by Oscar Wilde
50 Friedrich Schroeder (p. 73) I.e., Friedrich Ulrich Schroder (1744–1816), the first manager to introduce Shakespeare to the German stage.
51 mimae quidem ex Britannia… slain at Nuremberg (p. 73) Horst Schroeder points out that ‘although the history of the early English actors at Nuremberg is well documented, an incident like the one related is not recorded’ (Annotations, p. 60). He goes on to suggest that Wilde’s anecdote is fictitious.
52 the sorrows of Dionysos that Tragedy sprang (p. 74) A theme that Wilde probably found in ‘A Study of Dionysus’, an essay by Walter Pater, who had been a formative influence at Oxford. Pater’s essay was published in 1876 in the Fortnightly Review and posthumously in Greek Studies (1895). At one point Wilde seems to echo Pater directly: ‘It is out of the sorrows of Dionysus, then; – of Dionysus in winter – that all Greek tragedy grows’ (Greek Studies (1895; 1901), p. 40).
53 Bithynian slave… yellow hills of Cerameicus… Antinous… Charmides in philosophy (p. 74) The Bithynian slave was Antinöus, the beautiful page of the Roman emperor Hadrian and a favourite subject of sculptors; Cerameicus is a quarter of Athens; Charmides was a beautiful Athenian youth who appears in Plato’s dialogue of that name. Wilde’s theme is the age-old one of the permanence of beauty in art; but it is significant that the examples he gives are of classical male beauty.
54 Globe Theatre (p. 76) Erected in 1599 in Southwark for the Burbages. Shakespeare acted there, but Wilde seems to have forgotten that the narrator has made the same point about the Blackfriars and assumes his readers were aware of the relationship between the two playhouses.
55 Cannes (p. 77) The popularity of Cannes as a resort dates from its virtual colonization by British visitors from the midnineteenth century onwards.
56 night-mail from Charing Cross (p. 77) Charing Cross was the station serving, cross-Channel traffic until the 1920s.
57 not a Clouet, but an Ouvry (p. 78) As Horst Schroeder suggests in Oscar Wilde, ‘The Portrait of Mr. W. H.’ – Its Composition, Publication and Reception, the reference to Ouvry is in all likelihood an error for Oudry, the French painter in the school of Jean Clouet; an exhibition of Oudry’s work in 1888 in London had attracted considerable interest.
A House of Pomegranates
1 Dedication (p. 81) Constance Wilde (née Lloyd) was Wilde’s wife.
THE YOUNG KING
1 Dedication (p. 83) Margaret de Windt (1849–1936) married in 1869 Sir Charles Johnson Brooke, the second Rajah of Sarawak. Wilde probably met her in Paris in 1891.
2 Faun (p. 83) In Greek mythology a rural demigod, represented as a man with horns and the tail of a goat.
3 Joyeuse (p. 84) ‘Joyeuse’ was the epithet used to describe (and denigrate) members of Henri Ill’s court. Wilde used it again in DG.
4 Adonis (p. 85) In Greek legend a beautiful youth favoured by Aphrodite, whose name became a bye-word for male beauty.
5 Bithynian slave of Hadrian (p. 85) I.e., Antinous, the beautiful page of the Roman emperor Hadrian; see note 53 to p. 74.
6 Endymion (p. 85) Once more male beauty is being alluded to, for in Greek legend Endymion was a beautiful young shepherd whom Selene (the moon) visited each night as he slept in an eternal sleep. Endymion was familiar to nineteenth-century readers through the poem by John Keats.
7 Narcissus (p. 86) A favourite classical reference used by Wilde to denote vain male beauty; see note 20 to p.113 and note 1 to p. 246.
8 lateen sail (p. 88) ‘A triangular sail suspended by a long yard at an angle of about 45º to the mast’ (OED).
9 Ormuz (p. 89) A famously wealthy city in the Persian Gulf, mentioned by Milton in Paradise Lost (11, 2).
10 Tartary (p. 90) In the Middle Ages, the land of the Mongols and Tartars of Central Asia, who under Genghis Khan overran much of Europe; Wilde’s emphasis is upon the Tartars’ legendary violence.
11 Isis and Osiris (p. 91) Isis was the Egyptian goddess of the sky and wife of Osiris, the god of fertility and the underworld.
12 Death leaped upon his red horse and galloped away (p. 91) Wilde’s treatment of Death, Avarice and Plague draws heavily on the description of the Apocalypse in the Revelation of St John the Divine.
13 pleasaunce (p. 92) A pleasure-ground, usually attached to a mansion.
14 dreamer of dreams (p. 95) A quotation from William Morris’s verse-romance The Earthly Paradise, where the poet calls himself a ‘Dreamer of dreams’.
15 the dead staff blossomed (p. 95) An allusion to the Tannhäuser story, given its most popular expression in the nineteenth century by Richard Wagner in his opera Tannhäuser (1861). In it Tannhäuser confesses to the Pope his love for Venus, but is refused absolution until the Pope’s staff blossoms. Tannhäuser goes back to Venusberg, and the Pope’s ‘dead staff does indeed blossom. In De Prqfundis, his long prison-letter to Lord Alfred Douglas, Wilde explicitly associated Tannhàuser with Christ.
16 monstrance (p. 96) Gold or jewelled vessel containing the consecrated Host.
THE BIRTHDAY OF THE INFANTA
1 Infanta (p. 97) Technically the eldest daughter of the king and queen of Spain who is not heir to the throne.
2 Dedication (p. 97) Mrs William H. Grenville and her husband (Lord and Lady Desborough), of Taplow Court in Buckinghamshire, were members of a group calling themselves ‘The Souls’. Wilde was a frequent visitor to Taplow Court.
3 Mi reina! (p. 99) I.e., My queen!
4 Papal Nuncio (p. 99) A permanent official representative of the Roman see at a foreign court.
5 Escurial (p. 99) The chief palace of the Spanish kings, about thirty miles from Madrid.
6 auto-da-fé (p. 99) The ceremonial delivery of heretics condemned by the Spanish Inquisition to the secular arm to be burned at the stake.
7 urai sourire de France (p. 100) I.e., ‘the true smile of France’.
8 moue (p. 100) I.e., A pout.
9 hidalgo and grandee (p. 101) An inaccurate conjunction of terms: hidalgo refers to the lower ranks of the nobility and grandee to the highest.
10 Camerera-Mayor (p. 101) The chief keeper of the Queen’s wardrobe.
11 Bravo toro! (p. 101) I.e., ‘bravo (or well done) bull!’
12 the semi-classical tragedy of Sophonisba (p. 102) Sophonisba was the daughter of the Carthaginian general Hasdrubal; her fate formed the subject of numerous European dramas.
13 Tritons (p. 106) Here statues of sea-monsters of semi-human form represented as a bearded man with the hind-parts of a fish, holding a trident and a shell-trumpet.
14 Pan (p. 108) In classical mythology Pan was an Arcadian deity who invented and played on the ‘pipes of Pan’; as Wilde’s allusion suggests, he came to be regarded as the personification of Nature, and, perhaps ironically here, was associated with fertility.
15 tabouret (p. 111) A low seat or stool.
16 Holbein’s Dance of Death (p. 111) A series of woodcuts by Hans Holbein the Younger executed in the 1520s, in which Death is depicted as an unwelcome democratic leveller robbing every class and profession of their pride and status.
17 Lucca damask (p. 112) A figured cloth. Wilde reviewed Ernest Lefébure’s Embroidery and Lace in Woman’s World in December 1888, calling it ‘a fascinating book’. The book not only provided details of embroidery here, but also for Chapter 9 of DG.
18 Faun (p. 112) See note 2 to p. 83.
19 Venus (p. 113) In classical mythology the goddess of love.
20 Echo (p. 113) In classical mythology an oread whom Hera deprived of speech, except for the power to repeat the last words uttered by someone else. She fell in love with Narcissus (see note 7 to p. 86), but when her affection was not returned she pined away until only her voice was left. In another version of the legend, Echo was a nymph loved by Pan (thus taking up the identification of the dwarf with Pan on p. 108).
21 petit monstre (p. 114) I.e., little monster.
THE FISHERMAN AND HIS SOUL
1 Dedication (p. 115) Alice Heine (1858–1925), widow of the Duc
de Richelieu, married Prince Albert of Monaco in 1889. She was a patron of art and artists. Wilde seems to have met her first in Paris in 1891. H.S.H. stands for ‘Her Serene Highness’.
2 Tritons (p. 116) See notes 13 to p. 106.
3 filigrane (p. 116) Delicate, thread-like forms.
4 Sirens (p. 116) In Homer’s Odyssey (12.39,184), sea-songstresses living on an island near Scylla and Charybdis who charm sailors to their deaths – an ironic portent of the fate of the fisherman.
5 nautilus (p. 117) A reference to a sea-creature (a cephalopod) that has a beautiful and delicate chambered shell and webbed dorsal arms, which it was formerly believed to use as a sail.
6 Kraken (p. 117) A mythical sea-monster of enormous size, the subject of a poem by Tennyson.
7 baskets of plaited osier (p. 117) I.e., baskets made of stripped and woven willow branches.
8 Fauns (p. 119) See note 2 to p. 83.
9 lemon (p. 119) An archaic word meaning lover or spouse.
10 samphire (p. 120) A maritime rock plant whose leaves are used in pickles.
11 vervain (p. 123) A plant reputedly possessing medicinal qualities.
12 targe (p. 123) A light shield.
13 Judas tree (p. 125) The leguminous tree (Cercis siliquastrum) from which Judas was supposed to have hanged himself; it normally has purple flowers.
14 Tartars (p. 127) See note 10 to p. 90.
15 Gryphons (p. 128) Mythical animals which had the head and wings of an eagle and the body and hindquarters of a lion. The following paragraphs contain a mixture of names of real peoples and places (such as Tyre and Sidon) and the completely fictitious (such as the Agazonbae, Laktroi and Krimnians).
16 selenites (p. 131) I.e., moonstones.
17 galbanum and nard (p. 133) Galbanum is a gum resin; nard is an aromatic balsam. Both denote exoticism, an important element in decadent literature.
18 wine of Schiraz (p. 133) I.e., Shiraz, a city in Persia, famous for its wine.
19 palanquin (p. 134) ‘A covered litter for one person, carried by four or six men by means of poles projecting before and behind’ (OED).
20 Circassian (p. 134) A gentile or non-Jew. Again the exotic is being invoked.
21 aloes (p. 135) Plants with fragrant resin and bitter juices.
22 ger-falcon (p. 135) A species of large falcon.
23 porphyry (p. 136) I.e., a beautiful red stone with a high polish. As with the earlier reference to a ‘purfled’ (or decoratively braided) silk napkin, Wilde’s emphasis is once more on conspicuous and exotic luxury, a common feature of decadent literature.
24 chalcedonies and sards (p. 137) Sard is a variety of chalcedony; both are semi-transparent quartz stones. A knowledge of gems and precious stones is a feature of both English and French decadent writing. Cf. DG and Joris-Karl Huysmans’s A Rebours (1884). For his knowledge of the subject Wilde was greatly indebted to William Jones, History and Mystery of Precious Stones (1880).
25 stibium (p. 143) A black antimony cosmetic, used for blackening the eyelids and eyebrows.
26 Field of the Fullers (p. 146) In the Bible (2 Kings) the Fullers’ Field is a spot just outside the walls of Jerusalem. The trade of fulling, or processing cloth, used alkalis and caused offensive smells and was thus carried out at some distance from habitations. Hence the spot in which the Fisherman and the Mermaid are buried is not only unhallowed, but also contaminated (and thus sterile).
27 monstrance (p. 147) See note 16 to p. 96.
28 alb and the girdle, the maniple and the stole (p. 147) Details of ecclesiastical dress: an alb is a tunic of white cloth worn by priests, the maniple is a Eucharistie vestment worn over the arm and a stole is a narrow strip of silk worn over the shoulders.
THE STAR-CHILD
1 Dedication (p. 149) Margot Tennant was a friend from Dublin and was shortly to become the wife of Herbert Henry Asquith, the Home Secretary and the future Prime Minister.
2 haggard (p. 154) An Irish term for a stack-yard.
3 carlots (p. 157) Peasants.
4 Giaours (p. 159) A term used by Turks for non-Christians, familiarized in the nineteenth century by The Giaour, a poem by Byron.
Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime and Other Stories
LORD ARTHUR SAVILE’s CRIME
1 Lady Windermere (p. 167) Wilde’s use of names is never without significance. As the later reference to Debrett’s Peerage hints, he had to be especially careful to avoid specific reference to living members of the aristocracy. The titles Windermere, Fermor, Jedburgh, and Plymdale are used again in later works.
2 Speaker’s Levée (p. 167) I.e., the speaker of the House of Commons whose levées are traditionally held in court dress, hence the Cabinet Ministers’ ‘stars and ribands’. The reference (and the later allusions to Princess Sophia and the Royal Academy) locates the social milieu of the tale. An easy movement between the public arenas of political and diplomatic life, semi-public artistic institutions such as the Royal Academy and the private world of the aristocracy and upper middle classes (here represented by Bentinck House) was a feature of late nineteenth-century London society.
3 political economist (p. 167) I.e., a specialist in political economy, a doctrine which informed much nineteenth-century social and political thought, and a favourite target for Wilde.
4 Or pur (p. 167) I.e., pure gold.
5 saint, with not a little of the fascination of a sinner (p. 168) An interest in psychological types is a common feature of Wilde’s works, as is the reversal of Victorian moral stereotypes (such as ‘saint’ and ‘sinner’). The sentiments here are repeated in the Society Comedies and in particularly in DG.
6 cheiromantist (p. 168) I.e., palmist. Palmistry was fashionable in the 1880s and 1890s, but as the reactions of Lady Windermere’s guests makes clear, the term cheiromancy was not a particularly common nineteenth-century usage. Wilde’s interest in cheiromancy was prompted in part by his friend Edward Heron-Allen’s essay ‘The Cheiromancy of Today’ in Lippincotf’s Monthly Magazine in 1890.
7 Providence can resist temptation by this time (p. 169) A joke which, with variations, Wilde was to re-use; cf. IH: ‘Lord Goring: Doesn’t that sound rather like tempting Providence? Mrs Cheveley. Oh! surely Providence can resist temptation by this time’ (III, 378–9).
8 on a fait le monde ainsi (p. 170) Broadly translated, ‘that’s the way of the world’.
9 rascette (p. 170) Lines at the junction of the wrists and hand.
10 spatulate (p. 171) I.e., broadened and rounded.
11 lions better than collie dogs (p. 171) In late nineteenth-century literary culture, to ‘lionize’ meant both to fete and champion an individual writer.
12 Bayswater (p. 172) The significance of areas of London has changed since the late nineteenth century. In Wilde’s work addresses denote social status and are thus very important. Most of his work is set either in country estates or in the fashionable milieux of London, principally Mayfair and what Henry Arthur Jones called ‘our little parish of St James’. As a fairly recent suburban development, Bayswa-ter was outside this élite world.
13 The proper basis for marriage is a mutual misunderstanding (p. 172) This line was taken virtually verbatim from Henry James’s novel, The Portrait of a Lady (1881), but it represents the basis for many jokes in Wilde’s later work; cf. IH: ‘In married life affection comes when people thoroughly dislike each other’ (III, 211–12).
14 Morning Post (p. 172) A popular nineteenth-century newspaper, and the preferred medium for news about London Society. In IH, Lord Caversham asks Lord Goring whether he reads The Times, and Goring replies: ‘Certainly not. I only read The Morning Post. All that one should know about modern life is where the Duchesses are; anything else is quite demoralising’ (IV, 35–6).
15 moue (p. 172) See note 8 to p. 100.
16 General Boulanger (p. 174) A topical allusion: Boulanger was the French minister of war.
17 Nemesis… shield of Pallas… Gorgon’s head (p. 174) In Greek
mythology, Nemesis was the Greek goddess who measured out happiness and misery to mortals. The armed goddess Pallas Athene had on her shield a Gorgon head (which turned to stone those who looked on it). Wilde’s meaning is that Lord Arthur’s fate is such as to turn his countenance to stone.
18 Guildenstern… Hamlet… Prince Hal (p. 175) Guildenstern is a minor character in Hamlet; Prince Hal is the reckless prince who later becomes king in Henry V.
19 guineas (p. 176) I.e., twenty-one shillings in pre-decimal coinage; one pound and five pence in current coinage. The professions invariably charged fees in guineas; Podgers is indicating that he should be treated as a member of a profession (such as a lawyer or doctor).
20 portière (p. 176) A curtain hung over a door to give protection from draughts or to act as a screen.
21 the Park (p. 177) I.e., Hyde Park. Lord Arthur goes north from an area around Belgrave Square, and then south-east, a social as well as a physical journey.
22 eld (p. 177) I.e., age; the word was archaic well before the 1890s.
23 hansom (p. 178) A type of two-wheeled horse-drawn cab, a very common vehicle on the streets of London in the nineteenth century. They were usually vehicles for hire, but occasionally (as with this one) privately owned.
24 billy-cock hat (p. 178) A kind of bowler hat.
25 A London free from the sin… mom to eve (p. 179) Elsewhere Wilde admired the spectacle of metropolitan life but regretted the social and economic inequality which made it possible. Cf. Hester Worsley’s outburst in WNI: ‘You rich people in England, you don’t know how you are living. How could you? You shut out from your society the gentle and the good. You laugh at the simple and the poor. Living, as you do, on others and by them, you sneer at self-sacrifice, and if you throw bread to the poor, it is merely to keep them quiet for a season’ (II, 260–65).