits him

below.

"chancellera/s'affalera/folie"-This

oncludes

the figure which

began

with he

mage of

the

gesture,

nd

it

also concludes

the

page.

Hamlet is again

at the center of the

process here; his numerous

gestures (including

the

mimicry f

madness

in his

not-so

antic

disposition) have only forestalled the imperative act, and have

brought

him

no

closer to

it.

The

mailtre's arallel nability

o throw

the

dice, that

negationwhichbegan

thispage, leads

the

protagonist

toward

the

madness

which concludes it, and

all the

intermediary

futility

s

for

naught.

The poet, too,

begins his paradoxical

enterprisewith une main

crispee." He, too, defineshis role

in

such a way that

he willnever be

able to fuifill t,

never be able to become.

Ou fuir

ans

a

revolte

nutile

t

perverse?

Jesuishante.

L'Azur 'Azur 'Azur 'Azur

Only by making problematic

he

very

ct

of

throwing

he dice

(not

to mention achieving

the

"unique

nombre" ),

and

by raising

the

problem

to

a

cosmic significance,

does

the

poet

overcome

the

criticism

f

being

an ineffectual

nd

somewhat ridiculous

figure,

does

he add

"tout

mon sacre" to his

enterprise.

"N'ABOLIRA"-the

saga

of modern

man in nature has formed

the

subjectof

the

poem

thus

far.Traced fromAbilme

o

Nombre to

EsprittoFiancailles, t has been an epic of failure,demonstrated y

this mphaticnegative.

Man, once

wedded to action and to passion,

now owes his allegiance to passivity

nd

to

thought,

n allegiance

which

ronically ropels

him

toward

hopelessly

rrelevant

estures

and which results

n madness.



11/19

788

RICHARD

WEISBERG

A

fundamental nsecurity bout both his own place in the natural

world and the significance f thatworld

n

any case, now leads the

protagonist o turn to the "conditional" world, that of art.16The

"illusion" of the previous page is now re-stated and made the

central focus of page 6a-b. Man, because of his growing

self-consciousness,

as moved to the

domain

of

art,

Hamlet's own

as

the

"quelqu'un ambigu"par excellence. n the

narrative

evel,

art

suggests

o

the

struggling

mailtre

series

of

alternate

cenarios

and

non-actions which temporarily divert

him

from

the

necessary

dice-throw. So does Hamlet's

vivid

imagination

allow

him

to

reconstitute eality nd thereby void action. But since

t

ultimately

leads him away from the only valid action, this realm of art is

"enroulee avec ironie."

Again, Hamlet forms the prototype for this ironic situation.

Briefly ensing

the

necessarypassion to rush to his vengeance,

the

wordyprotagonist mmediately ontrives o

undermine

his resolve

through the significant ct of writing:

My tables-meet it is I set it down

That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain.

At

least

I

am sure

it

may be so in Denmark. (Writes)

(I, v)

Certainly

one

of

Mallarme's

chief

areas of identification

with the

literary haracter

he

so admired lies precisely

n

Hamlet's urge to

re-structure reality through art (exemplified later by the

protagonist's ompositionof an

entire

dramatic peech

in

order to

convince himself new of the

King's guilt).

"ou/le mystere"-The

noun

begins

an

interrogative uest

which

composes

the

remainder

of this

page.

The

mysterys the central

question ofthe modern iterary ero,be he mailtre, rince or poet.

Why has

the

veryact of throwing he dice become problematical?

Hamlet puts it this way as late as he does

in

order to demonstrate

that all

of

his convoluted plots have not solved

the

central ssue:

I

do not know

Why yet

live to

say,

"This

thing's

to

do,"

Sith

I have

cause,

and

will,

nd

strength,

nd

means

To do't.

(IV, iv)

Withthis background and with Hamlet about to be specifically

invoked

n the

poem, Pages

6-8 of

Un

Coup

de

Des may

be

helpfully

16Ibid.,p. 64.



12/19

M L

N

789

associated with the text of Act Five of Hamlet.

Mallarme's special

sensitivityo

that

Act's opening scene

has

already been noted,

and

the action of Page 6a-b strongly alludes to the graveyard

circumstances f Ophelia's funeral.

The

mailtre, eflecting n

the

inefficacy or this task of his spiritual state,

is struck by "Une

insinuation imple .. enroulee avec ironie."

The ironichintoccurs

to him, "autour du gouffre," hat all his

freneticmental activity

(symbolized by

the

outward physical

fact

of "quelque proche

tourbillon") has produced nothing

but a situation

in

which

innocentblood has been spilled. In Hamlet's

case, Ophelia is about

to be buried, destroyed at least partiallyby his own misdirected

violence; for themailtre,he failureto throw he dice will cost him

the

ship and presumably he lives of any

who are aboard.

No

wonder

thatthe

whirlpool s

described as both "hilarious

nd

horrible."Mallarme had long seen his own task

as similar o thatof

clowns

and

fools, its

ultimate

result

as

likely

to be

grotesque

as

sublime.

All

this is silently

nferred to

the

mailtre

n

the

events

"autour du gouffre."The latter word,

a

reference

to the earlier

"Abime," is

the

tragic

end

to which any

man

inexorably moves,

having twithinhis power only to act meaningfully r absurdlyon

his way to death. But as

a

furthering

f the events at

the

climactic

moments of Hamlet, the "gouffre" seems

also to be a direct

reference o the graveyard cene, thatplace

in

which

"hilarite"

nd

"horreur" strikingly

clash. The

gravedigger,

who "sings

in

gravemaking," ffords lugubrious

"comic relief"which s

really

commenton

Hamlet's problem.

The

latter,

truck

by

the

discovery

of Yoric's skull

(c.f.

Le

Guignon),may

well

realize

that

his own

memory s someday bound for discoveryby yet another poetic

spirit.But will he be remembered as a prince or a jester? The

future

will be a

harsh udge of the efficacy

f

his over-complex

enterprise,

for

even

though

man

acts

"sans

le

joncher,"

with

no

chance

of

mastering

he

abyss,

ni

fuir,"

neither

can

he

escape

the

duty

to

attempt

to act

well.

Just as Mallarme's persona

cannot

overcome the nfatuationwith l'azur," so must

the malitre e ruled

by the compelling power

of the

absolute

act,

the

perfect

hrowof

the dice.

Mallarme, perhaps writing

about

himself now

in

this

realm of artistic nsinuation,knew the meaning of

the

necessary

failure.

His

enterprise

would never

conquer

destiny,

but

by

the

sublimity

f

itsprocess,

t

mightresult

n

a new

form

of heroism.

"et

en

berce le

vierge

indice"-The

adjective

recalls

Mallarme's

use

of

Ophelia's imagisticpresence

in Le

Pitre hdtie.

After

ll,

the



13/19

790

RICHARD WEISBERG

scene

"autour du gouffre" s,

precisely,

her funeral. No

figure

n

the play is

so victimizedby

Hamlet's futility

han

is she whom

Mallarmecalled "Ophelie, vierge

enfance."'7

Ophelia

is

the

very symbol

of

Mallarme's

"page blanche,"

the

page in its

stage of "virginity" efore

the poet violates t through

the

act of

writing.Thus another line may be established

between

Mallarme and

the

fictional rince,both

of whom

are led

to

commit

acts of literal or

figurative rutality

n their way to the "unique

nombre." The

stage is set for the first ncontestable

reference to

Hamlet on

page 7a-b, with the

"plume solitaire eperdue." The

noun

clearly invokes Hamlet's

apparel; Mallarme's friend

Theodore de Banville impressed thisreferenceon the poet in the

following

ines,

cited

in

Crayonn6

u

Theatre:'8

Le vent

ui fait oler a

plumenoire

Et

te caresse,Hamlet,

eune Hamlet

It

is also the

pen of the solitary rtist

truggling o exist n a world

whose criteriahe

cannot choose to

accept, "sauf/que

a

recontre u

l'effleure ne toque de minuit."The

pen, the protagonist's reative

enterprise,would be lost were itnot for the"toque,"which s both

Hamlet's

headdress and a

colloquialism for madness. Again the

connection

is

made

between

the

potentially

ctive hand and the

deliberately nhibiting ead.The

presence of

the

feather-pen

n the

toque is emblematic

n

the play and the

poem

of

the

maddening

effects f

over-consciousness.

"et

immobilise u

velours chiffonne"'-Thus Hamlet's

paradox is

broughtdirectly nto the realm of the

creative ituation.The

poet's

thoughtprocessesfrustrate is pen, and lead to "un esclaffement

sombre,"

he

ronicoutburst f

the

mailtre-prince

hen he

comes

to

the

consciousness

that

his dearest

possession,

his rational

faculty,

s

inhibiting

im from

his most desired

accomplishment.

"cette blancheur

rigide/derisoire/en

pposition

au ciel"-Cohn's

analysis

of

the

present

noun

as

representative

f

hybris

s

very

helpful

here.19

But

the

"blancheur"

may

also

describethe

condition

of overconscious

man

defined

by

his

laughter

(esclaffement)

o

such

a

degree

that he

turns

white from

the

outburst.

Such a

perverse laugh, born of acute self-awareness,would indeed be

17

Essay on Hamlet,Oeuvres, . 301.

18Ibid., p. 299.

19An

Exegesis,

.

74.



14/19

M L N 791

unnatural, opposed to heaven. The "esclaffement," which is

''sombre" both

in

its

implications

and

in

its

association

with

Hamlet's dark apparel, literally mmobilizes he protagonist n his

effort o achieve what

he

knows he must achieve. Laughter, the

outgrowth

f

"thinking oo precisely n

th'

event," further elays

the needed act. Here Mallarme subtly urthers he modern iterary

treatment f the laugh as painful self-awareness, dopted from

Baudelaire, and inheritedby Valery and Thomas Mann, especially

in the latter's ortured rtistic rotagonist,Adrian Leverktihn.)

"trop/pour

e

pas marquer exigument/quiconque/princemer cte

l'ecueil"-This anti-natural endency owardderisive aughter s too

significant

ot to tarnishthe

mailtre,

ho is

now definitively on-

nected with Hamlet. The final noun (as I indicated n a reference

noted by Cohn) seems to invoke Hamlet's "sterile promontory"

speech (IIii),

in

which

the

bitterness

which

Mallarme

always

as-

sociated

with

his fate s

best

expressed.

"s'en

coiffe comme de

l'heroique"-It

is

noteworthy

that

Mallarme mentions he heroic mode

in the

form f

a simile.Hamlet

and

his

own hero can

only

mimicheroism;20

heir

futile

non-actions

have nothing n commonwiththe great deeds of their ancestors.

Yet there is a beauty to this new type, who is "irresistiblemais

contenu/par a petite raison virile," n effective escription

f the

modern protagonist. he "virility"f his rationalfaculties oes not

extend outward; its force comes to

bear

only on himself, and

although

t

nhibits

im

from ction,

t

mayhelp

him

to otherforms

of

creativity.

"en

foudre"-The page, like the protagonist's ath, ends more

n

turmoil

han

in

order.

Page 8a-b expands on the two primary oncepts of 7a-b, Hamlet

and the

augh.

The

latter

has been aluded

to

in

the "foudre" which

ended

the

preceding page,

and

which,

n

a

sense,

comes

to

define

the

"plume

solitaire

perdue"

which

began

it.

The

only

creative ct

thus

far committed

by

the

protagonist s, indeed,

his

outburstof

laughter,further escribed

here.

"soucieux/expiatoire

t

pubere/muet/rire"-The

ct

has

not

been

20

GardnerDavies, whose interpretationimits heimportanceofHamlet o these

few lines

in the

poem,

does not perceive

the irony of

the

simile,

"comme

de

l'heroique."

Mallarm6 did

not see

Hamlet as "la notion

meme

du hfros,"but

rather

as the first

protagonistto

embody

the complex,

essentiallynon-heroic,

mode

of

being.

(See

Davies, Versune

Explication

ationelle

u "Coup

de Des," (Paris,

1953) p.

130.)



15/19

792

RICHARD WEISBERG

the unique number,

but ratherthisridiculous

augh,

a momentof

perfect

elf-consciousness.

amlet does killClaudius,

but the entire

process offutilitynd irrelevant iolencerendersthelong-awaited

vengeance almost

meaningless.

Could this be why

Mallarme

describes

the laugh as ultimately

"expiatoire"

rather than

self-assured?

eath

now

renders the

young protagonist

muet" but

not before

he expresseshis lingering

oubts about his enterprise

o

his best friend:

o

God,

Horatio,what

woundedname,

Things tanding

husunknown,hall

ivebehindme

...

in

this

harshworld raw hy reath

n

pain,

To tellmy tory.V, ii)

"La lucide

et seigneuriale aigrette"-Hamlet's

consciousness

about his

own

failure

has grown

to

the

degree

thathe

is quite

lucid

in wishingHoratio to

expiate his

memoryby tellinghis tale.

In

a sense,

Mallarme fulfillsHoratio's

function

n

the

pages

of

the Coup

de

Des.

The remainder

of 8a-b forms

sort of eulogy

for

Hamlet,

who, like

the mailtre,

ow

ceases

to

exist

in

the

poem.

Mallarme seems

almost to be

speaking

directly

o

us

now

as

readers

of Hamlet; he is seeking the beauty n the new mode of hero.

"au front

nvisible"-Continuing

the

allusion to

the

Prince,

this

phrase recalls

de Banville's line about

Hamlet,

"sur ton

front

pale

aussi

blanc

que

du

lait."

The

invisibilitys,

of

course,

a natural

result

of

the maitre-Hamlet's

wn death.

More than

anything lse,

however,

t may

be a further

omment on

the

inefficacy

f

the

rational

mode of existence

when placed

in eternal circumstances.

Hamlet's

"front" s virtually nvisible

because

it has availed

him

nothing.

"scintille/puis ombrage"-Like every dramatispersonae, the

malitre-princexists

only for a

fleeting moment. But

he leaves

behind

him

"une

stature

mignonne tenebreuse,"

a lovely

testimony; he protagonist,

espite

or because of his weakness,

has

endeared

himself

forever to

the creative artist.

The next lines

define the extentof

this endearment.

"le

temps/de

souffleter/par d'impatientes

squames

ultimes/bifurquees/un

oc/faux

manoir/tout

e

suite/evapore

en

brumes"-An essential presentation f the mailtre's ormer mage

of

himself,

this is best interpreted here

in

terms

of

the

false

structure

of

the

rationalizing

enterprise.

As

soon as

the mailtre

characterized ffective

ctionas maniacal, he started

o

build a false



16/19

M L

N

793

structure,

round his own

incapacities.

Complexity

became his

fetish, ut

now

his fantasies bout

his

own worth re

destroyed

by

"le

hasard," and

he does not even enjoyhis ancestor'sconsolation

of having

acted.

Thus the structure

created by

the

rational

individual

evaporates,

until it is rendered

sacred as

a lesson

communicated

o

the poet.

For his enterprise,

oo, s

false

"le

fard"

of

the Pitre chdtiW),

ut

aspires

to

turn artificiality

nto lasting

beauty.

"qui imposa/une

borne

'a l'infini"-The

false seigneurial

(and

poetic)

manor is unnatural,

antithetical

o the forces

of

destiny.

The closing ine remindsus thatthe page iswritten nder the sign

of

the

"Si,"

the

capitalized

word whose

force arriesover

to the

next

page's opening

phrase, "C'etait/Le

Nombre/Existat-Il/autrement

qu'hallucination

eparse d'agonie."

The subjunctive

recalls

the

"iffy,"

rtistic llusion

which

has come

to define

the modern

poetic

process.

All that s certain

s that the

effect

f

the

enterprise

has

been agonizing.

Otherwise, each

reader must

decide

whether,

"Commencatt-Il

t Cessatt-Il

..

/

Se

Chiffrait-Il

.. /Illuminatt-Il."

The chancy

nature of

the

poetic

(or

dramatic)

effect s alluded

to

here, especially n the final verb. Stubbornly rtificial he process

has

been,

but to what avail

if t

has not been

an enlightening

ne?

"Ce Serait/pire/non/davantage

i

moins/indiffrrement

mais

autant/LE HASARD"-This

is irony

at its most horrible.

Even

if

the

unique

numberwere

hrown

y

the

protagonist,

t would

stillbe

mere chance,

a

gift

of

the playfulgods.

If

this

be

true,

then the

entire

image

of the mailtre-prince,

is

total struggle,

may

be

permanently

effaced

and

no meaning

derived therefrom.

This

alternative

s

proposed

in the

imagery

of

the

falling "plume,'

"s'ensevelir/aux

ecumes originelles/nagueres

d'oui

sursauta

son

delire

usqu'a'

une cime/fletrie."

he

mailtre eturns o

the

sea,

his

existence

having had a

negligible

effect n

his surroundings.

So

it

is with

the

Prince,

specifically

lluded

to

in

the three nouns

of the

phrase. (Indeed,

the "cime/fletrie"

s

a precise rearticulation

f the

''sterile

promontory.")

"par

la

neutralite dentique

du

gouffre"-Part

of

what makes the

malitre-prince's

orld

sterilehas

been his knowledge

that

destiny

s

abjectlyindifferent o his own feeble struggle, a consciousness

invoked

n

the

negative

commencement

f

Page l0a-b.

21

Compare Cohn,

An Exegesis,

. 91.



17/19

794

RICHARD

WEISBERG

"Rien" begins

the phrase in smaller-type apital

letters which

extends over the

final ectionof the poem, "Rien

n aura eu lieu

que

le lieu except&peut-etre ne constellation."As a secondary djunct

to the dominant

negation of the

work, this indicates that the

'prince-maltre's

enterprise has accomplished

nothing except a

fleeting patial "lieu." On the other

hand, if his futile

ttempts an

be rendered significant

perhaps

they will result in something

eternal as well as spatial,

a

constellation.

Within he

sightpatternof thispage,

the

constellation lluded

to

is the dipper, a

kind of unending

spatial phenomenon.

In

Hamlet,

the eternal nature of the process s alluded toat the very nd ofthe

play by Horatio,

when he tells Fortinbras:

. . .

give order that these

bodies

High on

a

stage

be

placed

to theview,

And et me speakto th' yetunknowing orld

How these hings ame

about.

V, ii)22

Horatio, then, s

to be the delivererof the tragedywhich

has just

taken place. Far from concluded

affair, t willrecur eternally,

nd

in a continuingly

circular manner (for at the end

of each of

Horatio's accountshe must nclude these words whichthemselves

have the significance

for the drama discussed above).

Horatio

continues:

But et this ame be presently

erformed,

Even

whilemen'sminds re

wild, estmoremischance

On

plots

nd errors

appen.

V, ii)

The speaker hopes that Hamlet's

story will prevent

further

disasters

of

the

same type

from

happening.23

Not

that "le

hasard"

can ever be abolished,but othersmay earnthat here smeaning n

the

way

man

acts

within t and comes

to understand t.

Mallarm6

projects

the

lesson of

Hamlet

by

characterizing

the

protagonist's

struggle as "mensonge,"

and "l'acte

vide." But his

poem,

which

s

the

equivalent

of Horatio's

recounting

he

Prince's

story,may ultimately roject

the more

positive

side of Hamlet's

tragedy

as

well.

For

by emphasizing

the dilemma of the

overconscious

man's mode of existence,Mallarm6provokes hought

in

his reader

as to both

the

play and

the poem.

22

Horatio merits pecificmention

n

Mallarme's essay on Hamlet,

Oeuvres,

.

301.

23

On

Horatio's function

n

the

closing cene,

see

J.

V.

Cunningham's

ncisiveWoe

or Wonder Denver, 1951).



18/19

M

L

N

795

"dans ces

parages/du

vague/en

quoi toute

realite

se

dissout" However, this phrase-continuing to modify the

"constellation"-brings

to

bear a

significant

riticism

f his

own

poetic

act.

The use of the masculine noun "vague"

(invoked

in

deliberate opposition

to "la vague,"

the forceful

spect of eternal

nature alluded to earlier)

mplies

thatthe poetic

constellation

s

too

removed

from

concretehuman

experience

trulyto

be effective.

Perhaps

it willelude its

reader's

comprehension,

much

as Hamlet's

subtlewitescaped the

more political

men who

were ts

victims. he

poem,

a fulfillment f

Horatio's responsibility

o instruct

he "yet

unknowingworld," will probably have no immediate meaning to

that world.

With the

memory of the

last phrase

still n mind,

Page lla-b

establishes a "locality"

n which

the act of

poetic becoming

may

conceivably

ake

place.

This

area is

defined by its ethereal

realm,

"aussi loin qu'un

endroit/fusionne

vec

au delA,"

where time

and

space

merge.

The

recurring

ycle

of

Hamletwhichmakes

t

eternal,

the

poem

allows Hamlet's

story o

be recounted perpetually

even

though

t mayonlybe understood

by

a closed

circleof

iterary

men.

Now "la constellation" is brought in, "froide d'oubli et de

desuetude."

The meaningful

creative

act

has not, formany

ages,

merged

n

space

or time

with he constellation,

nd thus

the atter s

"cold with neglect." But, "pas

tant/qu'elle

'enumere/sur

uelque

surface vacante et superieure/le

heurt successif/sideralement/d'un

compte total

n formation." ne

might

ay that

he universe tself

s

waiting for this special

throw

of the dice.

The last figure

again

forms

on

the

page

the

shape

of a dipper.

It

is,

thus,

a

circle

and a

square, thatis, that whichhas a linear ending (square), and that

which

has

no beginning

or end (circle).

So,

too, Hamlet

has

no

real ending,and this

poem's

beginning nd

ending

willmerge

n

the final line.

The

constellation

whirls about,

"ta quelque point

dernier qui

le sacre."

In the

same way, t

mightbe observed that

Un

Coup de Des is,

in

itself, he point

at which

Hamlet becomes

sacred,

for

t

is

its

reincarnation

n the

realm of

the

symbol,

nd a

strengthening

f

the

merging

of time

and

space.

Additionally,

sacre" evokes

a

memory

of the

concluding

verses

in Le Pitre hdti':

Ne

sachant as, ngrat

ue c'etait

outmon acre,

Ce fard

noye

dans

'eau

perfide

es

glaciers.

In

the

Coup

de Des Mallarme

consciously

xpresses his

gratitude

o



19/19

796

RICHARD

WEISBERG

Hamlet,

the character

whosevery rtificiality

ndeared

him forever

to

the poet.

"Toute Pensee emetun Coup de Des"-Cohn's helpful reading

of this

final ine emphasizes the circular

nature of the

poem:24

This

straightforward,

alm remark ends

the Poem,

and begins

it

inasmuchas

it

is

now launched

into existence as

a

totality

here to

undergo whateverfate, the

unknown

fate of any thought,body

of

thought,

r utterance.

Thus

thought

continues, and the enterprise

goes

on, destined

though

it is to almost

certainfailure.

For Hamlet'smeaning

to the

poet is overwhelmingly ne of doubt about the ultimate ffect25 f

this modern

mode

(complexity) s it conflicts

withnecessity.But

if

Hamlet's

legacy s not destined

for

everyreader,

the haunted poet

seeking

an

ideal

defined by impossibility

an

never

forget

his

ridiculous but sublime

example.

Columbia

University,chool f

Law

24

Cohn, An Exegesis, . 107.

25

At the conclusionof his stimulating iscussion,

Mr. Weinbergcalls this a poem

about the greatness nd

efficacy f the ntellect," imits fSymbolism,.

314. A value

of seeing the vitality f the Hamletconcept in the poem maybe to offer a quite

different erspective n Mallarmes udgment

about overly ntellectualized

man.

An

idea not uncommon to

modern literature,Mallarm6's thought

n the

poem

is

that

harmonic,

ust

behaviorrequires more than the purely

nalytical

man

may

be

able

to

provide in the midst

of

supreme personal

and

historical

ituations.

hamlet and un coup de des. mallarme´s emerging constellation

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