Profession: critic

Villiers was a close friend, and Manet (who painted Mallarmé’s portrait and illustrated several of his poems) especially dear. Proust, Valéry, Yeats, Rilke, Verlaine, Gide, Louÿs and George were all visitors at Mallarmé’s Tuesday salons. He dined regularly with Morisot, was asked advice by Huysmans on ‘À rebours’, commiserated with Rodin and spoke at Verlaine’s funeral. Degas photographed Renoir and Mallarmé together, Redon was a neighbour and Vuillard a visitor. Mallarmé thought Debussy’s work based on his own was sublime, and told Whistler (who’d warned him by telegram) that his evening with Wilde had in fact been rather dull.

Charles Lamb was a friend from schooldays, his sister Mary becoming Coleridge’s confidante. Coleridge and Southey shared ideals as young poets, wrote a play together, and planned a utopian community in the U.S. De Quincey was their Lakeland neighbour. Wedgwood and his brother supported Coleridge financially, Davy gave him laughing-gas – Coleridge said Davy’s lectures extended his stock of metaphors. Allston, a lifelong friend, introduced Morse to him. Coleridge and Wordsworth met Klopstock in Hamburg, on their way to a miserable winter in the Harz. Clare thought Coleridge’s conversation over-rehearsed, but his eloquently barbed lines appear on his former friend Hazlitt’s tomb.

Molière, La Fontaine (both of whom were older), Racine and Furétaire were firm friends who met regularly together with Boileau to discuss literary matters: Racine described one of Boileau’s houses as “a hostelry” because of his numerous visitors. Both La Fontaine and Racine were particularly warm friends of Boileau’s, and when Racine died he was deeply affected. Boileau had a famous literary argument with Perrault, though eventually they were reconciled.