VERLAINE, Paul (1840-1896)
Autograph letter signed « P Verlaine » to Adrien Remacle
Paris, 22 7bre [September] 1895, 1 p. in-8° on laid bi-folio
« Please note that I live at 39 rue Descartes »
Fact sheet
VERLAINE, Paul (1840-1896)
Autograph letter signed « P Verlaine » to Adrien Remacle
Paris, 22 7bre [September] 1895, 1 p. in-8° on laid bi-folio
Stains and browning (see scan)
In feverish writing, Verlaine gives his last address at 39 rue Descartes, where he would pass away three and a half months later
« Mon cher Remacle,
J’ai reçu hier soir, 80 francs de M. Colin, pour mes vers que je viens vous remercier et m’avoir fait placer si bien.
Je forme des vœux bien sincères pour votre prompt rétablissement. J’aurais bien été vous voir, mais nous sommes en plein déménagement et la preuve c’est que dès ceci reçu, sachez que je demeure 39 rue Descartes.
Mille cordialités
P Verlaine »
Having been staying with his mistress Eugénie Krantz in an attic on rue Saint-Victor since the beginning of 1895, the couple moved to the first floor of 39, rue Descartes, behind the Panthéon in September. Already suffering from diabetes, ulcers and syphilis, the poet’s last months turned into torture. Verlaine barely went out and corresponded with his last followers, his irremediable decline having begun a few years earlier having and earning him countless hospital stays. An emblematic figure of the accursed poet, Verlaine finally died on 8 January 1896 of acute pneumonia.
After sending 80 francs to Verlaine, the publisher Armand Colin (1842-1900) was to make a first publication of four of the latter’s poems in his Revue pour les jeunes filles of October 5:
“Intermittences”, “Sites urbains”, “Clochi-clocha” and “En septembre”. Each of these poems was republished in the Œuvres posthumes de Verlaine, published by Messein in 1911.
Poet and composer, Adrien Remacle (1855-1916) was from 1885 the director of La Revue contemporaine, to which Verlaine occasionally contributed. Remacle was in return the dedicatee of a poem in the collection Dédicace, which appeared in 1890. Remacle drew from the Fêtes galantes a drama-ballet in two acts, premiered in Paris on February 9, 1914 on the stage of the Théâtre idéaliste.
Provenance:
Catalogue G. Morssen, Paris, fall 1968
H.D. collection
Reference:
Œuvres poétiques complètes, éd. J. Borel, Pléiade, p. 1033-1036 (for the verses)
Unpublished letter