Verlaine is looking for the manuscript of Les Illuminations: « I don’t really know where I’m going, it’s called not living anymore »

[RIMBAUD] VERLAINE, Paul (1844-1896)

Autograph letter signed " Votre P Verlaine " to l'abbé Louis Le Cardonnel Paris, 9 Feb[ruary] [18]86, 2 p. 1/4 in-8° on mourning paper Fold marks, some stains

Verlaine is looking for the manuscript of Les Illuminations

" Mon cher Le Cardonnel On ne vous voie plus ; que devenez-vous donc ? Combien j'aimerais à vous voir ! Tâchez d'avoir le plus tôt possible les Illuminations et apportez-les-moi en toute hâte. Très pressé [en] vue [d'] une édition probable de Rimbaud complet[e]. – Hélas 15 ans tout ce que cette femme intelligente [Mathilde Mauté] n'en détient ou a [deux mots caviardés] détruit. Ma situation se fonce ou se défonce, au choix. Je ne sais vraiment où je vais, c'est ce qu'on appelle ne plus vivre. Une inquiétude animale que berce je ne sais quel zutisme qui est peut-être l'espoir en tel lieu. Je travaille ferme cependant ? Voici presque les mémoires d'un veuf sur le " marbre ", et je termine deux autres volumes en prose dont la seconde série des Poètes Maudits. […] Apportez donc enfin les vers et à très bientôt, n'est-ce pas ? Votre P Verlaine "

All the poems forming the Illuminations were given by Rimbaud to Verlaine during their last meeting, in February 1875, in Stuttgart. A few months later, Verlaine sent a file of "prose poems" (which he did not yet call Les Illuminations) to Germain Nouveau, according to a letter from Verlaine to Ernest Delahaye. The manuscript was then returned to Verlaine, who handed it over to his brother-in-law, Charles de Sivry. The latter kept it for many years before giving it to Louis Le Cardonnel, who entrusted it to one of his friends, Louis Fière. It was from there that Verlaine finally managed to have it sent to Gustave Khan, director of the magazine La Vogue, who published it in May and June 1886. Verlaine takes on the features of a "Pitiful brother" in the poem "Vagabonds", in Les Illuminations.

Les Mémoires d'un veuf was published the same year by his publisher, Léon Vanier. The other work to which Verlaine refers may be Louise Leclercq, also published in 1886.

The second edition of Les Poètes maudits appeared in 1888. In addition, there are three portraits in addition to those of Corbière, Rimbaud and Mallarmé: Desbordes-Valmore, Villiers de l'Isle-Adam and Verlaine himself, under the anagram of Pauvre Lélian. Finally, it is interesting to note that Verlaine here openly accuses his wife of holding or having "destroyed" Rimbaud's manuscripts.

Unpublished letter