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Sleeping fit by Robert Desnos of 30 September 1922

First hypnotic sleeping fits

Manuscript

Author

Author Robert Desnos
People cited Max Morise, Maximilien Robespierre, Jacques Vaché, André Breton, Paul Éluard, Max Ernst
Notes by André Breton

Description

First written and illustrated sleeping fit by Robert Desnos dated 30 September 1922 and partly annotated by André Breton.

A fine, extended sequence that in the presence of Breton, Ernst, Éluard and Morise begins with a few spontaneous words from Desnos (evidence that there is another scribe), vaguely evoking a ‘multitude’ before a vision takes shape: gathered around the figure of Robespierre, who seems to be speaking (‘they become whiter than the hated flag of the monarchy’, ‘and this white collar that you rebuke me for’), this hostile multitude provokes an outburst: ‘You are the multitude and you tremble before my green stare. I despise you.’  In front of Robespierre is the guillotine, drawn with the comment ‘the lovely blood’. Behind him is a ‘bird of paradise’, which provokes the second major protagonist of this sleeping fit, the sky. ‘Robespierre is the sky’, and then follow an English ditty evoking the ‘sky’, then the phrase ‘the sky is a mouth’. Desnos, on brilliant form, projects himself into the past so as to bring back the figure of Vaché, and into the future to predict the death of Éluard and – something encountered again in another sleeping fit – the future madness of Max Ernst, and finally his own death, which provokes this mournful commentary: ‘What can be said of me?’ No doubt the highlight of this sequence, between past and future, is this phrase: ‘Here is the bell that announces the war and the end of the interval.’ Is the game over?

First hypnotic sleeping fits.
30 September 1922.
- 24 in-4° manuscript pages on the headed notepaper of the ‘Congrès de Paris’ written by Desnos in black pencil, contained in an identical sheet folded in half and labelled by Breton: ‘Saturday 30 September, Desnos, 1^st sleeping fit.’
Most of the questions are transcribed by Breton:
‘What do you see of the relationship between Breton and Vaché. What is it like? - The Loire at 5 in the evening, an autumn market – Where is Vaché, what is he doing?’
Desnos draws what resembles a human figure wearing a cap and the title: ‘the purple flower’. 
Two extracted drawings inserted in Littérature.

Bibliography

- « Sommeil », Littérature nouvelle série n° 6 du 1^er novembre 1922.