Autograph signed poem by the poet Franc-Nohain entitled "Quelques chameaux".
The poem, 15 lines in black ink on one leaf and dedicated to Paul Verlaine, was integrated into his second work, the collection of poems "Flûtes" published by Editions de La Revue Blanche in 1898 under the title "Chameaux":
"Quelques chameaux
A Paul Verlaine
J'ai connu, dans mon enfance, un vieux lapidaire
Qui avait fait emplette de trois ou quatre dromadaires,
A l'encan - ou peut-être même dans une liquidation,
Ce qui alors simplifierait beaucoup la question.
Il faudrait d'ailleurs, aimable lecteur, que je le confesse,
Ce n'était pas des dromadaires de la grosse espèce.
Mais ce n'était pas des petits dromadaires non plus :
Ils étaient de la bonne moyenne - et même un peu plus.
Par malheur le lapidaire dut les placer dans sa commode :
Les logements, à Paris, sont si incommodes.
Et alors les pauvres dromadaires
Sont tous morts PARCE QU'ILS N'AVAIENT PAS ASSEZ D'AIR.
Franc-Nohain." ["Some camels / To Paul Verlaine / I knew, in my childhood, an old lapidary / Who had purchased three or four dromedaries, / At auction - or perhaps even in a liquidation, / Which would then greatly simplify the question. / I should moreover, dear reader, confess to you, / These were not dromedaries of the large species. / But they were not small dromedaries either: / They were of good average size - and even a bit more. / Unfortunately the lapidary had to place them in his chest of drawers: / Lodgings, in Paris, are so inconvenient. / And then the poor dromedaries / All died BECAUSE THEY DIDN'T HAVE ENOUGH AIR. / Franc-Nohain."]
Fold mark inherent to being placed in an envelope, two words having smudged ("trois" in the second stanza and "Nohain" from the signature.