Background

Frederick Rolfe was born on July 22, 1860, in Cheapside, London, England. He was a son of James Rolfe (a piano manufacturer and agent) and Ellen Elizabeth Rolfe. The Rolfe family had a relatively successful piano-making business since 1784, yet by the time Frederick was born the business had deteriorated profoundly. Rolfe left home at fifteen, rejecting his middle-class Protestant background.

Education

Frederick Rolfe attended North London Collegiate School until 1874 when he was fourteen years old. He spent some months at Oxford as a non-matriculated student, and he returned there regularly to read for a friend.

In 1886, he converted to Roman Catholicism, soon latching on to the idea that he had a calling to the priesthood.

In 1887-1889, Rolfe trained as a cleric at St Mary's College, Oscott, which he left.

In 1889-1890, he studied at Pontifical Scots College, from which he was expelled.

Career

In 1874-1886, Frederich Rolfe worked as a teacher at various schools. He taught briefly at The King's School, Grantham.

Frederick Rolfe's literary career began with the publication of some short fictional pieces. Prevalent in several early stories was the theme of being buried alive. Much of Rolfe's work refers to his feelings that he has been metaphorically buried alive, in loneliness, poverty, and obscurity. He once wrote in a letter "All I want is to be picked out of this hole where I am buried."

In "An Unforgettable Experience," published in 1894, a poor woman who lives in a crowded slum is pronounced dead of a fever and is sent home to be buried. The priest, Father Seráfico, conducts his service over her open coffin, but he cannot believe she is dead. Frederick Rolfe repeatedly tries to revive her and finally succeeds. This story is different from most of Rolfe's other fiction, as the environment described reflects the poverty and desperate lives of the urban poor. "Rolfe was no socialist," - wrote Jeffrey Parker in Dictionary of Literary Biography, "even though he spent most of his life in poverty as an outcast."

Another work that deals directly with premature burial is "How I was Buried Alive," published in 1896. But this short piece, like much of Rolfe's work, is largely autobiographical and seems to have been based on an incident in Rolfe's life that involved his fear of reptiles. The story commences when a man is expelled from the seminary for lacking a vocation, and an Italian family invites him into their household to recover. When a lizard leaps onto his arm, the protagonist, Baron Corvo, falls into a trance. After Corvo awakens, he discovers that he has been placed in a coffin. When he kicks free the nailed-down lid, Corvo re-enters the world.

The bulk of Rolfe's books and stories, penned between 1898 and 1908, are retellings of perceived attacks and slights on Rolfe. Mauree Modlish commented in Dictionary of Literary Biography that "Rolfe was so convinced of the reality of his delusions about himself that he was not only able to convince others of their reality, but was able to make business agreements on the basis of them." Rolfe promised that when he became successful, he would repay his lenders. When the books failed and lenders and patrons tired of him, he mounted elaborate campaigns against them, claiming breach of faith, often ridiculing and vengefully exposing them in his stories. One of his early stories "The Saint, the Priest, the Nowt, the Devil" (1897), written under the name A. W. Riter, was created in response to Rolfe's perception that he had been duped and swindled by a Catholic priest, Father Beauclerk. In exchange for lodging and attempts by the priest to procure commissions for Rolfe, the writer was to paint banners for the church. When Rolfe found that the priest sold one of his designs, Rolfe demanded an exorbitant amount of money. The priest refused, and Rolfe drafted the story from his distinct and highly subjective perspective. This story is but one of many examples where Rolfe denounced and scandalized people - including priests, literary peers, and patrons - through his writings.

Stories "Toto Told Me," a collection of stories published in 1898 and considered by critics to be based on real-life events, attracted considerable attention and critical discussion. Toto Maidalchini is the storyteller, and as Parker wrote, the "beautiful leader of a group of boys with whom he spent the summer." Parker added that "Toto is variously described as an example of unquestioning faith, and uneducated peasant, and the triumph of oral tradition over literature." These tales, a rich and colorful tapestry of saints, sinners, theology, and legend, won Rolfe some admirers.

Much of Rolfe's work seemed to provide a forum for the writer to portray his own life as heroic and mythical. His self-absorption and delusions are particularly emphasized in Hadrian the Seventh, published in 1904, the book for which Rolfe is most remembered. The protagonist of the tale, George Rose, like Rolfe, was rejected for the priesthood. But Rolfe re-creates his story, elevating Rose to a position of grandeur and glory. The Church recalls Rose and acknowledges their mistake, finally appointing him pope. Then, as pope, he conducts his role scandalously, even selling Vatican jewels to raise funds for the poor. The story’s mythical dimensions are heightened by Rolfe's use of arcane punctuation and idiosyncratic spellings.

He was also a contributor to periodical Holywell Record.

In 1912, Frederick Rolfe began to write another autobiographical novel "The Freeing of the Soul, or The Seven Degrees," which was published only in 1995.

Achievements

• Frederick Rolfe is best known for the novel "Hadrian the Seventh." The book’s combination of genuine piety with personal spite has fascinated readers ever since.
  
  His prose style, with its emphasis on the exact word and the sentence beautiful in itself, later influenced such writers as Henry Harland, R. H. Benson, and Leslie Shane.
  
  

Works

More photos

• book

  • Don Tarquinio: A Kataleptic Phantasmatic Romance

    (Frederick Rolfe’s story tells of twenty-four hours in the...)

    1905
  • Hadrian the Seventh

    (In Hadrian the Seventh, George Arthur Rose, a thinly disg...)

    1904
  • Hubert's Arthur

    (Taking as its point of departure the alleged inaccuracy o...)

    1935
  • The Desire & Pursuit of the Whole

    (The Desire and Pursuit of the Whole is a scurrilous sensu...)

    1934
  • Stories Toto Told Me

    (In these tales, an Italian peasant youth ingenuously reco...)

    1898
  • A History of the Borgias 1931
  • In His Own Image 1901
  • Chronicles of the House of Borgia 1901
  • The Venice letters 1974

Religion

Frederick Rolfe was from a Protestant family. But in 1986 he converted to Roman Catholicism as he wanted to devote life to the priesthood.

Views

It's believed, that Frederick Rolfe was led to the seminary not through some noble vocation, but in pursuit of status and power. Pamela Hansford Johnson, in New Quests for Corvo, wrote that Rolfe "wanted less to be a priest than to be Pope." Following his ill-fated quest to join the clergy, Rolfe resided in Rome with the Sforza-Cesarini family for several months. Rolfe claims that the Duchess Sforza-Cesarini bestowed on Rolfe the title of Baron Corvo, and became his patron, providing an allowance that lasted throughout Rolfe’s stay in Rome and some time after he returned to England. Several critics claim that the title had dubious origins; some speculate that Rolfe himself came up with it, to compensate for his failings and attempts at becoming a priest.

Personality

Frederick Rolfe's modest upbringing was largely at odds with the ambitions and airs to the class that Rolfe developed. Maureen Modlish, writing in Dictionary of Literary Biography, noted that "Indeed [Rolfe] seemed to want desperately to belong to the elite, but his class background precluded the possibility."

The very same eccentricities, idiosyncrasies, and peccadilloes that alienate many of Rolfe's readers serve to strongly attract others. As Modlish pointed out, "his intensity, his peculiarities which were initially part of his charm, and his ability, in his conversation as well as in his stories, to give events from his life the aura of mythological significance, drew friends and patrons no less ardent in their attention than the "Corvinists" among his readers."Yet Corvo was unable to sustain that appeal, and some people, mentioned Modlish, "came to feel that he was more a con artist than a literary artist."

Rolfe deserves credit for his experimentation with language and narrative perspective, yet "his technical ability is overshadowed by his penchant for the unusual, which is largely responsible for his individuality as a writer," - concluded Modlish.

Rolfe's work was usually very self-involved, used as a way to denounce and offend the friends and patrons whom Rolfe believed slighted him; yet, with lush language and provocative descriptions, Rolfe was often able to transform his personal experiences into mythically significant events.

Quotes from others about the person

• John Holden: "Corvo was one of those men who never speak a word if they can write it. We lived in the same house, a very little one, yet he would always communicate with me by note if I was not in the same room with him. He had dozens of letter books. He seized upon every opportunity for writing a letter, and every letter, whether to a publisher or to a cobbler, was written with the same care.

Interests

• photography, painting

Connections

Frederick Rolfe had a homosexual orientation.

Friend:

Ernest George Hardy

Frederick Rolfe met Ernest Hardy at The King's School, where he taught and Hardy was a headmaster.

References

• The Quest for Corvo: An Experiment in Biography
  1934
• Rolfe, Rose, Corvo, Crabbe: The Literary Images of Frederick Rolfe
  2014