"[Autograph Letter] Charles BAUDELAIRE - Complete Works BAUDELAIRE, Charles. Autograph letter signed ""C.B."", addressed to his printer Eugène de Broise, in Alençon, containing a poem from Les Fleurs du Mal. [Paris, May 27, 1857]. 1 p. in-8. Address on verso of second leaf with stamp and postmarks. Exceptional unpublished letter containing Baudelaire's last poem for Les Fleurs du Mal, in an early version. BAUDELAIRE COMPLETES LES FLEURS DU MAL AND COMMISSIONS THE FINAL GENERAL COPY. "Dear Sir, here is the last piece, the hundredth! - The Table! The Cover! Send back the whole copy and check all the numbers and figures in the Table with the correct sheets. Finally, please accept my apologies for all your troubles. C. B. C The Death of Artists How many times must I shake my bells And kiss your low forehead, dreary caricature? To prick at the goal, mystic quadrature, O my quiver, how many javelins to lose? We'll wear out our souls in subtle plots, And demolish many a heavy frame, Before contemplating the great Creature Whose infernal desire fills us with sobs! There are some who have never known their Idol, And these sculptors damned and branded with an affront, Who hammer their chests and foreheads, Have but one hope, - strange and dark Capitol: That Death, hovering like a new Sun, Will make the flowers of their brains bloom! "" In addition to changes in punctuation, the first stanza contains some notable variations on the printed version: ""Combien de fois faut-il secouer mes grelots"" becomes ""Combien faut-il de fois secouer mes grelots""; ""Pour piquer dans le but, mystique quadrature"" becomes ""Pour piquer dans le but, de mystique nature"" and ""O my quiver, how many javelins to lose? "will become "Combien, ô mon carquois, perdre de javelots? "etc. This is piece "C" [cent] in the first edition of Les Fleurs du Mal, which later became piece CXLVIII in the third edition, and then piece CXXIII. This letter is not included in Claude Pichois's Correspondance de la Pléiade. Bibliography (for the poem): Baudelaire, Œuvres complètes, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, pp. 120 and 1560. Letter folded and bound in a copy of Baudelaire's Œuvres complètes. Paris, Michel Lévis Frères, 1868-1869. 6 volumes in-8. Red half-maroquin, gilt head (period binding). One title detached, freckles. Bound in volume 4 is the printed article of Baudelaire's obituary, by Théophile Gautier, published in the Moniteur universel, September 9, 1867. "For a long time already, Death had been circling Charles Baudelaire; it had placed its thin finger on his forehead [...]". Expert: Emmanuel Lorient."