BANVILLE (de), Théodore (1823-1891)

BANVILLE (de), Théodore (1823-1891)

Autograph poem « Ariane »
S.l., août 1860, 1 p. in-folio
Typographical annotation in red ink, likely by the hand of a proofreader
Central fold

Nice sonnet by Banville, published in his collection Les Princesses

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« Dans Naxos, où les fleurs ouvrent leurs grands calices
Et que la douce mer baise avec des sanglots,
Dans l’île fortunée, enchantement des flots,
Le divin Iacchos apporte ses délices.

Entouré des lions, des panthères, des lices,
Le Dieu songe, les yeux voilés et demi-clos ;
Les Thyades au loin charment les verts îlots
Et de ses raisins noirs ornent leurs cheveux lisses.

Assise sur un tigre amené d’Orient,
Ariane triomphe, indolente, et riant
Aux lieux même où pleura son amour méprisée.

Elle va, nue et folle et les cheveux épars,
Et, songeant comme en rêve à son vainqueur Thésée,
Admire la douceur des fauves léopards. »

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Presented here in its earliest known version, this fair copy manuscript of Ariane most likely served for its first publication in the magazine L’Artiste on October 1, 1860. Under the direction of Arsène Houssaye from 1843 to 1881, the magazine featured works by, among others, Charles Baudelaire, Alexandre Dumas père, Théophile Gautier, and Gérard de Nerval.
Ariane later appeared in the Journal des Baigneurs (Dieppe) on July 25, 1861, and then in Les Exilés in 1867. Banville included it in his collection Les Princesses, published in 1874, adding an epigraph from Hesiod translated by Leconte de Lisle:
“And golden-haired Dionysus made blonde Ariadne, daughter of Minos, his wife; and he married her in the bloom of youth, and the son of Kronos made her immortal and free from age.”
Les Princesses would go on to see two more editions during the author’s lifetime, in 1878 and 1890.