VERLAINE. - Lot 222

VERLAINE. Title: Romances sans paroles. Description: Sens, Typography by Maurice L’Hermitte, 1874. Small 8vo, (4)-48-(1) pp. Modern Lavallière slipcase, smooth spine, title gilded lengthwise and framed, double gilded line as a border with fleurons in the spandrels on the covers, gilded roulette on the endpapers, cover preserved (minor signs of wear on the front cover, a few discreet foxing spots on the first two leaves but a fine copy). Note: Rare first edition. One of 300 copies on tinted vellum, single printing, without large-format paper. The four-part work—*Ariettes oubliées*, *Paysages belges*, *Birds in the Night*, and *Aquarelle*—features some of Verlaine’s most intense poems, composed during his escapade with Rimbaud and amid his toxic social circle. A fine copy with its rare cover bearing the address “Chez tous les libraires.” A copy sent by the author to Edmond Haraucourt, as indicated on the half-title page. “To Edmond Haraucourt / With warm regards / P. Verlaine.” A Parnassian poet known, among other things, for the criticism Léon Daudet leveled against him, Edmond Haraucourt (1856–1941) was a novelist, journalist, composer, and lyricist who became famous for his obscene sonnets sought after by old men and schoolboys alike, *La Légende des sexes*. A “gargoyle of the highest order,” he vociferated a masculine and rugged poetry. Although we know from his correspondence that Verlaine set aside signed copies of *Romances* for the press office, he did not meet Haraucourt until later, comrades in letters and in nocturnal transgressions among the Parisian scene, after the “cursed poet” returned from his Belgian captivity and the scandal surrounding *La Légende*, which also contained homosexual verses. Bibliography: Galantaris, 31: “Verlaine had wanted to dedicate the collection to Arthur Rimbaud, first as a protest— he said—and then because these verses were written while he was there and had greatly encouraged me to write them. Friends intervened, as they feared a scandal, and the volume was ultimately published without a dedication.” Montel, 18–20. Léon Daudet, *Fantômes et vivants*, 1914; *Souvenirs politiques et littéraires* (Bouquins, 1992).