11 Fothergill, Confessions of An Innkeeper, 134, 272; Leverson, Letters to the Sphinx, 39–40.
12 O’Sullivan, 54.
13 J. Joseph-Renaud, ‘The Last Months of Oscar Wilde in Paris’, 3, ts (Clark).
14 The bill, dated 29 and 30 August, is at the Clark.
15 CL, 1061–2n; RR also tried to set up a fund contributed to by OW’s friends. But, though Ernest Leverson pledged ‘£5 a year for two years’, it failed to get off the ground. E. Leverson to RR, 2 June 1898 (Clark).
16 CL, 1102; Harris, 265–6.
17 CL, 1098; the contract – 24 October 1898 (BL) – offered an advance of £50 on signature, 150 francs a week for eight weeks, and £100 on delivery ‘on or around January 1st’.
18 Harold Acton, Confessions of an Aesthete (1948), 381.
19 Stratmann, Marquess of Queensberry, 264.
20 CL, 1103, 1106, 1109.
21 Sherard, Life, 418–19; O’Sullivan, 53; La Jeunesse, ‘Oscar Wilde’, Revue Blanche, 15 December 1900; Mikhail, 478.
22 Shane Leslie, Memoir of John Edward Courtenay Bodley, 18.
23 CL, 1108. Wilde gives the name of the bar as Kalisaya; O’Sullivan as ‘Calsaya’; J. Joseph-Renaud as ‘Calysaya’; and Leonard Carlus (in a letter to OW at Clark) as ‘Calizya’; but ‘Calisaya’ is the spelling preferred by Marcel Boulestin and Gustave Le Rouge, and has been adopted here.
24 Rose, Oscar Wilde’s Elegant Republic, 407.
25 Gustave Le Rouge, ‘Oscar Wilde’ [1928], in Mikhail, 460–1.
26 John Stokes, Oscar Wilde: Myths, Miracles and Imitations (2006), 23–38.
27 La Jeunesse, ‘Oscar Wilde’, in Mikhail, 479.
28 Stuart Merrill, La Plume, 15 December 1900, in Mikhail 466; Ernest La Jeunesse, ‘Oscar Wilde’, in Mikhail, 479. O’Sullivan also noted that although OW ‘would borrow a few francs from his landlord or his washerwoman’ he did not apply to his French literary friends. But this was not quite true: Davray recalled OW touching him for a few sous (offering his own inscribed copy of The Duchess of Malfi as security); and Stuart Merrill received a note from OW asking for a very small sum, ‘afin de finir ma semaine’. O’Sullivan, 56; H. Davray to Walter Ledger, 26 February 1926 (Ross Collection, Univ Coll, Oxford); Ransome, 198.
29 Gustave Le Rouge, in Mikhail, 461.
30 CL, 1108.
31 Vincent O’Sullivan to A. J. A. Symons [1931] (Clark).
32 CL, 1157.
33 Gide, Oscar Wilde, 82–8.
34 Rose, Oscar Wilde’s Elegant Republic, 419. Sibleigh’s translation was published in Ohio in 1900; he also contributed to a privately printed 1901 volume of Verses Written in Paris by Members of a Group of Intellectuals.
35 Kessler, Journey to the Abyss, 351.
36 Reggie Turner to G. F. Renier, 22 March 1933 (Clark).
37 CL, 1105.
38 Gustave Le Rouge, ‘Oscar Wilde’ [1928], in Mikhail, 461–2; Thomas Beer, The Mauve Decade (1926), 130–1; Sue Prideaux, Strindberg: A Life (2012), 106; CL, 1157.
39 Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, My Diaries – Part Two (1932), 122.
40 Harris, 277.
41 CL, 1118.
42 CL, 1119.
43 CL, 1112.
44 CL, 1116.
45 Harris, 281–2; 287.
46 CL, 1115.
47 Neil Titley, The Oscar Wilde World of Gossip (2011).
48 CL, 1116.
49 Harris, 294–5.
50 CL, 1128.
51 CL, 1130, 1138.
52 CL, 1154; James G. Nelson, Publisher to the Decadents, 212; Mason 423 – the new edition of BRG was published on 23 June 1899.
53 See ‘Theatrical Gems’, Bristol Mercury and Daily Post, 7 March 1899; CL, 1128.
54 CL, 1131, 1129, 1139.
55 CL, 1139.
56 CL, 1142.
57 CL, 1149. In May 1899 Sedger was sued by the mother of one of the child actors in Alice and had to pay £16 10s plus costs (Era, 6 May 1899); on 5 July 1899 Sedger was declared bankrupt – for the second time in his career – putting his failure down to ‘excesses of expenditure over his income’. Era, 8 July 1899.
58 L. Smithers to OW, 4 May 1899 (Bodleian); the identity of ‘Roberts’ remains obscure. He could, perhaps, have been the Sir Randall Roberts against whom OW had warned Elizabeth Robins.
59 CL, 1225.
60 OW settled at the Hôtel de la Neva on the rue de Monsigny, not far from the Cailsaya; and then moved to the nearby Hôtel Marsollier.
61 CL, 1143, n, 1145, 1146, 1147, 1150; L. Smithers to OW, 30 May 1899 (Bodleian).
62 CL, 1150.
63 Robertson, Time Was, 230–1.
64 CL, 1154, 1152.
65 Robertson, Time Was, 231.
66 K. Bellew to OW, 20 April 1899 (Clark).
67 CL, 1143; Kyrle Bellew to OW, 12 June 1899; 6 July 1899; 7 July 1899; (Clark). Wilde was at both Le Havre and Trouville at the end of June.
68 CL, 1202; 1195.
69 OW asked for money from, among others: Harris, Smithers, Ross, Arthur Humphreys and Morton Fullerton. CL, 1154–63.
70 Kessler, Journey to the Abyss, 351; OW’s ms list of people to receive copies of AIH (Clark) gives the name as ‘Lautrec’ – which could also refer to Henri’s cousin Gabriel Lautrec.
71 Sherard, Life, 410, 418; Sherard claims that Dupoirer ‘discharged’ OW’s bill at the Marsollier, but the payment was surely made with money provided by OW.
72 Testimony about OW’s drunkenness during his last years in Paris is contradictory, with Sherard suggesting that he was never ‘the slightest the worse for drink’ (Sherard to A. J. A. Symonds, 13 Mary 1937 (Clark)) and Douglas claiming that he was ‘over and over again so drunk that he couldn’t walk’ (LAD to A. J. A. Symonds, 8 March 1937 (Clark)). But the most reliable assessments would seem to be provided by Reginald Turner in a letter to Sherard, 3 January 1934 (Reading), quoted in Frankel, Oscar Wilde: The Unrepentant Years, 349; and RR to A Schuster, quoted in CL, 1225.
73 Frédéric Boutet, ‘Les Dernières Années d’Oscar Wilde’ (unidentified newspaper clipping), 3 December 1925 (Clark), in Ellmann, 531; the author suggests that OW sat there because he was unable to pay his bill, but this must be conjecture. He could, simply, have been reluctant to return to his hotel room.
74 CL, 1025.
75 [LAD] ‘Oscar Wilde’s Last Years in Paris’, St James’s Gazette, in The Trial of Oscar Wilde: from the Shorthand Reports (1906), 117.
76 Augustus John, Chiaroscuro (1954), 34.
77 Augustus John, Finishing Touches (1964), 145.
78 Laurence Housman, Echo de Paris (1923), 49–59.
79 George Charles Williamson to RR [n.d.] (Clark).
80 RR, ‘Introduction’, Miscellanies, 13; Speedie, Wonderful Sphinx, 116.
81 Housman, Echo de Paris, 37.
82 [LAD] ‘Oscar Wilde’s Last Years in Paris’, in The Trial of Oscar Wilde: from the Shorthand Reports, 118–9; Harris, 256.
83 Housman, Echo de Paris, 28–30, 37, 49–59; L. Housman to Hesketh Pearson, 4 April 1944 (Austin), listing the passages in the book that are closest to OW’s speech.
84 CL, 1175, 1169.
85 Robins, 110–11.
86 Louis Nethersole to OW, 27 December 1899 (Clark).
87 CL, 1200: Eliot, who was Sedger’s partner in the production of Alice in Wonderland and Great Caesar, was described in the press as ‘nephew of Lord Wimborne and Earl St Germans’. ‘The Theatres’, Daily News, 5 December 1898.
88 CL, 1173: other causes have also been put forward, including secondary stage syphilis (although such a rash would not itch), and an allergic reaction to hair dye. Robins, 112.
89 CL, 1176; Robins, 101.
90 CL, 1173–4, 1176.
91 CL, 1173.
92 Sherard, Real, 419–20.
93 LAD, Autobiography, 161; Stratmann, Marquess of Queensberry, 271–2.
94 CL, 1173.
95 LAD to Percy Douglas, 7 March 1900, Hotel Victoria, London: ‘I wish you would seriousl
y make some arrangements about the £125 for OW. He keeps on writing to me about it. I thought you had settled to pay it to More Adey, or someone. As you know I paid my half & some more besides a fortnight ago’ (BL). It seems, though, that Percy never did make the payment. A later letter from LAD to Percy (19 December 1900 (BL)) asks where ‘the £125’ is. This perhaps suggests that LAD also paid his brother’s share, in a series of instalments. LAD’s next three payments to OW were: £12 (27 February); £25 (16 March); £25 (10 May). LAD, Autobiography, 323.
96 CL, 1170+n; Guy & Small, 205–7.
97 Elisabeth Marbury to OW, 30 April 1900 (Clark); Marbury, in October 1899, had also sold the American performing rights for ‘a modern comedy drama’, to be written by OW ‘before’ 1 June 1900, to Charles Frohman. OW received £100 advance on signature, with £200 due on delivery (BL).
98 H. Beerbohm Tree to OW, 17 February 1900 (Clark). Mrs Waller’s company performed WNI on 30 November 1899 at the Coronet Theatre, London.
99 Michael Seeney, From Bow Street to the Ritz (2015), 127ff.
100 Aubrey C. Smith to OW, 20 March 1900, St James’s Theatre (Clark): ‘Mr Alexander wishes me to enclose you a letter he has received from French’s people with regard to putting Lady Windermere’s Fan and The Importance of Being Earnest into book-form. He is of opinion that doing so is a far better advertisement for the play among Amateurs than in manuscript as the reading fee is done away with. I note your wishes to hold cheques back for the present – you will doubtless let me know when & where you wish them sent next!’
101 CL, 1176, March 1900; Ransome, 197.
102 CL, 1185.
103 CL, 1179.
104 CL, 1185.
105 Ransome, 197.
106 CL, 1182.
107 ‘Michael Field’, ‘Works and Days’, BL Add MS 46798 f.202 (notebook 23, page 414).
108 CL, 1225–6.
109 Ransome, 197; CL, 1183.
Chapter 3: All Over
1 CL, 1187.
2 John Farrington to OW, 9 July 1900 (Clark).
3 Harris, 308; RR to Vyvyan Holland, 1918, in Mary Hyde, ed., Bernard Shaw & Alfred Douglas: A Correspondence (1989), xxiv.
4 CL, 1192.
5 CL, 1188.
6 Harris, 305; the unfortunate dinner with LAD occurred at the end of May. LAD gave OW cheques for £25 on 30 June, for £50 and £25 on 17 July; LAD, Autobiography, 323.
7 CL,1193; 1226+n., Ross told Adela Schuster that OW, during the course of 1900, received ‘£100 from a theatrical manager’ – almost certainly Alexander.
8 CL, 1189–90+n; Harris, 301–2.
9 La Jeunesse, ‘Oscar Wilde’, Revue Blanche, 15 December 1900, in Mikhail, 480.
10 CL, 1194.
11 Paul Fort, quoted in Ransome, 198.
12 Stuart Merrill, ‘Some Unpublished Recollections of Oscar Wilde’, in Mikhail, 470.
13 Frederic V. Grunfeld, Rodin: A Biography (1988), 411.
14 CL, 1192; La Jeunesse, ‘Oscar Wilde’, Revue Blanche, 15 December 1900, in Mikhail, 478.
15 CL, 1191; Ransome, 198–9; Ellmann, 543. Raoul le Boucher was the ring-name of Raoul Musson.
16 The lurid account of this incident given in Marjoribanks, Life of Lord Carson, in which Carson inadvertently knocks ‘the wretched painted’ Wilde into the gutter, has long been discredited. See Vincent O’Sullivan to A. J. A. Symons, [1932] (Clark), and Mrs C. S. Pell, Life’s Enchanted Cup (1933), 103.
17 Rothenstein, Men and Memories, 362.
18 CL, 1190–1.
19 Steen, A Pride of Terrys, 206n.
20 Her verbatim account of their conversation, Anna, comtesse de Brémont, Oscar Wilde and His Mother (1911), 176–88, in Mikhail, 450, seems implausible.
21 Sir Peter Chalmers Mitchell, My Fill of Days (1937), 183–4, in Mikhail, 366–7.
22 [LAD], ‘Oscar Wilde’s Last Years in Paris’, in The Trial of Oscar Wilde from the Shorthand Reports, 125; Hyde, LAD, 127; LAD, Autobiography, 323.
23 CL, 1194.
24 Ellmann, 543.
25 CL, 1163–4. OW’s letters to Lowther are dated by the editors to ‘August 1899’, but 1900 seems more likely, as Lowther and Terry were described as visiting OW at the time of the Exhibition. Vance Thompson records (in ‘Oscar Wilde: Last Dark Poisoned Days in Paris’, in the New York Sun, 18 January 1914) that Thadée Nathansen, the proprietor of the Revue Blanche, urged OW to write for his publication, and OW even began ‘putting down a few French phrases’.
26 CL, 1198.
27 Ransome, 199.
28 Dr Maurice A’Court Tucker was born in Paris in 1868 to an English father; he qualified as a doctor in 1896.
29 CL, 1212; TLC Mrs Mamie Ella Christie to R. H. Sherard, 22 January 1937 (Clark): ‘I was studying in Paris at the time of Wilde’s death, and Dr. Tucker came in one day saying, “You English don’t deserve to have great men, when you allow them literally to starve to death.”’
30 CL, 1223.
31 CL, 1212, 1127; RR gives the name of the ‘well known specialist’ as Hobean – though it may well be that the name was mis-transcribed. Ashley Robins has been unable to find any doctor named ‘Hobean’ listed in the French medical records.
32 For the best and most convincing account of OW’s illness see Robins, 104–8; CL, 1206.
33 CL, 1200; OW, having been accommodated in several different sets of rooms at the Hôtel d’Alsace during the course of the past fourteen months, was currently installed in a ‘big room on the ground floor… to which access was through the courtyard’. Reggie Turner to Thomas H. Bell [1935] (Clark).
34 CL, 1199, 1200, Robins, op. cit. 106–9.
35 CL, 1199.
36 CL, 1207.
37 CL, 1199–1200.
38 CL, 1195, 1202.
39 CL, 1199–1200.
40 CL, 1199–1200.
41 CL, 1212.
42 CL, 1212, 1226.
43 CL, 1212; Robins, 109.
44 Harris, 314.
45 CL, 1212–13, 1227.
46 CL, 1212; RR merely records that OW made the witticism about ‘dying above his means’. Turner (see Harold Acton, Memoirs of an Aesthete (1948), 63) reported that OW made the remark ‘when he called for champagne’. J. Joseph-Renaud (‘The Last Months of Oscar Wilde in Paris’, ts 5 (Clark)) suggests – less convincingly – that it was said after OW had overheard his ‘two English doctors [sic] whispering – not unkindly – about their fees in a window recess’. It is, of course, possible that OW, having coined the remark, repeated it on several occasions.
47 CL, 1213. According to RR, OW’s debts included £50 to Tucker and £96 to the hotel; CL, 1228.
48 CL, 1213.
49 CL, 1201–8, 1213.
50 CL, 1212, Harris, 314.
51 CL, 1212.
52 CL, 1212; Harris, 315.
53 CL, 1213.
54 CL, 1213.
55 Ricketts, 59.
56 Clifford Millage (Paris office of the Daily Chronicle) to OW, 5 November 1900 (Clark); Millage’s report was widely syndicated: e.g. Northern Echo, 4 December 1900.
57 CL, 1220; Blunt, My Diaries – Part Two, 121–2.
58 CL, 1213.
59 CL, 1227.
60 CL, 1213, 1227.
61 CL, 1213.
62 CL, 1214.
63 Reggie Turner to Thomas H. Bell [1935] (Clark); R. H. Sherard, Modern Paris (1911), 160, says the move occurred ‘within a fortnight of [OW’s] death’, i.e. around 16 November.
64 CL, 1215–16.
65 RR to Will Rothenstein, 11 December 1900 (Houghton); CL, 1218.
66 Ellmann, 550. The poets Raymond de la Tailhède and Jehan Rictus visited daily; Claire de Pratz, in G. de Saix, Souvenirs inédits, in Ellmann, 456; CL, 1228.
67 CL, 1228.
68 Mrs Will Gordon, Echoes and Realities (1934), 83–4.
69 CL, 1227, where RR gives Dr Claisse’s name as ‘Kleiss’; CL, 1214; Drs Tucker and Claisse, medical certificate, 27 November 1900, repr. in Robins, 106–7.
/> 70 Drs Tucker and Claisse, medical certificate, 27 November 1900, in Robins, 106–7. In the decade after OW’s death, the idea was put forward, apparently by RR, that OW’s final illness was ‘the legacy of an attack of tertiary syphilis’. Rumours to this effect began to circulate from as early as 1906. At the beginning of that year Harry Kessler recorded in his diary (12 January) that Conder had told him ‘Wilde died of syphilis, aggravated by his consumption of absinthe’. The first published assertion of the fact was in Arthur Ransome’s 1912 book Oscar Wilde: A Critical Study (for which RR provided the biographical information, and from which the initial quotation derives). The page proofs of the book mentioned that OW had contracted the disease while at Oxford, but was convinced that it had passed by the time of his marriage. These details, however, were not included in the published edition of Ransome’s book, although they seem to have been circulated by RR to Sherard and others (Robins, 113). Since then biographers – from Frank Harris (1916) to Richard Ellmann (1987) – have been apt to claim that OW was suffering from the disease throughout his adult life, and that it contributed in some way to his death. The point, however, is contentious. That RR thought he was correct in making the claim can probably be assumed. But laymen are notoriously ready to come up with fanciful diagnoses when assessing their own, and others’, ailments. Against his assertion it should be noted that there is not a single reference in letters from, to, or about Wilde during his lifetime to suggest that he had contracted syphilis, or that he felt he was living under the shadow of some terrible, unnamed disease. The extensive medical records available from OW’s time in prison are similarly silent upon the subject. LAD dismissed the notion out of hand (Oscar Wilde: A Summing Up, 96). And, as to the specifics of his final illness, Ashley Robins – in his medically informed 2011 book, Oscar Wilde: The Great Drama of His Life – finds nothing to support the involvement of syphilis. There is certainly no evidence to confirm that he had the disease. And there is almost nothing in the incidents of his life to suggest that he was suffering from it. As John Stokes has sagely noted, even Ellmann’s claim that the disease ‘is central to my conception of Wilde’s character and my interpretation of many things in [his] later life’ is not sustained in his book (Schroeder, 35). In light of the above it would seem wisest to assume that OW was not suffering from syphilis throughout his life. Certainly his 1900 illness was not the tertiary manifestation of the disease.
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