ABSTRACT
The inversion in Charles Baudelaire's note is intended to suggest the paradox that Thomas Carlyle, as the representative of a Romantic conception of history and of the philosophy of history, is an epic poet. Carlylism penetrated deeply anglophile milieux in France at two points, which are critical moments in Baudelaire's own development— in the aftermath of the 1848 Revolution and at the moment of the so-called 'liberal Empire'. The myth of the dandy takes on a new light when seen in terms of Baudelaire's refusal of a certain Romantic philosophy of history exemplified most forcefully in the mid-century by Carlyle. The connection which goes from Carlyle to Baudelaire's meditation on heroism and dandyism in relation or in their non-relation to history, passes via Barbey D'Aurevilly's brilliant portrait of Brummell. The 'philosophy of clothes' is Carlyle's whimsical and perversely prosaic way of referring to the most poetic and metaphysical of doctrines are the outer expression or 'dressing' of ideas.
