In Excelsis
Lord Alfred Douglas
Read by Rob Marland
In 1924, Lord Alfred Douglas was sued by Winston Churchill after he alleged that the politician had been part of a Jewish-backed conspiracy to commit various acts of wartime misconduct. Douglas lost the case and was jailed for six months. During his time at Wormwood Scrubs, Douglas wrote a sonnet sequence that he would title In Excelsis (in the highest), a reversal of the title of the prison letter written by his former lover, Oscar Wilde (De Profundis - from the depths). Douglas claims in the preface to the volume that the poems are spiritual in nature. They also include poorly disguised attacks on Wilde and support for anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. (Rob Marland) (0 hr 26 min)
Chapters
Preface | 6:44 | Read by Rob Marland |
Sonnet I | 1:09 | Read by Rob Marland |
Sonnet II | 1:15 | Read by Rob Marland |
Sonnet III | 1:22 | Read by Rob Marland |
Sonnet IV | 1:03 | Read by Rob Marland |
Sonnet V | 1:00 | Read by Rob Marland |
Sonnet VI | 1:05 | Read by Rob Marland |
Sonnet VII | 1:03 | Read by Rob Marland |
Sonnet VIII | 1:06 | Read by Rob Marland |
Sonnet IX | 1:06 | Read by Rob Marland |
Sonnet X | 1:16 | Read by Rob Marland |
Sonnet XI | 1:16 | Read by Rob Marland |
Sonnet XII | 1:26 | Read by Rob Marland |
Sonnet XIII | 1:04 | Read by Rob Marland |
Sonnet XIV | 1:05 | Read by Rob Marland |
Sonnet XV | 1:24 | Read by Rob Marland |
Sonnet XVI | 1:18 | Read by Rob Marland |
Epilogue | 1:13 | Read by Rob Marland |
Reviews
"In Excess" or Perhaps "An Excuse"
BixLives
What a tawdry, talent less fop. He got a lonely and un-celebrated life after Oscar died, but this is still not enough of a punishments for his cruelty, meanness and wanton vicious bite. Bosie could not write a grocery list, much less a worthwhile piece of literature. Never allow your own sense of taste to be altered by the one mediocrity in Wilde's life. People are only interested in this because of Oscar; Oscar Wilde remains THE most talked about writer of his entire era. That Oscar was gay and unrequited for so long, only made Bosie's evil power over Oscar more tenacious. Today, in our slightly enlightened world, Oscar Wilde would have soon settled down with a worthwhile spouse, Perhaps Oscar was simply bi-sexual, hence Oscar, Constance, the children and Robbie might have created a household of pure love and wonderment. Alas, 12 hours a day on The Treadmill in the British prison system, plus a diet of less calories than the nazis used for slave labour building rockets in Nordhausen killed Oscar.. The food was actually prison-grade bread and water. There was no age limit for English prisons, and many small children were "remanded" to this cruel and murderous treatment by sanctimonious judges. Oscar Wilde wrote a frighteningly effective letter to the press about the child-prison issue of the day. This letter is what the got the prison reform ball rolling (slow as it was). Oscar fell on the "hard labour" treadmill, and permanently injured his inner ear with a lingering infection that allowed him about 3 years of life after the injury and a MOST painful and torturous death. Oscar was indeed sentence to "Death" for being homosexual. the sodomy law that convicted Oscar was not repealed until 1967! (One year too late to save Brian Epstein) Bosie shows up in Oscar's life ONLY when Oscar has money, Bosie's father, Queensbury stopped Bosie's healthy allowance whenever he was seen in Oscar's presence OR in the presence of the many "rent boys" Bosie eventually introduced Oscar to when Oscar started making money with his hit plays and Bosie's allowance was cut off. If one draws a chart of Bosie's finances , when his allowance is cut off, Bosie his stealing Oscar's money, When his allowance is turned on, Bosie is avoiding Oscar so as not to have to play him back. In the end, Bosie owed Oscar thousands of borrowed pounds. When ever Oscar requested repayment, Bosie would treat Oscar with contempt and insults. --Hence, Bosie was continuously hard up and then cruel when Oscar ran out of money! Oscar's only weakness is that he could never learn to hate another person, nor could he not be generous, even if he had to borrow to be generous. Queensbury; --Ordinarily, I do not believe in hereditary titles, but for "Queensbury" it is suitable. Since, John Sholto begat ALL homosexual sons, what else would one call him?! However, his elder son (worked in the Hone Office) was at least a GENTLEMAN who worked a job and earned his keep. Something that is NOT hereditary as John Sholto certainly illustrated. 'Tis a pity that that he was hounded to death by his infamous brute of a father. Bosie would spend the rest of his worthless, talent-less and loathsome life acting as the supposed literary executor of Oscar Wilde. Everyone knows, however, Robbie was officially specified in Oscar's will as his SOLE literary executor and did a marvelous job at this and paying back all of Oscar's French debts (by 1902). Bosie's "writing" runs hot and cold about Oscar with no real understanding of Wilde's literary works or genius. Similar to his being sent down in his freshman year from Oxford for not showing up at his exams (which he would have surely failed). Bosie was a most obscene excuse for man and is nothing more than a tawdry historic curiosity, --Emphasis on the word "TAWDRY".