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From the Poet to the Adventurer
Arthur in September-October 1871. Photograph by Carjat. |
"The Child of Anger"
"The Infernal Husband"
"The Man with Foot Soles of Wind"
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"The man was tall, well-built, almost athletic, with the perfectly oval face of an angel in exile, with
untidy light brown hair and eyes of a disturbing pale blue"
Paul Verlaine : The Accursed Poets
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Jean-Nicolas-Arthur Rimbaud was born in
Charleville, in the Ardennes, October 20, 1854. His father, Captain of Infantry Frédéric Rimbaud
and his mother, Vitalie Cuif, descended from a farming family of Ardennes, married in 1853. Arthur had an elder brother,
Frédéric. His sisters Vitalie and Isabelle are born in 1858 and in 1860.
Then their father definitively joined his regiment in Grenoble, leaving
his wife and children. He quickly retired to Dijon. Deeply hurt, his
wife kept silence on him. The children were very strictly educated,
because their mother feared that they would follow the bad example of
their father and uncles Cuif.
The two boys first entered the Rossat Institute. Then in 1865, the Charleville College,
where Arthur met Ernest Delahaye, who remained his most faithful friend.
Arthur Rimbaud 10 years old, among the students of the Rossat Institute
(The 3rd sat from the left).
As
a brilliant student and a model pupil, he accumulated the prizes,
especially in rhetoric. At thirteen years old, he secretly sent a
tribute to the Imperial Prince who had just made his first communion.
He wrote his first lines in Latin : in 1869, he won the first prize in
an academic contest for Ver Erat, the Angel and the Child, and Jugutha. One of his professors of third year, Mr. Pérette
said about him : "Intelligent, as much as you want, but he has eyes and a smile which I do not like. He will end badly : in any
case, nothing banal will germinate in this head : it will be the genius of good or evil !"
In January 1870, the Review published his first lines : the Orphans' New Year gifts. Then a new teacher of rhetoric,
Georges
Izambard, himself poet, arrived from Paris. He became fond of Arthur and made him happy by
letting him use his personal library. Mrs Rimbaud thought that some of the books could corrupt her son.
On May 24, 1870, hoping to be published in the contemporary Parnassus, Arthur sent to Theodore Banville :
Sensation, Ophelia
and Credo in Unam (first Sun and Flesh version), then the following year What we say to the poet about flowers.
He is not discouraged by these failures.
In
1871, France waged war against Prussia. Everything is disorganised.
Izambard left for Douai letting the access of his library to Arthur.
Arthur walked round and round and became really bored : "My city is
exceptionally idiot among all the small provincial towns" he wrote to
him.
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On
August 29, for the first time, he ran away to Paris, via Charleroi. His
ticket not being valid for the whole journey, he was imprisoned in
Mazas. On the intervention of Izambard, he is released and goes to
Douai to spend fifteen days at the Gindre Ladies' house, Izambard's old
aunts.
His return home is not very warm. Also, on October 7, Arthur ran away
again for Belgium (Charleroi), then Brussels, before returning to the
Gindre Ladies' house in Douai. There, he wrote up his poems and sent
them to Paul Demeny,
a young poet introduced to him by Yzambard.
On November 1, Rimbaud's mother asked the Police to bring him back
home. The college buildings were requisitioned as a hospital and the
school was closed. So Arthur spent a lot of time in Charleville's
library.
On February 25, 1871, he ran away one more time to Paris, by train.
Completely broke, he wandered for fifteen days and finally went back on
foot to Charleville on March 10th.
When the Commune broke out in Paris on March 18th, he
shares the insurrectionists' feelings. He expresses them in Parisian Song of War,
Jeanne-Marie's Hands, Paris is Repeopled.
He was completely revolted, became anarchist, violent, started to drink
and had fun to behave scandalously. It is the "disorder of all the
senses". He explained his behaviour and feelings
to his friends Izambard and Demeny, in two letters known as "of the Visionary". He asked Demeny to burn
the poems that he previously sent to him, judging them outmoded. Fortunately, his friend did not do it.
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Arthur in 1871. Drawing by Delahaye |
 At the end of August, he wrote and sent poems to Verlaine. Charmed, Verlaine invites him
in Paris : "Come, dear great soul, you are called,
you are awaited". Mid-September, Rimbaud went to Paris with his poem the Drunken Boat.
Verlaine is married to the rich girl of a middle-class man,
Mathilde Mauté de Fleurville,
and was living in his parents-in-law's home. The arrival of Arthur
caused a scandal in the family, because of his rude, untidy and
insulting behaviour. He was so undesirable, that he was finally lodged
with different friends of Verlaine. This one went back to drinking and
spent most of his time hanging about with Rimbaud. They kept company
with the Circle of Zutique Poets, created by Charles Cros,
who met at Hotel Des Etrangers, boulevard Saint-Michel, and
contributed to the collective Album
of the group. Ernest Cabaner, the barman, was teaching piano to Rimbaud
with the method of musical chromaticism, colouring notes and giving
them the sound of a vowel (It seems to be the real source of Rimbaud's
inspiration for the poem " Vowels").
Arthur was his assistant in the club for some months, then he could
sleep in the room. But with his sullen and aggressive attitude, being
rude to everybody, Arthur was quickly frowned on by all.
The Corner of Table by Fantin-Latour
Sat, from the left to the right :
Paul Verlaine, Arthur Rimbaud, L.Valade, E. d’Hervilly, C. Pelletan.
Stood :
E. Bonnier, E. Blémont, J. Aicard.
 Verlaine supported him.
Their love affair was a scandal. They lead a dissolute life and haunted Cafes, getting drunk with absinthe.
Victim of conjugal acts of violence, Mathilde ends up fleeing with her son.
In March, Verlaine promised to break off with Rimbaud who had returned to Charleville so she agreed to go back home.
Back to Paris in May, disappointed by his Parisian experience and
Verlaine who preferred his life as a good father, Arthur decided to
travel, with or without him. He contacted Verlaine and succeeded in
persuading him to go. Together they left for Brussels in July 1872.
Mathilde wanted to bring her husband back home, so she joined them with
her mother. But Verlaine preferred to follow Rimbaud and abandoned her
at the station, near the frontier. She went back to Paris and asked for
a legal separation.
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Verlaine and Rimbaud in London (Sept-Dec 1872) Drawing by Felix Régamey. |
At the beginning of September, from Ostend they went to London. They
saw the sea for the first time. On their arrival, they contacted the
exile Communards, like Eugène Vermersh and Félix Regamey. They were
helped to settle near Soho,
34 Howland Street.
Being enthusiastic about the town, Rimbaud composed part of the Illuminations and
Verlaine wrote the "Romances sans Paroles".
But
Verlaine is harassed by the papers about the legal separation asked for
by his wife. She had his fits of violence due to alcohol and had his
weird behaviour in Brussels against him. He lost heart and lamented,
overwhelmed with remorse. Following his mother's advises, Rimbaud went
back to Charleville in December.
He stayed three weeks there. Depressed and sick, Verlaine called for
help desperately. Arthur and Verlaine's mother ran to his bedside.
Life went on as before with walks, reading and studies.
On April 4, they left London. Verlaine went to Namur, always obsessed by the idea of being
reconciled with his wife. But she refused all contact.
All alone, Arthur returned to Roche
on April 11 and started to write a Pagan Book, or Negro Book, which became a Season in Hell.
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At the beginning of July, he agreed to go back to London with Verlaine,
via Liège and Anvers. They settled in 8 Great College street, Camden
Town. They improved their English and gave French lessons. Their
strange love affair begun to be known in the Communard circle of London
which expelled them. It is mentioned in the reports of the police
informers, who infiltrated the group. Verlaine felt that his
reputation was lost and began to see that he would lose his case
against his wife if the rumour was heard in Paris. He started to drink
again.
Arthur was more and more unbearable. They began to fight more and more
often with fists but also with knifes. Following a violent argument,
Verlaine left Rimbaud and took refuge in Brussels, still hoping that
her wife would come and that they would be reconciled. Very emotional,
he spoke about suicide in his letters. His mother joined him and he sent
a telegram for Arthur to come too.
July
10, understanding that Rimbaud wanted absolutely to go back to Paris,
Verlaine fired two shots of revolver at him. One of them hits him in
the wrist. After being treated in the Saint-Jean hospital, Arthur made
his way towards the station. Verlaine threatening him again, he takes
fright and calls a policeman. Verlaine is taken to the police station
and the day after, he is transferred to the prison of Petites-Carmes.
He is subjected to a medico-legal examination which concluded that he
had homosexual habits. On August 8, he is sentenced to two years of
imprisonment by Brussels magistrates' court for assaults and grievous
bodily harm,
and got a 200F fine, in spite of Rimbaud's declaration in
his favour. Arthur had been hospitalised so the bullet can be removed from his wrist.
Rimbaud wounded, painting by Jef Rosman. Collection Rimbaud's Museum, Charleville.
© photograph all right reserved.
Behind Rimbaud, it is written :
"French epilogue
Portrait of the French Arthur Rimbaud, wounded after drink by his close friend the French poet Paul Verlaine
Painted from life by Jef Bosman at Mrs Pincemaille's home, tobacconist's shopkeeper, Rue Des Bouchers in Brussels".
July 20, after having signed an act of renunciation of
his complaint the day before, Arthur, desperate, went back to Roche and locked up in the
loft finished writing a Season in Hell.
In August, he brought the manuscript to a printer in Brussels. October 22nd, being
unable to pay for the printer,
he took some copies, gave them to rare friends, and abandoned the edition of his book.
He left one of them for Verlaine in prison. But he only found hostility : everybody reproached him about the decline of Paul.
In March 1874, he went back to London with Germain Nouveau,
another poet who helped him to write up the Illuminations.
They settle in 178 Stamford Street and give French lessons. Nouveau
went back to Paris in June, probably to escape Arthur's bad reputation
which could damage his promising young career. Depressed, Arthur wrote
a letter to his family and in July, he received a visit from his mother
and sister Vitalie. On July 31, he left London for a job in
Scarborough. He went back to Charleville at the end of December.
Until 1879, he wandered, most of time on foot, in all Europe.
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