127-559: Lord Alfred Bruce Douglas (22 October 1870 – 20 March 1945), also known as Bosie Douglas , was an English poet and journalist, and a lover of Oscar Wilde . At Oxford University he edited an undergraduate journal, The Spirit Lamp , that carried a homoerotic subtext, and met Wilde, starting a close but stormy relationship. Douglas's father, John Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry , abhorred it and set out to humiliate Wilde, publicly accusing him of homosexuality. Wilde sued him for criminal libel , but some intimate notes were found and Wilde
254-423: A Catholic in 1911. They separated in 1913, lived together for a time in the 1920s after Custance also converted, and then lived apart after she gave up her Catholicism. The health of their only child further strained the marriage, which by the end of the 1920s was all but over, although they never divorced. In 1911, Douglas embraced Catholicism as Wilde had done earlier. More than a decade after Wilde's death, with
381-524: 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
508-697: 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
635-676: 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
762-440: 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,
889-615: A degree. At Oxford , he edited an undergraduate journal, The Spirit Lamp (1892–3), an activity that intensified the constant conflict between him and his father. Their relationship had always been a strained one and, during the Queensberry-Wilde feud, Douglas sided with Wilde, even encouraging Wilde to prosecute the Marquess for libel. In 1893, Douglas had a brief affair with George Ives . In 1858 his grandfather, Archibald Douglas, 8th Marquess of Queensberry , had died in what
1016-676: 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
1143-532: 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
1270-652: A few months due to personal differences and various pressures on them. The meeting in Rouen was disapproved of by the friends and families of both men. During the later part of 1897, Wilde and Douglas lived together in Naples, but they separated due to financial pressures and for other personal reasons. Wilde spent the rest of his life mainly in Paris; Douglas returned to Britain in late 1898. The cohabitation period in Naples later became controversial. Wilde claimed Douglas had offered
1397-405: A friendship. He sent his son a letter, attacking him for leaving Oxford without a degree and failing to take up a proper career. He threatened to "disown [Alfred] and stop all money supplies." Alfred responded with a telegram rudely stating: "What a funny little man you are." Queensberry's next letter threatened his son with a "thrashing" and accused him of being "crazy". He also threatened to "make
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#17327910585761524-719: 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
1651-489: A glamorous lifestyle seduced them into a life of homosexuality. Several highly suggestive erotic letters that Wilde had written to Douglas were introduced as evidence; Wilde claimed they were works of art. Wilde was questioned closely on the homoerotic themes in The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Chameleon , a single-issue magazine published by Douglas to which Wilde had contributed "Phrases and Philosophies for Use of
1778-419: A home, but had no funds or ideas. When Douglas eventually gained funds from his late father's estate, he refused to grant Wilde a permanent allowance, although he gave him occasional sums. Wilde was still bankrupt when he died in 1900. Douglas served as chief mourner, but there was reportedly a graveside altercation between him and Robbie Ross that developed into a feud and foreshadowed the later litigation between
1905-571: A homosexual relationship with the Prime Minister, Lord Rosebery , and that the cause of death was suicide. The Marquess of Queensberry thus embarked on a campaign to save his other son and began a public persecution of Wilde. Wilde had been openly flamboyant and his actions made the public suspicious even before the trial. The Marquess and a bodyguard confronted Wilde in Wilde's home; later, Queensberry planned to throw rotten vegetables at Wilde on
2032-474: A leg. Yet behind this appearance of a little, cross, old gentleman flits the shape of a young man of the 'nineties, with little pathetic sunshine-flashes of the 1893 boyishness and gaiety. I had fully expected the self-pity, suspicion and implied irritability, but I had not foreseen that there would be any remnant of merriment and boyishness. Obviously the great tragedy of his life has scarred him deeply. He talked very frankly about his marriage and about his son, who
2159-470: A lengthy religious discussion that Russell later published as Some Winchester Letters of Lionel Johnson (1919). Johnson graduated from New College, Oxford , in 1890 and converted to Catholicism in June 1891. At that time, Johnson introduced Lord Alfred Douglas to his friend Oscar Wilde . Johnson later denounced Wilde in "The Destroyer of a Soul" (1892) and deeply regretted that he had unwittingly initiated
2286-604: A letter from a correspondent in Germany praising " Herr Hittler " (so spelt) and " The German White Labour Party ". In 1920 he adhered to the idea of "the Jewish Peril", but noted, "Christian Charity forbids us to join in wholesale and indiscriminate abuse and vilification of an entire race." In 1921 he declared it was not acceptable to "shift responsibility" onto the Jews. In his 1929 Autobiography he wrote, "I feel now that it
2413-597: 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
2540-679: 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
2667-522: 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,
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#17327910585762794-617: A public meeting in London. A false report of a crushing British naval defeat had indeed been planted in the New York press by German interests, but by this time (after the failure of his Dardanelles Campaign ) Churchill was unconnected with the Admiralty. As the attorney general noted in court on Churchill's behalf, there was "no plot, no phoney communiqué, no stock market raid and no present of fine furniture". In 1924, while in prison, Douglas echoed Wilde's composition of De Profundis (From
2921-509: A public scandal in a way you little dream of" if he continued his relationship with Wilde. Queensberry was well known for his short temper and threatening to beat people with a horsewhip. Alfred sent his father a postcard stating "I detest you" and making it clear that he would take Wilde's side in a fight between him and the Marquess, "with a loaded revolver". In answer Queensberry wrote to Alfred (whom he addressed as "You miserable creature") that he had divorced Alfred's mother so as not to "run
3048-532: 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
3175-549: 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,
3302-693: 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
3429-421: 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
3556-683: A sin is also a crime (for example, a murder or theft), but this is not the case with homosexuality, any more than with adultery." In 1933 he gave a talk about poetry to the Catholic Poetry Society on 'The Catholic attitude to certain poets.' Of Wilde, Douglas said: 'Many years [after Wilde's death] and after I had become a Catholic, I reacted violently against him...Converts are very apt to be censorious and to be more Catholic than Catholics...I hope I am now more charitable and broad-minded than I was...After swinging to two extremes in my estimate of Wilde I have now got into what I believe to be
3683-442: 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
3810-407: 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
3937-520: 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
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4064-462: 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
4191-481: 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
4318-537: 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
4445-472: 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,
4572-544: A tribute of admiration from an artist and a receipt from a tradesman". In 1894, Douglas came and visited Oscar Wilde in Worthing , to the consternation of the latter's wife Constance. On another occasion, while staying with Wilde in Brighton , Douglas fell ill with influenza and was nursed by Wilde, but failed to return the favour when Wilde himself fell ill having caught influenza in consequence. Instead Douglas moved to
4699-622: 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
4826-641: 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
4953-439: 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
5080-600: A young girl, and after that became ever more manic; in 1888, he made a disastrous marriage. Separated from Florrie, James drank himself into a deep depression, and in 1891 committed suicide by cutting his throat. Another of his uncles, Lord Francis Douglas (1847–1865) had died in a climbing accident on the Matterhorn . His uncle Lord Archibald Edward Douglas (1850–1938) became a clergyman. Alfred Douglas's aunt, Lord James's twin Lady Florence Dixie (1855–1905),
5207-957: Is Alfred Douglas: A Poet's Life and His Finest Work by Caspar Wintermans in 2007. 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 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
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5334-699: 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
5461-426: Is in a home at Northampton . In the book, Secret Historian , Samuel Steward (a professor, poet, and novelist) wrote in his diary that he met Lord Alfred Douglas when Douglas was 67; Steward was 27. Lord Alfred professed that he was beyond "sins of the flesh," yet ends up in bed with Steward. Douglas proclaims that Wilde and he did little more than kiss and find other men for each other. Douglas's only child, Raymond,
5588-432: Is more likely "Posing somdomite", while Queensberry himself claimed it to be "Posing as somdomite". Holland suggests that this wording ("posing [as] ...") would have been easier to defend in court. With Douglas's avid support, but against the advice of friends such as Robbie Ross , Frank Harris and George Bernard Shaw , Wilde had Queensberry arrested and charged with criminal libel in a private prosecution , as sodomy
5715-461: Is ridiculous to make accusations against the Jews, attributing them qualities and methods which are really much more typically English than Jewish," and then indicated the country had only itself to blame if the Jews came in and trampled on it. The historian Colin Holmes argued that while "Douglas had been to the forefront of anti-semitism in the early 1920s, he was quite unable to come to terms with
5842-808: 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
5969-614: The Protocols . Douglas challenged the Jewish Guardian , published by the League of British Jews , to take him to court, suggesting they refrained from doing so because they were "well aware of the absolute truth of the allegations which we have made." The magazine suggested in 1921, "We need a Ku Klux Klan in this country," but a promotion for Ostara magazine was generally not well received by readers. Other regular targets of
6096-500: The Robert Hichens novel The Green Carnation was published, a roman à clef depicting satirically Douglas's dependent relationship on Wilde. Douglas has been described as spoiled, reckless, insolent and extravagant. He would spend money on boys and gambling and expected Wilde to contribute to funding his tastes. They often argued and broke up, but would always be reconciled. Douglas had praised Wilde's play Salome in
6223-523: 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
6350-407: 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
6477-444: 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 ,
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#17327910585766604-570: The British had broken their code, and that Winston Churchill had falsified a report in return for a large sum of money from Ernest Cassel , who thereby profited. In May 1921 Douglas insinuated that Lord Kitchener had been murdered by Jews. Douglas ceased to be editor after issue 67 in 1921, after a row with Spencer. He then produced a short-lived, almost identical rival called Plain Speech in 1921 with Herbert Moore Pim . Its first issue contained
6731-715: The Depths) during his incarceration and wrote his last major poetic work, In Excelsis (In the Highest) in 17 cantos . Since the prison authorities would not allow Douglas to take the manuscript with him on his release, he had to rewrite the work from memory. Douglas maintained that his health never recovered from his harsh prison ordeal, which included sleeping on a plank bed without a mattress. Douglas's feelings towards Wilde began to soften after Douglas's own incarceration in 1924. He wrote in Oscar Wilde: A Summing Up , "Sometimes
6858-609: 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,
6985-543: The French translation of Salome , which he called "a most pernicious and abominable piece of work". In 1920 Douglas founded a right-wing , Catholic, and deeply antisemitic weekly magazine called Plain English , in which he collaborated with Harold Sherwood Spencer and initially Thomas William Hodgson Crosland . It claimed to succeed The Academy , to which Douglas had been a contributing editor. Plain English ran until
7112-417: The Oxford magazine The Spirit Lamp , of which he was editor. Wilde had originally written Salomé in French, and in 1893 he commissioned Douglas to translate it into English. Douglas's French was very poor and his translation was highly criticised; for example, a passage that runs " On ne doit regarder que dans les miroirs " ("One should look only in mirrors") he rendered "One must not look at mirrors". Douglas
7239-494: 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
7366-543: The Young". Queensberry's attorney announced in court that he had located several male prostitutes who were to testify that they had had sex with Wilde. Wilde's lawyers advised him that this would make a conviction on the libel charge very unlikely; he then dropped the libel charge, on his lawyers' advice, to avoid further pointless scandal. Without a conviction, the libel law of the time left Wilde liable to pay Queensberry's considerable legal costs, leaving him bankrupt . Based on
7493-528: The age of 74. He was buried on 23 March at the Franciscan Friary , Crawley , alongside his mother, who had died on 31 October 1935 at the age of 90. They share a gravestone. The elderly Douglas, living a reduced life in Hove in the 1940s, appears in the diaries of Henry Channon and in the first autobiography of Donald Sinden , whose son Marc Sinden claimed his father was one of only two people at
7620-584: The bail money. The prosecutor opted to retry the case. Wilde was convicted on 25 May 1895 and sentenced to two years' hard labour , first at Pentonville , then Wandsworth , then famously in Reading Gaol . Douglas was forced into exile in Europe. While in prison, Wilde wrote Douglas a long and critical letter titled De Profundis , describing how he felt about him. Wilde was not permitted to send it but it might have been sent to him after Wilde's release. It
7747-435: 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
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#17327910585767874-468: 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
8001-514: 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! "
8128-612: 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
8255-510: 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
8382-531: 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
8509-580: 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
8636-665: 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
8763-527: The end of 1922. Douglas later admitted that its policy was "strongly anti-Semitic". From August 1920 (issue No 8) Plain English began publishing a long series of articles called "The Jewish Peril" by Major-General Count Cherep-Spiridovitch , whose title was taken from the fore-title of George Shanks 's version of a fraudulent work, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion . Plain English advertised from issue 20 The Britons ' second edition of Shank's version of
8890-423: 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
9017-471: The evidence raised during the case, Wilde was arrested the next day and charged with committing criminal sodomy and " gross indecency ", a crime capable of being committed only by two men, which might include sexual acts other than sodomy. Douglas's September 1892 poem " Two Loves " (published in the Oxford magazine The Chameleon in December 1894) was used against Wilde at the latter's trial. It ends with
9144-482: The famous line that calls homosexuality the love that dare not speak its name , which is often attributed wrongly to Wilde. Wilde gave an eloquent but counter-productive explanation of the nature of this love on the witness stand. The trial resulted in a hung jury . In 1895, when Wilde was released on bail during his trials, Douglas's cousin Sholto Johnstone Douglas stood surety for £ 500 of
9271-639: 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 –
9398-580: The finest comedy in the English language.' Throughout the 1930s and up to his death, Douglas kept up correspondence with many people, including Marie Stopes and George Bernard Shaw . Anthony Wynn based his play Bernard and Bosie: A Most Unlikely Friendship on the letters between Shaw and Douglas. One of Douglas's final public appearances was a well-received lecture to the Royal Society of Literature on 2 September 1943 on The Principles of Poetry , published in an edition of 1,000 copies. He attacked
9525-509: The first night of The Importance of Being Earnest , but forewarned of this, Wilde was able to deny him access to the theatre. Queensberry then publicly insulted Wilde by leaving at the latter's club a visiting card on which he had written, "For Oscar Wilde posing as a somdomite [ sic ]". The wording is in dispute – the handwriting is unclear – although Hyde reports it as this. According to Merlin Holland , Wilde's grandson, it
9652-500: The funeral. In fact the funeral report in The Times named some 20 mourners, including Sinden, with "other friends". He died at the home of Edward and Sheila Colman, who were the main beneficiaries in his will, inheriting the copyright to his work. Douglas published several volumes of poetry and two books about his relationship with Wilde, Oscar Wilde and Myself (1914, largely ghost-written by T. W. H. Crosland , assistant editor of
9779-408: The happy mean.' Similarly, in 1935 he wrote to the theatre manager Norman Marshall regarding Marshall's proposed production of a play about the Wilde scandal, closing his letter, 'Devoted as I still am and always will be to the memory of this brilliant and wonderful man and conscious as I am and always shall be about my own failings...Wilde was the author of what I consider to be, apart from Shakespeare,
9906-465: 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
10033-592: 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
10160-526: The literary journal The Academy and later repudiated by Douglas) and Oscar Wilde: A Summing Up (1940). He also wrote two memoirs: The Autobiography of Lord Alfred Douglas (1929) and Without Apology (1938). Douglas edited The Academy from 1907 to 1910, during which time he had an affair with the artist Romaine Brooks , who was also bisexual . The main love of her life, Natalie Clifford Barney , also had an affair with Wilde's niece Dorothy and even, in 1901, with Douglas's future wife Olive Custance ,
10287-407: The luxurious Grand Hotel and on Wilde's 40th birthday sent him a letter informing him that he had charged Wilde with the hotel bill. Douglas also gave his old clothes to male prostitutes, but failed to remove from the pockets incriminating letters exchanged between him and Wilde, which were then used for blackmail . Alfred's father, the Marquess of Queensberry, suspected the liaison to be more than
10414-603: The magazine included David Lloyd George , Alfred Viscount Northcliffe , H. G. Wells , Frank Harris , and Sinn Féin . In December 1920 the magazine was the first to publish the secret constitution of the Irish Republican Brotherhood . From 25 December 1920 it began publishing notorious articles alleging that a "powerful individual in the Admiralty" had alerted the Germans at the Battle of Jutland that
10541-492: 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),
10668-506: 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
10795-412: The numbers of telegraph and messenger boys who came to the door was simply scandalous". Wilde redid much of the translation himself, but in a gesture of reconciliation suggested that Douglas be dedicated as the translator rather than be credited, along with him, on the title page. Accepting this, Douglas, likened the difference between sharing the title page and having a dedication to "the difference between
10922-551: 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
11049-519: The poetry of T. S. Eliot ; the talk was praised by Arthur Quiller-Couch and Augustus John . Harold Nicolson described his impression of Douglas after meeting him at a lunch party in 1936: There is a little trace of his good looks left. His nose has assumed a curious beaklike shape, his mouth has twisted into shapes of nervous irritability, and his eyes, although still blue, are yellow and bloodshot. He makes nervous and twitching movements with freckled and claw-like hands. He stoops slightly and drags
11176-423: 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,
11303-481: 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
11430-428: 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
11557-482: 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
11684-403: The release of suppressed portions of Wilde's De Profundis letter in 1912, Douglas turned against his former friend, whose homosexuality he grew to condemn. He was a defence witness in the libel case brought by Maud Allan against Noel Pemberton Billing in 1918. Billing had accused Allan, who was performing Wilde's play Salome , of being part of a deliberate homosexual conspiracy to undermine
11811-483: The risk of bringing more creatures into the world like yourself" and that when Alfred was a baby, "I cried over you the bitterest tears a man ever shed, that I had brought such a creature into the world, and unwittingly committed such a crime.... You must be demented." Douglas's eldest brother Francis Viscount Drumlanrig died in a suspicious hunting accident in October 1894, as rumours circulated that he had been having
11938-575: The second edition. The prime case was brought by the Crown on Winston Churchill 's behalf in 1923. Douglas was found guilty of libelling Churchill and sentenced to six months in prison. Churchill had been accused as cabinet minister of falsifying an official report on the Battle of Jutland in 1916, when although suffering losses, the Royal Navy drove the German battle fleet off the high seas. Churchill
12065-487: The secret homosexual relationship that had devolved into a public scandal. In 1893, Johnson published what some consider his greatest work, "Dark Angel". During his lifetime, he published: The Art of Thomas Hardy (1894), Poems (1895), and Ireland and Other Poems (1897). Johnson was a member of the Rhymers' Club , and cousin to Olivia Shakespear (who dedicated her novel The False Laurel to him). Johnson died of
12192-643: 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
12319-516: 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
12446-592: 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
12573-474: The two former lovers of Wilde. After Wilde's death, Douglas made a close friendship with Olive Custance , a bisexual heiress and poet. They married on 4 March 1902. Olive Custance was in a relationship with the writer Natalie Barney when she and Douglas first met. Barney and Douglas eventually became close friends and Barney was named godmother to their son, Raymond Wilfred Sholto Douglas, born on 17 November 1902. The marriage grew stormy after Douglas became
12700-531: The vicious racist anti-semitism in Germany" under the Nazis. Politically Douglas described himself as "a strong Conservative of the 'Diehard' variety". Douglas started his "litigious and libellous career" by gaining an apology and 50 guineas each from the Oxford and Cambridge university magazines Isis and Cambridge for defamatory references to him in an article on Wilde. Douglas was plaintiff or defendant in several trials for civil or criminal libel . In 1913 he
12827-474: The war effort. Douglas also contributed to Billing's journal Vigilante as part of his campaign against Robbie Ross. He had written a poem calling Margot Asquith one "bound with Lesbian fillets", while her husband Prime Minister Herbert gave Ross money. During the trial he called Wilde as "the greatest force for evil that has appeared in Europe during the last three hundred and fifty years", adding that he intensely regretted having met Wilde and helped him with
12954-410: 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
13081-556: The world will be populated by artists, each striving after perfection in the way that seems best to him." Lionel Johnson Lionel Pigot Johnson (15 March 1867 – 4 October 1902) was an English poet, essayist, and critic (although he claimed Irish descent and wrote on Celtic themes). Johnson was born in Broadstairs , Kent , England in 1867 and educated at Winchester College . While at Winchester, Johnson became friends with Frank Russell, 2nd Earl Russell . The two started
13208-435: The year before the couple married. Of the six biographies of Douglas, the earlier ones by Braybrooke and Freeman were forbidden to quote from his copyright work, while De Profundis was unpublished. Later biographies were by Rupert Croft-Cooke, H. Montgomery Hyde (who also wrote about Wilde), Douglas Murray (who called Braybrooke's biography "a rehash and exaggeration of Douglas's book" [his autobiography]). The most recent
13335-542: 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
13462-631: 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
13589-415: 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
13716-447: 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
13843-618: 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
13970-699: Was an author, war correspondent for the Morning Post during the First Boer War , and a feminist . In 1890, she published a novel, Gloriana, or the Revolution of 1900 , in which women's suffrage is achieved after a woman posing as a man named Hector D'Estrange is elected to the House of Commons. The character D'Estrange is clearly based on Oscar Wilde. In 1891, Lionel Johnson introduced Douglas to Oscar Wilde ; they soon began an affair. In 1894,
14097-420: Was angered at Wilde's criticism, and claimed that the errors were in fact in Wilde's original play. This led to a hiatus in the relationship and a row between the two, with angry messages being exchanged and even the involvement of the publisher John Lane and the illustrator Aubrey Beardsley when they themselves objected to the poor standard of Douglas's work. Beardsley complained to Robbie Ross : "For one week
14224-462: 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
14351-457: Was charged with libelling his father-in-law. That same year he accused Arthur Ransome of libelling him in his book Oscar Wilde: A Critical Study . He saw the trial as a weapon against his enemy Ross, not understanding that Ross would not be called to give evidence. The court found in Ransome's favour and Douglas was bankrupted by the failed libel suit. Ransome removed the offending passages from
14478-467: 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
14605-681: Was diagnosed in 1927, at the age of 24, with schizoaffective disorder and entered St Andrew's Hospital , a mental institution. Though decertified and discharged after five years, he suffered another breakdown and returned to the hospital. In February 1944, when his mother died of a cerebral haemorrhage at the age of 70, Raymond was able to attend her funeral, and in June he was again decertified. His conduct rapidly deteriorated, and he returned to St Andrew's in November, where he stayed until his death on 10 October 1964. Douglas died of congestive heart failure in Lancing, West Sussex , on 20 March 1945 at
14732-572: 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
14859-480: Was given to Robbie Ross with instructions to make a copy and send the original to Lord Alfred Douglas. Lord Alfred Douglas later said that he received only a letter from Ross with a few choice quotations and did not know there was a letter until reference was made to it in a biography of Wilde's on which Ross had consulted. After Wilde's release on 19 May 1897, the two reunited in August at Rouen but stayed together only
14986-483: Was his mother's favourite child; she called him Bosie (a derivative of "boysie", as in boy), a nickname which stuck for the rest of his life. His mother successfully sued for divorce in 1887 on the grounds of his father's adultery. The Marquess later married Ethel Weeden in 1893 but the marriage was annulled the following year. Douglas was educated at Wixenford School , Winchester College (1884–88) and Magdalen College, Oxford (1889–93), which he left without obtaining
15113-514: Was jailed for libelling Winston Churchill over claims of World War I misconduct. Douglas wrote several books of verse, some in a homoerotic Uranian genre. The phrase " The love that dare not speak its name " appears in one ( Two Loves ), though it is widely misattributed to Wilde. Douglas was born at Ham Hill House in Powick , Worcestershire , the third son of John Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry and his first wife, Sibyl Montgomery. He
15240-411: Was later imprisoned. On his release, he briefly lived with Douglas in Naples, but they had separated by the time Wilde died in 1900. Douglas married a poet, Olive Custance , in 1902 and had a son, Raymond. On converting to Catholicism in 1911, he repudiated homosexuality, and in a Catholic magazine, Plain English , expressed openly antisemitic views, but rejected the policies of Nazi Germany . He
15367-401: 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
15494-574: 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
15621-458: 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
15748-494: Was reported as a shooting accident, but was widely believed to have been suicide. In 1862, his widowed grandmother, Lady Queensberry, converted to Catholicism and took her children to live in Paris . One of his uncles, Lord James Douglas, was deeply attached to his twin sister "Florrie" ( Lady Florence Douglas ) and was heartbroken when she married a baronet, Sir Alexander Beaumont Churchill Dixie . In 1885, Lord James tried to abduct
15875-530: Was said to have reported that the British Navy had in fact been defeated, the supposed motive being that when the news was flashed, British security prices would tumble on the world's stock exchanges, allowing a group of named Jewish financiers to snap them up cheaply. Churchill's reward was a houseful of furniture valued at £ 40,000. The allegations were made by Douglas in Plain English and later at
16002-472: Was then a criminal offence. According to the libel laws of the time, since his authorship of the charge of sodomy was not in question, Queensberry could avoid conviction by demonstrating in court not only that the charge he had made was true and that there was also a public interest in having made the charge public. Edward Carson , Queensberry's lawyer, portrayed Wilde as a vicious older man who preyed upon naive young boys and with extravagant gifts and promises of
16129-802: 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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