[VERLAINE] MALLARMÉ, Stéphane (1842-1898)

[VERLAINE] MALLARMÉ, Stéphane (1842-1898)

Autograph subscription signed for the attention of Emmanuel Signoret
N.p.n.d [1892], 1 p. in-8°
Period fold marks

Mallarmé subscribes to Verlaine’s 1892 collection of poems Liturgies intimes

After entering his name and his Parisian postal address, Mallarmé asks that “3 newsletters for 3 subscribers” be sent to him, then signs with his elegant monogram “S.M”

This edition was sold by subscription, which was to be sent to Emmanuel Signoret, the founder of the Catholic magazine Le Saint-Graal. It is not known, however, for whom other subscribers Mallarmé made this order.

With Sagesse, Amour and Bonheur, Liturgies intimes completes Paul Verlaine’s Catholic work and thus completes his post-Rimbaldian period of redemption. With a print run of 375 copies, the collection opens with “To Charles Baudelaire”, for whom we know that Verlaine had an unfailing admiration throughout his life.
A second edition of the collection was published the following year by Vanier.

The friendship between the two poets is not recent. It was sealed in 1866 when Verlaine sent his Poèmes saturniens to Mallarmé. The latter made this famous reply: “At present I shall not have the courage to recite to you all the verses which I know by heart of the Saturnian Poems, preferring better, while I am still beside myself, to hang on to the voluptuousness which they give me than to explain it.”