APOLLINAIRE Guillaume (1880-1918). Lot n° 5

MANUSCRIT autograph signed "Guillaume Apollinaire", La Vie anecdotique - Hymne de la Société des Nations. - Le Tabac, [August 1918]; 12 leaves in-8 written on the front, mounted on wove paper leaves in a large volume in-8; soft ebony chagrin binding with gilt title on the upper cover, smooth spine, amaranth suede lining and endpapers, black banded half-chagrin folder, case (Loutrel). One of the last chronicles of La Vie anecdotique, published on August 16, 1918. La Vie anecdotique, a section of the "Revue de la quinzaine" of the Mercure de France, was created for Apollinaire from April 1911, he kept it until his death. The manuscript, in black ink, on the back of address sheets of subscribers to the journal L'Action, shows numerous erasures and corrections. Anthem of the League of Nations. "What will be the anthem of the League of Nations when it exists, if it ever exists, although it seems very possible today that it will exist one day? It seems that it already has its flag", and Apollinaire quotes 8 lines from Béranger's song, The Holy Alliance of Peoples: "I have seen Peace descend on the earth"... Then he proposes a new version of these 8 lines: "Poor mortals, so much hatred wearies you"... Then, alluding to Mario Corsi's Italian film, Frate Sole, on the life of Francis of Assisi, Apollinaire, thinking that "Brother Sun should preside over the League of Nations, quotes eight more verses of Béranger: "Among your neighbors you carry the fire"..., and he adds: "Let us admit that these stanzas are not without beauty. When they will have the necessary antiquity and that one will not be sensitive any more to what certain expressions have today of old-fashioned, one will recognize well that they are of a true and great poet"... And he quotes another stanza: "Potentates, in your cities in flames"..., and comments it: "Our age saw similar scenes which we believed, would not reproduce any more. And in front of these singular and unexpected returns of the History, some young people have already declared in front of me: "The League of the Nations will not prevent these things to take place again on occasion". Quoting a new stanza: "May Mars in vain not stop its course"..., he celebrates the "admirable" era of Romanticism, and its beautiful utopias, before quoting a new stanza: "Yes, free at last, let the world breathe"... and adding: "Nothing is simpler, nobler and better composed. According to Eckermann, Goethe had a particular esteem for the lyrical talent of Béranger. He is now considered only a minor poet; but how many of our contemporary major poets would be capable of composing this stanza or rather this verse of the great chansonnier?" After a last stanza: "Thus spoke this adored virgin"..., he concludes that in response to the battle of Waterloo (called by the Germans "battle of the Holy Alliance"), "a battle could well take place, which we would call "the battle of the League of Nations", and which would destroy forever what is agreed to be called Prussian militarism". Tobacco. Apollinaire ironically mentions a scientific study on tobacco ashes, and ends by copying Saint-Amant's sonnet La Pipe : " Assis sur un fagot une pipe à la main "... Œuvres en prose complètes (Pléiade), t. III, p. 289-293.