Charles BAUDELAIRE (1821-1867). L.A.S. "Charles". [Brussels] Saturday 17 February 1866, to his mother Caroline Aupick 3 pages and a half in-8, filled with a tight handwriting. Nothing has been done yet with the Garnier brothers... "The writer told me to advise Ancelle not to press the Garniers too hard. It would look bad. I'm going to try to get some work done, and then I'll go to Paris around the middle of March to find out about all my affairs. By then, Ancelle may have concluded a treaty for Belgium. The important thing for me now is to come up with a few advance payments to keep my hostess waiting. But Baudelaire does not want to sell the ownership of his works. "I would never sell for 3,000 or 4,000 francs in cash literary assets that could, over time, earn me 10 times 600 francs or 10 times 800 francs. Later, my name having increased in value, being closer to death, and having no heirs, I might do such deals, which would be easier then. But now is not the time. Unless I can immediately bring in a large enough sum to be invested, and increase my income, these are fool's bargains". On the subject of his pills, Baudelaire admits that he used to be an opium addict: "I used to take pills made of opium, valerian, foxglove and belladonna in December, for neuralgia. Are you suggesting that the terrible dizziness and vomiting in January are the result of this treatment? But first of all, Belladonna was obviously only present in very small quantities in these pills, and as for opium, you know very well that I was used to it for several years, even taking 150 drops without any danger. The pills I've taken since then, i.e. those for dizziness followed by vomiting, contain valerian, assa fœtida, some kind of zinc oxide, and I don't know what else. They are purely antispasmodic"... He describes the diet he was advised: "Cold roast meat in the morning; drink tea without green tea. In the evening, roast meat with a little wine. Cold showers and walks whenever possible. He did not know when he would regain "the activity of mind and the pleasure of living"... Correspondance (Pléiade), t. II, p. 602. Former Armand Godoy collection (23 November 1982, no. 208).