"Je vous souhaite un temps moins fantasque, encore qu'il doive rendre charmante la mer."

Autograph card signed by Stéphane Mallarmé, addressed to Alidor Delzant, written on both sides in black ink. Envelope enclosed.
Alidor Delzant was a lawyer, collector, and bibliophile. A friend of the Goncourt brothers, he devoted a book to them and served as Edmond’s secretary and executor.
"Je ne sais plus personne à Londres, envers qui je fus si infidèle ; mais pour Oxford, voici ma carte avec un mot à l'adresse de mon hôte et ami, M. York Powell. M. Louis Dyer, à qui vous porterez mes compliments les meilleurs, le connaît ; et, sans doute Cazalis, porteur, l'an dernier, d'un mot, de moi, à son adresse. Je vous souhaite un temps moins fantasque, encore qu'il doive rendre charmante la mer."
Mallarmé was well acquainted with Oxford, where he had given a lecture the previous year under the auspices of Frederick York Powell, professor of history. Louis Dyer, a friend of Delzant’s, was an Oxford alumnus and then professor of Greek at Harvard. Through Delzant’s mediation, he had offered Mallarmé his hospitality.