Baudelaire to Sainte-Beuve
3rd or 4th March, 1859.
A thousand thanks for your excellent letter. It has reassured me, but I think you are too sensitive. If ever I attain as good a position as yours, I shall be a man of stone. I have just read a very funny article of the “rascal” on Chateaubriand and M. de Marcellus, his critic. He has not missed the over easy witticism: “Tu Marcellus eris!”
In replying to Babou (what was important to me was to assure myself that you did not believe me capable of a meanness) I think that you attribute too much importance to him. He gives me the impression of being one of those people who believe that the pen is made to play tricks with. Boys’ tricks, school hoaxes.
Yours sincerely.