LiederNet logo

CONTENTS

×
  • Home | Introduction
  • Composers (20,117)
  • Text Authors (19,508)
  • Go to a Random Text
  • What’s New
  • A Small Tour
  • FAQ & Links
  • Donors
  • DONATE

UTILITIES

  • Search Everything
  • Search by Surname
  • Search by Title or First Line
  • Search by Year
  • Search by Collection

CREDITS

  • Emily Ezust
  • Contributors (1,114)
  • Contact Information
  • Bibliography

  • Copyright Statement
  • Privacy Policy

Follow us on Facebook

by Paul Verlaine (1844 - 1896)

Le clown
Language: French (Français) 
Bobèche, adieu ! bonsoir, Paillasse ! arrière, Gille ! 
Place, bouffons vieillis, au parfait plaisantin,
Place ! très grave, très discret et très hautain,
Voici venir le maître à tous, le clown agile. 

Plus souple qu'Arlequin et plus brave qu'Achille,
C'est bien lui, dans sa blanche armure de satin;
Vides et clairs ainsi que des miroirs sans tain,
Ses yeux ne vivent pas dans son masque d'argile. 

Ils luisent bleus parmi le fard et les onguents,
Cependant que la tête et le buste, élégants,
Se balancent sur l'arc paradoxal des jambes. 

Puis il sourit. Autour le peuple bête et laid,
La canaille puante et sainte des Iambes,
Acclame l'histrion sinistre qui la hait.

First published in the revue Le Hanneton, July 25, 1867, and then included in 1884 in Jadis et naguère.


Text Authorship:

  • by Paul Verlaine (1844 - 1896), "Le clown", written 1867, appears in Jadis et naguère, in Jadis, in Sonnets et autres vers, no. 8, first published 1867 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

  • by Willem Frederik Bon (1940 - 1983), "Le clown", op. 10 no. 3 (1967), published 1967 [ mezzo-soprano, flute, violoncello, and piano ], from Trois poèmes de Verlaine, no. 3, Amsterdam, Donemus [sung text checked 1 time]
  • by (Rudolf) Walther Hirschberg (1889 - 1960), "Le Clown" [ medium voice and piano ], from 12 Mélodies, no. 5 [sung text not yet checked]

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 14
Word count: 109

Gentle Reminder

This website began in 1995 as a personal project by Emily Ezust, who has been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has never had any government or institutional funding, so if you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your help is greatly appreciated!
–Emily Ezust, Founder

Donate

We use cookies for internal analytics and to earn much-needed advertising revenue. (Did you know you can help support us by turning off ad-blockers?) To learn more, see our Privacy Policy. To learn how to opt out of cookies, please visit this site.

I acknowledge the use of cookies

Contact
Copyright
Privacy

Copyright © 2025 The LiederNet Archive

Site redesign by Shawn Thuris