Early life and poetic debut Demetriade was born in
Ocnele Mari,
Vâlcea County, or, according to other documents, in
Craiova (yet another account, probably erroneous, has
Bucharest). The family was of
Greek origin, its original surname being reported as
Dimitriadis, then
Romanianized as
Demetriade or
Demetriad. The poet's father was a Greek immigrant and celebrated actor,
Constantin "Costache" Dimitriade. His wife, Mircea's mother, was Luxița (
née Saragea), who was descended from the old
boyar nobility of
Oltenia. Demeteriade was the uncle of
Eraclie Sterian, the sexologist and playwright, and the great-uncle of poet-sociologist
Paul Sterian. Mircea left high school early and then took declamation courses at the
Bucharest Conservatory. Having registered some success in comedy, with a leading role in
Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu's
Trei crai, he became a pledgee of the National Theater the following year. Demetriade soon became more interested in writing and composing poetry. Primarily a disciple of the proto-Symbolist
Alexandru Macedonski, Demetriade also described himself as a student of the 1840s romantic poet
Ion Heliade Rădulescu. Davidescu sees Demetriade and most other Romanian Symbolists as in reality
Parnassians; this verdict was partly shared by comparatist
Adrian Marino. He also reads a "Parnassian note" and echoes from the "macabre poetry" of
Maurice Rollinat in the work of Demetriade,
Alexandru Obedenaru, and
Alexandru Petroff. Demetriade's first published work consisted of poems that appeared in Macedonski's
Literatorul, in 1880; his first book was the 1883
Fabule, followed in 1884 by the collection
Versuri. These works fund an early reviewer in the traditionalist
Ioan Russu-Șirianu, who saw Demetriade as a promising
sonneteer, but rejected his experiments with meter. Demetriade's first work as a translator, from
Préville's "thoughts on theater", also saw print in
Literatorul. For much of the 1880s, he was also involved with the socialist movement, first as a writer for
Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea's
Emanciparea. In December 1884, Demetriade was a founding member of the Bucharest Social Studies Circle, with
Alexandru G. Radovici and
Constantin Mille, wherein he also represented a
Masonic Lodge (named after
Mircea Rosetti). With the National Theater troupe, including his sister and
Constantin Nottara, Demetriade toured the Romanian-speaking regions of the
Duchy of Bukovina,
Austria-Hungary, during summer 1885. He gave readings of Romanian poetry and spoke to a cultural gathering in
Czernowitz. In 1885–1886, his father having died in an accident on the outskirts of Bucharest, In 1891, he made another return to the stage, again alongside Aristizza. Their version of
Hamlet, with Demetriade as
The Ghost, was notably staged at the
Carltheater in Vienna.
First plays . Demetriade (center), between
Alexandru Bogdan-Pitești and
Alexandru Macedonski; also pictured:
Nicolae Vermont,
Ștefan Luchian,
Alexandru Obedenaru,
Dumitru Karnabatt, Camil Demetrescu, and Petrescu-Găină himself Demetriade also cultivated close friendships with other more writers, including
Vasile Alecsandri and
Bonifaciu Florescu. He was thus a speaker at Alecsandri's funeral in 1890, and the last person to visit Florescu upon the latter's death in 1899. From 1885 to 1889, with Macedonski absent from Romania, he published his own "Macedonskian" literary review,
Analele Literare ("Literary Annals"). The magazine had contributions from Symbolists such as
Traian Demetrescu and from Macedonski himself. However, it mainly included academic articles by Florescu, Hasdeu, and other scholars:
Anghel Demetriescu,
Gheorghe Ghibănescu,
Petre Ispirescu, and
Lazăr Șăineanu. In its first issues,
Analele Literare also hosted Demetriade debut play,
În noaptea nunții ("On Their Wedding Night"), called a "weak comedy" by the traditionalist
Nicolae Iorga. In addition to the
Literatorul (or
Revista Literară), he also published in the various Macedonskian satellite reviews, from
Iuliu Cezar Săvescu and Florescu's
Dumineca to Petroff's
Hermes. Demetriade's other contributions were hosted by various Symbolist or mainstream publications, among them
Telegraful Român,
Vieața Nouă,
Revista Orientală,
Unirea,
Naționalul,
Fântâna Blanduziei,
Ileana,
Liga Literară, and
Generația Nouă. During the
elections of 1892, he registered himself as a voter in the 1st College, a resident of
Olari, Bucharest. After
În noaptea nunții, which was to be premiered at the National Theater in 1900, Demetriade focused mainly on versified plays which were picturesque and had a fairy-tale ambience:
Făt-Frumos ("Prince Charming"), 1889;
Renegatul ("The Renegade"), 1893;
Opere dramatice ("Works in Drama"), 1905. According to the literary critic
George Călinescu,
Renegatul was "monotonous and artistically modest", "abundant in the stuff of operetta songs". falling for the charms of the Orient; then returning to modern life under the spell of his new slave, a fellow Romanian "working girl". Demetriade's other poems were rhetorical, the imagery and themes romantic and Baudelairean; their subjects included demonism, genius, spiritual ascension and melancholy ("spleen"). Such work, often eroticized, received a radical critique from the traditionalist intellectuals of
Transylvania: a reviewer for
Rĕvașul newspaper, claiming to speak for his entire region, called Demetriade's "orgiastic" poems "an ugly torrent". According to Davidescu, Demetrescu's poetry mainly stands out for its sensuality and eroticism, "preserving the author's very character, which cannot but evoke to mind [...] that tanned man, as restless as a squirrel, with his black beard and eyes, always open to new sensations, always a man of his word, at once impulsive and self-contained, and always generous". Contrarily, the literary historian
Șerban Cioculescu describes Demetriade, overall, as "faint and subdued".
Final years Demetriade continued to play the unconventional poet, well-integrated in the atmosphere of the era's literary cafes. He embraced the peculiar lifestyle of literary bohemia. Writing in 1902, Macedonski described him as a "jester" who could prove himself "bitter", also noting that Demetriade's day started "at 3 o'clock in the afternoon". Such depictions were puzzling for the reading public, who wondered whether Macedonski was not in fact mocking his disciple. However, Demetriade remained among the most loyal Macedonskians, to 1904 and beyond. The younger Symbolist
Mihail Cruceanu, who met Demetriade in Macedonski's salon in 1905, recalls him as a "
Mefisto", who readily imparted his erotic escapades with the
Literatorul crowd. He notes: "We the young ones we were looking up to him with much curiosity and sympathy, as he appeared to us as an elegant and fortunate satyr whose astuteness we could never match. But seeing as we were fatigued by the stories' emotionalism, we left for home at midnight, leaving him alone with his complete menu, to consume till dawn. Or so they tell me, since I, the aspiring poet, always went to bed before that time." His final work in verse drama was
Visul lui Ali ("Ali's Dream"). It premiered at the National Theater in autumn 1904. It was again taken up by the troupe in October 1912, and was put out in its definitive 1913 edition by nephew
Eraclie Sterian. In tandem, Demetriade began writing for
Constantin Ionescu-Caion's
Românul daily, and penned his most significant critical essays for its successor,
Românul Literar. In tandem, Demetriade began collaborating with Macedonski at his right-wing reviews
Forța Morală and
Liga Conservatoare, using such pen names as Ali-Baba, Demir, Dimir, and D. Mir. At the time,
Literatorul called him "one of the greats of Romanian neo-Latin literature", noting that he still professed socialist principles, "but not those of the exploiting socialists". Also that year,
Carol I,
King of Romania, awarded him the
Bene-Merenti medal for his various contributions. In April 1910, Demetriade became a founding member of the Society of Theatrical Authors, and, in 1911, was employed by the National Theater as a
dramaturge, correcting and updating
Rhea Sylvia, by
Nicolae Scurtescu. Around that time, as concerned members of the
Romanian Orthodox Church who opposed secularism, Demetriade and Sterian also joined the movement supporting
Gherasim Safirin, the
Bishop of Roman, in his conflict with the
Romanian Synod. Both writers also shared similar ideas on heredity: Demetriade's claim that
syphilis could act as a "civilizing hero", by favoring intellectual traits in syphilitic descendants, prompted Sterian to construct an elaborate evolutionary theory. Demetriade's very final years brought a major chill in his relationship with Macedonski. According to one account, they were "daggers down" (
la cuțite). He died on September 11, 1914, shortly after the start of World War I. His lifelong output included over fifteen hundred poems, plays, translations and articles of literary criticism (the most significant of which appeared in
Românul Literar), mainly uncollected in book form. He had fathered a son, Mircea Jr, who was reportedly a "guiding light of his life". ==Notes==