[Lunéville, November 9, 1893].
1 envelope (145 x 115 mm), postmark and date stamp, black ink.
Autograph envelope addressed to Philomène Boudin, known as “Esther.”
In November 1893, Verlaine was invited to give lectures in Lorraine, as he had already done in Belgium and Holland. Having just left the Broussais hospital, he came to speak on contemporary French poetry, first in Nancy on 8 November, at the Grand Hôtel de la Place Stanislas, and the following day in Lunéville, at the small salon des Halles. Both lectures were triumphs. Verlaine, as a shrewd strategist, had opened them with a reading of his “Ode à Metz,” a heartfelt tribute to his native city and region. He then continued his lecture tour in England (London, Oxford, Manchester, Dover), returning on 6 December.
During this period, more than 30 letters were sent to the “Mesdames Verlaine,” alias Philomène Boudin and Eugénie Krantz.
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