VERLAINE Paul (1844 - 1896)

VERLAINE Paul (1844 - 1896)
Autograph POEM with DRAWING, The White Flag, July 1881| 1 page in-8 on graph paper.
Patriotic poem, illustrated with an amusing original pen-and-ink drawing.
This patriotic sonnet appeared in 1888 in the collection Amour, under the definitive title of Drapeau vrai, and dedicated to the poet Raymond de La Tailhède (1867 - 1938).
At the top of this clean manuscript, Verlaine noted an alternative title (or title of a group of poems): "Bouquet à Marianne". This manuscript has variants with the published text.
"The soldier who knows well and wants well his job
Will be the man that it is necessary to the inflexible Duty, The Duty, that it fights or that it shoots with the target, That it accepts the death or refuses a setier| [...]
Family, home, ancient and immortal France, The Duty, the only duty, the Soldier that called
In advance this France, - or the hope is such".
In the upper left margin, Verlaine has made an amusing pen drawing of a newspaper peddler, dressed in checked pants and wearing a high cap. He brandishes various sheets, Voltaire, the XIXth century, the French Republic, holding in the other hand the
Time and the Debates, and shouts in a bubble: "Buy the latest news!" Above, this caption: "There is the merchant of the real bad newspapers".
PROVENANCE Victor Sanson Collection (his small stamp VS| sale March 13, 1936, No. 184)| Dominique de Ville pin , Feux &| flammes. Un itinéraire politique.
I Les Voleurs de feu (November 28, 2013, no. 67).