Everyone Does This Sort of Thing
Baudelaire was a noisy neighbour
Louis Thomas, Curiosités sur Baudelaire (Paris: Albert Messein, 1912), pp. 26-27 (my translation):
One day, Baudelaire’s landlord complained that he was making an unbearable racket.
“I do not know what you are talking about,” he replied graciously. “When I am at home I behave like all respectable people.”
“I’m sorry, but we hear you moving furniture and banging the floor at all hours of the day and night,” answered the landlord.
Baudelaire took a serious tone. “Once again, I give you my word that nothing out of the ordinary takes place. I chop wood in the living room and drag my mistress around the floor by her hair. Everyone does this sort of thing, and you have absolutely no right to concern yourself.”
I see in the most recent issue of the Times Literary Supplement that researchers have discovered new photographs of Baudelaire’s mistress and muse Jeanne Duval.
