MALLARMÉ, Stéphane.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Four original manuscript poems. Handwritten poems by Mallarmé for his friend and relative, the prolific novelist Victor Margueritte. Each poem reveals the recipient's location; three are written on envelopes instead of a traditional address and were successfully delivered by the postal employee forced to untangle Mallarmé's verse. In the unposted fourth poem, Mallarmé sets the postal service on his own trail. These poems were posthumously published in Vers de circonstance (1920), which collected Mallarmé's "circumstantial poems" - brief and often amusing verses written in response to everyday life. They include toasts for dinner parties, birthday poems for friends, and Christmas missives. The present poems pose varying degrees of difficulty as Mallarmé orders the "Post", like a hunting dog, to follow Margueritte's trail and "catch him in your net". Our translated text of the poems is as follows, followed by the original French:"Poets, a vanished troop! Victor Margueritte is one of them: He lives sometimes on Bellechasse Street, 42". ("Poëtes, troupe disparue! Victor Margueritte est l'un d'eux: Il habite à ses heures rue Bellechasse, Quarante-deux", Vers de circonstance XXV, revised slightly in the published version). "Victor Margueritte (you are ordered, Post, to catch him in your net), Street... is it Bellepêche? No; but 42 Bellechasse". ("Victor Margueritte (on t'enjoint, Poste, de le prendre en ta nasse) Rue... est-ce Bellepêche? point; Mais, quarante-deux, Bellechasse", V

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