The sun., 1903-01-21
COUNT ROBERT OF PARIS, 1908.
MISSIONARY or LITERATURE EX-
PLICATES HIMSELF.
tho Mysteries Of Life Are the Meat Of
Author Of "The Biue Hydrangeas".
the Red Pearis'' and "The Bats"

the Mysteries Of Life Are the Meat Of
Author Of "The Blue Hydrangeas'.
''The Red Pear,s' and "The Bats"
The Count Robert de Montesquoiu-Fezen
sac had q busy day yesterday. He went
driving In the morning, was the guest OF
Nine. Duse at her performance at the
Metropolitan Opera House yesterday after
noon and dlned with F. Marion Crawford,
the novelist. and others in the ever iag.
Between times he moved from the Holland
House to the Hotel West minister. at Six
teenth street and Irving place.
After he had dressed for the afternoon
in a mixed-gray frock suit, whose trousers
had stripes of black satin running down
the outside seams, and just before he dressed
for dinner, In his malacca cane and other
things. he talked literature and art In
general, and Of his literature In particular,
with reporter of THE Sun.
Il did not take up literature he said.
so much as it took me up. Things which
one feels deeply are bound to find express
sion in some form. saw things and felt
things differently, I thought. from the rest
Of my countrymen, and those things found
expression In verse and a little prose.
have written eight volumes OF poetry. seven
Of which have been published. and two
volumes of prose. But, unlike some au-
thors, the great Hugo, for instance, ! did
not begin TO publish until I had arrived
at q mature age and until my cruder pro-
ductions had been revised and polished.
Il wrote poetry, few odes, when was
as young as Il. which were pleasing to
my grandfather. but l did not make my
first book until about 1875. During the
next fifteen years all my books were pub
lished, except one. the Songs Of Swans,
which will shortly 60 to the press"
what subjects have interested you
most?' the Count was asked.
"Oh, the mysteries" was the answer;
tho mysterious, the mysterious in art;
in nature, in humanity. For instance.
many persons might look at a rose. To
one that rose would recall the face Of his
| sweetheart. To another it would bring
| back the picture Of the grave OF dear one
| in come lonely churchyard. To one 1t
would suggest some mystery OF nature
and the story Of that mystery would beg
to tell in verse. Perhaps ] may explain
| IL in another way. Leonardo da Ninci
and Raphael might have painted the plct-
ure OF the Same woman. Raphael would
put upon his canvas the face OF a strong,
sanity woman. Da Vinci would give to
| the face Of his subject something that
was mysterious. He saw the mystery in
human life and painted it. | see and
write about II.
While my poems were written al periods
wide part yet they tell in way. continu-
Gus story, something like an epic. J. have
| been told. and my critics have been pleased
| to re gard this as rather remarkable. For
instance, the first poems ! wrote were
gathered into volume Of 400 pages. called
| The Blue Hydrangeas. That was the
second book ] published, yet the poems
| in the first book l published. called The
| Bate Yet the poems in this volume were
written after go about The Blue hydran-
geas'
| iec,s treated of in my books. One Of the
| ir.Iirr subjects is history. That will he
! d ,lk abou, Versailles, with which my
fa.iily was asso, lated even in the time Of
| Louis XIV. What Versailles means TO me
l have put in volume Of sonnets called
The Red Pearls To me the color OF Ner-
sailles will be always reG--red with the
pomp of empire. red with the glory oi us
sunsets, red with the blood Of the slain.
SO l called my sonnets The Red Pearls,
and into the book put not twenty. fifty or
one hundred poems. but ninety-three.
Hugo has forever tagged Versailles with
that number.
! what Ia the condiii ion ~ literature in
! Franc. at preeert?'
"Our liteI Iature il in the quiescent stage
| n, present We have no Hugos or BalzaCs
| or Dumas.s to-day But a nation cannot
| have literary goni,ises for every age. We
are resting now on our glorious past and
| developing geniuses for the future. There
are Young makers of prose and poetry in
| France to-day who will grow one day into
| literary geniuscs. We have no one. for
| instance to compare with the English
| Kipling. one Of the greatest OF the worlds
| great young literary men.
whom do regard. aside from Shakes
| peare, the greatest of English poets!
"Those whom ! have enjoyed most are
| Shelley, Keats and Swinburne. | have
| some translations from Swinburne in some
| of my works And Browning too. was great,
But he is hard, sometimes. to understand,
| and in France we have never had a good.
| an adequate translator OF the master OF
| mysterious English verse. But why don't
| YOU ask me of your own poets! IL you
| did, / would tell you that you gave to the
world one of its greatest and sweetest
singers in Edgar Allan Poe. All, but that
wonderful Raven 1t will croak on and
ever through the centuries.
| Would II be correct to speak OF you
| as the asthetic poet of France?'
| Il have tried to sing the song OF beauty
| in nature and humanity. How well it is
| for others to say. Call me that II you
will but above all and beyond that l am.
| perhaps the ba rd OF the mysteries