VERLAINE (Paul). Autograph letter signed to Henri de Régnier - Lot 118

Lot n° 118
Go to lot
Estimation :
600 - 800 EUR
Result with fees
Result : 2 860EUR
VERLAINE (Paul). Autograph letter signed to Henri de Régnier - Lot 118
VERLAINE (Paul). Autograph letter signed to Henri de Régnier. Paris, August 1887. 2 pp. in-8; traces of tabbing and restored split on white verso of second leaf. "TOUT EST BEL ET BON QUI EST BEL ET BON... CLASSICS, ROMANTICS, DECADENTS, SYMBOLOS, ASSONANTS AS LONG AS THEY GIVE ME THE SHIVERS OR SIMPLY CHARM ME...". "My dear de Régnier, you know the nature of the unliterary preoccupations that too often prevent me from being as punctual as I would like to be, and will give me credit for the few months - shame on me! - that it took me to respond to your gift of Sites [a collection of Henri de Régnier's works that had just been published by Léon Vanier in 1887]. This latest volume of yours marks a marked evolution in your style. The beautiful youthful serenity has disappeared; as you become more and more virile, your talent takes on deep, bitter accents that an irreproachable form masterfully retains in tone. Bravo again and again. There are some of your sonnets that I prefer to the others. Few, because the whole is very good, exquisite and strong, with a heroic "symbolism" of the noblest and most pleasing kind. Let me, however, admire especially nos. VI, VII, (VII especially), XI which venerate more particularly the beautiful, the good, the holy Nature, and - since I must! - this n° III. I have really been thinking for a long time about [Francis Vielé-]Griffin's request for an "exposé of principles" concerning the art of verse, etc. I have not been able to draw any conclusions from my work. I could only draw from my conscience this conclusion: "everything is beautiful and good that is beautiful and good, wherever it comes from and by whatever process it is obtained. Classical, romantic, decadent, "symbolos", assonant or, how shall I put it, obscure on purpose? as long as they give me the shivers or simply charm me, even and perhaps especially if, like Florian's turkey, I don't know for what cause, they all do my bidding [in his fable "The Monkey Showing the Magic Lantern", the animal evokes the wonders he thinks he's showing when he hasn't lit his lantern, and all the animals in the audience declare that they see nothing, except the turkey who affirms "I do see something ; / But I don't know why / I can't see very well"]. Come on, poets that we are, let's love one another. This maxim is no more stupid in art than it is in morals, and I think we should stick to it. Such is my well-considered theory". Sincerely yours and Griffin's. Come and see me sometime. I'm a bit nowhere now, but I hope soon to settle into some verisimilitude and some standard. But Vanier [his Parisian publisher Léon Vanier] would always know where to find me and will find..."
My orders
Sale information
Sales conditions
Return to catalogue