Of all the modern poets of France who claimed noble birth—and many did so, by inserting de before their last name as a literary and social affectation—only two indisputably had that right: Villiers de L’isle-Adam and Robert de Montesquiou. And while Villiers was born to a family of paupers who had titles but no land, Robert was to enjoy such immense wealth that his lifestyle became the stuff of legend. He was the first and last example in French literature of a new archetype: the playboy poet. Only Lord Byron occupies a similar place in terms of lineage and literature, but there the analogy abruptly ends: the two men otherwise share no similarities. Rather, it is Oscar Wilde, with his fastidious and ironic wit, that Montesquiou most resembles.
