It is interesting, in regard to this question, to find in the first text of Le Vin de l'Assassin these lines:
"Ma femme est morte, je suis libre!
Je puis donc boire tout mon saoul"
In the second edition one reads "soûl." I find in Brachet's Dictionnaire Étymologique this definition of the word "soûl, ancien français, saoul. Latin satallus, d'où l'ancien français saoul." Therefore Baudelaire was right, traditionally, in using the original form of the word.
His worst trouble is in getting the famous dedication to Gautier printed and spaced as it had to be. It must be composed in a certain solemn style. Then he writes: "The magician has made me abbreviate the dedication; it must not be a profession of faith, which might have the fault of attracting people's eyes 'sur le côté scabreux du volume.'" As it is, strangely enough for him, Baudelaire made a mistake in syntax, using "au magicien ès-langue française" instead of "au parfait magicien ès-lettres françaises," which he corrected in the edition of 1861.
On July 11, 1857, he writes to Malassis: "Quick, hide the edition, the whole edition. I have saved fifty here. The mistake was in having sent a copy to Le Figaro! As the edition was sold out in three weeks we may have the glory of a trial, from which we can easily escape." The trial came; he was obliged to suppress six poems (supposed to contain "obscene and immoral passages"). Baudelaire never ceased to protest against the infamy of this trial. A copy of the second edition (not nearly so well printed as the first) is before me: LES FLEURS DU MAL. || Par Charles Baudelaire. || Seconde Edition. || Augmentée de trente-cinq poèmes nouveaux || et ornée d'un portrait de l'auteur dessiné et gravé par Bracquemont. || Paris: || Poulet-Malassis et de Broise. || Editeurs. || 97. Rue de Richelieu, et Beaux-Arts, 56. || 1861. || Tout droits réservés. || Paris: Imp. Simon Raçon et Comp. || Rue d'Erfurth.
In comparing the text of 1857 with that of 1861 I find several revisions of certain verses, not always, I think, for the best. For instance, in the Préface, the first edition is as follows:
"Dans nos cervaux malsains, comme un million d'helminthes,
Grouille, chante et ripaille un peuple de Démons."
He changes this into "verre fourmillant;" "dans nos cervaux ribote." On page 22, he writes:
"Sent un froid ténébreux envelopper son âme
A l'aspect du tableau plein d'épouvantement
Des monstruosités, que voile un vêtement;
Des visages masqués et plus laids que des masques."
In the later text he puts a full stop after "épouvantement," and continues: