Ernestus Dowson

Ernestus Christophorus Dowson (natus Londinii 2 Augusti 1867; ibidem mortuus 23 Februarii 1900) fuit poeta, interpres, et scriptor mythistoriarum fabularumque brevium.

Vita

Dowson Collegium Reginae Universitatis Oxoniensis frequentabat sed diplomate non capto discessit. A mense Novembri 1888 apud navalia paterna Dowson and Son vici Limehouse Londinii orientalis operam dedit. Comissationes crebras cum tironibus medicis iuridicisque celebrabat; semper tamen artem scribendi assidue colebat. Socius gregis Rhythmicantium erat, membris Gulielmo Butler Yeats Lionello Johnson, aliis. Scripta apud libellos The Yellow Book et The Savoy crebro edidit. Nonnullas mythistorias haud prosperas una cum Arthuro Moore atque unam propriam nomine Madame de Viole scripsit. Item scriptor (sine compendio) pro periodico The Critic (Critico) erat.

Anno 1889, Dowson amore arsit erga Adelaidem Foltinowicz, undecim annos natam, popinarii Polonici filiam. Hac de puella carmen celebrum scripsit, titulo "Non sum qualis eram bonae sub regno Cynarae" dempto ex Horatii Carminum quarto libro,^[1] nomine "Cynarae" ad Adelaidem applicato. Dowson autem frustra eam secutus erat: nam sartor quidam Adelaidem uxorem duxit. Maestus sic factus, patre anno 1894 phthise mortuo, matre anno 1895 (eodem morbo passa) ab se ipsa occasa, Dowson spei desperatus subito aegrotavit.

Robertus Sherard quondam Ernestum miserum in taberna iacentem invenit et eum domum, apud oppidum Catford, tulit. Sex hebdomades ultimae vitae Ernesti hac in domo fuerant, ibi ob nimium alcohol et praesertim absinthium (sed phthise alii dicunt) triginta duos annos natus obiit. Sepultus est eodem loco apud Catholica sepulcreta Brockley et Ladywell.

De Ernesto Dowson etiam vivente Arthur Symons solus breviter scripsit, titulo "On a book of verses ("de quodam cantilenarum libro"), poeta adnuente, nomine huius non dato. Plures de eo privatim apomnemoneumata scribebant, nonnulli post mortem divulgaverunt.

Memorabilia

Hodie Dowson praesertim memoratur ob versus vividos quos scripsit, sicut "dies vini rosarumque" e carmine "Vitae summa brevis spem nos uetat inchoare longam," (1896), quod nomen quoque ex Horatii versibus adsumpsit. [1] Ecce hos versus excerptos:

They are not long, the days of wine and roses:	Haud longae, dies vini rosarumque:
Out of a misty dream	Caliginoso ex somnio
Our path emerges for a while, then closes	via nostra iam exsistit, iam vanescit
Within a dream.	intra somnium.

Etiam "cum auris cessa," ex carmine "Non sum qualis eram bonae sub regno Cynarae" cuius tertia pars ita legitur:

I have forgot much, Cynara! gone with the wind,	Multa oblitus sum, Cynara, omnia cum auris cessa,
Flung roses, roses riotously with the throng,	Rosas, rosas ebrie cum turba iactas,
Dancing, to put thy pale, lost lilies out of mind;	Saltans ut pallida lilia tua ignorem perdita;
But I was desolate and sick of an old passion,	Sed desolatus eram et vetere saucius amore,
Yea, all the time, because the dance was long:	Ita semper, cum multum tempus saltus esset:
I have been faithful to thee, Cynara! in my fashion.	Tibi fidus eram, Cynara, modo meo.

Opera

Libri

1893 (cum Arthur Moore) : A Comedy of Masks. Londinii; Textus] apud Internet Archive
1895 : Dilemmas, Stories and Studies in Sentiment; Textus apud Internet Archive
1896 : Verses
1897 : The Pierrot of the Minute: A Dramatic Phantasy in One Act; Textus apud Internet Archive
1899 : Decorations in Verse and Prose
1899 (cum Arthur Moore) : Adrian Rome. Londinii; Textus apud Internet Archive
1905 : The Poems of Ernest Dowson, with a memoir by Arthur Symons. Londinii; Textus; editio 1922

Selecta in collectaneis divulgata

1889 : "The cult of the child" in The Critic (17 Augusti 1889)
1894 : "Non sum qualis eram bonae sub regno Cynarae" in The Second Book of the Rhymers' Club (Londinii: Elkin Mathews) pp. 60-61

Notae

↑ Vide no. 1 vv. 3-4

Bibliographia

Editiones operum recentiores

1934 : Desmond Flower, ed., The Poetical Works of Ernest Dowson. Londinii; exemplar mutuabile
1947 : Mark Longaker, ed., The Stories of Ernest Dowson. Novi Eboraci; editio Londiniensis 1949
1962 : Mark Longaker, ed., The Poems of Ernest Dowson.
1967 : Desmond Flower, Henry Maas, edd., The Letters of Ernest Dowson. Londinii; exemplar mutuabile
1984 : Desmond Flower, ed., New Letters of Ernest Dowson. Andoversford
2003 : Collected Shorter Fiction

Coaevorum scripta

1896 : Arthur Symons, "A literary causerie: on a book of verses" in The Savoy no. 4 (Augusto 1896) pp. 91-93
1900 : Arthur Symons, necrologia in The Athenaeum (3 Martii 1900)
1900 : Arthur Symons, "Ernest Dowson: a memoir" in Fortnightly Review (1900); editio recensa in Poems (1905)
1900 : Robert Harborough Sherard, "Ernest Dowson" in The Author (Maio 1900)
1905 : Robert Harborough Sherard, Twenty Years in Paris. Londinii
1907 : Edgar Jepson, "The real Ernest Dowson" in The Academy (2 Novembris 1907)
1914 : Victor Plarr, Ernest Dowson 1888–1897: reminiscences, unpublished letters and marginalia. Londinii: Elkin Mathews; Textus apud Internet Archive
1915 : Rosamund Longbridge, "Ernest Dowson in Ireland" in TP's Weekly (30 Ianuarii 1915)
1917 : Frank Harris, "The swan-song of youth: Ernest Dowson" in Pearson's Magazine (Martio 1917); editio 1919
1925 : Richard Le Gallienne, The Romantic '90s. Londinii
1928 : W. R. Thomas, "Ernest Dowson at Oxford" in Nineteenth Century (Aprili 1928)
1932 : Grant Richards, Memoirs of a Misspent Youth. Londinii
1932 : George C. Williamson, "Ernest Christopher Dowson" in Carmina no. 11 (1932)
1932 : Gertrude Atherton, Adventures of a Novelist. Londinii
1933 : Edgar Jepson, Memories of a Victorian. Londinii
1933 : Marion Plarr, Cynara: the story of Ernest and Adelaide. Londinii
1935 : William Butler Yeats, Autobiographies (Collected Works, vol. 3)
1948 : Conal O'Riordan, "Bloomsbury and beyond" in Essays by Divers Hands vol. 24 (1948)

Recentiora

Jad Adams, Madder Music, Stronger Wine: the life of Ernest Dowson, poet and decadent. Londinii: I. B. Tauris, 2000 Inter fontes nostros
Bruce Gardiner, The Rhymers' Club: a social and intellectual history. Novi Eboraci, 1988
Mark Longaker, Ernest Dowson. Philadelphiae, 1967
Bernard Richards, "Dowson, Ernest Christopher (1867–1900)" in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography edd. H. C. G. Matthew, Brian Harrison (Oxonii: Oxford University Press, 2004) Situs venalis
R. K. R. Thornton, The Decadent Dilemma (Londinii, 1983) pp. 71-107

Nexus externi

Lexica biographica: Gran Enciclopèdia Catalana • Treccani •

De Ernesto Dowson apud Poetry Foundation (Anglice)
Caroline Dowson, Ernest Dowson : the language of poetry at the Victorian Fin de Siecle (dissertatio universitatis Bristoliensis)
"Absinthia taetra" (poema oratione soluta a Dowson scriptum); idem alibi

[1] Vide no. 1 vv. 3-4

[1]