Frederick Rolfe

Frederick William Rolfe , more known under the pseudonym of Baron Corvo , and which named to him even Frederick William Serafino Austin Lewis Mary Rolfe , (Cheapside, London, July 22nd, 1860 - Venice, October 25th 1913), was a writer, painter, draftsman and English, odd and eccentric photographer.

Biography

Wire of a manufacturer of piano, Rolfe leaves the school as of the 14 years age and becomes teaching, activity which he will carry on during the first part of his life. He teaches the history, Latin, French, English, the arithmetic one, the drawing and catechism. He will work in various schools and like tutor for rich person families. He is recognized as being a teaching good, appreciated his high ones, being interested in their extra life school and knowing to frame them. He begins his literary work by composing several poems dedicated to young men.

Animated for a long time by a great religious enthusiasm (it had been made tattoo a cross on the chest at 14 years), it converts with the Catholicisme in 1886 and will be confirmed by the Cardinal Manning. After its conversion, he resigns of the school of grammar of Grantham, eager to be invested in his new religion and of living with his catholic brothers. He feels a strong vocation for the priesthood which will continue it all its life, but that he will be able to never concretize in spite of several attempts to integrate the Séminaire.

After being expelled of the Catholic College St.Mary' S of Oscott, close to Birmingham to be itself devoted more to painting that with its studies, it is indeed expelled of the Scots College of Rome (seminar intended to train priests for Scotland) in 1889 for its propensity with difficult poetry and especially its relationship with the other seminarists and its teachers. It will describe later this reference like the greatest disappointment of its life. It then meets the duchess of Sforza-Cesarini which financially maintains it during a time and which, according to him, adopts it like grandson and the right confers to him to use the title of baron Corvo . This title will become its most known pseudonym, although it used several others of them ( Frank English , Frederick Austin , A. Crab Maid , etc).

Of return in England, under the pseudonym of “baron Corvo”, it contributed occasionally to the literary review Yellow Book - the yellow re-examined published by John Lane, by a series called Stories Toto Told Me ; it is about rewriting full with humor with the Italian rural legends about the saints. These accounts will be then gathered in the shape of a book.

This work made it possible Rolfe to profit from a beginning of recognition. This one continued to grow, with the publication of the House off Borgia in 1901, a historical study of the Prose for the period Baroque. Rolfe developed an obsessional scholarship on the Italian Renaissance, which enabled him to write two historical novels being held at the time of the period of the Borgia: Gift Tarquinio and Gift Renato .

Rolfe passed the major part of the remainder of its life as a writer, mainly to England but also with Venice. It also carried out a certain number of paintings, in particular the cover of some of its books, and some paintings of church with Christchurch, Dorset and Holywell, close to Chester.

During all the life of Rolfe, its taste of the controversy, its paranoia, and its character quarreller attracted to him many troubles, enemies and makes lose many friends. W.H.Auden will qualify it besides “large Master of vituperation”.

Works

Rolfe was homosexual, and much of passages of its books can be read like buckled descriptions of homosexuality; it is explicit in its posthumous work the desire and the continuation of the entirety (published 1934) in which it is avenged for many real and imaginary enemies. The writings of Rolfe are atypical. Many readers always appreciate its works because of its style and of its not very common personality: scholars, flowered, and slightly invaluable.

Its most known novel is Hadrian VII (1904), a fictionalized autobiography. The subject of this book is George Arthur, obscure writer presenting of many similarity with Rolfe (its heavy nicotinism including) which is elected pope and advances with an ambitious program to give the world on the right track. This book was greeted by D.H. Lawrence and Graham Greene qualified it new of genius . The book was adapted in play by Peter Luke and had a certain success since end of the year 60.

Died and lapse of memory

October 25th, 1913, after having dined at the restaurant on the Cavalletto hotel, and to have regained its residence (two rooms furnished with the Marcello palate) Rolfe succumbed of an heart attack. In spite of its insane and eccentric life, Rolfe had kept positive ratio with its family and his/her brother, Herbert Rolfe, left England to join Venice, recover his business and to organize his funeral. It found the correspondence of his brother, of the drafts of letters of which some of insults, the other pornographic ones as well as erotic drawings. It seems that the British consul, after having identified the skin of Rolfe, would have thrown the documents more shocking in the lagoon.

During his life, the Baron Corvo will have accumulated a quantity of impressive debts. Its family, not being able to face this liability, had to give up her heritage and could not carry out its last wills. A great confusion reigned on the property of works not published of Rolfe, which delayed several years their publication. The baron Corvo sank then in the lapse of memory during several decades.

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