VERLAINE PAUL (1844-1896)

Lot 108
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Estimation :
1500 - 2000 EUR
VERLAINE PAUL (1844-1896)
Signed autograph letter addressed to Madame SOULEY-DARQUE Paris, Hôpital Cochin, salle Woillez, service of Doctor Beaumetz, bed 25, 27 June 1890. 3 pages in-12 on half a sheet of hospital paper in pencil, address in ink "Madame Souley-Darqué/8 villa Michel Ange / Auteuil". "Dear Madam, I entered here the very day after I had the honour and pleasure of seeing you, that is to say Thursday of the other week. I am in Salle Woilly, bed n°29 service of Dr. Meaumetz, for how long? That will depend a little on my health and a lot, a lot on Savine, my new publisher who owes me more than 300 francs. If he keeps his commitments, I am saved, (for I am in a working vein), and this by my own efforts, - which is better than all the protectors and subscribers on earth! Do you have the address of Mrs. Soulé and do you know if Madame Trébuchon is back in Paris. These ladies have been so kind to me, truly, that I owe them an apology for a thousand unintentional inaccuracies and I am prepared to pay all the honourable fines in the world. When you see either of them, please pass on to them my best memory and my promise of a visit to be forgiven. I saw Mr. Colombier and spoke to him. I have no doubt that thanks to him and by asking him first you will be able to enter the hospital triumphantly, on a day other than Thursday or Sunday, - congested days when you cannot cause serious trouble, - and stay as long as you like, without worrying about what time to enter or leave - and I await your good visit. [...]». The letter is sent during Verlaine's short and unique stay in Cochin from June 19 to July 22, 1890. Driven by illness, but above all by poverty, he carried out many other stations in various Parisian hospitals, especially at Broussais during the last ten years of his life, from 1886 to 1895. During this period various benefactors mobilized to provide him with better asylums and less precarious living conditions. It is likely that the addressee of this lett
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