Paul VALÉRY (1871-1945). Autograph manuscript, [Le Cimetière - Lot 155

Paul VALÉRY (1871-1945). Autograph manuscript, [Le Cimetière marin]; 9pages small in-4 (20 x 16 cm). Complete working manuscript of this poetic masterpiece. Inspired by the Sète cemetery, published on June 1, 1920 in the Nouvelle Revue française, before a volume edition in August by Émile-Paul frères, Le Cimetière marin underwent a long maturation, with several successive versions. The manuscript is carefully written, as if cleaned up, in midnight-blue ink on the front of sheets of wove paper, with erasures and corrections in ink, and annotations and corrections in pencil, reflecting Valéry's hesitations in the succession of stanzas. It is paginated from [1] to 7, with 2 leaves 5, and one unencrypted leaf. Below, we follow the definitive order of the stanzas, and indicate only the main variants. The first leaf contains the first 3 stanzas, with the famous incipit: "This quiet roof, where doves walk, Between the pines palpitates, between the tombs"... The beginning of the 3rd verse of stanza 3 has a variant: "Parmi les pins", which will be changed to "Eau sourcilleuse" in the edition. The numbers 3 and 2 in the pencil margin of stanzas 2 and 3 indicate that Valéry had considered inverting them. Sheet 2 contains the current stanzas 4 ("Temple du Temps"...), 5 ("Comme le fruit"...) and 9 ("Sais-tu, fausse captive"...). The beginning of the 4th verse of stanza 4 has been corrected: "Je feins" crossed out and replaced by "Et comme"; at the end of the verse, variant in pencil: "j'aspirais le ciel même". There are two other marginal variants in pencil, and a hesitation on the order of the stanzas. The unencrypted sheet shows stanzas 7 ("L'âme exposée"...), 8 ("O pour moi seul"...) and 6 ("Beau ciel, vrai ciel"...) in their final form, but in a different order. Sheet 3 contains stanzas 10 to 12 ("Closed, sacred"..., "Splendid bitch"..., "Here come"...). The 2nd line of stanza 10 has been heavily crossed out and then corrected. There are a few other variations and corrections in pencil. Sheet 4 shows stanzas 13 to 15 ("Les morts cachés"..., "Tu n'as que moi"..., "Ils ont fondu"...), in their final form. Leaflet 5 presents stanzas 16 ("Les cris aigus"...), 19 ("Pères profonds"...) and 20 ("Amour, peut-être"...); at the end of the first, Valéry notes in pencil "Maigre" (to insert the present stanza 18). The last stanza contains a number of erasures and corrections; the wording of the first line: "Est-il Amour, impatience, ou haine?" has been largely crossed out and corrected; in the 2nd line, Valéry crosses out "profonde" with two possible variants: "si fine" and "secrète"; the 4th line began "Je sais", crossed out and replaced by "Qu'importe! The other sheet 5 gives stanzas 16, 19 and 21 ("Zénon, cruel Zénon"...), with a few variations in pencil not retained in stanza19. Sheet 6 contains stanzas 17 ("Et vous, grande âme"...), 18 ("Maigre immortalité"...) and 21. The first has some variants, notably in the 2nd line and the order of the 4th and 5th lines. The other two have found their definitive form. Sheet 7 contains the last three stanzas of the poem, 22 ("Non, non!... Debout"...), 23 ("Oui! grande mer"...) and 24 ("Le vent se lève!"...), with erasures and corrections for the first two. These 9 leaves are contained in an envelope addressed to Mademoiselle Gobillard and Monsieur and Madame Paul Valéry, 40 rue de Villejust, 1923.