Who was Alfred Douglas, Oscar Wilde's love?

Text published on the Matt & Andrej Koymasky website on 11 August 2017, freely translated by Silvia Lanzi

Lord Alfred Douglas was Oscar Wilde's lover. "Bosie", as he was known by his friends, married Olives Cunstance in 1902, and in the same year they had a son, Raymond. The 1997 Wilde film tells the story of his relationship with Oscar Wilde. Douglas died in Lancing, in Sussex.

Known to most as Oscar Wilde's friend, Lord Alfred Bruce Douglas, or "Bosie", as he preferred to be called (a nickname that was given to him as a child), was a renowned poet, writer and journalist. Some of the most famous people of his period held his work in high regard.

Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, compiler of theOxford Book of English Verse, he believed that Douglas wrote the best sonnets of his time, sonnets that only a few other English poets had equal. Frank Harris also made him an extravagant applause for his poems, comparing him to Shakespeare; And George Bernard Shaw equivalent to Shelley.

"It is rather narcissus - so white and gold ... it lies like a jacket on the sofa and I love it." (Oscar Wilde, Description of Bosie)

Caspar Wintermans wrote a biography by Lord Alfred Douglas. This work, still without title, should include a certain number of its annotated and unpublished poems [when I am translating the article, the English edition has already come out "Alfred Douglas: A Poet's Life and His Finest Work", ndt]. He is also taking care of what could be a sensational book, "The Selected Letters of Lord Alfred Douglas", A book promises a newer and fresh look at the life of Bosie.

As if all this were not enough, the new biography of Douglas Murray, simply entitled "Bosie ", will be released in England this spring, and promises new information on the cause for defamation of Churchill, songs just discovered of the correspondence between Lord Alfred and his wife Olive, and will put particular attention to the poetry of Bosie [when I am translating the Article has already released, in 2000, ndt].

The publication of "Oscar Wilde: Plea and a Reminiscence" by Lord Alfred Douglas has been delayed, and should be postponed to 2000.

This book will be published by the 1890s Society, and it is the long censored volume, which was originally published in France shortly after the three processes suffered by Wilde [in reality the book came out in France in a full way only in 2002, NDT] .

“I am passionately fond of him, and he to me. There is nothing I would not do for him, and if he died before me he wouldn't care anymore I live. In such a love, surely, there is nothing that is not beautiful, like two people for each other, the love of the disciple and the philosopher. " (Lord Alfred on Oscar Wilde, in a letter to his mother).

History of Alfred Bruce Douglas "Bosie"

1870 – Lord Alfred Bruce Douglas "Bosie" was born on October 22nd.

1880 – He is sent to Lambrook, a private school.

1881 – He is transferred to Wixenford.

1884 – Enter one Public School to Winchester.

1887 – Historical documents indicate that Bosie may have met Oscar in early August, in Rouen.

1889 – He travels to France, and on the French Riviera has his first love story with an elderly divorced man.

1889 – The university begins, and enters the Magdalen College, in Oxford.

1891 – While studying in Oxford, Bosie is officially presented to Oscar Wilde by Lionel Johnson. Bosie begins a relationship with Wilde, who was married to children. The young man is described as spoiled, insolent, extravagant, and beautiful; He pushed Wilde into an expensive world of prostitutes and gambling. Oscar fell in love with the bosies that he wrote a sonnet, "The New Remorse" ("The new remorse")

The Sin Was Mine; I Did Not Undersand.
Ho Now is Music Prisoned in Her Cave,
Save Where some driving desert wave
FRETS WITH ITS RESTLESS WHIRLS THIS MEAGRE STREND.
And in the Withered Hollow of this Land
Hath Summer Dug Herself So Deep A Serious,
That hardley can the Leaden Willow Crave
One Silver Blossom from Keen Winter's Hand.
But Who is This Who Cometh by the Shore?
(Nay, Love, Look Up and Wonder!) Who is this
Who Cometh in Dyed Garments from the South?
It is they New-Found Lord, and He Shall Kiss
The Yet UNVISHED ROSES OF THY MOUTH,
And I Shall Weep and Worship, As Before.

Sin it was mine; I didn't understand.
So now the music is prisoner in its cave,
Save where a discontinuous wave in decline
Start this small lock with its restless turbini.
And in the dry basin of this land
Summer has been excavated such a deep tomb,
That the Plumbeo willow can just desire
A silver flower with a passionate hand of winter.
But who is the one who comes on the shore?
(No, love, look up and ask yourself!) Who is this
Who comes to clothes dyed from the South?
It is their new gentleman, and he will kiss each other
The roses still intact of your mouth,
And I will cry and love, as before.

1892 – Bosie presents Oscar to his father, the marquis of Queensberry, during a lunch at Café Royal; corrects drafts and writes for "The Spirit Lamp".

Douglas sends Wilde a sonnet entitled "In Sarum Close" ("Near Sarum", 1892). In the third and fourth row we read:

The Thought to Cool My Burning Hands
In This Calm Twilight of Gray Gothic Things.

I wanted to cool my burning hands
In a placid and gothic dusk.

1893 – The "prose poem" below was written by Oscar Wilde and sent to Lord Alfred. Later he was translated into French, and published in the form of sonnet.

Letter to Bosie of Oscar Wilde: “My dear boy, your sonnet is very beautiful, and it is wonderful that the rose petals of your lips have been created no less for the music of the songs that for the madness of the kisses. Your golden soul walks between passion and poetry. I know that Giacinto, that Apollo loved so madly, were you in Greek days. Why are you alone in London, and when will you go to Salisbury? You will go there to cool your burning hands in a placid and gothic dusk, come here as often as you want. It is a pleasant place - only you miss; But go first to Salisbury. Always, with imperishable love, Your Oscar (January 1893)

The letter was subsequently translated into French by Pierre Louys and published on May 4, 1893 in the Oxford graduates magazine "The Spirit Lamp", who had Douglas as curator.

Later it was stolen and used as a material to try to blackmail Wilde, and in the end it was read in the classroom during the trial.

Sonnet by Oscar Wilde (Translated into French by Pierre Louys)

Hyacinthe! O MON COEUR! Jeune Dieu Doux et Blond!
Tes Yeux Son la Lumière de la Mer! ta bouche,
Le Sang Rouge du soir où mon soleil se couche ...
Je t'aîme, Enfant Calin, Cher Aux Bras d'Aperpollon.
Tu chantais, et but lyre est moins douce, le long
Des Rameaux suspendus que la brise effaroouche,
à Fremir, que ta voix à chanter, when jule touche
Tes Cheveux Couronnés d'Acanthe et de Houblon.
Mais Tu pars! You Fuis Pour Les Portes d 'Hercule;
Go! Rafraichis Tes Mains Dans Le Clair Crépuscle
Des in choses ou déscend âme antique. Et reviens,
Hyacinthe worshiped! Hyacinthe! Hyacinthe!
Car je veux voir toujours dans les bois syriens
Ton Beau Corps étendu sur la rose et l'Absinthe.

Hyacinth! O my heart! sweet and blonde young God!
Your eyes are the light of the sea! your mouth,
The blood red of the evening when my sun sets ...
I love you, tender child, dear to Apollo's arms.
You were singing, and my lira is less sweet, together
Pending branches that the breeze frightens,
shiver, that your voice sing, when I touch
Your hair crowned with acanthus and hops.
But you are leaving! Escape by me for the doors of Hercules;
Start! refresh your hands in the clear twilight
Things in which the ancient soul descends. And go back
Giacinto worshiped! Hyacinth! Hyacinth!
Because I always want to see in the Syrian woods
Your beautiful body lying on Rosa and Assenzio.

1894 / 1895 – Their relationship is stormy, and often the couple leaves itself, just to reconcile later. At the end of 1894, Douglas' brother, Francis, died in a mysterious hunting accident, that there is a rumor was a suicide; It was thought, at the time, and the tests suggest it, that Francis was involved in a sexual relationship with the then Prime Minister Lord Rosebery, and that the father of Douglas, the ninth Marquis of Queensberry, had threatened to unmask him if not had denounced Oscar Wilde.

Queensberry threatens to dissent Bosie, unless he interrupted his attendance with Wilde. Send a message to Wilde at the Albamarle Club, accusing him of "Attach to egg" (sic).

The subsequent legal action ends with a sentence of two years of prison for Wilde, for forced labor.

1897 – Wilde writes "De profundis" e A long letter to Bosie, who, however, did not receive. Oscar is released;

Letter to Bosie by Oscar Wilde (after his release from prison): I feel that my only hope of still doing wonderful things in art is to be with you. Everyone is furious with me because I come back to you, but they don't understand us. I feel that only with you can I do something. You will reconstruct this my life in ruins for me, and then our friendship and love will have a different meaning for the world. (July 1897)

Bosie meets him in Naples on September 4th.

1900 – Wilde died on November 30th. Bosie is the prominent personality of the funeral, and pays the costs.

1901 – Bosie writes one of his most moving and better conceived sonnets in honor of Oscar Wilde, "The Dead poet" ("The dead poet").

Dreamed of Him Last Night, I Saw His Face
All Radiant and Unshadowed of Distress,
And as of Old, in Music Measureless,
Heard His Golden Voice and Marked Him Trace
Under the Common Thing the Hidden Grace,
And conjure wonder out of emptiness
Till Mean Things Put On Beauty Like A Dress
And all the world was an enchanted place.
And then methouaught outside at Fast Locked Gate
I Mourned The Loss of Unrecorded Words,
Forgotten Tales and Mysteries Half Said,
Wonders that Might Have Been Articulated,
And Voiceless Thoughts Like Murded Singing Birds.
And I know the woke and knew he was dead.

I dreamed of him last night, I saw his face
All radiant and without a shadow of anguish,
And as once, in music without measure,
I heard his golden voice and scored the tracks
Under the common thing hidden grace,
And evokes wonder from the void
As long as mean things wearing beauty as a dress
And the whole world was an enchanted place.
And then I thought out of a locked gate
I cried the loss of unwritten words,
Forgotten stories and mysteries half -called,
Wonders that could have been articulated,
And thoughts without voice as birds that sing assassinated.
And so I woke up and I understood that he was dead.

1902 – Bosie bride Olive Custance on March 4, and their only son, Raymond Wilfrid Shogls Douglas was born on November 17th.

1907 / 1910 – Becomes editor of "The Academy".

1911 – Bosie converts to Catholicism and condemns without mitigating homosexuality.

1912 – Bosie intent on a cause against the publication of "Oscar Wilde, A Critical Study", by Arthur Ransome. Even if the offending excerpts will be removed in the following editions, it loses the cause.

1913 – At the request of a financier with few scruples, he declares bankruptcy. Bosie and olives separate, but do not divorce.

1918 – Bosie is called to testify in a scandalous defamation complaint against Pemberton Billing, an independent member of Parliament, by the dancer/actress Maude Allan (who was about to appear in a production of the Salome by Oscar Wilde). Allan argued that the newspaper of the parliamentarian's definade with a public accusation of lesbism.

1920 – Bosie Fonda "Plain English", A right magazine, and becomes editor. The magazine is known above all for the long series of articles "The Jewish Peril" ("The Jewish danger").

1923 – It undertakes a legal action against Winston Churchill, he loses, and is sentenced to six months in prison following the accusation of Churchill of defamation.

1924 – During his detention period at Wormwood Scrubs, he writes one of his most important works, "In Excelsis", a series of sonnets. Released in May, travel to Belgium.

1926 – Bosie falls in love with eighteen -year -old Ivor Goring, with whom he has a short relationship.

1927 – The son of Bosie, Raymond, is diagnosed as schizo -effective and enters St. Andrew's Hospital, a mental health institute.

1932 – Raymond is declared healed in April and discharged from the hospital, but has a crisis, and returns to St. Andrew in June.

1935 – Bosie's beloved mother, Sibyl, a marquise of Queensberry, dies at ninety -one and is buried in the Franciscan monastery of Crawley.

1943 – Makes a well -accepted conference at the Royal Society of Literature, entitled "The principles of poetry" ("The principles of poetry"), then published in a limited edition of a thousand copies.

All good poetry is slowly and patiently forged, bond after link, with sweat, blood and tears. (Lord Alfred Douglas)

1944 – Olive Custance Douglas dies from a cerebral hemorrhage in February: he is sixty -seven years old. Raymond is allowed to participate in the funeral, and in June he is again declared healed and discharged by St. Andrew's Hospital, but his behavior worsens more and more, culminating in a "excess of madness", and in November he returns to St. Andrew . (He will never be resigned again, and he will remain in the hospital until his death, which took place in October 1964).

1945 – Bosie spends his last years in economic narrowness and with poor health; He dies in Lancing, in Sussex, of congestive heart failure on Wednesday 20 March, at seventy -four. It is onto on Friday 23 in the Franciscan monastery of Crawley, underlying the mother's plaque itself.

Original text: Lord Alfred Bruce Douglas