Born 1870; died 20th.
March, 1945, in Lancing, Sussex, Britain.
English poet.
His father was John Sholto Douglas, the 8th. Marquis of Queensberry (1844-1900).
Alfred Douglas was brought up at Kinmount, the family home in Dumfriesshire,
but by his late teens his parents were divorced and the home sold.
He began writing poetry while an undergraduate at Oxford, and his first
serious poem was Autumn Days which was published in The Oxford magazine
in 1890.
Known to his friends as "Bosie", he is remembered for his relationship
with Oscar Wilde, who said of him that he "understands me and my
art, and loves both. I hope never to be separated from him." The
minor poet Lionel Johnson had arranged their first meeting at Oscar Wilde's
house at 34 (formerly 16) Tite Street, Chelsea, London, SW3, in the late
summer of 1891. (A photograph of 34 Tite Street is reproduced in black
and white in Elliman and Roll, (1986), page 217. The blue plaque erected
in 1954 can be seen. A black and white photograph of the unveiling of
the blue plaque is reproduced in Jivani (1997), page 107.) Alfred Douglas
attended the premier of Lady Windermere's Fan on 20th. February, 1892
and began his intimate relationship with Oscar Wilde a few days later,
but the intimacy only lasted for six months.
In the summer of 1894, John Francis Bloxam, a homosexual undergraduate
at Oxford, asked Alfred Douglas for a contribution to a new periodical
called The Chameleon. Alfred Douglas contributed two poems. These were
quoted at Oscar Wilde's trial for homosexual offences on 30th. April,
1895. The following is the end of the 74-line poem, "Two Loves".
. . . 'Sweet youth,
Tell me why, sad and sighing, thou dost rove
These pleasant realms? I pray thee speak me sooth
What is thy name?' He said, 'My name is Love.'
Then straight the first did turn himself to me
And cried, 'He lieth, for his name is Shame,
But I am Love, and I was wont to be
Alone in this fair garden, till he came
Unasked by night; I am true Love, I fill
The hearts of boy and girl with mutual flame.'
Then sighing said the other, 'Have thy will,
I am the Love that dare not speak its name.'
Re-published in Stephen
Coote, (1983) pages 262-4.
Also re-published in Chris White, (1999) pages 54-56.
The final line ". . .the Love that dare not speak its name"
of the poem "Two Loves" became a standard reference to gay love
in the twentieth century. It may have been derived from the 1876 parliament
in which Robert Peel used the phrase "inter Christianos non nomindum",
that is, the crime not to be named by Christians. James Kirkup turned
it round for the title of his poem, "The Love That Dares to Speak
Its Name", which was published in Gay News and which led to the magazine's
prosecution for 'blasphemy' in 1977. Time magazine declared in October
1969, "The love that once dared not speak its name now can't seem
to keep its mouth shut."
During Oscar Wilde's trials Alfred Douglas went to France to avoid being
called as a witness, although he always maintained that if he had testified
he could have saved Oscar Wilde.
Alfred Douglas's first collection, Poems, was published in France in 1896
while Oscar Wilde was in prison. It was published anonymously in English
in 1899 and was a huge success.
After Oscar Wilde's release from prison he and Alfred Douglas resumed
their friendship in France.
Both Oscar Wilde and Alfred Douglas's father died in 1900.
Alfred Douglas went on to edit several small magazines.
In 1911 he was received into the Catholic church.
He wrote a number of sonnets collected in Sonnets and Lyrics (1935).
In 1902 he married Olive Custance and in the same year they had a son
Raymond. However Olive deserted Alfred in 1913. Raymond was deranged and
was taken into a psychiatric institution in 1927. He spent much of his
life in confinement.
During the period from 1909 to 1923 Alfred Douglas was involved in a series
of libel cases against Arthur Ransome, Robert Ross, Colonel Custance,
Winston Churchill, and others.
In 1918 Pemberton Billing MP alleged that the war effort was being undermined
by sexual perverts in the highest positions of influence. In a court case
Alfred Douglas took the stand and declared that Oscar Wilde was 'the greatest
force of evil that has appeared in Europe during the last 350 years'.
In 1923 Alfred Douglas spent time in Wormwood Scrubs after being sentenced
to six months hard labour for libelling Winston Churchill when alleging
that he had taken part in a Jewish-financed conspiracy to have Kitchener
murdered in 1916. While in prison Alfred Douglas wrote the epic work In
Excelsis, published in 1924..
Between the two world wars Alfred Douglas was one of the group of artists
and literary figures who visited the Eiffel Tower restaurant in Percy
Street, off Tottenham Court Road, London. Other regulars included Augustus
John, Nancy Cunard, Aldous Huxley, Ronald Firbank, Dylan Thomas, Wyndham
Lewis, the Sitwells, Peter Warlock, Tony Gandarillas, Lord Berners, and
Evan Morgan.
The Wilde affair caused a rift between Alfred Douglas and his father who
was also maddened by the support that his other son, Percy, gave Bosie.
Queensberry did nothing to ensure that future generations would benefit
from the family fortune. The estates were sold and the fortune was left
to Percy, but he was a hopeless speculator who lost £300000 in one
year, and the family wealth disappeared.
Despite his period of condemnation of Oscar Wilde and his love of men,
nevertheless Bosie continued to be captivated by male beauty. At the age
of 56 he fell for the 18-year-old Ivor Goring who reciprocated for a time.