Verlaine, Paul

(b Metz, 30 March 1844; d Paris, 8 Jan 1896). French poet. ‘De la musique avant toute chose’: the first line of his Art poétique announced the principle that underlies most of Verlaine’s work. He brought back to French poetry the musical qualities which had not been cultivated so consciously since the Renaissance – euphony, elegance of rhythm, metric virtuosity, and compact formal perfection – and drew much of his imagery from music, particularly in the Fêtes galantes. In this collection, which has attracted more settings than any other, he created a world of Watteauesque artifice and...

(b Metz, 30 March 1844; d Paris, 8 Jan 1896). French poet. ‘De la musique avant toute chose’: the first line of his Art poétique announced the principle that underlies most of Verlaine’s work. He brought back to French poetry the musical qualities which had not been cultivated so consciously since the Renaissance – euphony, elegance of rhythm, metric virtuosity, and compact formal perfection – and drew much of his imagery from music, particularly in the Fêtes galantes. In this collection, which has attracted more settings than any other, he created a world of Watteauesque artifice and commedia dell’arte disguise, a mask of sophistication that half-conceals deeper emotions. Both aspects, the musical finesse and the exquisite ambiguities, appealed to the young Debussy, who was the first composer of any importance to set Verlaine. The best of Debussy’s early work is that based on Verlaine: the songs of 1880–92, the Suite bergamasque for piano and the Petite suite for piano duet. His lead was soon followed by Fauré, notably with the song cycle La bonne chanson op.61 (1892–4), and Hahn, and then by many others, to the extent that Verlaine has probably received more settings than any other French poet of his time. Verlaine wrote librettos for two opéras bouffes by Chabrier: Fisch-Ton-Kan (1863–4) and Vaucochard et fils 1er (1864). Chabrier finished neither.