A Controversial Victorian Author And Playwright

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28104, 20 October 1956, Page 3

A Controversial Victorian Author And Playwright

{specially written for “The Press" by

KEITH WOODS]

Among the many gifted playwrights end authors of the 19th and 20th centuries there are two. George Bernard Shaw and Oscar Wilde, who have caused much controversy and strife even after their deaths. But while Shaw is now almost universally accepted. Wilde is still slandered by many, even thou eh it is over fifty years since he died and. it is now generally believed, the hundredth anniversary of his birth was on the 15th of this month. The son of Sir William Wilde a famous but rather dissolute Irish surgeon. and Jane Francisca Elgee. he was bom in Dublin and saddled with the name of Oscar Fingall O Flahertie Wills Wilde. Neither parent could be said to be orthodox in manner, and in later years Wilde would introduce friends to his mother with such remarks as “We have founded a Society for the Suppression of Virtue ” At Trinity College. Dublin, and at Oxford he was brilliant— when he wished to be—but more often he was lazy and uninterested in academic subjects. While at Oxford he was rather unpopular, for it was his practice to cast scorn on manly sports, to wear his hair long, to decorate his rooms in unusual ways, and to express intense emotion on the subject of Art for Art’s sake (then a newfangled doctrine!, and eventually he became the chief disciple of this doctrine. It is more than possible however. that many of his peculiarities were part of an act. for on one occasion he remarked “I won’t be a dried-up Oxford don, anyhow. I'll be a poet, a writer, a dramatist. Somehow or other I’ll be famous, and if not famous Hl be notorious.’’ while at a later date he said “To get into the best society nowdays. one has either to feed people, amuse people, or shock people.” And at that time he had no money to feed them. This aesthetic behaviour was often mocked, and in the Gilbert and Sullivan opera “Patience” there is a burlesque of Wilde. This did not antagonise him however, and a few months later he made a lecture tour of America on behalf of the D’Oyly Carte Bureau. His dress during the lectures was similar to his London eveningwear and consisted of a velvet coat edged with braid, knee-breeches, black silk stockings, a soft loose shirt with a wide low turn-down collar, and a large flowing pale green tie, and in America, as in England, the “yellowpapers” were more than scornful. With these however, he had no mercy, and a typical rebuke was given to a representative of one of these papers when Wilde asked how much had been paid for a particularly mocking article. “Six dollars.” was the reply. “Well.” said Wilde, “the rate for lying is not very high in America.” Shortly after his return from America, in 1884. he married a beautiful Irish girl. Constance Lloyd, who bore him two children. Cyril <lBBs> and Vyvyan (1886) and died in 1898. Following his marriage his dress became conventional and in 1888 he was described as being tall, broad and thick-set. with a large clean-shaven face 'at a time when moustaches were in vogue), thick sensual lips, fleshy

cheeks, long dark carcfully-waved hair, and expressive heavy-lidded eyes. . About this time he became friendly with a number of young men of whom, in 1891. Lord Alfred Douglas became one. As a result Douglas's part-insane father, the Marquess of Queensbury, grew so insulting that Wilde was eventually forced to start a libel suit. That this, in which he was encouraged by jealous friends and the family of the Marquess of Queensbury. was illadvised was proved when he had to withdraw and admit that the libel was justified. Two weeks later, on April 5. 1895. he was arrested on a number of charges. No bail was allowed, but at the trial, which lasted five days, the jury could not agree. A second trial was then held and at this he was found guilty on a single charge and sentenced to two years’ imprisonment An unfortunate feature of this and the later period of Wildes life was the way in which his friends, and the general public, turned against him. Many were the people whom he had helped, yet few would look after his interests, his house was raided byunpublished manuscripts were stolen and destroyed, he was declared bankrupt and his belongings sold for a minute fraction of their worth, and scorn was heaped on him from every quarter. . , The prisons of that period were brutal and filthy’ and contained prisoners of every type, and much of Wildes genius wasted away. For six months he was in one of the worst prisons. Wandsworth, and was then transferred to Reading Gaol. Conditions there were just as bad for the next eight months. _ until a more humane govenor. Major Nelson, was appointed and Wilde was allowed books and paper. In spite of his hardships. however, he did not forget his fellow men. and with the aid of some of the warders he was able to help and advise both prisoners and warders. There were for instance three small children in prison for poaching rabbits. Although Wilde was almost penniless he managed to pay their fine so they could be released into the sunshine and the fresh air. A happier incident was his reporting to a friend “Since I have been here I have won a •liver tea-service and a grand piano” (for warders who consulted him about newspaper competitions). On his release from prison he left for France and lived there until he died, of cerebral meningitis, on November 30, 1900. In spite of the fact that he had paid his debt to society he was still subject to insults from many of the English and American travellers whom he encountered. In these three years he completed and sold but one work. “The Ballad of Reading Gaol.” and for the maior part of his time he was dependent on his few remaining friends (who included Charles Frohman. Sir Peter Chalmers Mitchell. Charles Wyndham. Laurence Housman. the actresses Ada Rehan. Ellen Terry and Sarah Bernhardt. the producers Augustin Daly, Sir George Alexander, Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree, and Sir Seymour Hicks). He had once told a friend. Robert Ross, an epigram-epitaph, and this was inscribed on his last resting place: “When the Last Trumpet sounds, and we are couched in our porphyry tombs. I shall turn and whisper to you ‘Robbie, let us pretend we do not hear it’.” If he wished to. Oscar Wilde could have produced more books, plays and

poems than any other writer, but he preferred to speak his lines and let ot .hers use them if they wished, for, he said. Hard work is simply the refuge of people who have nothing better to do.” For five years he was the literary critic for the “Pall Mall Gazette ’ and for two of these he also edited a magazine for women. He invariably preferred phrases that he could roll sensuously and had no qualms about putting his spoken epigrams and stories into his books. Nor would he be content with but one version: “Lord Arthur Savile’s- Crime.” ; for instance, was told in dozens of | ways (and the written one is said to ; j be the worst). Except for Bernard | Shaw, the critics could find little value in his work—with the exception ; of “The Importance of Being Earnest” I which everyone but Shaw liked—but • the public was very appreciative. This '■ liking of Wilde’s plays abated for a | few years during and following his prison sentence but his works soon I returned to popularity and are still I | performed, while at least two of his ; plays have been made into motion I pictures. I His first published work was a : • volume of poems in 1881 and it was not until 1888 that “The Happy Prince land Other Tales” <a collection of ; fairy stories) appeared. A second coli lection “intended neither for the I : British child nor the British public” I (“The House of Pomegranates”) ap- ; peared in 1892. In this year also he had his first major success in the theatre. | for it was then that Sir George j Alexander produced, at the St. James’ ; Theatre. “Lady Windermere's Fan.” • . For 1893 he wrote “A Woman of No ' Importance" (produced by Sir Herbert l Beerbohm Tree at the Theatre RovaD. 1 ; and in 1895 he had two plays running (“An Ideal Husband at the Theatre 1 Royal and “The Importance of Being Earnest” at the St. James's Theatre). Only three other plays were to come from his pen. “Vera” (1880) and “The Duchess of Padua” (1882). which are better left forgotten, and “Salome.” • The latter was written in French and, on her request, he read it to Sarah ' Bernhardt who then wished to pro--1 duce it and act the leading role. Rehearsals commenced in London but the project was forced to halt when the Lord Chamberlain refused a licence on the grounds that it was a religious subject. The script was published in Paris in 1893 and a year later an English translation by Lord Alfred Douglas and illustrations by Aubrey Beardsley was published in England. Except for “The Picture of Dorian ; Gray" (1891), “Lord Savile’s Crime.” and" “The Ballad of Reading Gaol.” ! the remainder of Oscar Wilde’s published work consisted of essays, the ! most important being “The Decay of I Lying.” “The Critic as Artist,” and ;“A Portrait of W. H.” (which dealt with the Sonnets of Shakespeare). ' Thus in a mere eight years and a handful of books is the remains of a man who was a genius, and who. if he had not sinned, may have been the greatest 1 writer Britain has ever produced.