GAUTIER, Tlif:OPHILE, 1811-72; b. at Tarbes, France; educated at the grammar school of that town, and afterwards at the college Charlemagne in Paris, where it does not appear that he particularly distinguished himself, though in later life his remark able literary faculty and instinct enabled him to give to much of his work an air of scholarship and almost of erudition. He very early devoted himself to the study of the older French literature, especially that of the 16th and the early part of the 17th cell: tunics. This study qualified him well to take part in the romantic movement, and enabled him to astonish Saiute-Beuve by the phraseology and style of some literary essays which, when barely-eighteen years old, he put into the great critic's hand. In consequence of this introduction he at once came under the influence of the great romantic cenaele, to which, as to Victor Hugo in particular, he was also introduced by his gifted but ill starred schoolmate, Gerard de Nerval. With Gerard, Petrus Borel, Corot, and many other less known painters and poets whose personalities he has delightfully sketched in the articles latterly collected under the titles of Ilistoire du Romantisme, etc., he formed a minor romantic clique who were distinguished for a time by the most extravagant eccentricity. A flaming crimson waistcoat and a great mass of waving hair were the outward signs which qualified Gautier for a chief rank among the enthusiastic devotees who attended the rehearsals of Hernani with red tickets marked "Hierro," performed mocking dances round the bust of Racine, and were at all times ready to exchange word or blow with the perruques and grisatres of the classical party. In Gantier's case, how ever, whatever they might be in others, these freaks were not inconsistent with real genius and real devotion to sound ideals of literature. He began (like Thackeray, to whom he presents in other ways some striking points of resemblance) as an artist, but soon found that his true powers lay in another direction. His first considerable poem, Albertus (1830), displayed a good deal of the extravagant character which accompanied rather than marked the movement, but also gave evidence of uncommon command of lan guage and imagery, and In particular of a descriptive power hardly to be excelled. The promise thus given was more than fulfilled in his subsequent poetry. The Comedie de la Mort, which appeared soon after (1832), is one of the most remarkable of French poems, and though never widely read, has received the suffrage of every competent reader. Minor poems of various dates, published in 1840, display an almost unequaled command over poetical form, an advance even over Albertus in vigor, wealth, and appro priateness of diction and abundance of special poetical essence, which is so often absent iu the most finished poetical work. All these good gifts reached their climax in the Emaux et Camees, first -published in 1856, and again, with additions, just before the poet'sdeath in 1872. These poems are in their own way such as cannot lie surpassed. Gautier's poetical work contains in little an expression of his literary peculiarities. There are, in addition to the peculiarities of style and diction already noticed, an extra ordinary feeling and affection for beauty in art and nature—an indifference nearly abso lute to everything beyond this range, and which has doubtless injured the popularity of his work to almost as great a degree as that in which it has increased its special excellence and its charm to those who have atastelor it. But it was not as a poet that
Gautier was to achieve either profit or fame. Thrown as lie was into circles which were nothing if not literary, it was natural that be should attempt all literary forms, and certain, considering his powerS, that be would be successful in all. For the thea ter, however, he had but little gift, and his dramatic efforts (if we except certain masks or ballets in which his exuberant and graceful fancy cgme into play) are by far his weakest. For a time he acted afi secretary for Balzac, but found his occupation uncon genial enough, though it left some traces in his independent work. His first novel of any size, and in many respects his most remarkable work, was 3Iademoiselle de Naupia. Unfortunately this book, while it established his literary reputation on an imperishable basis, was unfitted by its subject, and in parts by its treatment, for general perusal, and created even in France a prejudice against its author which he was very far from really deserving. During the years from 1833 onward, his fertility in novels and tales was very great. .Le Jenne 11.ancer which may rank as a sort of prose Albertus in some ways, displays the follies of the youthful romantics in a ve:ffi of humprous and at the came time half-pathetic satire. Fortunio, perhaps, belongs to the same class. Jettatura, written somewhat later, is less extravagant and more pathetic. A crowd of minor tales display the highest literary qualities, and rank with.Merimee's at the head of all con tempbrary works of the class. First of all must be mentioned the ghost story of La Mork AMOUreUSC, a gem of the most perfect workmanship. For many years Gautier continued to write novels. La Belle Jenny is not a very successful attempt to draw on. his English experience, but the earlier Militona is a most charming picture of Spanish life. In Spirite he endeavored to enlist the fancy of the day for supernatural manifesta tions, and his Roman de in Momie is a learned study of ancient Egyptian ways. Ilis most remarkable effort of this kind, towards the end of his life, was Le Capitaino a novel of the school of Dumas, projected nearly 30 years before. This book contains some of the finest instances of his literary power. It was, however, neither iu poems nor in novels that the main occupation of Gautier as a literary man consisted. He was early drawn to the lucrative task of feuilleton writing, and for more than 30 years he was among the most expert and successful practitioners of this art. Soon after the publication of Mademoiselle de Maupin, in which he had pot been too polite to jour nalism, he became irrevocably a journalist. The rest of his life was spent either in Paris, or i,n travels of considerable extent to Spain, the Netherlands, Italy, Turkey, England, Algeria, and Russia, all undertaken with a more or less definite purpose of book-making. Having absolutely no political opinions, he had no difficulty in accept ing the second empire, and received from it considerable favors, in return for which, however, he in no way prostituted his pen, but remained a literary man pure and sim ple. Accounts of his travels, criticisms of the theatrical and literary works of the clay, obituary notices of his contemporaries, and, above all, art criticisms, occupied him in turn. In the last department he has never had a superior, nor perhaps, except in the cases of Diderot and a great•iving English critic, an equal. [Encye. Deaf., 0th ed.]