Charles BAUDELAIRE - Autograph letter signed to Poulet Malassis.

Charles Baudelaire (1821.1867)

Autograph letter signed to Auguste Poulet Malassis.

Two pages in-4°. Autograph address on the 4th ^leaf , initialed by Baudelaire.

Slight loss on the 4th ^sheet (stamp) without affecting the text.

[Paris] – December 7, 1858. 9 p.m.

Baudelaire and his contractual and literary disputes with Poulet Malassis.

“Try therefore to find in your heart a new means to give me the rest which I seek so ardently. »

“My dear friend, you made me very happy and now you make me very unhappy . Everything contained in your letter is very correct and truly irrefutable, except at the end ( the expedient ) which is absurd. However, I am responding to your letter, because it is, in short, only the repetition of objections which you and I had not anticipated and which I hoped to be able to raise or make you find slight.

Above all, two things: first, if I had accomplished all the work which represents entire desired sum, I would not need to implore your help . Then, notice that I did not hide from myself that this was an exceptional service; but, at the same time, you understood that for me it was a question of security , of immediate enjoyment , and consequently of more active work . Didn't this have a value, a moral value at least? When you ask me to do something that is difficult to accomplish, or that even involves risk, I will do my best to do it .

Now, your letter: I told you, to summarize briefly: “I have a treaty to accomplish; he gives me a deadline of six months ; I delegate to you the income involved in the treaty, and, to respond to you in the case of laziness or death, I leave you a receipt for your tickets , with the possibility of being reimbursed from income of another nature. » In neither case , I admit, is the concordance between your deadlines and mine absolutely guaranteed. (In your letter, there is only talk of this terrible concordance). When, in our conversation, you raised this objection, which was indeed quite serious for you, I replied that I could only resolve it through the zeal and the promise that de Calonne made to me to always print as I send him material.

A few more words: nothing I have told you is absurd ; you doubt nothing that I have told you. So try to find in your heart a new way to give me the rest that I seek so ardently . For example: notes from me, payable to my mother (small added guarantee, that is to say the horror of a protest at my mother's) and as, after all, Malassis would remain responsible as endorser, I would also make him the two delegations in question, however absurd that may seem.

Need I tell you that you can shoot me, as you intended (I just thought of that nonsense), and that I just ask you to be exact ? As you have a strange mind, I beg you not to see here either an epigram or a caper. You were wrong to crown the explanation of your fears with recriminations against indiscreet people. Why do you want me to carry faults that are not mine? All yours. Answer me 22 rue Beautreillis, and immediately . You can probably guess what state I am in . Baudelaire. Hello to De Broise, I hope you don't tell him all this. If you did not reply to me at 22, rue Beautreillis, the letter would not reach me until very late .