Pierre-François LACENAIRE (1803-1836) assassin... Lot 573

Pierre-François LACENAIRE (1803-1836) assassin and writer. Autograph poem, [1835]; 1 1/2 pages in-fol. Rare, long poem of 47 lines, carefully calligraphed on pencil lines, composed in prison shortly before being guillotined on January 9, 1836. In it, Lacenaire evokes his impending death. "En expirant le Cygne chante encor, Ah! let me sing my song of death! [...] What do you want from me? You talk of scaffolding! Here I am... I lived... I waited for the executioner!" At the end, autograph attestation signed by Léon Cornudet (1808-1876), with ink stamp of the Royal Court of Paris, December 27, 1835: "I, the undersigned, Chief Secretary of the Public Prosecutor's Office of the Royal Court, certify that the above piece of verse is in the handwriting of the condemned Lacenaire"...