Comparative literature; Degeneration; Europe -- Intellectual life
The greatest talkers among them were Emile Goudeau, a chatterbox
unknown save as the author of a few silly satirical verses; Maurice
Rollinat, the author of _Les Névroses_; and Edmond Haraucourt, who now
stands in the front rank of French mystics. They called themselves the
‘Hydropaths,’ an entirely meaningless word, which evidently arose out
of an indistinct reminiscence of both ‘hydrotherapy’ and ‘neuropath,’
and which was probably intended, in the characteristic vagueness of the
mystic thought of the weak-minded, to express only the general idea
of people whose health is not satisfactory, who are ailing and under
treatment. In any case there is, in the self-chosen name, a suggestion
of shattered nervous vitality vaguely felt and admitted. The group,
moreover, owned a weekly paper _Lutèce_, which ceased after a few
issues.[104]
About 1884 the society left their paternal pot-house, and pitched
their tent in the Café François I., Boulevard St. Michel. This _café_
attained a high renown. It was the cradle of Symbolism. It is still the
temple of a few ambitious youths, who hope, by joining the Symbolist
school, to acquire that advancement which they could not expect
from their own abilities. It is, too, the Kaaba to which all foreign
imbeciles make a pilgrimage, those, that is, who have heard of the new
Parisian tendency, and wish to become initiated into its teachings
and mysteries. A few of the Hydropaths did not join in the change
of quarters, and their places were taken by fresh auxiliaries--Jean
Moréas, Laurent Tailhade, Charles Morice, etc. These dropped the old
name, and were known for a short time as the ‘Décadents.’ This had been
applied to them by a critic in derision, but just as the ‘Beggars’ of
the Netherlands proudly and truculently appropriated the appellation
bestowed in contempt and mockery, so the ‘Décadents’ stuck in their
hats the insult, which had been cast in their faces, as a sign of
mutiny against criticism. Soon, however, these original guests of the
François I. became tired of their name, and Moréas invented for them
the designation of ‘Symbolists,’ under which they became generally
known, while a special smaller group, who had separated themselves from
the Symbolists, continued to retain the title of ‘Décadents.’
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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