October 1854 was a good
month for literature – and for future scandal.
On the 16th
one Oscar Fingal O’Flaherty Wilde entered the world at 21 Westland
Row, Dublin; four days later, on the 20th October,
Jean-Nicolas-Arthur Rimbaud was born above a bookshop in the Rue
Napoleon, Charleville, northern France.
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| Oscar & Bosie |
Both were to have
explosive love affaires which were distorted mirror images of each
other. Maybe there was something in the stars that October.
Everyone knows about
Oscar and Bosie – Lord Alfred Douglas. He was a poet in his own
right, Bosie, though not a writer of the magnitude of either Oscar or
Rimbaud; he did however coin the phrase ‘The love that dare not
speak its name’, which comes from his poem Two Loves.
History remembers Douglas as the man who helped ruin Oscar Wilde.
The story of Rimbaud
and Verlaine is perhaps not so well-known. Rimbaud, the almost exact
contemporary of Wilde was the one who did the ruining in their
relationship.
Paul Verlaine was a respected poet and a married man
when the 17-year-old Rimbaud got his claws in him.
Not that Verlaine
did much to resist his degradation at the hands of his protégé;
he entered into the spirit of things by setting fire to his wife and
throwing his infant son against the wall.
Rimbaud matured earlier
than Wilde. While Oscar was amusing his friends at Trinity College,
Dublin, Rimbaud was well on in his career as a ne’er-do-well. He
wrote most of his unique brand of poetry between the ages of 16 and
20.
By the time Wilde went up to Oxford in 1874, Rimbaud was becoming
disgusted with his way of life. He stopped writing poetry when he was
about 21, before Wilde really got started.
Rimbaud’s
relationship with Verlaine was probably more violent than Oscar and
Bosie’s. Bosie was a spoilt pretty boy; Rimbaud was a devil in
angel’s form according to those who knew him in Paris. He found it
entertaining to stab his lover in the palms and jump out at him in
alleyways on dark nights.
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| Plaque at Royal College Street |
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The insults culminated in an episode
involving a herring – Rimbaud spotting Verlaine coming up Royal College Street (formerly Great College Street), London carrying the aforesaid fish
shouted out that he looked ridiculous (only in choicer words).
Verlaine took the huff, as well he might, and left.
Rimbaud followed him to
Brussels where further altercations took place and this time the boy
wonder threatened to leave. Armed with a revolver purchased at the
Galeries Hubert, Verlaine took a couple of pot shots at him to
prevent his getaway. One bullet hit Rimbaud in the wrist.
Verlaine was sentenced
to two years in prison – after suffering various indignities to his
person as the authorities investigated the relationship between the
pair.
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| Mathilde Verlaine |
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| Constance Wilde |
Oscar also did two
years – with hard labour – and his losses were probably more
heartfelt than Verlaine’s. Verlaine’s wife had already given up
on him and refused to allow him to see his son again, whereas
Constance, I think, may have stayed with Oscar if the pressures of
society had not been so great.
Two sad tales with
similar outcomes – though Rimbaud and Verlaine’s version had more
than a touch of farce to it.
Well, Rimbaud did say Life is a farce
we are all forced to endure.
~
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| Now Available |
After three days of cruelty, starvation and water deprivation, they
are released. Detective Inspector Paolo Storey has many questions,
but the biggest one of all is this: why, to a man, do they refuse
even to admit they were held captive? 
Jean-Nicolas-Arthur Rimbaud was born on 20th October 1854 in a flat above a bookshop in the Rue Napoléon, Charleville. 
Who is your favourite character
from your own work and why? My
favourite character in Don’t Look Down is a minor character called
Axel. He’s mysterious and hypnotic and is actually loosely based
on someone I once knew in Nuremberg. I expect if I met the real
version again now, I’d be most disappointed.
Guest blogging for Jill Marsh
Article on self-publishing for Southville Writers
Time & Place: Charleville-Mézières - my page at Triskele Books
