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South tlantic Modern Language ssociation

Un Coup De Dés: Mallarmé as Poet of the AbsurdAuthor(s): Dorothy M. BetzSource: South Atlantic Bulletin, Vol. 43, No. 4, 50th Anniversary Issue (Nov., 1978), pp. 37-46Published by: South Atlantic Modern Language AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3199091 .

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Poet

of

the Absurd

While

Mallarme

readily

fused the comic

with the

serious,

his

readers have

tended

to

emphasize

his

more

philosophical

ideas.

Claude Roulet, with his Traite de Poetique superieure (Treatise

on

Superior

Poetry)

consecrated

entirely

to

Un

Coup

de

Des,

typi-

fies

the critical

approach

to

the

poem

as

a definitive and

serious

poetic.

I1

n'est ecrit

ni

en

prose

ni en

vers,

mais dans

un mode

de

langage

inddit. Mallarm6

le definit

en

soustitre: Po6me.

Si l'on entend

par

la

le Pomme

type,

conforme aux idees

esth6tiques

de

Mallarm6,

le Grand

Pomme,

par opposition

aux

pi6ces

de

circonstance,

soit

une

synthbse

de la

pensde

humaine sous ses diverses formes d'activit6, certainement

aucune

definition ne

lui

convient

mieux.2

(It

is written neither

in

prose

nor

in

verse,

but in a sort

of

unpublished

language.

Mallarm{ defines

it in the

subtitle: Poem.

If this

means

the

archetypal

Poem,

con-

forming

to

Mallarm6's

esthetic

ideas,

the Great

Poem

in

contrast

to

occasional

verse,

a

synthesis

of human

thought

in all

its forms

of

activity,

certainly

no

definition

suits

it

better.)

He speaks of the poem as comddie ( comedy ) only in the more

serious

sense: La

com6die

de

l'esprit que

voulait dcrire

Valery

et

qu'il

n'a

pas

&crite,

le

fut

par

Mallarme dans

le

Coup

de

Des. 3

( The

comedy

of

the

mind

which

Valery

wanted

to write

but did

not

was written

by

Mallarme in the

Coup

de

Dds. )

Still,

despite

the intense

intellectual

concentration

of the

poem,

it

presents

elements

clearly beyond

the control

of reason.

Mallarm6 himself

said to

Valery,

Ne

trouvez-vous

pas

que

c'est

un

acte

de

d6mence? 4

( Do

you

not

find that

it

is an act of

madness? )

A

part

of

Mal-

larme's

madness

lay

in

his

challenge

to

the

arbitrary

limits

of

the

printed

page

through

which he could not avoid

presenting

his

work.

Technical

aspects

of the

presentation

of

the

poem

take on

a

meaning

related to

its

content.

Mallarme

strives

for a

poetic

ex-

pression

free

of those

formal

restraints

extrinsic

to

his central

thought.

Un

Coup

de

Des

avoids

many

such

distracting

literary

limitations.

Mallarm6

transcends

conventional

structure

by

an

innovative

use of

typography

in

which

he

alternates

between

four

different

type

faces

to

express

different

movements

of his

thought.

His page is no longer linear: the words relate to each other both

horizontally

and

vertically.5

Mallarm6

has

not

abandoned

the

horizontal

left-to-right progression

of

the

text,

but has

enriched

it. Each

word

gains

nuance

both

from its

horizontal

and

its

vertical

context

and

from its

position

with the

Page

as a

whole.

38








South Atlantic

Bulletin

Through

his

innovative

presentation

of

the

text,

Mallarme

achieves

several

simultaneous effects.

First,

the

impact

of

each

Page as a whole sets the stage for the thoughts conveyed there.

From

the moment

the reader focuses

on the

principal

words

of

each

Page,

he

perceives

them

in

the

context,

or

rather

the

design,

of

the

Page

as

a

whole. The text itself becomes

a

picture.

In

a

letter to

Andr6

Gide

discussing

the

publication

of Un

Coup

de

DSs,

Mallarme

spelled

out

the effect of

his free

positioning

of

words.

Ainsi

cette

tentative,

une

premiere,

ce tatonnement

ne

vous

ont

pas

choqu6;

encore se

pr6sentent-ils

mal

....

Le

potme

s'imprime,

en

ce

moment,

tel

que

je

l'ai

concu;

quant

t

la pagination, ou est tout l'effect. ... La con-

stellation

y

affectera,

d'aprZs

es

lois

exactes

et autant

qu

il

permis

a un

texte

imprime,

fatalement une allure

de

con-

stellation.

Le

vaisseau

y

donne de la

bande,

du haut

d'une

page

au

bas

de

l'autre,

etc.6

(Thus

this

attempt,

a

first,

this

groping

did

not

shock

you;

it

is

still

presented

badly....

The

poem

is

being

printed,

now,

as

I

conceived

it;

regarding

the

pagination,

where all

the

effect lies

.... The

constellation will

stand

out

there,

accurately

and

as

much

as a

printed

text

can

convey,

in-

evitably the appearance of a constellation. The ship passes

from

the

top

of

one

page

to

the

bottom of

the

other,

etc.)

The

generally-falling

movement

of

the text

across each

Page

depicts

the fall

of

the

dice;

the

ship

on

Page

three,

the

hat on

Page

six,

and the

constellation

on

Page

eleven

depict

objects

named at those

points.

Just

as

the

overall

patterns

of

each

of

these

Pages

reflect

principal

themes

of the

text,

details of

positioning

often

correspond

to

the

meanings

of

individual

words

and

phrases.

Sometimes the cor-

respondence involves the horizontal or vertical position of the word

on

the

Page

or

its

place

within

the

word-picture

of

the

Page.

Also

Mallarme

toys

with

phrases

which

traverse,

or

fail

to

traverse,

the

vertical

line

imposed by

the

spine

of

the

book.

This

central

division

formed a

frontier

by

which

he

would not

be limited.

While

Mallarm6

had the

poetic

skill

to

manipulate grammar

and

syntax,

he

could

not

escape

the

four

extremities

of the

page

except

by

jumping

the

boundary

of

the

spine

to

tie

two

conventional

pages

into

one. But

the

spine

remained;

if

Mallarm6

could

not

abolish

it,

at

least he

used

it

for

both

serious and

comic

effects.

In a sense, though the reader may not be conscious of it at first,

the

position

of

the

initial

phrase

of

the

poem

is

significant.

If

the

first

Page,

like

those

following

it,

comprises

what

would

normally

be a

pair

of

facing

pages

and

if

one

must

still read

the

Page

from

left

to

right,

the

phrase

UN

COUP DE

DRS

(A

THROW OF

39








Poet

of

the Absurd

THE

DICE ),

appearing

to

the

right

of

the

spine,

lies

beyond

this

central

barrier.

Mallarme

has

already

passed

it before he breaks

the silence of the sterile white space. Similarly on Page two

JAMAIS

.. .

( NEVER

...

)

appears

only

after

a

long

hesitation and

again

only

after Mallarm6 has crossed

the

central

division

of

the

Page. Finally

on

Page

three

with the tentative

SOIT

que

..

..

( WHETHER

that

...

. )

and

with his

retreat to

lower

case

type,

Mallarm6

begins

his text

on

the conventional

left-hand

page.

Here,

however,

the tentativeness

( SOIT que

.... )

and

emptiness ( l'Abime

the

Abyss )

mark

a retreat.

The force

of

Mallarme's

initial statement

disappears.

The vertical division of the Page comes

to

represent

the

diffi-

culty

Mallarme

had

to

overcome

in

writing.

As his

thoughts

become

more

tentative,

Mallarm6's

text

shifts

increasingly

to the

left-hand

page.

He

appears

self-conscious

traversing

the

spine.

The text

of

Page

three traverses

it

only

once

with

par/avance ( in/advance ),

advancing

to the new

page

with

the

very

word

indicating

the action.

By

this self-consciousness

Mallarm6

seems

to

invite

the reader

to

mock,

as he

did,

the limits

of the

book.

There

is a

contrived

play-

fulness

in

allowing

the

word to

comment

on its

own

position.

The

meanings

of

many

other

phrases

in

Un

Coup

de

Des

cor-

respond to the position of the words on the Page. The DU FOND

D'UN

NAUFRAGE

( FROM

THE

DEPTHS

OF

A SHIP-

WRECK )

at the

bottom

of

Page

two,

the

coque/d'un

batiment

( shell/of

a

ship )

near

the

end

of

Page

three,

and the

naufrage

( shipwreck )

on

Page

four

show the

depth

of

the

shipwreck;

L'Ablme

( the

Abyss ),

surrounded

by

blank

space

on

Page

three,

stands

in stark

isolation

while

beneath

it

une

inclinaison

( an

inclination ) appears

in

a

slanting

series

of

phrases.

If,

by

the

time

he reaches

the self-conscious

placement

of

par/

avance ( in/advance ) the reader

has become

increasingly

aware

of the

fusion

of

word-position

and

meaning,

he must

begin

to

see

this

aspect

of the

poem

as

essentially

comic. Indeed

it is

comedy

of

the

most

basic

physical

sort

and stands

in ironic

contrast

to

MallarmC's

overall

seriousness.

But

why

should Mallarm6

not

mock

these

physical

elements

of

his

poem?

He

can thus

convey

exactly

how

arbitrary

and

how

frustrating

are

the limitations

within

which

he

must

write.

Mallarm6's

playfulness

becomes most

apparent

on

Page

four.

As

LE

MAITRE

( THE

MASTER ) appears,

the

text

leaps

sideways with surgi ( surged up ), but surges backward to the

left,

not

forward

as

one would

expect.

Meanwhile,

hors

d'anciens

calculs

( outside

old

calculations )

stands

significantly

apart,

literally

outside

its

context.

The

text

here traverses

the

spine

with

dizzying frequency,

and the

s'agite

et

mele

( shakes

and

mixes )

40








South

Atlantic

Bulletin

reflects the disorientation

of both

poet

and reader.

But

still

Mal-

larme

conveys

the

difficulty

of

passing

to

the second

half

of

his

Page: h6site ( hesitates ) to the left of the spine marks the

hesitation of the

text to

cross

it;

6carte

....

( separated

. .

. )

opposite

it

seems

far

off.

Indeed

6cart6

du

secret

qu'il

d6tient

( separated

from the

secret

which

it

holds )

reflects

Mallarm6's

inability

to reach his

goal.

While

such

repeated

exploitation

of

physical

elements of

the

text

amuses

the

reader,

the use

of

position

conveys

more

for

Mallarm6 than

a

sense of

ridiculous

limitations.

By

the act

of

crossing

the

Page

and

subsequently

retreating

again

to the

left,

Mallarme

expresses his frustration in writing. The first Pages make

a

brave

beginning:

QUAND

BIEN

MEME

LANCE DANS

DES/

CIRCONSTANCES

ETERNELLES

( EVEN

THOU

G

H

THROWN

IN/ETERNAL

CIRCUMSTANCES )

traverses

com-

pletely

the

right-hand

half of

Page

two. Then come

retreats:

By

Page

four,

confusion and

hesitancy

lead

to

despair:

plutot/que

de

jouer

( rather/than

play )

retreats to the

extreme

left

of

the

Page.

Only

images

of

death

( envahit

le

chef

invades the

head )

con-

tinue to the

right.

The

entire text of

Page

five remains

to the

left

of the

spine

until

N'ABOLIRA

( WILL

NOT

ABOLISH ),

the

inevitable continuation of the principal phrase of the poem, breaks

the

impasse.

After the

shipwreck

of

Page

three

dissolves

into

the

whirlpool-

like

dizzyness

of

Page

four,

Mallarm6

makes

less

frequent

use

of

the

clever

positioning

of

words

until

the

plume

solitaire

eperdue

( solitary

bewildered

feather )

of

Page

seven.

The

hiatus

of

Pages

five

and

six

coincides

well with

their

meaning.

This

is

the

trough

of

the

wave,

the

pause

between

the

preliminary

assertion

of

the

poem

and

the

final

approach

to

the

constellation.

Here,

amid

the

circular

COMME

SI

...

COMME

SI

( AS

IF

...

AS

IF )

of

Page

five,

begin

the italics in which

reappear

many

of

the

themes

( silence,

gouffre,

vierge,

plume,

immobilise,

blancheur ;

silence,

abyss,

virgin,

feather,

immobilize,

whiteness )

which

Mallarm6

linked in

earlier

poems

to

his

inability

to

write.

The

poet

hesitant

about

writing

at

all

will

not

feel

the

need to

go

beyond

a

single

page.

In

any

case,

Mallarme

here

lacks the

self-

assurance he

would

need

to

strive

to

free

himself

from

narrow

boundaries.

With

plume

solitaire

eperdue

( solitary

bewildered

feather )

the scene changes. The feather, at once the plume in the hat which

the

image

of

Page

seven

implies

and

the

pen

with

which

Mallarm6

might

write,

remains

for

the

moment

alone

and

mad,

just

as the

words

themselves

float

almost

isolated

in

the

white

space

of

the

left-hand

page.

Yet

one

exception

breaks

the

white

silence:

sauf

41








Poet

of

the Absurd

( except ).

Only

this one

further word

intrudes

to

the

left of the

spine,

but it

suffices

to link

the

feather to

the

following

text,

sauf/

que la rencontre .... ( except/that the encounter ... . ). The

encounter,

the

linking

of

sauf

( except )

and

que ( that ),

renews the forward

movement

of

the

poem.

At

this vital

point

of

linking,

Mallarme

once more

leaps

across the

spine

in a

reaffirma-

tion

of

the

power

of his

new

poetry

to

transcend

old

forms.

The full liberation

of the

poem

comes

slowly.

Page

eight

still

finds

Mallarm6's

expression

tentative,

but a

swagger

of

confidence

returns

as

once

more he

consciously exploits

the

position

of his

words. At first muet

( mute ),

isolated in

blank

space,

hesitates.

The rire

( laugh ) opposite

it

conveys only

an

empty laugh

with-

out

humor.

But the

renewed

tone of intellect

and

superiority

of

La

lucide

et

seigneuriale

aigrette

( The

lucid and

lordly

crest )

precedes

three

crossings

to

the

right

( de

vertige,

debout,

and

bifurquees ;

dizzyness,

standing,

and

split )

which Mallarme

carefully aligned

in

a vertical

progression.

At first the

de

vertige

( dizzyness )

recalls the

dizzy

aftermath

of

shipwreck

on

Page

four,

but

debout

( standing )

overcomes

this

falling.

With

bifur-

quees

( split )

Mallarm.

seems to break

loose

from

the

squames

ultimes

( last

scales )

to the left

and move

freely

forward

to

the

bottom of the Page which he marks with qui imposa/une borne a

l'infini

( which

imposed/a

limit to

infinity ).

Unlike

the

earlier

naufrage

( shipwreck ),

borne

( limit )

at

the

end

takes

the

measure

of the

Page.

The idea

of

imposing

a limit

implies

a

con-

trol

whether

of the

Page

or of the

infini

( infinity )

of

which

the

poem

becomes

the

emblem.

Soon

after

this

resurgence

of

confidence,

Mallarme

abandons

his

italics

with

Choit/la

plume/rythmique

suspens

du

sinistre

( Falls/the

pen/rhythmic

suspending

of

the

sinister ).

Here

the

potential

word

play

is

striking.

As

an

English

teacher,

Mallarme

might

have

noted

the

significance

of his use of

suspens

( sus-

pending )

at

the

moment

he let

fall the

pen.

The

idea of

a

bilingual

pun

becomes

even

more

persuasive

in

the

light

of le

mystere/pre-

cipite/hurle

( the

mystery,

thrown,

howled )

from

Page

six

where

hurle seems

closer

to

hurled

than

to

howled.

In the

context

of these

double

meanings,

what

should

we make

of the

sinistre

( sinister )

at

the close

of

the italics?

Should it not refer

also

to

the

left

and

to

the

fact

that

the italics

appeared

only

after the

major

text

had

retreated

to

the left

half of

the

Page?

Thus

suspens

du

sinistre ( suspending of

the

sinister )

indicates

not

only

the

closing

of this

movement

of the

poem,

but the end of the

sinister

left-side

text

as well.

As

Mallarme

moves

out of

the italics

back

to the

principal

phase

of his

poem,

he still

progresses

slowly

The heroic borne

( limit )

42








South

Atlantic

Bulletin

which

set the limit

of

Page eight

dissolves

as the next

two

Pages

end

with

la

neutralite

identique

du

gouffre

( the

identical

neutrality

of the abyss ) and en quoi toute realite se dissout (in which all

reality

dissolves ).

The eternal

forming

and

dissolving

of the

waves

echoes

in

each

Page

where

thought

must

re-form

out

of

emptiness.

Again

Page

ten

must

open

with

RIEN/de

la

m6morable

crise

( NOTHING/of

the memorable

crisis );

of

the

events

gone

before

nothing

remains.

But here the

text

at least

advances

much

more

rapidly

than

before toward the

right.

With

l'Tevnement/

accompli

( the

event/accomplished )

we sense that what

has

been

accom-

plished

is

simply

this

moving

on.

The move to the final Page brings the breakthrough toward

which

Mallarme has built the

entire

poem.

The

Page

portrays

the

constellation

of

the Bear

or

Dipper

with

black-printed

stars

on

a

white-page

sky.

In

the

light

of

Mallarm6's earlier

use of

space,

however,

two

further

things

strike

us

in

this

constellation.

First,

once

his

constellation

appears,

Mallarme's

Page

moves

markedly

to

the

right.

And,

on

the

left,

only

four

phrases

remain

correspond-

ing

to

the four

stars

stretched

out

into

the

handle

of the

constella-

tion:

EXCEPTE/i

l'altitude/PEUT-ETRE/aussi

loin

qu'un

en-

droit

( EXCEPT/on

high/PERHAPS/as

far

as a

place ).

The

first two of these phrases in fact call attention to their placing.

EXCEPTE

( EXCEPT ) points

out

how

they

differ

from the

rest

of

the

Page

while a

l'altitude

( on

high ) explains

the

reason

for it

by

reference

to

the

position

of

the

actual

constellation over-

head.

Further

on,

the

veillant/doutant/roulant/brillant

et

m6di-

tant

( watching,

doubting /

rolling

/

shining

and

meditating )

at

the

bottom

of

the

Page

repeat

in

smaller

scale the

motif of

four

stars

just

as

the

constellation

has

a

large

and

a

smaller

version in

the

heavens.

Mallarm6 continues to use words which comment on their own

placement.

After

the

four

preliminary

phrases

he

crosses

to

the

right

half

of

Page

eleven

with

fusionne

avec

au delt

( fuses

with

beyond ).

He

has

passed

out

of

the

limiting

first

half

of

the

Page

for

the

last

time.

Now

the

poem

continues

to

its

end

free

of

barriers;

its link

to

the

transcendent

becomes

permanent.

Meanwhile

hors

l'interet

( outside

the

interest )

detaches

itself

from

its

con-

text

much

as

hors

d'anciens

calculs

( outside

old

calculations )

did

on

Page

four.

In

terms

of

the

forward

movement of the poem, however, one

cannot

overlook

the

significance

of

Mallarm6's

choice

of

the

polar

constellation

as

his

last

major

image.

A

constellation

surpasses

the

dice

as

a

symbol

of

poetry.

Both

contain

points

of

light

or

darkness

on

a

contrasting

field and

echo

the

black

and

white

of

the

printed

43








Poet

of

the

Absurd

page.

But

on

the

dice one

reads

only

the

number

of

points;

in the

constellation their

pattern

carries

additional

meaning.

With the

image

of the constellation Mallarme

posits

that which

endures

out of

the

poetic

act.

Thus

he

would

have

been

attracted

to

the

fixed

position

of

the

North

Star

as

an

image

of this

perma-

nence. But the

North

Star

does

not

form

a

part

of

Mallarm6's

con-

stellation. Rather

the

two

stars

to

the

right,

in terms

of the constella-

tion

on

Page

eleven,

point

to it and

help

locate it.

The

polar

star

itself

would lie outside

the

Page

of the

book and to

the

right.

Thus

Mallarm6's

general

movement toward

the

right

finds

its

completion,

but

simultaneously

the

elusive

star

indicates

once

again

how

the

complete poem

must transcend

the boundaries

of

the

book. This

distant

point

may

be

that

of Mallarm6's

final

phrase, quelque

point

dernier

qui

le sacre

( some

final

point

which

consecrates

it ).

If

the

poem

could

reach

this

final

point

of

permanence,

the

absolute

poem

toward

which

Mallarm6

strove,

the

achievement

would exalt

all

that

which

had

gone

before it.

The final

point,

however,

still

lies

beyond

Mallarm6's

last

Page.

The

poem

closes

with

the

same

phrase,

un

Coup

de Des

( a

Throw

of

the

Dice ),

with

which

it

opened.

This

circularity

coin-

cides

with the

arbitrary

nature

of

the

fall

of

the

dice.

Because

the

dice can fall in a variety of combinations, they cannot provide an

absolute

number.

After

the

dice

are

thrown

the

quest

for

an

absolute

still

goes

on.

The dice reflect

the

absurdity

of

man's

attempt

to

grasp

the

infinite.

Even

though

the

dice

fall

implies

an essential

futility,

Mallarm6's

last

sentence

asserts

that

this

does not

inhibit

new

beginnings.

There

can

be

many

new

Pages

in the

book.

Toute

Pens6e

&net

un

Coup

de

Des

( Every

Thought

throws

the

Dice ):

thought,

whether

of

poetic

quality

or

not,

can

throw

the

dice,

but

only poetry

can

over-

come

chance.

Thus

not

the dice

but

the

constellation

represents

true

poetry.

The

pattern

of the constellation, like that of Mallarme's

poem,

may

be

interpreted

simultaneously

through

sense

perception

and

intellectual

anailysis.

The

unchanging

patterns

of the

stars

further

suggest

a

meaning

which

should

be

eternally

valid.

The

constellation

provides

the most

apt

analogy

with

Mallarm6's

poetry

in

its simultaneous

appeal

to sense and intellect.

In his

pre-

face

to

Un

Coup

de

Des,

Mallarme

wrote

that

he

hoped

to

achieve

a fusion

of

various

literary

forms.

Le

genre,

que

c'en

devienne

un comme

la

symphonie,

peu

a peu, a cotd du chant personnel, laissee intact l'antique

vers,

auquel

je

garde

un culte

et attribue

l'empire

de

la

passion

et des

reveries.7

(Literary

form,

let

it

become

one

like

a

symphony,

little

by

little,

alongside

the

personal

song,

let

the old

poetic

line

44








South Atlantic

Bulletin

remain

intact;

I revere

it and attribute

to it rule over

pas-

sion and

dreams.)

The sound of a

symphony

is more nuanced than that of

any

in-

dividual

instrument.

Similarly,

the

meaning

which results from

the

simultaneous

interpretation

of

the

definition

of a word

and

aware-

ness

of its

context within the

total

picture

of

the

Page

will

be

more

nuanced than a

meaning

based

on

either of

these

alone.

However,

in

the

process

of

this new

fusion of

form

and

meaning,

Mallarme

sought

to

retain

l'antique

vers,

auquel

je

garde

un

culte

( the

old

poetic

line,

which I

revere ).

The

essential

element

of

conventional

poetic

form,

once

the

restraints

of

rhyme

and

punctuation have been pared away, lies in the progression of the

words

and

hence

the

thought

form

left to

right

across the

page.

In a

sense,

Mallarm6

returns

also to

classical

form

where

the

end-

stop

line retained

a

unity

within itself.

Each

crossing

of

the

page

for

him

is a new

act

independent

of that

which

preceded

it.

Through

this

approach,

however,

Mallarme

allies himself

with

more

recent

poets.

Each

time

he

strikes

out

into

the

uncharted

territory

of a

new

Page

he

reaches for

an

affirmation

of

man's

power

to

overcome

restraints

which the

present

century

has charac-

terized

as

absurd.

The

rectangular

boundaries

of the

book

reflect

the essential limitations, both intellectual and

physical,

of man

himself. This

explains

why

the

practice

of

poetry

was

so difficult

for

Mallarme-as

he

wrote to

Valery,

un

acte

de

demence

( an

act

of

madness ).

It

is

a

struggle,

against

almost

impossible

odds,

to

reach

a

transcendent

goal

beyond

the

confines

of

the

book

itself.

Despite

repeated

failure,

the

true

poet

must

forever

renew this

struggle

because,

as

Mallarme

says

on

his

last

Page,

PEUT-ETRE

( PERHAPS ),

the

next

try

will

carry

him

to

his

Constellation.

Georgetown University

NOTES

1For

references

to

the

text,

I

have

followed

the

usage

of

designating

as

Page

(capitalized)

each

double-page

(verso-recto)

of

Mallarme's

poem.

I

have

con-

sidered

the

poem

to

be

composed

of

eleven

Pages,

not

ten.

Usage

differs

(see

Guy

Michaud,

Mallarme

[Paris:

Hatier,

1958]

who

seems to

use

both

systems),

but

the Pleiade

and

the

Nouvelle

Revue

Franfaise

editions both

separate

UN

COUP

DE

DES

(Page

one)

from

JAMAIS

.

..

(Page

two).

2Claude Roulet, Traitd de poetique supe'rieure (Neuchatel: H. Messeiller,

1956),

pp.

14-15.

3Roulet,

p.

27.

4Michaud,

p.

170.

sThe

first

and

only

lifetime

edition,

in

the

periodical

Cosmopolis,

did

not

print

the

poem

in

its

present

form.

The

posthumous

edition

of

the

Nouvelle

45








46

Poet

of

the

Absurd

Revue

Franfaise,

prepared

from

Mallarm6's own directions on

type

face and

spacing, incorporated

his

corrections.

The

photocopy

of this

text

in

Robert

G.

Cohn,

Mallarme's Masterwork: New

Findings (The Hague: Mouton, 1966), pp.

89-111,

shows

that

most

of

Mallarme's corrections concerned the

failure

of

the

typesetter

to

follow his

intended vertical

alignments.

6Henri

Mondor,

Autres

precisions

sur Mallarme

et

Inedits

(Paris:

Gallimard,

1961),

p.

236.

7Stephane

Mallarme,

Oeuvres

completes

(Paris:

Gallimard,

1951), p.

456.

mallarmé poet of absurd

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