Paul VERLAINE entrusts Léo d'Orfer with RIMBAUD's "Heart Supplied".

Paul Verlaine (1844.1896)

Autograph letter signed to Léo d'Orfer.

One page in-12° on graph paper.

Paris. October 2 [1885].

“Attached verses found by Rimbaud. »

Important letter from the poet entrusting Cœur tortured .

__________________________________________

“Dear Sir, This is a business card. Excuse my immense delay. I had so many tiles and snakes! You will know ! We will resume our correspondence. Me, sick in bed with joint rheumatism in my legs, I will write rather short, it tires me to write. You, abound, pl [m] ez! Yours at heart. P. Verlaine. Attached verses found by Rimbaud. My address. 6, St François courtyard. Rue Moreau. Paris. »

__________________________________________

The “found verses” mentioned here by Verlaine are those from Rimbaud’s “Cœur supplicié”; Verlaine had copied the first two stanzas. Coming from the collection of the singer Joseph Canqueteau, friend of Verlaine, this letter (and the verses then attached) were presented in facsimile by Francis Carco.

Léo d'Orfer (1859.1924), poet and journalist, was, with Gustave Kahn, the co-founder of the literary magazine La Vogue. It is within the pages of this review that the poetry of the man with the soles of wind appears, from the first issue of April 1886 and for one of the first times.

Paul Verlaine. General Correspondence. Ed. Fayard. Volume I, pages 910-911.