39 J.-J. Renaud, ‘The Last Months of Oscar Wilde’s Life in Paris,’ TS. of a broadcast (Clark).
40 Guillot de Saix, ‘O.W. chez Maeterlinck,’ Les Nouvelles littéraires (1945); O’Sullivan, 67; Chesson, 394.
41 Lord Alfred Douglas, Oscar Wilde: A Summing Up (1962), 90; Letters, 729–30; Frank Harris, Contemporary Portraits (1915), 90–118.
42 Letters, 729–30n; the original is at Clark.
43 Charles Conder, letter to Mrs Dalhousie Young, n.d. (Hart-Davis).
44 Letters, 732.
45 Claire de Pratz, quoted in Guillot de Saix, ‘Souvenirs inédits’; G. de Saix, ‘La Cruelle Charité,’ in Le Chant du cygne, 249–50.
46 Croft-Cooke, 177–8.
47 Letters, 816.
48 Ibid., 608.
49 Ibid., 705.
50 Harris, 351.
51 Laurence Housman, Echo de Paris: A Study from Life (1923), 34. Housman said this part of his book recorded actual statements of Wilde.
52 Letters, 772.
53 More Letters, 178, W. Rothenstein, 314.
54 Letters, 783.
55 Ibid., 790, 794, 794n.
56 Croft-Cooke, 174.
57 Chalmers Mitchell, My Fill of Days, 183–4.
58 Dame Nellie Melba, Melodies and Memories (1925), 74–5; M. Steen, A Pride of Terrys, 206n.
59 W. M. Fullerton, letter to Wilde, 23 June 1899 (Clark); Letters, 804.
60 ‘T. P.’s Table Talk,’ Cassell’s Weekly, 27 Oct 1923; Leslie, J. E. C. Bodley, 18; Max de Morès in G. de Saix, ‘Souvenirs inédits.’
61 Latourette, ‘Dernières Heures avec O.W.,’ in Les Nouvelles littéraires (1925).
62 E. Calvé, My Life, 96–8.
63 Marjoribanks, Lord Carson, 231; Louis Marlow [L.U. Wilkinson], ‘Oscar Wilde …,’ New Statesman, 3 Jan 1914; Latourette in Les Nouvelles littéraires (1925).
64 Letters, 731; Stanley Weintraub, Whistler (N.Y., 1974), 306.
65 Cheiro’s Memoirs, 56–61; W. Rothenstein, 361–2.
66 Beer, Mauve Decade, 130–3.
67 Edith Cooper, Works and Days (BL Add. MS 46798, f. 202).
68 Dupoirier, as quoted by Latourette in Les Nouvelles littéraires (1925).
69 J.-J. Renaud, preface to Intentions (1905), xxii.
70 Letters, 828–9, 831; Harris, 361, 364.
71 Letters, 831; Paul Medina, ‘Zum 25. Todestag Oscar Wildes am 30 November: Ein Gesprach mit dem “Dichterfursten” Paul Fort, dem letzten Freund Oscar Wildes,’ Die literarische Welt (Berlin) 1, no. 8 (17 Nov 1925): 1–2.
72 Letters, 828; A. de Brémont, O.W. and His Mother, 178–88.
73 Letters, 832, 837–44, 859, 860.
74 Harris, 372; Dr Tucker’s bill is in the Hyde Collection; More Letters, 186.
75 Terence Cawthorne, ‘The Last Illness of Oscar Wilde,’ Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine LII, no. 2 (Feb 1959): 123–7; Letters, 837; Wilson, Victorian Doctor, 211.
76 Letters, 708.
77 [Raymond and] Ricketts, 59.
78 St James’s Gazette, 6 May 1905; [Raymond and] Ricketts, 59; A. [Douglas], ‘Oscar Wilde’s Last Years in Paris, 11,’ St James’s Gazette, 3 Mar 1905; Housman, Echo de Paris, 32; M. Ross, Friend of Friends, 153.
79 Claire de Pratz, in G. de Saix, ‘Souvenirs inédits’; Harris, 572.
80 Letters, 861, 840; Ross, deposition in Ransome case. Turner states the medical diagnosis in his letter to Sherard, 3 Jan 1934 (Reading), and Ross is given as the source for Ransome’s statement, O.W., 199.
81 Letters, 849.
82 Ibid., 852.
83 Reginald Turner, letter to Ross, 26–28 Nov 1900 (Clark).
84 Douglas, Without Apology, 255; Daily Chronicle, 3 Dec 1900; Letters, 825.
85 Almy, ‘New Views of Mr O.W.,’ in Theatre (1894); Ives journal, 4 Mar 1905 (Texas); Chesson, 393–4.
86 Reginald Turner, letter to T. H. Bell, n.d., in Bell’s unpublished MS. on Wilde (Clark); Ives journal, 4 Mar 1905 (Texas); letter from ‘Sacerdos,’ St James’s Gazette, 1 Mar 1905.
87 Max Meyerfeld, ‘Gedenkblatter, Robert Ross,’ in Das literarische Echo xxi (4 Jan 1919): 779–85; Ross’s visiting card, copy in NLI.
88 Letters, 854; Reginald Turner, letter to R. S. Meickeljohn, 31 Dec 1936 (Hart-Davis); John, Chiaroscuro, 396.
89 Cecil Georges-Bazile, ‘Oscar Wilde et Paris,’ Paris Soir, 29 Oct 1925 (based on Ross); Gunnar Heiberg, Set og Hørt (Christiania, 1917), 162–7.
90 Paul Fort interview by P. Medina, Die literarische Welt, 17 Nov 1928.
91 Ian Fletcher, ‘The Poetry of John Gray,’ in Two Friends, ed. Brocard Sewell (1963), 68.
92 Ross, letter to Louis Wilkinson, 10 Dec [1900] (LC), in M. Ross, Friend of Friends, 61.
EPILOGUE
1 O’Sullivan, 222.
2 See Jorge Luis Borges, ‘About Oscar Wilde,’ in Other Inquisitions 1937–1952 (N.Y., 1966), 84.
Select Bibliography
Principal published sources cited or quoted
(The place of publication is London unless otherwise stated.)
The Artist as Critic: Critical Writings of Oscar Wilde, ed. Richard Ellmann (Chicago 1982)
The Letters of Oscar Wilde, ed. Rupert Hart-Davis (1962)
More Letters of Oscar Wilde, ed. Rupert Hart-Davis (1985)
Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, ed. Isobel Murray (1974)
Anne Clark Amor, Mrs Oscar Wilde (1983)
G. T. Atkinson, ‘Oscar Wilde at Oxford,’ Cornhill Magazine LXVI (May 1929)
Max Beerbohm, Letters to Reggie Turner, ed. Rupert Hart-Davis (1964)
E. F. Benson, As We Were: A Victorian Peep-show (1930)
Sir Frank Benson, My Memoirs (1930)
Martin Birnbaum, Oscar Wilde: Fragments and Memories (1920)
David Hunter Blair, In Victorian Days (1939)
[J. E. C. Bodley], ‘Oscar Wilde at Oxford,’ New York Times, 20 January 1882.
Anna de Brémont, Oscar Wilde and His Mother (1911)
W. H. Chesson, ‘A Reminiscence of 1898,’ Bookman XXXIV (December 1911)
Rupert Croft-Cooke, Bosie (Indianapolis and New York, 1963)
Lord Alfred Douglas, Autobiography (1929)
—–, Oscar Wilde and Myself (1914)
—–, Oscar Wilde: A Summing Up (1962)
—–, Without Apology (1938)
André Gide, Oscar Wilde (Paris, 1938)
Frank Harris, Oscar Wilde: His Life and Confessions (New York, 1930)
Vyvyan Holland, Son of Oscar Wilde (New York, 1954)
H. Montgomery Hyde, Oscar Wilde (New York, 1975)
—–, ed., The Trials of Oscar Wilde (1948)
[John] Coulson Kernahan, In Good Company: Some Personal Recollections, 2nd edn. (1917)
Lillie Langtry, The Days I Knew (1925)
Ada Leverson, Letters to the Sphinx from Oscar Wilde and Reminiscences of the Author (1930)
Lloyd Lewis and Henry Justin Smith, Oscar Wilde Discovers America (New York, 1936)
Stuart Mason, Bibliography of Oscar Wilde (1914)
Kevin O’Brien, Oscar Wilde in Canada (Toronto, 1982)
Vincent O’Sullivan, Aspects of Wilde (1936)
Hesketh Pearson, The Life of Oscar Wilde (1946)
[Jean Paul Raymond and] Charles Ricketts, Oscar Wilde: Recollections (1932)
[James] Rennell Rodd, Social and Diplomatic Memories, 1884–1893 (1922)
Margery Ross, Robert Ross: Friend of Friends (1952)
William Rothenstein, Men and Memories (New York, 1931)
Edgar Saltus, Oscar Wilde: An Idler’s Impressions (Chicago, 1917)
Robert (Harborough) Sherard, The Life of Oscar Wilde (New York, 1906)
—–, Oscar Wilde: The Story of an Unhappy Friendship (1902)
—–, The Real Oscar Wilde (n.d. [1917])
Mrs. H. M. Swanwick [Helena Sickert], I Have Been Young (1935)
Terence De Vere White, The Parents of Oscar Wilde (1967)
Horace Wyndham, Speranza: A Biogra
phy of Lady Wilde (New York, 1951)
W. B. Yeats, Autobiography (New York, 1965)
Appendix A
The extraordinary productivity of the Wilde parents can be seen in the following list:
Appendix B
For an impression of how Wilde talked, especially on the lecture platform, the best guide is the American, Helen Potter, whose book Impersonations (New York: Edgar S. Werner, 1891) offers a detailed account of his way of accenting and pausing:
LECTURE ON ART.
————
A Study of Oscar Wilde.*
————
(– –) Everything made by the hand of man | is either ougoly | or (/) obeautioful; (– –) and it might as well be beautiful as (/) ougoly. (– –) Nothing that is made | is otoo opoor [pooah], | or otoo (/) otrivioal, | (– –) to be made with an idea [ideah], | of pleasing the aesthetic oeye.
oAmericans, | oas a class, | oare not (/) opractical, (– –) though you may laugh | at the (/) oassertion. (– –) When I enter [entah] a room, | I see a carpet of () vulgar [vulgah] (/) opattern, | (– –) a cracked plate upon the (/) owall, | (– –) with a peacock feather stuck obeohind oit. ( ) I sit down | upon a badly glued | machine-made (/) ochair [chǎah], | that creaks | upon being (/) otouched; | (– –) I see | a gaudy gilt horror, | in the shape | of a (/) omirror, | (– –) and a cast-iron monstrosity | for a ochandeolier. (– –) Everything I see | was made to (/) osell. (– –) I turn to look for the beauties of nature [nǎtyah] | in (/) vain; | (– –) for I behold only muddy streets | and () ugly (/) obuildoings; (– –) everything looks () second (/) class. (– –) By second class | I mean | that | which constantly decreases oin (/) ovalue. (– –) The old Gothic cathedral is firmer [firmah] and (/) stronger [strongah], | and more [möah] beautiful onow | than it was | years [yeahs] (/) oago. (– –) There is one thing worse | than ono (/) oart | and that is | obad oart.
(– –) A good rule to follow | in a house | is to have nothing therein | but what is useful | or (/) obeautiful; | (– –) nothing that is not pleasant to use, | or was not a pleasure | to the one | who (/) omade oit. (– –) Allow no machine-made ornaments | in the house | at (/) oall. (– –) Don’t paper your [youah] hálls, | but have them (/) owainoscoted, | or provided | with a (/) odado. (– –) Don’t hang them with pictures, | as they are only | (/) opassage-oways. (– –) Have some definite idea [ideah], | of ocolór [culah], (– –) some dominant | keynote | of (/) ocolor [culah], (– –) or exquisite graodaotión, | like the answering calls | in a symphony | of (/) omusic. There are symphonies | of color [culah], | as () well as of | (/) osound. I will describe | one of Mr. Whistler’s | symphonies in color—(– –) a symphony | in whíte. A picture [pictchah], representing | a gray and white sky [skēī]; a gray sea, flecked with the white crests of () odancing (/) owaves; | a white (/) obalcoony | with two little children in white, | leaning over [ovah] the (/) orailoing, | (– –) plucking | with white (/) ofingers (finggahs], | the white petals | of an almond trée | (/) in bloom.
(– –) The truths of art | cannot | (/) be taught. (– –) They are revealed | only | to natures [nātyahs] which have made themselves receptive | of all | () obeautiful (/) oimpressions | by the study, | and the worship of | all | beautiful | (/) othings. (– –) Don’t take your [youah] critíc | as any sure [shuah] test | of (/) oart; for artists, | like the Greek gods, | are only revealed | to one (/) oanother [anothah]. The true critic | addresses | onot the (/) oartist | (/) ever, | but the public. His work | is with (/) othem. Art | can have no other [othah] aim | but her own operofecotion.
(– –) Love art | for its own sake, | and then | all these things | shall be (/) oadded oto yóu. (– –) This devotion to beauty | and to the creation of beautiful thińgs, | is the test | of all | great | ociviliozaotiońs. (– –) It is what makes the life | of each citizen | a sacrament | and onot | a ospecuolaotión; for beauty | is the only thing | time | cannot hárm. Philosophies may fall away | olike the (/) osand; creeds | follow one oanoothoer; | but what is beautiful | is a joy for all seasóns, a possession | for all | oeotéronitý. (– –) National hatreds | are always strongest | where culture [cultchah] | is (/) olowest; but art | is an empire | which a nation’s enemies | cannot | take (/) ofrom oher.
(– –) We | in our Renaissance | are seeking to create a sovereignty | that shall ostill be (/) oEngland’s | when her yellow leopards | are weary of wárs [wahs], | (– –) and the rose | on her shield | is crimsoned ono (/) omore [mōah] | with the blood | of (/) obatotle. And oyou, | otóo, | (– –) absorbing | into the heart of a great people | this pervading artistic (/) ospirit, will create for your- [youah] selves | osuch orichés | as you have never [nevah] yet | ocreoaotéd, | though your [youah] land | be a network of (/) orailways, | and your [youah] cities | the harbors | of the galléys | of the (/) oworld.
This disciple of true art speaks very deliberately, and his speech is marked by transitions, as marked by the small signs (o) (o) throughout the text; the closing inflection of a sentence or period is ever upward.
* Key to symbols used: ‘Sounds of letters: ē as in eve; ā as in ale; ǎ as in at; ī as in rice. Signs for pitch, force and time: (o) high pitch; (o) low pitch. Signs placed before, and applying to, words and phrases: | bar, means a halt, or short rhetorical pause; (– –) monotone, to the next bar or change; ((/)) rising pitch, to the next bar or change; () downward pitch, to the next bar or change; (˘) go up, down and up on the phrase or sentence. Any one of these signs over a word or syllable applies to that word or syllable only.’
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Richard Ellmann, during a long and distinguished career, won international recognition as scholar, teacher of English literature, critic, and biographer. His magisterial life of James Joyce has been widely acclaimed as the greatest literary biography of the century.
Ellmann was born in Highland Park, Michigan, in 1918. He studied at Yale and at Trinity College in Dublin. He taught at Harvard, Yale, Northwestern, Emory, the University of Chicago, Indiana University, and Oxford, where he was Goldsmiths’ Professor of English Literature and Fellow of New College.
His James Joyce (National Book Award, 1959) was preceded by Yeats: The Man and the Masks and The Identity of Yeats, and was followed by—among other greatly praised books—two volumes of Joyce letters, Eminent Domain, and Four Dubliners.
Ellmann died in May 1987, in Oxford, soon after completing Oscar Wilde, to which he had devoted some two decades of study, research, and writing.
PERMISSIONS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following for permission to reprint previously published material:
MACMILLAN PUBLISHING COMPANY AND A. P. WATT LTD.: Excerpts from Autobiography, by W. B. Yeats. Copyright 1916, 1936 by Macmillan Publishing Company. Copyright renewed 1944, 1964 by Bertha Georgie Yeats. Reprinted by permission of Macmillan Publishing Company. World English language rights excluding the United States administered by A. P. Watt Ltd. on behalf of Michael B. Yeats and Macmillan London Ltd.
RUPERT HART-DAVIS: Excerpts from Letters to Reggie Turner, by Max Beerbohm, edited by Rupert Hart-Davis. Reprinted by permission of Rupert Hart-Davis on behalf of the copyright owner, Mrs. Eva Reichmann.
VANGUARD PRESS, INC.: Excerpts from More Letters of Oscar Wilde, edited by Rupert Hart-Davis. Letters copyright © 1985 by Merlin Holland. Editorial matter copyright © 1985 by Rupert Hart-Davis. Reprinted by permission of the publisher, Vanguard Press, Inc.
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