Delphi Complete Works of Oscar Wilde (Illustrated) (242 page)

The first was dressed in grass-green, or prassino; the red-haired strumpet wore a robe which once must have been blue; the old slut was clad in yellow.

All these dresses, however, were stained and very much the worse for wear. Besides, some slimy viscid fluid which had left large spots everywhere, made them seem as if all the snails of Burgundy had been crawling over them.

I managed to get rid of the two younger ones, but I was not so successful with the cantiniere.

Having seen that her charms, and all her little endearments, had no effect upon me, she tried to rouse my sluggish senses by more desperate means.

As I said before, I was sitting upon the low divan; she thereupon stood in front of me and pulled her dress up to her waist, thus exhibiting all her hitherto hidden attractions. It was the first time I had seen a naked woman, and this one was positively loathsome. And yet, now that I think of it, her beauty might well be compared with that of the Shulamite, for her neck was like the tower of David, her navel resembled a round goblet, her belly a huge heap of blighted wheat. Her hair, beginning from her waist and falling down to her knees, was not exactly like a flock of goats — as the hair of Solomon’s bride — but in quantity it surely was like that of a good-sized black sheepskin.

Her legs — similar to those described in the biblical song — were two massive columns straight up and down, without any sign of calf or ankle about them. Her whole body, in fact, was one bulky mass of quivering fat. If her smell was not quite that of Lebanon it was surely of musk, patchouli, stale fish and perspiration; but as my nose came in closer contact with the fleece, the smell of stale fish predominated.

She stood for a minute in front of me; then, coming nearer by a step or two, put one foot on the divan, and opening her legs as she did so, she took my head between her fat, clammy hands.

‘Viens mon cheri, fais minette a ton petit chat.’

As she said this I saw the black mass of hair part itself; two huge dark lips first appeared, then opened, and within those bulgy lips — which inside had the color and the look of stale butcher’s meat — I saw something like the tip of a dog’s penis when in a state of erection, protrude itself towards my lips.

All my schoolfellows burst out laughing — why, I did not exactly understand; for I had not the slightest idea of what minette was, or what the old whore wanted of me; nor could I see that anything so loathsome could be turned into a joke.

 
— Well, and how did that jolly evening come to an end?

 
— Drinks had been ordered — beer, spirits, and some bottles of frothy stuff, yclept champagne, which surely was not the produce of the sunny wines of France, but of which the women imbibed copiously.

After this, not wishing us to leave the house without having been entertained in some way or other, and to get a few more francs out of our pockets, they proposed to show us some tricks that they could do amongst themselves.

It was apparently a rare sight, and the one for which we had come to this house. My friends acquiesced unanimously. Thereupon the old bladder of fat undressed herself stark naked, and shook her buttocks in a kind of poor imitation of the Eastern Dance of the Wasp. The poor consumptive wretch followed her example, and slipped off her dress by a simple shake of her body.

At the sight of that huge mass of flabby hog’s lard flapping on either side of the rump, the thin whore lifted up her hand, and gave her friend a smart slap on the buttocks, but the hand seemed to sink in, as into a mass of butter.

‘Ah!’ said the cantiniere; ‘this is the little game you like, is it?’

And she answered the blow by a smarter one on her friend’s backside.

Thereupon the consumptive girl began to run round the room, and the cantiniere toddled after her in the most provoking attitude, each trying to slap the other.

As the old prostitute passed Biou, he gave her a loud smack with his open palm, and soon after, most of the other students followed suit, evidently much excited by this little game of flagellation, until the buttocks of the two women were of a crimson red.

The cantiniere having at last managed to seize her friend, she sat down, and laid her across her knees, saying, ‘Now, my friend, you will get it to your heart’s content.’

And suiting the action to the words, she belabored her soundly; that is, striking her as strongly as her chubby little hands allowed her.

The young woman having at last succeeded in getting up, both the women thereupon began to kiss and fondle each other. Then, with thighs against thighs and breasts against breasts, they stood a moment in that position; after which, they brushed aside the bushy hair that covered the lower part of the so-called Mount of Venus, and opening their thick brown and bulgy lips, they placed one clitoris in contact with the other, and these as they touched wagged with delight; then, encircling their arms round each other’s backs, with their mouths close together, breathing each other’s fetid breath, the one sucking alternately the other’s tongue, they began to rub mightily together. They twisted, they writhed, and they shook, putting themselves into all kinds of contortions for some time, yet hardly able to stand on account of the intensity of the rapture they felt.

At last, the consumptive girl, clasping with her hands the backside of the other one, and thus opening the huge pulpy buttocks, called out:

‘Une feuille de rose.’

Of course I greatly wondered what she meant, and I asked myself where she could find a rose-leaf, for there was not a flower to be seen in the house; and then I said to myself — having got one what will she do with it?

I was not left to wonder long, for the cantiniere did to her friend what she had done to her. Thereupon two other whores came and knelt down before the backsides that were thus held open for them, and began to lick them, to the pleasure of the active and passive prostitutes, and to that of all the lookers-on.

Moreover, the kneeling women, thrusting their forefingers between the legs of the standing strumpets and on the lower extremity of the lips, began to rub vigorously.

The consumptive girl thus masturbated, kissed, rubbed, and licked, began to writhe furiously, to pant, to sob and to scream with joy, delight, and almost pain, until half fainting.

‘Aie, la, la, assez, aie, c’estfait,’ followed by cries, screams, monosyllables, and utterances of keen delight and unbearable pleasure.

‘Now it is my turn,’ said the cantiniere, and stretching herself on the low couch, she opened her legs wide so that the two thick dark lips gaped, and disclosed a clitoris which in its erection was of such a size, that in my ignorance I concluded this woman to be an hermaphrodite.

Her friend, the other gougnotte — this was the first time I had heard the expression — though hardly recovered, went and placed her head between the cantiniere’s legs, lips against lips, and her tongue on the stiff, red, moist, and wagging clitoris, she too being in such a position that her own middle parts were in the reach of the other whore’s mouth.

They wriggled and moved, they rubbed and bumped each other, and their dishevelled hair spread itself not only on the couch but also on the floor; they clasped each other, squeezed the nipples of their breasts, and dug their nails into the fleshy parts of their bodies, for in their erotic fury they were like two wild Maenads, and only smothered their cries in the fury of their kisses.

Though their lust seemed to grow even stronger, still it did not overcome them, and the fat and tough old strumpet in her eagerness to enjoy was now pressing down her lover’s head with both her hands and with all her might, as if she were actually trying to get it all in her womb.

The sight was really loathsome, and I turned my head aside so as not to see it, but the view that offered itself all around was, if anything, more disgusting.

The whores had unbuttoned all the young men’s trousers, some were handling their organs, caressing their testicles or licking their backsides; one was kneeling before a young student and greedily sucking his huge and fleshy phallus, another girl was sitting a- straddle on a young man’s knees, springing up and coming down again as if she had been in a baby-jumper — evidently running a Paphian race — and (perhaps there were not enough prostitutes, or it was done for the fun of the thing) one woman was being had by two men at the same time, one in front, the other behind. There were also other enormities, but I had not time enough to see everything.

‘Moreover, many of the young men who were already tipsy when they came here, having drunk champagne, absinthe and beer, began now to feel squeamish, to be quite sick, to hiccough, and finally to throw up.

‘In the midst of this nauseous scene, the consumptive whore went off into a fit of hysterics, crying and sobbing at the same time, whilst the fat one, who was now thoroughly excited, would not allow her to lift up her head; and having got her nose where the tongue had hitherto been, she was rubbing herself against it with all her might, screaming.

‘Lick on, lick stronger, don’t take away your tongue now that I am about to enjoy it; there, I am finishing, lick on, suck me, bite me.’

‘But the poor cadaverous wretch in the paroxysm of her delirium had managed to slip away her head.

‘Regarde done quel con,’ said Biou, pointing to that mass of quivering flesh amidst the black and froth-covered viscid hair. ‘I shall just get my knee into it, and rub her soundly. Now, you’ll see!’

‘He pulled off his trousers, and was about to suit the action to the words, when a slight cough was heard. It was at once followed by a piercing cry; and before we could understand what was the matter, the body of the tough old prostitute was bathed in blood. The cadaverous wretch had in a fit of lubricity broken a blood vessel, and was dying — dying — dead!

‘Ah! la sale bougre!’ said the ghoul-like woman with the bloodless face. ‘It’s all over with the slut now, and she owes me ...’

‘I do not remember the sum she mentioned. In the meanwhile, however, the cantiniere continued to writhe in her senseless and ungovernable rage, twisting and distorting herself; but at last, feeling the warm blood flow in her womb, and bathe her inflamed parts, she began to pant, to scream, and to leap with delight, for the ejaculation was at length taking place.

Thus it happened that the death-rattle of the one mixed itself up with the panting and gurgling of the other.

‘In that confusion I slipped away, cured for ever of the temptation of again visiting such a house of nightly entertainment.’

CHAPTER
4

Let us now go back to our story.

 
— When was it that you met Teleny again?

 
— Not for some time afterwards. The fact is that although I continued to feel irresistibly attracted towards him, drawn as it were by an impelling power the strength of which I could at times hardly withstand, still I continued to avoid him.

Whenever he played in public I always went to hear him — or rather, to look at him; and I only lived during those short moments when he was on the stage. My glasses would then be rivetted upon him; my eyes gloated upon his heavenly figure, so full of youth, life, and manhood.

The longing that I felt to press my mouth on his beautiful mouth and parted lips was so intense that it always made my penis water.

At times the space between us seemed to lessen and dwindle in such a way that I felt as though I could breathe his warm and scented breath — nay, I actually seemed to feel the contact of his body against my own.

The sensation produced by the mere thought that his skin was touching mine excited my nervous system in such a way that the intensity of this barren pleasure produced at first a pleasant numbness over my whole body, which, being prolonged, soon turned into a dull pain.

He himself always appeared to feel my presence in the theatre, for his eyes invariably looked for me until they pierced the densest crowd to find me out. I knew, however, that he could not really see me in the corner where I was ensconced, either in the pit, the gallery, or at the bottom of some box. Still, go, whithersoever I would, his glances were always directed towards me. Ah, those eves! as unfathomable as the dim water of a well. Even now, as I remember them after these many years, my heart beats, and I feel my head grow giddy thinking of them. If you had seen those eyes, you would know what that burning languor which poets are always writing about really is.

Of one thing I was justly proud. Since that famous evening of the charity concert, he played — if not in a more theoretically correct way — far more brilliantly and more sensationally than he had ever done before.

His whole heart now poured itself out in those voluptuous Hungarian melodies, and all those whose blood was not frozen with envy and age were entranced by that music.

His name, therefore, began to attract large audiences, and although musical critics were divided in their opinions, the papers always had long articles about him.

 
— And — being so much in love with him — you had the fortitude to suffer, and yet to resist the temptation of seeing him.

 
— I was young and inexperienced, therefore moral; for what is morality but prejudice?

 
— Prejudice?

 
— Well, is nature moral? Does the dog that smells and licks with evident gusto the first bitch that he meets, trouble his unsophisticated brain with morality? Does the poodle that endeavors to sodomize that little cur coming across the street care what a canine Mrs. Grundy will say about him?

No, unlike poodles, or young Arabs, I had been inculcated with all kinds of wrong ideas, so when I understood what my natural feelings for Teleny were, I was staggered, horrified; and filled with dismay, I resolved to stifle them.

Indeed, had I known human nature better, I should have left France, gone to the antipodes, placed the Himalayas as a barrier between us.

 
— Only to yield to your natural tastes with someone else, or with him, had you happened to meet unexpectedly after many years.

— “Vbu are quite right; physiologists tell us that the body of man changes after seven years; a man’s passions, however, remain always the same; though smouldering in a latent state, they are in his bosom all the same; his nature is surely no better because he has not given vent to them. He is only humbugging himself and cheating everybody by pretending to be what he is not; I know that I was born a sodomite, the fault is my constitution’s, not mine own.

I read all I could find about the love of one man for another, that loathsome crime against nature taught to us not only by the very gods themselves, but by all the greatest men of olden times, for even Minos himself seems to have sodomized Theseus.

I, of course, looked upon it as a monstrosity, a sin — as Origen says — far worse than idolatry. And yet I had to admit that the world — even after the cities of the plain had been destroyed — throve well enough notwithstanding this aberration, for Paphian girls in the great days of Rome were but too often discarded for pretty little boys.

It was but time for Christianity to come and sweep away all the monstrous vices of this world with its brand new broom. Catholicism later on burnt those men who sowed in a sterile field — in effigy.

The popes had their catamites, the kings had their mignons, and if all the host of priests, monks, friars and caluyers were forgiven, they — it must be admitted — did not always commit buggery, or cast away their seed on rocky soil, although religion did not intend their implements to be baby-making tools.

As for the Templars, if they were burnt, it surely could not have been on account of their pederasty, for it had been winked at long enough.

What amused me, however, was to see that every writer impeached all his neighbors of indulging in this abomination; his own people alone were free from this shocking vice.

The Jews accused the Gentiles, and the Gentiles the Jews, and — like syphilis — all the black sheep who had this perverted taste had always imported it from abroad. I also read in a modern medical book, how the penis of a sodomite becomes thin and pointed like a dog’s, and how the human mouth gets distorted when used for vile purposes, and I shuddered with horror and disgust. Even the sight of that book blanched my cheek!

It is true that since then, experience has taught me quite another lesson, for I must confess that I have known scores of whores, and many other women besides, who have used their mouths not only for praying and for kissing their confessor’s hand, and yet I have never perceived that their mouths were crooked, have you?

As for my penis, or yours, its bulky head — but you blush at the compliment, so we will drop this subject.

At that time I tortured my brain, fearing to have committed this heinous sin morally, if not materially.

Mosaic religion, rendered stricter by the Talmudic law, has invented a cowl to be used in the act of copulation. It wraps up the whole body of the husband, leaving in the middle of the gown but a tiny hole — like that in a little boy’s pants — to pass the penis through, and thus enable him to squirt his sperm into his wife’s ovaries, fecundating her in this way, but preventing as much as possible all carnal pleasure. Ah, yes! but people have long since taken French leave of the cowl, hoodwinking the whole affair by hooding their falcon with a ‘French letter.’

“Vfes, but are we not born with a leaden cowl — namely, this Mosaic religion of ours, improved upon by Christ’s mystic precepts, and rendered impossible, perfect, by Protestant hypocrisy; for if a man commits adultery with a woman every time he looks at her, did I not commit sodomy with Teleny every time I saw him or even thought of him?

There were moments however when, nature being stronger than prejudice, I should right willingly have given up my soul to perdition — nay, yielded my body to suffer in eternal hell- fire — if in the meanwhile I could have fled somewhere on the confines of this earth, to some lonely island, where in perfect nakedness I could have lived for some years in deadly sin with him, feasting upon his fascinating beauty.

‘Still I resolved to keep aloof from him, to be his motive power, his guiding spirit, to make of him a great, a famous, artist. As for the fire of lewdness burning within me — well, if I could not extinguish it, I could at least subdue it.

‘I suffered. My thoughts, night and day, were with him. My brain was always aglow; my blood was overheated; my body ever shivering with excitement. I daily read all the newspapers to see what they said about him; and whenever his name met my eyes the paper shook in my trembling hands. If my mother or anybody else mentioned his name I blushed and then grew pale.

‘I remember what a shock of pleasure, not unmingled with jealousy, I felt, when for the first time I saw his likeness in a window amongst those of other celebrities. I went and bought it at once, not simply to treasure and dote upon it, but also that other people might not look at it;’

‘What! vou were so very iealous?’

‘Foolishly so. Unseen and at a distance I used to follow him about, after every concert he played.

‘Usually he was alone. Once, however, I saw him enter a cab waiting at the back door of the theatre. It had seemed to me as if someone else was within the vehicle — a woman, if I had not been mistaken. I hailed another cab, and followed them. Their carriage stopped at Telenys house. I at once bade my Jehu do the same.

‘I saw Teleny alight. As he did so, he offered his hand to a lady, thickly veiled, who tripped out of the carriage and darted into the open doorway. The cab then went off.

‘I bade my driver wait there the whole night. At dawn the carriage of the evening before came and stopped. Mydriver looked up. Afew minutes afterwards the door was again opened. The lady hurried out, was handed into her carriage by her lover. I followed her, and stopped where she alighted.

‘A few days afterwards I knew who she was.’

‘And who was she?’

‘A lady of an unblemished reputation with whom Teleny had played some duets.

‘In the cab, that night, my mind was so intently fixed upon Teleny that my inward self seemed to disintegrate itself from my body and to follow like his own shadow the man I loved. I unconsciously threw myself into a kind of trance and I had a most vivid hallucination, which, strange as it might appear, coincided with all that myfriend did and felt.

‘For instance, as soon as the door was shut behind them, the lady caught Teleny in her arms, and gave him a long kiss. Their embrace would have lasted several seconds more, had Teleny not lost his breath.

‘You smile; yes, I suppose you yourself are aware how easily people lose their breath in kissing, when the lips do not feel that blissful intoxicating lust in all its intensity. She would have given him another kiss, but Teleny whispered to her: ‘Let us go up to my room; there we shall be far safer than here.’

Soon they were in his apartment.

She looked timidly around, and seeing herself in that young man’s room alone with him, she blushed and seemed thoroughly ashamed of herself.

‘Oh! Rene,’ she said, ‘what must you think of me?’

‘That you love me dearly,’ quoth he; ‘do you not?’

‘Yes, indeed; not wisely, but too well.’

Thereupon taking off her wrappers, she rushed up and clasped her lover in her arms, showering her warm kisses on his head, his eyes, his cheeks and then upon his mouth. That mouth I so longed to kiss!

With lips pressed together, she remained for some time inhaling his breath, and — almost frightened at her boldness — she touched his lips with the tip of her tongue. Then, taking courage, soon afterwards she slipped it in his mouth, and then after a while, she thrust it in and out, as if she were enticing him to try the act of nature by it; she was so convulsed with lust by this kiss that she had to clasp herself to him not to fall, for the blood was rushing to her head, and her knees were almost giving way beneath her. At last, taking his right hand, after squeezing it hesitatingly for a moment, she placed it upon her breasts, giving him her nipple to pinch, and as he did so, the pleasure she felt was so great that she was swooning away for joy.

‘Oh, Teleny!’ she said; ‘I can’t! I can’t any more.’

And she rubbed herself as strongly as she could against him, protruding her middle parts against his.

 
— And Teleny?

 
— Well, jealous as I was, I could not help feeling how different his manner was now from the rapturous way with which he had clung to me that evening, when he had taken the bunch of heliotrope from his buttonhole and had put it in mine.

He accepted rather than returned her caresses. Anyhow, she seemed pleased, for she thought him shy.

She was now hanqinq on him. One of her arms was clasped around his waist, the other one around his neck. Her dainty, tapering, bejewelled fingers were playing with his curly hair, and paddling his neck.

He was squeezing her breasts, and, as I said before, slightly fingering her nipples.

She gazed deep into his eyes, and then sighed.

‘You do not love me,’ she said at last. ‘I can see it in your eyes. \bu are not thinking of me, but of somebody else.’

And it was true. At that moment he was thinking of me — fondly, longingly; and then, as he did so, he got more excited, and he caught her in his arms, and hugged and kissed her with far more eagerness than he had hitherto done — nay, he began to suck her tongue as if it had been mine, and then began to thrust his own into her mouth.

After a few moments of rapture she, this time, stopped to take a breath.

‘Yes, I am wrong. \bu love me. I see it now. \bu do not despise me because I am here, do you?’

‘Ah! if you could only read in my heart, and see how madly I love you, darling!’