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Baudelaire, the spleen of modernity: his last breath at 46

2021-11-19T05:28:40.707Z


WEBSERIES 9/9 - Le Figaro Hors-Série devotes an exceptional number to the accursed poet. After more than a year of struggling to overcome the stroke that shrank his body, Charles surrenders to death.


In March 1866, with Félicien Rops and Auguste Poulet-Malassis, Baudelaire was visiting the Saint-Loup church in Namur, which he considers to be the masterpiece of masterpieces, when suddenly, seized with unease , he tripped on a step and collapsed. The next day, his friends brought him back to Brussels. He seems to be recovering from this ailment, but at the end of the month Charles suffers a stroke that paralyzes half of his body. Warned by Augustus, Narcisse Ancelle immediately went to his bedside. Baudelaire was soon admitted to a nursing home, the Saint-Jean-et-Sainte-Elisabeth institute. He now suffers from aphasia and keeps repeating “

Cré… nom

”. His gaze, however, shows that he has lost none of his intelligence.

To read also Michel De Jaeghere: "Baudelaire, the alchemist of the pain"

Soon her mother also arrives in Brussels.

Charles finding it harder and harder to bear the obligation made by the sisters to comply with the religious ritual of the institute, his friends decide to relocate him to the Hôtel du Grand Miroir before repatriating him to Paris.


Accompanied by Caroline Aupick and his servant Aimée, supported by the painter Alfred Stevens, Baudelaire arrives at Gare du Nord and he is immediately taken to a hotel in the area.

Three doctors will come to examine him.

They advise transporting him to the nursing home of Dr Emile Duval.

He was admitted there on July 4, 1866.

Read also Baudelaire, the spleen of modernity: the revolt of the South Seas

At first, Charles is rather cheerful and shares his meals with other residents. All his friends come to see him. Once a week, Nadar even takes her to dinner in town, but, after a few months, you have to give up this outing. She tires him. On the other hand, he seems to find a certain going when Apollonie Sabatier comes to play an aria from

Wagner's

Tannhäuser

on the piano

. He watches his hands run over the keys. Does he remember their brief affair? It had been a fiasco. In reality Charles had never wanted to make her his mistress. She was a "

passer-by

" and should have stayed that way. Despite the injury he inflicted on her, she remained his friend. A muse.

Sometimes, eyes closed, Baudelaire thinks of other women who have crossed his path. They left him with no other memory than a fragrance like Emmelina, the Creole lady. More often he thinks of his father and recites to himself, without saying a word, "

You were having a good time (...) / abbots, rockeries, / Spiritual, polite and gossip people ...

". He wants to believe that his father and the faithful Mariette will be his intercessors with God. On the other hand, he rarely feels tenderness for his mother anymore. She that he loved so much and that he still loves, perhaps. But almost every day, she irritates him because of a pair of slippers, a brush, some things. He then gets angry,agitated with such frenzy that Dr Duval ended up advising Caroline Aupick to return to Honfleur.

After his departure, Charles, word after word, comes out of his aphasia. He soon manages to form a few sentences. Is healing near? Baudelaire himself set a deadline: March 31. He crossed out the date on his calendar. In the meantime, his friends urge Auguste Poulet-Malassis to publish a third edition of

Fleurs du mal

. The latter hesitates, because he is still subject to legal sanctions in France and therefore cannot, without risk, return to Paris.

The days pass. Sometimes Baudelaire talks about returning to Honfleur, sometimes he plans a trip to Nice. But the closer March approached, the darker Charles grew. Soon, everyone understands that they no longer believe in their recovery. He seems resigned. Maybe he is. Or else shot. He never leaves his bed. His gaze, always so attentive when a friend comes to shake his hand, is filled with sadness. Motionless, he seems to be waiting for a sign or perhaps the tocsin.

Warned of the state in which her son was, Caroline Aupick returned to Paris on May 21, 1867. Charles showed no joy at seeing her again, but he was no longer angry with her.

Against anyone else.

He remains motionless, his eyes wide open.

No one knows if he recites poems or a prayer.

On August 31, at eleven o'clock in the morning, armed with the sacraments he himself had requested, Baudelaire weighed anchor.


Cover of the Figaro Hors-Série Baudelaire, the spleen of modernity Étienne Carjat, 1861

On Figaro Store,

Le Figaro Hors-Série

Baudelaire, the spleen of modernity, € 12.90

Source: lefigaro

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