• 31/03/2023
• By wizewebsite
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In the footsteps of an ancient drama. Why did Paul Verlaine shoot the love of his life?<

For the anniversary, Gazeta Wyborcza has prepared an extensive reconstruction of that day in its Large format section. He described the event in great detail, as many testimonies have been preserved. Either from the artists themselves or their closest relatives, as well as in the Brussels police archives.

They met for the first time in Paris at the end of September 1871. The 17-year-old Rimbaud bombarded Verlaine, who was ten years older and already well-known, with letters containing his poems. Paul was excited about them, but took his time with his answer. In the end, he invited the young man to Paris and sent him money for the train. "He has a dear, great soul. Sir, come on. Here we invoke the Lord. We are waiting here for the Lord!” he wrote in reply. He probably couldn't imagine how this meeting would totally ruin his life.

Verlaine had a young wife at the time, who had just given birth to a son. But he could not be a good father. He fell in love. Both men regularly got drunk, Verlaine also because of remorse. They shamelessly displayed their homosexual relationship in front of conservative society. Rimbaud was the active and aggressive one in their relationship. Verlaine beat his wife several times in fits of drunkenness. He even tried to attack their son. The woman eventually ran away from him with the child to her parents. And she filed for divorce. And a three-year period of absolute freedom began for the poets.

Life outside Paris

They left Paris, lived in Brussels and London. There they were even followed by the secret police because of their flamboyant homosexuality. They wallowed in drunkenness, debauchery, and what Arthur called “disengagement of all senses.” They broke up several times. But a desperate Paul called Rimbaud back regularly.

So it happened the day before the shooting, when his lover returned from London to see him. Rimbaud showed up at a Brussels hotel and was barely moved by the presence of Paul's mother, who had come to see her son from France, horrified by a letter in which he confessed to her suicidal thoughts. Rimbaud passionately embraced the depressed Verlaine, they went to the bedroom together, but after a few hours he made it clear to him that they could no longer be together. Nevertheless, they fell asleep in each other's arms in one bed. Both drunk.

In the morning, Paul woke up first. He was sure there was only one solution for them. He ate breakfast at the hotel with beer, wine, absinthe and a few slices of bread, and then set out for the gun shop. He bought a revolver and a box of 50 rounds. It was only with difficulty that he inserted three of them into the drum. After returning to the hotel, he found that Rimbaud had already received money for the train to Paris from Verlaine's mother. Mother had only one goal. So that the cursed Rimbaud would drop out of her son's life. But Paul couldn't just sit back and watch his love pack her suitcase. He pulled out a revolver.

“What do you need it for?” Arthur asked. Verlaine shouted, “It's a weapon against me, against you, against the whole world!” Realizing that threats wouldn't move Arthur, he locked the room. "You're not going anywhere," he groaned. "But I will go," replied Rimbaud. "I'll show you what it means to leave now," Verlaine yelled and fired twice. The first shot wounded Arthur in the left wrist. Rimbaud fell to the floor, which probably saved his life. The second shot only hit the wall behind him.

Verlaine fled to his mother's room, where after a while Rimbaud also arrived with a bleeding hand. "Shoot me," Paul demanded of Arthur. After a while, everyone calmed down. They decided to keep this budding scandal a secret from the world. Moreover, Arthur's injury was not too severe.

In the evening, they left for the Gare du Midi station, from where Rimbaud was to leave for Paris. Verlaine's hand was still in his pocket. His face was mad. He made dangerous speeches. Frightened, Rimbaud called the police. A skirmish broke out, which was fatal for Paul.

Two years in prison

Policeman Auguste Michel brought the three to the police station at eight o'clock in the evening and reported to Inspector Joseph Delhalle that he had seized Verlain's revolver, which was still loaded. The inspector interrogated the detainees one by one. Rimbaud and Verlaine stuck to their agreed-upon excuse, insisting that Paul was drunk and the whole thing was really an accident.

But certain little things appeared that led to Delhallein's distrust: a telegram inviting the future victim, the purchase of a revolver, threats, locking the door. Everything looked like an intentional crime. Verlain had to empty his pockets and headed for detention. It did not occur to Rimbaud or Madame Verlain that the letters and papers seized by the police contained evidence of the poets' intimate relationship. And crimes against morality at that time are much more serious than an attempted shooting.

Inspector Delhalle also found in the pockets of Verlaine's overcoat the features of poems, one of the main motifs of which was an explicit declaration of love for a young man. Verlaine was therefore subjected to a medical examination at Petits-Carmes prison. According to the medical report, he was said to have committed "passive sodomy acts" in the recent past. The fact that Rimbaud withdrew his accusation no longer mattered. On August 8, 1873, Verlaine was sentenced to two years in prison for violating public morals.

He ended up serving two years in prison in Mons. There, in 1874, he was also served with a judgment on the final dissolution of the marriage and the entrustment of the son to the mother's care. Verlaine met Rimbaud briefly for the last time in Stuttgart. There he took over his poems from him, which he published in 1886 under the title Poems and Illuminations. He lived in poverty, perpetually drunk on absinthe and increasingly dependent on the support of friends. He died8. January 1896 aged 51. The entire artistic Paris took part in the demonstration funeral of "the greatest French poet of his time".

Rimbaud publicly condemned his work, he even stopped writing for a while. The rest of his life was quite adventurous. He joined the colonial army. He deserted in Java, went through Sweden and Norway with the circus. He was an arms dealer in Ethiopia. He crossed the Somali desert. And finally he wrote new poems. All were published by Verlaine. He died of cancer on November 10, 1891, aged 37.