D´ANNUNZIO GABRIELE: (1863-1938) Italian poet and playwright. A fine A.L.S., Ariel, two pages (separate leaves), folio, n.p. (Lake Garda), 25th May 1923, to [Angele Lager] (´Soeur Melancolie´), on the poet´s attractive printed stationery featuring a vignette and the words Semper adamas / Prima squadriglia navale / Il Comandante, in French. D´Annunzio writes a love letter full of mystery and sensuality, commencing by quoting Charles d´Orleans and continuing ´Les Abesses vont a Salo. La treve est courte et inquietante. Et Nerissa est intolerante. Et Ariel est toujours timide et perplexe, bien que perspicace. La brulure nocturne est toujours cuisante. Et je garde - de Nerissa - plusieurs visibles egratignures aux mains´ (Translation: ´The Abesses go to Salo. The dream is short and worrying. And Nerissa is intolerant. And Ariel is always shy and perplexed, though perceptive. The night-time burn is always stinging. And I still have - from Nerissa - several visible scratches on my hands´). An excellent letter signed by D´Annunzio with the pseudonym of Ariel, after the enchanting spirit in William Shakespeare's The Tempest, and addressing his young lover as his ‘melancholy sister’, an equally Shakespearean name, borrowed from a character in The Merchant of Venice. Some very light, minor age wear and a few creases to the edges, about VG

The present letter, written in D´Annunzio´s maturity, is addressed by the unrepentant seducer to the young Frenchwoman Angele Lager, who had been born in 1901. Lager was in the service Marguerite d´Espaigne, a cultivated middle-aged lady who lived close by to D´Annunzio on Lake Garda, in the lakeside villa known as Il Rimbalzello. D'Annunzio made his conquest in 1923 and, overcome by passion, obtained from Mme. d'Espaigne a small flat in her villa so that he could more easily spend time with Lager. When Mme. d'Espaigne returned to France, D´Annunzio installed his lover in his home. But this presence aroused the jealousy of Luisa Baccare, the writer's governess and mistress, who eventually had her sent home in 1925. After her departure, the poet sent her several despairing letters. This letter clearly dates from the beginning of their affair.