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103-536: An Ideal Husband is a four-act play by Oscar Wilde that revolves around blackmail and political corruption, and touches on the themes of public and private honour. It was first produced at the Haymarket Theatre , London in 1895 and ran for 124 performances. It has been revived in many theatre productions and adapted for the cinema, radio and television. In June 1893, with his second drawing room play , A Woman of No Importance , running successfully at

206-524: A scholarship by competitive examination in his second and, in his finals, won the Berkeley Gold Medal in Greek, the university's highest academic award. He was encouraged to compete for a demyship , a half-scholarship worth £95 per year (equivalent to £11,100 in 2023), at Magdalen College, Oxford , which he won easily. At Magdalen, he read Greats from 1874 to 1878. He applied to join

309-753: A 1950 production with Griffith Jones , Fay Compton and Isabel Jeans ; a 1954 version produced by Val Gielgud ; a 1959 adaptation starring Tony Britton and Faith Brook ; a 1970 version with Noel Johnson , Ronald Lewis , Jane Wenham and Rosemary Martin ; and a 2007 adaption with Alex Jennings , Emma Fielding , Janet McTeer and Jasper Britton . BBC television adaptations were broadcast in 1958 (with Ronald Leigh-Hunt , Sarah Lawson , Faith Brook and Tony Britton ) and 1969 (with Keith Michell , Dinah Sheridan , Margaret Leighton and Jeremy Brett ). A television version ( Ein Idealer Gatte ) in German

412-697: A bachelor in London. The 1881 British Census listed Wilde as a boarder at 1 (now 44) Tite Street , Chelsea, where Frank Miles , a society painter, was the head of the household. Lillie Langtry was introduced to Wilde at Frank Miles' studio in 1877. The most glamorous woman in England, Langtry assumed great importance to Wilde during his early years in London, and they remained close friends for many years; he tutored her in Latin and later encouraged her to pursue acting. She wrote in her autobiography that he "possessed

515-570: A brooch she lost the previous evening. Incensed at Chiltern's reneging on his promise, she exposes him to his wife. Lady Chiltern denounces her husband and refuses to forgive him. Goring receives a letter from Lady Chiltern asking for his help – a letter that could be misinterpreted as a compromising love note. Just as Goring receives this note, his father, Lord Caversham, drops in and demands to know when his son will marry. A visit from Chiltern, who seeks further counsel from Goring, follows. Meanwhile, Mrs Cheveley arrives unexpectedly and, misrecognised by

618-676: A bunch of altar lilies instead. Wilde did retain a lifelong interest in Catholic theology and liturgy. While at Magdalen College, Wilde became well known for his role in the aesthetic and decadent movements . He wore his hair long, openly scorned "manly" sports – though he occasionally boxed  – and decorated his rooms with peacock feathers, lilies, sunflowers , blue china and other objets d'art . He entertained lavishly, and once remarked to some friends, "I find it harder and harder every day to live up to my blue china." The line spread famously; aesthetes adopted it as

721-440: A dance in their home at Drumacon, Co Cavan . One of the sisters had brushed against the flames of a fire or a candelabra and her dress caught fire; in various versions, the man she was dancing with carried her and her sister down to douse the flames in the snow, or her sister ran her down the stairs and rolled her in the snow, causing her own muslin dress to catch fire too. Until his early twenties, Wilde summered at Moytura House,

824-676: A family to support, in mid-1887 Wilde became the editor of The Lady's World magazine, his name prominent on the cover. He promptly renamed it as The Woman's World and raised its tone, adding serious articles on parenting, culture, and politics, while keeping discussions of fashion and arts. Two pieces of fiction were usually included, one to be read to children, the other for adult readers. Wilde worked hard to solicit good contributions from his wide artistic acquaintance, including those of Lady Wilde and his wife, Constance, while his own "Literary and Other Notes" were themselves popular and amusing. The initial vigour and excitement which he brought to

927-532: A febrile illness. His poem " Requiescat " was written in her memory; the first stanza reads: Tread lightly, she is near Under the snow Speak gently, she can hear The daisies grow. Until he was nine Wilde was educated at home, where a French nursemaid and a German governess taught him their languages. He joined his brother Willie at Portora Royal School in Enniskillen , County Fermanagh, which he attended from 1864 to 1871. At Portora, although he

1030-609: A fraudulent scheme to build a canal in Argentina. Her late mentor and lover, Baron Arnheim, induced the young Chiltern to sell him a Cabinet secret – which enabled Arnheim to buy shares in the Suez Canal Company three days before the British government announced its purchase of the company. Arnheim's payoff was the basis of Sir Robert's fortune, and Mrs Cheveley has Robert's letter to Arnheim as proof of his crime. Fearing

1133-719: A full-page reprint in the Lady's Pictorial . ... When the National Republican discussed Wilde, it was to explain 'a few items as to the animal's pedigree.' And on 22 January 1882, the Washington Post illustrated the Wild Man of Borneo alongside Oscar Wilde of England and asked 'How far is it from this to this?'" When he visited San Francisco, the San Francisco Chronicle reported, "The city

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1236-597: A long poem commemorating the harsh rhythms of prison life. Oscar Wilde was born at 21 Westland Row , Dublin (now home of the Oscar Wilde Centre , Trinity College), the second of three children born to an Anglo-Irish couple: Jane, née Elgee , and Sir William Wilde . Oscar was two years younger than his brother, William (Willie) Wilde . Jane Wilde was a niece (by marriage) of the novelist, playwright and clergyman Charles Maturin , who may have influenced her own literary career. She believed, mistakenly, that she

1339-812: A model spouse in both private and public life whom she can worship; thus, Sir Robert must remain unimpeachable in all his decisions. Sir Robert complies with her wishes and apparently seals his doom. Toward the end of Act I, Mabel and Lord Goring come upon a diamond brooch that Goring gave someone many years ago. He takes the brooch and asks Mabel to tell him if anyone comes to retrieve it. Goring urges Chiltern to fight Mrs Cheveley and admit his guilt to his wife. He also reveals that he and Mrs Cheveley were once engaged. After finishing his conversation with Chiltern, Goring engages in flirtatious banter with Mabel. He also takes Lady Chiltern aside and obliquely urges her to be less morally inflexible and more forgiving. Once Goring leaves, Mrs Cheveley appears, unexpected, in search of

1442-679: A number of favourite haunts in London. These included the Café Royal in Piccadilly, Hatchards bookstore in Piccadilly, and the department stores Liberty & Co. on Great Marlborough Street and Harrods in Knightsbridge; Wilde was among Harrods' first selected customers who were granted extended credit. Criticism over artistic matters in The Pall Mall Gazette provoked a letter of self-defence, and soon Wilde

1545-522: A painful duty", and of Marion Crawford that "he immolated himself on the altar of local colour". Wilde had been regularly writing fairy stories for magazines. He published The Happy Prince and Other Tales in 1888. In 1891 he published two more collections, Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories , and in September A House of Pomegranates was dedicated "To Constance Mary Wilde". " The Portrait of Mr. W. H. ", which Wilde had begun in 1887,

1648-1000: A portrait of Constance [Wilde] ". The first West End revival was presented by George Alexander in May 1914 at the St James's Theatre , and featured Arthur Wontner as Sir Robert Chiltern, Phyllis Neilson-Terry as Lady Chiltern, Hilda Moore as Mrs Cheveley and Alexander as Lord Goring. The play was next staged in London at the Westminster Theatre in 1943–44, with Manning Whiley as Sir Robert Chiltern, Rosemary Scott as Lady Chiltern, Martita Hunt as Mrs Cheveley, Roland Culver as Lord Goring and Irene Vanbrugh as Lady Markby, set design by Rex Whistler . A London revival in 1965–66 ran at three West End theatres in succession; it starred Michael Denison as Sir Robert Chiltern, Dulcie Gray as Lady Chiltern, Margaret Lockwood as Mrs Cheveley and Richard Todd as Lord Goring. The play

1751-532: A remarkably fascinating and compelling personality", and "the cleverness of his remarks received added value from his manner of delivering them." Wilde regularly attended the theatre and was especially taken with star actresses such as Ellen Terry and Sarah Bernhardt . In 1880 he completed his first play, Vera; or, The Nihilists , a tragic melodrama about Russian nihilism, and distributed privately printed copies to various actresses whom he hoped to interest in its sole female role. A one-off performance in London

1854-549: A second woman. Sir William acknowledged paternity of his children and provided for their education, arranging for them to be raised by his relatives. The family moved to No 1 Merrion Square in 1855. With both Sir William and Lady Wilde's success and delight in social life, the home soon became the site of a "unique medical and cultural milieu". Guests at their salon included Sheridan Le Fanu , Charles Lever , George Petrie , Isaac Butt , William Rowan Hamilton and Samuel Ferguson . Wilde's sister, Isola Francesca Emily Wilde,

1957-693: A series of longer prose pieces which were published in the major literary-intellectual journals of the day. In January 1889, The Decay of Lying: A Dialogue appeared in The Nineteenth Century , and Pen, Pencil and Poison , a satirical biography of Thomas Griffiths Wainewright , in The Fortnightly Review , edited by Wilde's friend Frank Harris . Two of Wilde's four writings on aesthetics are dialogues: though Wilde had evolved professionally from lecturer to writer, he retained an oral tradition of sorts. Having always excelled as

2060-421: A short but serious essay on the question, Wilde tossed the theory to the three characters of the story, allowing it to unfold as background to the plot  – an early masterpiece of Wilde's combining many elements that interested him: conversation, literature and the idea that to shed oneself of an idea one must first convince another of its truth. Ransome concludes that Wilde succeeds precisely because

2163-442: A slogan, but it was criticized as being terribly vacuous. Some elements disdained the aesthetes, but their languorous attitudes and showy costumes became a recognisable pose. When four of his fellow students physically assaulted Wilde, he fended them off single-handedly, to the surprise of his detractors. By his third year Wilde had truly begun to develop himself and his myth, and considered his learning to be more expansive than what

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2266-407: A strange influence over my life". He learned tracts of the book by heart, and carried it with him on travels in later years. Pater gave Wilde his sense of almost flippant devotion to art, though he gained a purpose for it through the lectures and writings of critic John Ruskin . Ruskin despaired at the self-validating aestheticism of Pater, arguing that the importance of art lies in its potential for

2369-520: A student, Wilde worked with Mahaffy on the latter's book Social Life in Greece . Wilde, despite later reservations, called Mahaffy "my first and best teacher" and "the scholar who showed me how to love Greek things". For his part, Mahaffy boasted of having created Wilde; later, he said Wilde was "the only blot on my tutorship". The University Philosophical Society also provided an education, as members discussed intellectual and artistic subjects such as

2472-462: A student, he was still eligible to enter. Its subject, "Historical Criticism among the Ancients" seemed ready-made for Wilde – with both his skill in composition and ancient learning – but he struggled to find his voice in the long, flat, scholarly style. Unusually, no prize was awarded that year. With the last of his inheritance from the sale of his father's houses, he set himself up as

2575-481: A swampy country lane into a smart road neatly edged with flowers. Wilde won the 1878 Newdigate Prize for his poem " Ravenna ", which reflected on his visit there in the previous year, and he duly read it at Encaenia . In November 1878, he graduated Bachelor of Arts with a double first , having been placed in the first class in Classical Moderations (the first part of the course) and then again in

2678-537: A thin volume of very mediocre verse", would improperly influence the behaviour of men and women. According to biographer Michèle Mendelssohn, Wilde was the subject of anti-Irish caricature and was portrayed as a monkey, a blackface performer and a Christy's Minstrel throughout his career. " Harper's Weekly put a sunflower-worshipping monkey dressed as Wilde on the front of the January 1882 issue. The drawing stimulated other American maligners and, in England, had

2781-472: A thoroughly healthy organism, and insure the material well-being of each member of the community. It will, in fact, give Life its proper basis and its proper environment". At the same time, he stressed that the government most amenable to artists was no government at all. Wilde envisioned a society where mechanisation has freed human effort from the burden of necessity, effort which can instead be expended on artistic creation. George Orwell summarised, "In effect,

2884-622: A villa his father had built in Cong, County Mayo . There the young Wilde and his brother Willie played with George Moore . Wilde left Portora with a royal scholarship to read classics at Trinity College Dublin (TCD), from 1871 to 1874, sharing rooms with his older brother Willie Wilde . Trinity, one of the leading classical schools, placed him with scholars such as R. Y. Tyrell , Arthur Palmer , Edward Dowden and his tutor, Professor J. P. Mahaffy , who inspired his interest in Greek literature . As

2987-497: A vulgar transaction and ruining the Chilterns' marriage. He then springs his trap. Removing the diamond brooch from his desk drawer, he binds it to Cheveley's wrist with a hidden lock. Goring then reveals how the item came into her possession: she stole it from his cousin, Mary Berkshire, years ago. To avoid arrest, Cheveley must trade the incriminating letter for her release from the bejewelled handcuff. After Goring obtains and burns

3090-641: A wealthy Queen's Counsel (lawyer). She happened to be visiting Dublin in 1884 when Wilde was lecturing at the Gaiety Theatre . He proposed to her, and they married on 29 May 1884 at the Anglican St James's Church, Paddington , in London. Although Constance had an annual allowance of £250, which was generous for a young woman (equivalent to £32,900 in 2023), the Wildes had relatively luxurious tastes. They had preached to others for so long on

3193-439: A wit and raconteur, he often composed by assembling phrases, bons mots and witticisms into a longer, cohesive work. Wilde was concerned about the effect of moralising on art; he believed in art's redemptive, developmental powers: "Art is individualism, and individualism is a disturbing and disintegrating force. There lies its immense value. For what it seeks is to disturb monotony of type, slavery of custom, tyranny of habit, and

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3296-429: Is a street in London where many gentlemen's clubs are located, hence Thackeray's description of this imaginary newspaper in his novel The History of Pendennis (1848–1850): We address ourselves to the higher circles of society: we care not to disown it— The Pall Mall Gazette is written by gentlemen for gentlemen; its conductors speak to the classes in which they live and were born. The field-preacher has his journal,

3399-463: Is decidedly disappointing. But worse have succeeded, and it was at least excellently received. ... But, taking it seriously, and disregarding any possibly imaginary tendency towards a new width of treatment, the play is unquestionably very poor. William Archer wrote, " An Ideal Husband is a very able and entertaining piece of work, charmingly written, wherever Mr. Wilde can find it in his heart to sufflaminate his wit. There are several scenes in which

3502-699: Is divided into two camps, those who thought Wilde was an engaging speaker and an original thinker, and those who thought he was the most pretentious fraud ever perpetrated on a groaning public." Though his press reception was hostile, Wilde was well received in diverse settings across America: he drank whiskey with miners in Leadville, Colorado , and was fêted at the most fashionable salons in many cities he visited. His earnings, plus expected income from The Duchess of Padua , allowed him to move to Paris between February and mid-May 1883. While there he met Robert Sherard , whom he entertained constantly. "We are dining on

3605-402: Is forced to explain last night's events and the true nature of the letter. Chiltern relents, and Goring and Mabel are permitted to marry. Lady Chiltern reaffirms her love for her husband and says, "For both of us a new life is beginning". In The Pall Mall Gazette , H. G. Wells wrote of the play: It is not excellent; indeed, after Lady Windermere's Fan and The Woman of No Importance , it

3708-534: The Brough-Boucicault company; they gave the play its New Zealand premiere later in the same year. The Irish premiere was in Dublin in 1896, given (with no mention of the author's name) by a touring company managed by Hawtrey, at the Gaiety Theatre . The cast included Alma Stanley as Mrs Cheveley and Cosmo Stuart, promoted from his small role in the London production, as Lord Goring. A French translation

3811-475: The Haymarket Theatre , Oscar Wilde began writing An Ideal Husband for the actor-manager John Hare . He completed the first act while staying at a house he had taken in Goring-by-Sea , after which he named a leading character in the play. Between September 1893 and January 1894 he wrote the remaining three acts. Hare rejected the play, finding the last act unsatisfactory; Wilde then successfully offered

3914-479: The Marquess of Queensberry . There have been at least five adaptations of the play for the cinema: The BBC has broadcast seven radio adaptations since its first, in 1926: a 1932 version starring Leslie Perrins and Kyrle Bellew ; a radio version of the 1943 Westminster Theatre production; a Bristol Old Vic version in 1947 featuring William Devlin , Elizabeth Sellars , Catherine Lacey and Robert Eddison ;

4017-808: The Oxford Union , but failed to be elected. Attracted by its dress, secrecy and ritual, Wilde petitioned the Apollo Masonic Lodge at Oxford, and was soon raised to the Sublime Degree of Master Mason. During a resurgent interest in Freemasonry in his third year, he commented he "would be awfully sorry to give it up if I secede from the Protestant Heresy". Wilde's active involvement in Freemasonry lasted only for

4120-523: The SS Arizona , arriving on 2 January 1882, and disembarking the following day. Originally planned to last four months, the tour continued for almost a year owing to its commercial success. Wilde sought to transpose the beauty he saw in art into daily life. This was a practical as well as philosophical project: in Oxford he had surrounded himself with blue china and lilies, and now one of his lectures

4223-407: The 1880s, Wilde was a close friend of the artist James McNeill Whistler and they dined together on many occasions. At one of these dinners, Whistler produced a bon mot that Wilde found particularly witty, Wilde exclaimed that he wished that he had said it. Whistler retorted "You will, Oscar, you will." Herbert Vivian  – a mutual friend of Wilde and Whistler – attended

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4326-444: The 9th Marquess of Queensberry for criminal libel . The Marquess was the father of Wilde's lover, Lord Alfred Douglas . The libel hearings unearthed evidence that caused Wilde to drop his charges and led to his own arrest and criminal prosecution for gross indecency with other males. The jury was unable to reach a verdict and so a retrial was ordered. In the second trial Wilde was convicted and sentenced to two years' hard labour ,

4429-647: The Chilterns, Julian L'Estrange as Lord Goring and Constance Collier as Mrs Cheveley. The next (and at 2021 the most recent) Broadway presentation was Peter Hall's production, seen at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre in 1996–97, featuring its original West End lead players, except for the Lady Chiltern, now played by Penny Downie . An Ideal Husband was produced in Australia in April 1895 by

4532-609: The Duchess tonight", Wilde would declare before taking him to an expensive restaurant. In August he briefly returned to New York for the production of Vera , the rights of which he had sold to the American actress Marie Prescott . The play was initially well received by the audience, but when the critics wrote lukewarm reviews, attendance fell sharply and the play closed a week after it had opened. In London, he had been introduced in 1881 to Constance Lloyd , daughter of Horace Lloyd,

4635-635: The Haymarket run, Wilde was arrested for gross indecency ; his name was removed from the playbills and programmes when the production transferred to the Criterion Theatre , where it ran for a further 13 performances, from 13 to 27 April. The play could have run longer at the Criterion, but the theatre was required by its proprietor, Charles Wyndham , for a new production. The play was published in 1899 in an edition of 1000 copies; Wilde's name

4738-494: The Victorian prohibition against homosexuality. By Richard Ellmann 's account, he was a precocious seventeen-year-old who "so young and yet so knowing, was determined to seduce Wilde". According to Daniel Mendelsohn , Wilde, who had long alluded to Greek love , was "initiated into homosexual sex" by Ross, while his "marriage had begun to unravel after his wife's second pregnancy, which left him physically repelled". Wilde had

4841-540: The best-known personalities of his day. At the turn of the 1890s, he refined his ideas about the supremacy of art in a series of dialogues and essays, and incorporated themes of decadence, duplicity, and beauty into what would be his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890). Wilde returned to drama, writing Salome (1891) in French while in Paris, but it was refused a licence for England due to an absolute prohibition on

4944-468: The betterment of society. Ruskin admired beauty, but believed it must be allied with, and applied to, moral good. When Wilde eagerly attended Ruskin's lecture series The Aesthetic and Mathematic Schools of Art in Florence , he learned about aesthetics as the non-mathematical elements of painting. Despite being given to neither early rising nor manual labour, Wilde volunteered for Ruskin's project to convert

5047-514: The book sold out its first print run of 750 copies, it was not generally well received by the critics: Punch , for example, said that "The poet is Wilde, but his poetry's tame". By a tight vote, the Oxford Union condemned the book for alleged plagiarism . The librarian, who had requested the book for the library, returned the presentation copy to Wilde with a note of apology. Biographer Richard Ellmann argues that Wilde's poem " Hélas! "

5150-574: The butler as the woman Goring awaits, is ushered into Lord Goring's drawing room. While she waits, she finds Lady Chiltern's letter. Chiltern discovers Mrs Cheveley in the drawing room and, convinced of an affair between these two former lovers, he storms out of the house. When Mrs Cheveley and Lord Goring confront each other, she makes a proposal. Claiming to still love Goring from their early days of courtship, she offers to exchange Chiltern's letter for her old beau's hand in marriage. Lord Goring declines, accusing her of defiling love by reducing courtship to

5253-612: The church hierarchy. He became more serious in 1878, when he met the Reverend Sebastian Bowden, a priest in the Brompton Oratory who had received some high-profile converts. Neither Mahaffy nor Sir William, who threatened to cut off his son's funding, thought much of the plan; but Wilde, the supreme individualist, balked at the last minute from pledging himself to any formal creed, and on the appointed day of his baptism into Catholicism, he sent Father Bowden

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5356-510: The church was closed, the records were moved to the nearby St. Ann's Church, Dawson Street . A Catholic priest in Glencree, County Wicklow, also claimed to have baptised Wilde and his brother Willie. In addition to his two full siblings, Wilde had three paternal half-siblings, who were born out of wedlock before the marriage of his father: Henry Wilson, born in 1838 to one woman, and Emily and Mary Wilde, born in 1847 and 1849, respectively, to

5459-448: The dialogue is heavily overburdened with witticisms, not always of the best alloy. ... An Ideal Husband , however, does not positively lack good things, but simply suffers from a disproportionate profusion of inferior chatter." A. B. Walkley called the play "a strepitous , polychromatic, scintillant affair, dexterous as a conjurer's trick of legerdemain, clever with a cleverness so excessive as to be almost monstrous and uncanny". He found

5562-531: The dignitaries and writers who received him during his lecture tours. Aestheticism was sufficiently in vogue to be caricatured by Gilbert and Sullivan in Patience (1881). Richard D'Oyly Carte , an English impresario, invited Wilde to make a lecture tour of North America, simultaneously priming the pump for the US tour of Patience and selling this most charming aesthete to the American public. Wilde journeyed on

5665-580: The dinner and recorded it in his article The Reminiscences of a Short Life , which appeared in The Sun in 1889. The article alleged that Wilde had a habit of passing off other people's witticisms as his own – especially Whistler's. Wilde considered Vivian's article to be a scurrilous betrayal, and it directly caused the broken friendship between Wilde and Whistler. The Reminiscences also caused great acrimony between Wilde and Vivian, Wilde accusing Vivian of "the inaccuracy of an eavesdropper with

5768-551: The early 1890s. He is best remembered for his epigrams and plays, his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray , and his criminal conviction for gross indecency for homosexual acts. Wilde's parents were Anglo-Irish intellectuals in Dublin . In his youth, Wilde learned to speak fluent French and German. At university, he read Greats ; he demonstrated himself to be an exceptional classicist , first at Trinity College Dublin , then at Magdalen College, Oxford . He became associated with

5871-665: The emerging philosophy of aestheticism , led by two of his tutors, Walter Pater and John Ruskin . After university, Wilde moved to London into fashionable cultural and social circles. Wilde tried his hand at various literary activities: he wrote a play, published a book of poems, lectured in the United States and Canada on "The English Renaissance" in art and interior decoration, and then returned to London where he lectured on his American travels and wrote reviews for various periodicals. Known for his biting wit, flamboyant dress and glittering conversational skill, Wilde became one of

5974-423: The end of the second volume, Wilde left The Woman's World . The magazine outlasted him by only a year. Wilde's period at the helm of the magazine played a pivotal role in his development as a writer and facilitated his ascent to fame. Whilst Wilde the journalist supplied articles under the guidance of his editors, Wilde the editor was forced to learn to manipulate the literary marketplace on his own terms. During

6077-585: The father and son combination of Edward Fox as Lord Caversham and Freddie Fox as Lord Goring, and Frances Barber as Mrs Cheveley, and Susan Hampshire as Lady Markby. The play was seen in the US in March 1895, running at the Lyceum Theatre on Broadway for 40 performances. It was revived on Broadway at the Comedy Theatre in 1918 with a cast including Norman Trevor and Beatrice Beckley as

6180-639: The final examination in Literae Humaniores (Greats). Wilde wrote to a friend, "The dons are ' astonied ' beyond words – the Bad Boy doing so well in the end!" After graduation from Oxford, Wilde returned to Dublin, where he met again Florence Balcombe , a childhood sweetheart. She became engaged to Bram Stoker and they married in 1878. Wilde was disappointed but stoic. He wrote to Balcombe remembering; "the two sweet years –

6283-466: The handsome society figure Henry Cust to replace him. Editor from 1892 to 1896, Cust returned the paper to its Conservative beginnings. Thompson sold the paper to William Waldorf Astor in 1896. Sir Douglas Straight was editor until 1909, followed by F. J. Higginbottom, under whom the paper declined. Circulation doubled between 1911–15 under the editor James Louis Garvin , but the paper declined once more under its last editor D. L. Sutherland. It

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6386-465: The job began to fade as administration, commuting and office life became tedious. At the same time as Wilde's interest flagged, the publishers became concerned about circulation: sales, at the relatively high price of one shilling, remained low. Increasingly sending instructions to the magazine by letter, Wilde began a new period of creative work and his own column appeared less regularly. In October 1889, Wilde had finally found his voice in prose and, at

6489-433: The letter does not have the name of the addressee, he assumes it is meant for him, and reads it as a letter of forgiveness. The two are reconciled. Lady Chiltern initially agrees to support Chiltern's decision to renounce his career in politics, but Goring dissuades her from allowing her husband to resign. When Chiltern refuses Goring his sister's hand in marriage, still believing he has taken up with Mrs Cheveley, Lady Chiltern

6592-737: The letter, Mrs Cheveley steals Lady Chiltern's note from his desk. Vengefully she plans to send it to Chiltern as, ostensibly, a love letter from Lady Chiltern to Goring. Mrs Cheveley exits the house in triumph. Lord Goring proposes to and is accepted by Mabel. Lord Caversham tells his son that Chiltern has denounced the Argentine canal scheme in the House of Commons. Lady Chiltern appears, and Lord Goring tells her that Chiltern's letter has been destroyed but that Mrs Cheveley has stolen her note and plans to use it to destroy her marriage. At that moment, Chiltern enters while reading Lady Chiltern's letter, but as

6695-592: The literary criticism is unveiled with such a deft touch. Though containing nothing but "special pleading" – it would not, he says "be possible to build an airier castle in Spain than this of the imaginary William Hughes" – we continue listening nonetheless to be charmed by the telling. "You must believe in Willie Hughes," Wilde told an acquaintance, "I almost do, myself." Wilde, having tired of journalism, had been busy setting out his aesthetic ideas more fully in

6798-492: The maximum penalty, and was jailed from 1895 to 1897. During his last year in prison he wrote De Profundis (published posthumously in abridged form in 1905), a long letter that discusses his spiritual journey through his trials and is a dark counterpoint to his earlier philosophy of pleasure. On the day of his release, he caught the overnight steamer to France, never to return to Britain or Ireland. In France and Italy, he wrote his last work, The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898),

6901-506: The method of a blackmailer" and banishing Vivian from his circle. Vivian's allegations did not diminish Wilde's reputation as an epigrammatist. London theatre director Luther Munday recounted some of Wilde's typical quips: Wilde said of Whistler that "he had no enemies but was intensely disliked by his friends", of Hall Caine that "he wrote at the top of his voice", of Rudyard Kipling that "he revealed life by splendid flashes of vulgarity", of Henry James that "he wrote fiction as if it were

7004-480: The paper cover such subjects as child prostitution ; his campaign compelled the government to increase the age of consent from 13 to 16 in 1885. This was one of the first examples of investigative journalism , and Stead was arrested for "unlawful taking of a child" (when he purchased thirteen-year-old Eliza Armstrong from her mother for the meagre price of £ 5, to highlight how easy it was to buy children). The affair distressed Thompson, who dismissed Stead and hired

7107-511: The play to Lewis Waller , who was about to take temporary charge of the Haymarket in the absence in America of its usual manager, Herbert Beerbohm Tree . The play was put into rehearsal in December 1894 and opened on 3 January 1895, billed as "A new and original play of modern life". It ran at the Haymarket for 111 performances, regarded as a good run at the time. In April, on the last day of

7210-400: The plot unbelievable, and thought that although the play, "by sheer cleverness, keeps one continually amused and interested", Wilde's work was "not only poor and sterile, but essentially vulgar". George Bernard Shaw praised the play: "In a certain sense Mr Wilde is to me our only thorough playwright. He plays with everything: with wit, with philosophy, with drama, with actors and audience, with

7313-551: The plot. He excelled academically, particularly in the subject of classics , in which he ranked fourth in the school in 1869. His aptitude for giving oral translations of Greek and Latin texts won him multiple prizes, including the Carpenter Prize for Greek Testament. He was one of only three students at Portora to win a Royal School scholarship to Trinity in 1871. In 1871, when Wilde was seventeen, his elder half-sisters Mary and Emily died aged 22 and 24, fatally burned at

7416-472: The policies of the Liberal Party . Taking all the staff with him, Greenwood became the editor of the newly-founded St James's Gazette and maintained his advocacy of Conservative policy. The first editor under Thompson's ownership was John Morley (later Viscount Morley), with W. T. Stead as assistant editor. Morley resigned in 1883 to go into politics. Stead's editorship from 1883 to 1889 saw

7519-478: The portrayal of Biblical subjects on the English stage. Undiscouraged, Wilde produced four society comedies in the early 1890s, which made him one of the most successful playwrights of late-Victorian London. At the height of his fame and success, while An Ideal Husband (1895) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) were still being performed in London, Wilde issued a civil writ against John Sholto Douglas,

7622-481: The press: the Springfield Republican , for instance, commented on Wilde's behaviour during his visit to Boston to lecture on aestheticism, suggesting that Wilde's conduct was more a bid for notoriety rather than devotion to beauty and the aesthetic. T. W. Higginson , a cleric and abolitionist, wrote in "Unmanly Manhood" of his general concern that Wilde, "whose only distinction is that he has written

7725-471: The production ran for an aggregate three years, the longest running production of a Wilde play. A production at the Vaudeville Theatre , London in 2010–11 featured Alexander Hanson as Sir Robert Chiltern, Rachael Stirling as Lady Chiltern, Samantha Bond as Mrs Cheveley and Elliot Cowan . A revival at the same theatre in 2018 featured Nathaniel Parker and Sally Bretton as the Chilterns,

7828-516: The radical free-thinker has his journal: why should the Gentlemen of England be unrepresented in the Press? Under the ownership of George Smith of Smith, Elder & Co. from 1865 to 1880, with Frederick Greenwood as editor, The Pall Mall Gazette was a Conservative newspaper. Greenwood resigned in 1880, when the paper's new owner (Smith's new son-in-law, Henry Thompson ) wished for it to support

7931-428: The reader: he concludes that "there is really a great deal to be said of the Willie Hughes theory of Shakespeare's sonnets." By the end fact and fiction have melded together. Arthur Ransome wrote that Wilde "read something of himself into Shakespeare's sonnets" and became fascinated with the "Willie Hughes theory" despite the lack of biographical evidence for the historical William Hughes' existence. Instead of writing

8034-482: The reduction of man to the level of a machine." In his only political text, The Soul of Man Under Socialism , he argued political conditions should establish this primacy – private property should be abolished, and cooperation should be substituted for competition. He wrote "Socialism, Communism, or whatever one chooses to call it, by converting private property into public wealth, and substituting co-operation for competition, will restore society to its proper condition of

8137-432: The ruin of both career and marriage, Sir Robert submits to her demands. When Mrs Cheveley pointedly informs Lady Chiltern of Sir Robert's change of heart regarding the canal scheme, the morally inflexible Lady Chiltern, unaware of both her husband's past and the blackmail plot, insists that Sir Robert renege on his promise to Mrs Cheveley. For Lady Chiltern, their marriage is predicated on her having an "ideal husband"—that is,

8240-643: The subject of design that people expected their home to set new standards. No 16 Tite Street was duly renovated in seven months at considerable expense. The couple had two sons, Cyril (1885) and Vyvyan (1886). Wilde became the sole literary signatory of George Bernard Shaw 's petition for a pardon of the anarchists arrested (and later executed) after the Haymarket massacre in Chicago in 1886. In 1886, while at Oxford, Wilde met Robert Ross . Ross, who had read Wilde's poems before they met, seemed unrestrained by

8343-516: The sweetest years of all my youth" during which they had been close. He also stated his intention to "return to England, probably for good". This he did in 1878, only briefly visiting Ireland twice after that. Unsure of his next step, Wilde wrote to various acquaintances enquiring about Classics positions at Oxford or Cambridge. The Rise of Historical Criticism was his submission for the Chancellor's Essay prize of 1879, which, though no longer

8446-592: The time he spent at Oxford; he allowed his membership of the Apollo University Lodge to lapse after failing to pay subscriptions. Catholicism deeply appealed to him, especially its rich liturgy, and he discussed converting to it with clergy several times. In 1877, Wilde was left speechless after an audience with Pope Pius IX in Rome. He eagerly read the books of Cardinal Newman , a noted Anglican priest who had converted to Catholicism and risen in

8549-479: The whole theatre. Such a feat scandalizes the Englishman...". In 1996 the critic Bindon Russell wrote that An Ideal Husband is "the most autobiographical of Wilde's plays, mirroring, as it does, his own situation of a double life and an incipient scandal with the emergence of terrible secrets. Whilst Lord Goring is a character with much of Wilde's own wit, insight and compassion, Gertrude Chiltern can be seen as

8652-410: The work of Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Algernon Charles Swinburne weekly. Wilde quickly became an established member – the members' suggestion book for 1874 contains two pages of banter sportingly mocking Wilde's emergent aestheticism. He presented a paper titled Aesthetic Morality . At Trinity, Wilde established himself as an outstanding student: he came first in his class in his first year, won

8755-403: The world will be populated by artists, each striving after perfection in the way that seems best to him." The Pall Mall Gazette Beginning late in 1868 and continuing at least through the 1880s, a selection or digest of its contents was published as the weekly Pall Mall Budget . The Pall Mall Gazette took the name of a fictional newspaper conceived by W. M. Thackeray . Pall Mall

8858-542: Was Ireland's leading oto - ophthalmologic (ear and eye) surgeon and was knighted in 1864 for his services as medical adviser and assistant commissioner to the censuses of Ireland. He also wrote books about Irish archaeology and peasant folklore. A renowned philanthropist, his dispensary for the care of the city's poor at the rear of Trinity College Dublin (TCD), was the forerunner of the Dublin Eye and Ear Hospital, now located at Adelaide Road. On his father's side Wilde

8961-631: Was a contributor to that and other journals during 1885–87. Although Richard Ellmann has claimed that Wilde enjoyed reviewing, Wilde's wife would tell friends that "Mr Wilde hates journalism". Like his parents before him, Wilde supported Ireland's cause, and when Charles Stewart Parnell was falsely accused of inciting murder , he wrote a series of astute columns defending the politician in the Daily Chronicle . His flair, having previously been put mainly into socialising, suited journalism and rapidly attracted notice. With his youth nearly over and

9064-495: Was a leader in the effort to make plays accessible to the reading public. Sir Robert – a member of the House of Commons and junior government minister – and his wife, Lady Chiltern, are hosting a gathering that includes his friend Lord Goring, a dandified bachelor, Chiltern's sister Mabel and other guests. During the party, Mrs Cheveley, an enemy of Lady Chiltern from their schooldays, attempts to blackmail Sir Robert into supporting

9167-415: Was a sincere, though flamboyant, attempt to explain the dichotomies the poet saw in himself; one line reads: "To drift with every passion till my soul / Is a stringed lute on which all winds can play". The book had further printings in 1882. It was bound in a rich, enamel parchment cover (embossed with gilt blossom) and printed on hand-made Dutch paper; over the next few years, Wilde presented many copies to

9270-447: Was a work of art." When asked to explain reports that he had paraded down Piccadilly in London carrying a lily, long hair flowing, Wilde replied, "It's not whether I did it or not that's important, but whether people believed I did it". Wilde believed that the artist should hold forth higher ideals, and that pleasure and beauty would replace utilitarian ethics. Wilde and aestheticism were both mercilessly caricatured and criticised in

9373-482: Was absorbed into The Evening Standard in 1923. Several well-known writers contributed to The Pall Mall Gazette over the years. George Bernard Shaw gained his first job in journalism writing for the paper. Other contributors have included Anthony Trollope , Friedrich Engels , Oscar Wilde , Robert Louis Stevenson , Charles Whibley , Sir Spencer Walpole , Arthur Patchett Martin , and Jamaican-born writer Eneas Sweetland Dallas . The British Weekly , "one of

9476-618: Was advertised in November 1881 with Mrs. Bernard Beere as Vera, but withdrawn by Wilde for what was claimed to be consideration for political feeling in England. He had been publishing lyrics and poems in magazines since entering Trinity College, especially in Kottabos and the Dublin University Magazine . In mid-1881, at 27 years old, he published Poems , which collected, revised and expanded his poems. Though

9579-715: Was again seen at the Westminster in 1989 in a short-lived revival, and in 1992 a new production was presented at the Globe Theatre which was subsequently seen in four other London theatres and on Broadway between November 1992 and March 1999. It was directed by Peter Hall , and the original cast featured David Yelland as Sir Robert Chiltern, Hannah Gordon as Lady Chiltern, Anna Carteret as Mrs Cheveley, Martin Shaw as Lord Goring, Michael Denison as Lord Caversham and Dulcie Gray as Lady Markby. The various stagings of

9682-462: Was born on 2 April 1857. She was named in tribute to Iseult of Ireland , wife of Mark of Cornwall and lover of the Cornish knight, Sir Tristan . She shared the name Francesca with her mother, while Emily was the name of her maternal aunt. Oscar would later describe how his sister was like "a golden ray of sunshine dancing about our home" and he was grief stricken when she died at the age of nine of

9785-527: Was broadcast in June 1958 by Nord und Westdeutscher Rundfunkverband (NWRV) with Marius Goring as Lord Goring and Albert Lieven as Sir Robert Chiltern. Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 1854 – 30 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in

9888-467: Was descended from a Dutch soldier, Colonel de Wilde, who came to Ireland with King William of Orange 's invading army in 1690, and numerous Anglo-Irish ancestors. On his mother's side, Wilde's ancestors included a bricklayer from County Durham , who emigrated to Ireland sometime in the 1770s. Wilde was baptised as an infant in St. Mark's Church, Dublin , the local Church of Ireland ( Anglican ) church. When

9991-572: Was first published in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine in July 1889. It is a short story which reports a conversation in which the theory that Shakespeare's sonnets were written out of the poet's love of the boy actor " Willie Hughes ", is advanced, retracted, and then propounded again. The only evidence for this is two supposed puns within the sonnets themselves. The anonymous narrator is at first sceptical, then believing, and finally flirtatious with

10094-670: Was given in Geneva in 1944. The first performance in France recorded by Les Archives du spectacle was in 1955; the site records seven French productions between then and 2016. Rex Whistler designs for the 1943–44 London revival: To mark the centenary of the first production, Sir John Gielgud unveiled a plaque at the Haymarket Theatre in January 1995, in the presence of, among many others, Wilde's grandson Merlin Holland and

10197-401: Was not as popular as his older brother, Wilde impressed his peers with the humorous and inventive school stories he told. Later in life, he claimed that his fellow students had regarded him as a prodigy for his ability to speed read , claiming that he could read two facing pages simultaneously and consume a three-volume book in half an hour, retaining enough information to give a basic account of

10300-421: Was not printed: the work was published as "By the author of Lady Windermere's Fan ". It is dedicated to Frank Harris , "A slight tribute to his power and distinction as an artist, his chivalry and nobility as a friend." The published version differs slightly from the performed play, as Wilde added many passages and cut others. Prominent additions included written stage directions and character descriptions. Wilde

10403-574: Was of Italian ancestry, and under the pseudonym "Speranza" (the Italian word for 'hope'), she wrote poetry for the revolutionary Young Irelanders in 1848; she was a lifelong Irish nationalist . Jane Wilde read the Young Irelanders' poetry to Willie and Oscar, inculcating a love of these poets in her sons. Her interest in the neo-classical revival showed in the paintings and busts of ancient Greece and Rome in her home. Sir William Wilde

10506-458: Was on interior design. In a British Library article on aestheticism and decadence, Carolyn Burdett writes, "Wilde teased his readers with the claim that life imitates art rather than the other way round. His point was a serious one: we notice London fogs, he argued, because art and literature has taught us to do so. Wilde, among others, 'performed' these maxims. He presented himself as the impeccably dressed and mannered dandy figure whose life

10609-802: Was within the prescribed texts. He was rusticated for one term, after he had returned late to a college term from a trip to Greece with Mahaffy. Wilde did not meet Walter Pater until his third year, but had been enthralled by his Studies in the History of the Renaissance , published during Wilde's final year in Trinity. Pater argued that man's sensibility to beauty should be refined above all else, and that each moment should be felt to its fullest extent. Years later, in De Profundis , Wilde described Pater's Studies... as "that book that has had such

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