OSCAR WILDE'S END IN POVERTY.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXII, Issue 16, 19 January 1901, Page 5 (Supplement)

OSCAR WILDE'S END IN POVERTY.

A SAD STORY,

Almost simultaneously with the revival of "Patience" and the death of Sir Arthur Sullivan comes the news of the sudden end of Oscar Wilde, the inventor of the aesthetic craze, and the original of Bunthorne. It is matter of common knowledge that it was Wilde and his long hair and knee-breeches which Mr. Gilbert satirised in the lines:

If you're anxious for to shine in the high aesthetic line as a man of culture rare, You must get up all the germs of the transcendental terms, and plant them everywhere; You must He upon the daisies, and discourse in novel phrases of your complicated state of mind, The meaning doesn't matter, if it's only idle chatter of a transcendental kind.

And everyone will say, As you walk your mystic way,

If this young: man expresses himself in torms too deep for me, Why what a very singularly deep youngman this deep young man must be.

It is Bunthorne, too, who says: — "Am 1 alone and unobserved? I am! Then, let me own I'm an aesthetic sham!"

In short my mediaevalism's affectation, Born of a morbid love of admiration.

At this time (1882) Wilde was merely a very handsome and clever young man dressing absurdly and letting- his hair grow too long, but always posing effectively and talking brilliantly. The cidious crowd who gathered round him later in the days of his theatrical successes and pandered to his gross absurdities had no place then. Only eight years ago a writer in a paper devoted'to theatrical matters described Oscar Wilde thus: —"He basks in irreproachable well-to-do respectability, model husband of a charming lady, affectionate father lof beautiful children, courted diner out, of monotonous affability, and needing, should he ever ride to hounds, a hunter well up to sixteen stone!"

As a matter of fact, Mrs Wilde loved her husband dearly and might have kept him straight but for the corruptin" influences of Lord Alfred Douglas. This youth in some way obtained a hold over Oscar which he used for his owu semi-insane s appetite. Lord Qneensberry, whilst running* Wilde down, chose to ignore his son's obliquities; but when in prison Oscar avowed Lord Alfred Douglas alone initiated their orgies and that he himself was simply one among many victims. The police upheld his view, but the Douglas clique had to be smashed, and to do this an exemplary lesson was imperative. But for Oscar Wilde offending Lord Queensberry and turning him into an implacable foe it is probable that we shlould have essentially seen not the posing aesthete but half a dozen bearers of historic names in the dock.

When Oscar Wilde came out of gaol

after months of plain food, clean living' and silence, many hoped (myself amongst others) lie would rise out of the wreck of the past into his higher self. His broken-hearted wife received him with angelic forgivenness, and friends supplied financial help. But the man had not an ounce of moral backbone. He slid back into silly affectations. ' Lord Alfred Douglas was seen with him, and even the most longsufl'ering- friends shra.nk away. What the history of the la.pt five years has been who knows. 'Twas said Wilde collaborated in a. highly successful comedy, which, 1o everybody's astonishment, was suddenly taken off when drawing" crowded houses to a. fashionable West End theatre. The manager, discovering the true authorship, at once tabo.oed it.

The, end is briefly related by the Paris correspondent of the "Chronicle." He says:—"About three weeks ago f was scouring- Paris to discover the. address of a M. Sebastieu Melnoth, for the purpose of verifying- a statement that he had been unjustly deprived of certain dramatic rights of authorship. At length a French literary friend informed me that the object of my search was lying ill at ii little hotel in the faroff Rue dcs Beaux Arts. To save time he called upon him in my name. M. Melnoth was Oscar Wilde. Oii the same evening I received a letter in answer -to my "petit bleu." I instantly answered this in person. The once brilliant and adulated poet-play-wright, though in bed, looked well in the face. The first part of the con-

versation on his side was a mixture of defiance and bitterness. ] did my best to console him, and he suddenly burst into tears. J felt deeply moved as he told the sad tale of blight and misery through which he had passed. Men who had been the recipients of sterling1 generosity had betrayed him and trodden him under their feet. Perhaps there was some justice in his wailing. Then he turned to religious subjects, and muttered almost savagely, "Much of my moral obliquity is due to the fact that my father would not allow me to become a Catholic. The artistic side of the Church and the fragrance of its teaching- would have curbed my degeneracies. I intend to be received before long1." lie spoke almost smilingly of his operation, saying that it would cost him £40, adding- that he owed near 2000 francs to the hotel.

The operation in question was intestinal, and then symptoms of cerebral meningitis set in. Leeches were applied to the ears, but the patient sank very rapidly. Two kind friends, Mr Robert. Ross and Mr Turner, nursed him, whilst Father Cuthbert Dunn, one of the British Catholic chaplains from the Avenue Hoche, administered the customary rights of the Church. Oscar Wilde tried to articulate the prayers which accompany Extreme Unction, and his death bed was ono of repentance.

To-morrow morning the funeral service will take place at the Church St, Germain dcs Pres, after which the body will be interred in the Bagncux Cemetery. A small cross will surmount the grave with the following inscription: "Ci g-it Oscar Wilde, Poete et Auteur Dramatique. R.1.P."