Oscar Wilde

by Barbara Belford

  18 “favourite romantic reading.” Fiction, p. 3.

  19 “a Baronet of £5,000.” Reading, Jane Elgee to an unnamed correspondent, n.d.

  20 “I don’t care.” Ibid.

  21 “I am afraid.” Dorian, p. 132.

  22 “sense of morality.” Joy Melville, Mother of Oscar (London: John Murray, 1994), p. 31.

  23 “Do forgive me.” Reading, Jane Elgee to an unnamed correspondent, 1850. 9 “I hate men.” Ibid.

  24 “Jane has some heart.” Melville, Mother of Oscar, p. 51.

  25 “To live in happiness.” T. G. Wilson, Victorian Doctor (London: Methuen, 1942), p. 15.

  26 “I do not think.” William Wilde, Narrative of a Voyage to Madeira, Teneriffe, and Along the Shores of the Mediterranean (Dublin: William Curry, 1840), vol. 1, p. 389.

  27 “I began to think.” Ibid., p. 397.

  28 “another of the many instances.” Wilson, Victorian Doctor, p. 130.

  29 “when he was only twenty-nine.” Letters, p. 26.

  30 “A family is a terrible encumbrance.” Oscar Wilde, The Plays of Oscar Wilde, Vera (Boston: Luce, 1907), p. 52.

  31 “They give people.” Plays, The Importance of Being Earnest, p. 300.

  32 “it is always the woman.” Dorian, p. 105.

  33 “For myself.” Reading, Jane Elgee Wilde to an unnamed correspondent, n.d.

  34 “If ever there was a nation” William Wilde, Irish Popular Superstitions (1852; reprint, Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 1979), p. 9.

  35 “spoken Gaelic is hourly dying out.” William Wilde, Lough Corrib, Its Shores and Islands (Dublin: McGlashon & Gill, 1867), p. 187.

  36 “Saxon basis is the rough block.” Jane Wilde, Social Studies (London: Ward and Downey, 1893), p. 124.

  37 “With the coming.” St. Paul [Minn.] Globe, June 18, 1882.

  CHAPTER TWO: MERRION SQUARE

  1 “Children begin by loving.” Plays, A Woman of No Importance, p. 128.

  2 dreg due, or blood fairy, see Davis Coakley, Oscar Wilde: The Importance of Being Irish (Dublin: Town House, 1994), p. 107.

  3 “a great stout creature.” Reading, Jane Elgee Wilde to an unnamed correspondent, n.d.

  4 “At every single moment.” Letters, p. 476.

  5 the fashionable side. Plays, The Importance of Being Earnest, p. 266.

  6 “You don’t deserve.” Robert Harborough Sherard, The Real Oscar Wilde (London: T. Werner Laurie, 1916), p. 89.

  7 Oscar clapped his hands. Clark, Reginald Turner to A.J.A. Symons, Aug. 26, 1935.

  8 “I don’t care.” Dorian, p. 31.

  9 “Athá mé in.” Vyvyan Holland, Son of Oscar Wilde (London: Hart-Davis, 1954), p. 54.; see also Richard Pine, The Thief of Reason: Oscar Wilde and Modern Ireland (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan, 1995), p. 120.

  10 “as a Catholic child [does].” Coakley, Oscar Wilde, p. 40. 18 “Willie is my kingdom.” Reading, Jane Elgee Wilde to unnamed correspondent, n.d.

  11 “ready to spring forth.” NLI, Jane Elgee Wilde to Lotten von Kraemer, May 6, 1875.

  12 “opponents of common sense.” Letters, p. 349.

  13 “I look back.” Reading, Jane Elgee Wilde to an unnamed correspondent, n.d.

  14 “Alas! the Fates are cruel.” Ibid.

  15 “The best chance.” Jane Wilde, Social Studies, p. 45.

  16 “A Joan of Arc.” Reading, Jane Elgee Wilde to an unnamed correspondent, n.d.

  17 “Life has such infinite possibilities.” Ibid.

  18 “a very terrible thing.” Letters, p. 783.

  19 “the tragedy in one’s soul.” Ibid., p. 691.

  20 “As for domesticity.” Fiction, “The Remarkable Rocket,” p. 135.

  21 “a curious woman.” Dorian, p. 70.

  22 “Am I not fallen.” Reading, Jane Elgee Wilde to an unnamed correspondent, n.d.

  23 “strange” and “hypochondriacal.” Ibid.

  24 “richest white satin.” Irish Times, Jan. 29, 1864.

  25 “either a superb Juno.” Jane Wilde, Social Studies, p. 111.

  26 “In this world.” Plays, Lady Windermere’s Fan, p. 44.

  27 “the truth is never pure.” Ibid., The Importance of Being Earnest, p. 258.

  28 “a decidedly animal and sinister expression.” Terence de Vere White, The Parents of Oscar Wilde (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1967), p. 172.

  29 “consorts with low newspaper boys.” Ibid., p. 190.

  30 “When Miss Travers complained.” Horace Wyndham, Speranza (London: Boardman, 1951), p. 92.

  31 “mad” and “sneering.” Melville, Mother of Oscar, p. 104.

  32 “Genius has its penalties.” Coakley, Oscar Wilde, p. 274.

  33 “All trials are trials.” Letters, p. 509.

  34 “hear things that the ear.” Ibid., p. 322.

  35 “years younger than actual history records.” Ibid., p. 25.

  36 “half-civilized blood.” Yeats, p. 138.

  37 “I feel sure.” Plays, A Woman of No Importance, p. 102.

  38 “The English country gentleman.” Ibid., p. 106.

  39 “great melancholy carp.” Holland, Son of Oscar Wilde, p. 54.

  40 “Westward, ho!” William Wilde, Lough Corrib, p. 1.

  41 “been accustomed, through my Father.” Bodleian Library, Oxford University, Oscar Wilde to A. H. Sayce, May 28, 1879.

  CHAPTER THREE: AWAY FROM HOME

  1 “The only thing.” Fiction, “The Remarkable Rocket,” p. 130.

  2 “romantic imagination.” Clark, Louis Claude Purser, “Wilde at Portora.”

  3 “What is a Realist?” Clark, Louis Claude Purser to A.J.A. Symons, Jan. 28, 1932.

  4 “I have forgotten.” Plays, An Ideal Husband, p. 167.

  5 “To the world.” Letters, p. 253.

  6 “clever, erratic.” Purser to Symons, Jan. 28, 1932.

  7 “terrible experiences.” Intentions, “The Critic as Artist,” pt. 1, p. 100.

  8 “music was not articulate.” Dorian, p. 42.

  9 “I am not fond.” W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan, Patience; or Bunthorne’s Bride! (London: Chappell, 1911), p. 13.

  10 “In examinations.” Critic, p. 434.

  11 “to go down.” Purser to Symons, Jan. 28, 1932.

  12 “sentimental friendships.” Anthony Cronin, Samuel Beckett: The Last Modernist (New York: HarperCollins, 1997), p. 43.

  13 “There was nothing.” Alfred Douglas, Oscar Wilde: A Summing-Up (London: Duckworth, 1940), p. 113.

  14 “When our eyes met.” Dorian, p. 28.

  15 “the talk in the dormitories.” J. A. Symonds, The Memoirs of John Addington Symonds, ed. Phyllis Grosskurth (New York: Random House, 1984), p. 94.

  16 “the voice of my own soul.” Ibid., p. 99.

  17 “with a rush.” Michael Holroyd, Lytton Strachey (London: Book Club Associates, 1973), p. 101.

  18 “Greek love for modern students.” Symonds, Memoirs, p. 101.

  19 “the unvintageable sea.” David Hunter Blair, In Victorian Days and Other Papers (New York: Books for Libraries Press, 1969), p. 123; see also Poetry, “Vita Nuova,” p. 25.

  20 “Darling Mama.” Selected Letters of Oscar Wilde, ed. Rupert Hart-Davis (London: Oxford University Press, 1979), p. 3.

  21 “that little Isola.” NLI, Speranza to Lotten von Kraemer, [1858].

  22 “a mourner for life.” Ibid., July 1867.

  23 “never dreamed.” Ibid.

  24 “Daily work.” Ibid.

  25 “an affectionate, gentle, retiring, dreamy boy.” Mason, p. 295.

  26 “Tread lightly, she is near.” Poetry, “Requiescat,” p. 216.

  27 “Strange, that my first.” Dorian, p. 128.

  28 “each man kills.” Writings, The Ballad of Reading Gaol, p. 232.

  29 “the world does not meet.” Reading, Lady Wilde to unnamed correspondent, n.d.

  30 “At Home, Saturday.” Melville, Mother of Oscar, p. 115.

  31 “The corner house.” T. D. Sullivan, A Guide to Dublin (Dub
lin: Sullivan, 1876), p. 82.

  32 “was a rallying place.” Wyndham, Speranza, p. 68.

  33 “treats her guests.” Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine, “The Picture of Dorian Gray,” July 1890.

  34 “Sir Humpty Dumpty.” Ibid.

  35 “Glad to meet you.” Wyndham, Speranza, p. 70.

  36 “By interesting them.” Ibid., p. 76.

  37 “By all means.” Ibid.

  38 “Welcome, my dear.” Ibid., p. 71.

  39 “Round what had once been.” Ibid., p. 77.

  40 “faded splendour.” Anna de Brémont (Anna Dunphy), Oscar Wilde and His Mother (1911; reprint, New York: Haskell, 1972), p. 23.

  41 “All women become like their mothers.” Plays, The Importance of Being Earnest, p. 268.

  CHAPTER FOUR: BUDDING AESTHETE

  1 “There are moments.” Plays, Lady Windermere’s Fan, p. 29.

  2 “did not astonish.” L. C. Ingleby, Oscar Wilde: Some Reminiscences (London: T. Werner Laurie, 1912), p. 152.

  3 “They were lovely.” H. Montgomery Hyde, Oscar Wilde: A Biography (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1975), p. 8.

  4 “love art for its own sake.” “The English Renaissance of Art” in The Uncollected Oscar Wilde, ed. John Wyse Jackson (London: Fourth Estate, 1991), p.21.

  5 “We spend our days.” Ibid., p. 28.

  6 “that book which has had.” Letters, p. 471.

  7 “Not the fruit.” Walter Pater, The Renaissance: Studies in Art and Poetry ([1893]; reprint, Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1980), p. 188.

  8 “Life imitates art.” Writings, “The Decay of Lying,” p. 74.

  9 “something wonderful.” Wyndham, Speranza, p. 73.

  10 “just put in a butterfly.” Hyde, Oscar Wilde, p. 11.

  11 “In the morning.” The Epigrams of Oscar Wilde, ed. Alvin Redman (London: Senate, 1996), p. 218.

  12 “highest idea of humour.” Hyde, Oscar Wilde, p. 13.

  13 “coarse amours.” Ibid.

  14 “Come home with me.” Ibid., p. 12.

  15 “first and best teacher.” Letters, p. 338.

  16 “There can be no doubt.” J. P. Mahaffy, The Principles of the Art of Conversation (London: Macmillan, 1887), p. 1.

  17 “Until you heard.” Ulick O’Connor, Oliver St. John Gogarty (London: Granada, 1981), p. 31.

  18 “One should absorb.” Dorian, p. 131.

  19 “Between me and life.” Arthur Conan Doyle, Memories and Adventures (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1924), p. 80.

  20 “poets are born.” W. B. Stanford and R. B. McDowell, Mahaffy: A Biography of an Anglo-Irishman (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1971), p. 80.

  21 “the scrupulously truthful man.” Pall Mall Gazette, Dec. 16, 1887.

  22 “telling of beautiful untrue things.” Writings, “The Decay of Lying,” p. 87.

  23 “degrading the truth.” Saturday Review, Nov. 17, 1894.

  24 “national hero.” Writings, “The Decay of Lying,” p. 71.

  25 “that strange and to us revolting.” J. P. Mahaffy, Social Life in Greece from Homer to Menander (London: Macmillan, 1874), p. 118.

  26 “We have in many cities.” Ibid., p. 119.

  27 “having made improvements.” Ibid., p. viii.

  28 “love that dare not.” Trials, p. 201.

  29 “It is beautiful.” Ibid.

  30 “Christ’s place.” Letters, p. 477.

  31 “fascinated and dominated Art.” Ibid., p. 481. See also Leo Steinberg, The Sexuality of Christ in Renaissance Art and in Modern Oblivion (New York: Pantheon, 1983).

  32 “It is so easy.” Intentions, “The Critic as Artist,” p. 188.

  33 “I don’t care.” L. C. Prideaux Fox, “People I Have Met,” Donahoe’s Magazine (Boston, Mass.), Apr. 1905, p. 397.

  34 “to cheer dear old Oscar.” Hyde, Oscar Wilde, p. 14.

  35 “Run over to Oxford.” Ibid., p. 15.

  36 “two great turning-points.” Letters, p. 469.

  37 “the spendthrift.” Ibid., p. 466.

  38 “We never get back.” Dorian, p. 46.

  39 “It is a sad thing.” Ibid., p. 34.

  40 “I was the happiest.” Hyde, Oscar Wilde, p. 17.

  41 “distinguished name.” Letters, p. 466.

  42 “a young man.” Ibid., p. 433.

  43 “intellectually, with Elizabeth Barrett Browning.” Ibid., p. 496.

  44 “Is insincerity such a terrible thing?” Dorian, p. 174.

  CHAPTER FIVE: MAGDALEN MANNERS

  1 “I remember bright young faces.” Letters, p. 181.

  2 “I find it harder.” Hesketh Pearson, Oscar Wilde: His Life and Wit (London: Harper, 1946), p. 45.

  3 “These are the days.” Blair, In Victorian Days, p. 120.

  4 “a mezzo voice.” Max Beerbohm’s Notes on Wilde, Berg Collection, New York Public Library.

  5 “one of the most alluring.” Pearson, Oscar Wilde, p. 42.

  6 “extra-ordinary conversational abilities.” Blair, In Victorian Days, p. 117.

  7 “my greatest chum.” Ellmann, p. 44.

  8 “His qualities were not ordinary.” Holland, Son of Oscar Wilde, p. 250.

  9 “brilliant and unreasonable.” More Letters, p. 33.

  10 “brimming bowls of gin-and-whisky punch.” Blair, In Victorian Days, p. 118.

  11 “boys will” about “everything.” Ibid., p. 120.

  12 “God knows?” Ibid., p. 122.

  13 “been out every night.” Letters, p. 12.

  14 “with Swinburne.” Ibid., p. 15.

  15 “is extremely moral.” Ibid., p. 25.

  16 “who after an evening.” Blair, In Victorian Days, p. 125.

  17 “incurable impotency.” Robert Secor, John Ruskin and Alfred Hunt: New Letters and the Record of a Friendship (Victoria, B.C.: University of Victoria English Literary Studies, 1982), p. 55.

  18 “There is in you.” Letters, p. 218.

  19 “my golden book.” Yeats, p. 150.

  20 “I am sure.” Blair, In Victorian Days, p. 126.

  21 “Mothers, of course.” Ruth Berggren, The Definitive Four-Act Version of The Importance of Being Earnest (New York: Vanguard, 1987), p. 25.

  22 “The only God-anointed King.” Poetry, “Rome Unvisited,” p. 6.

  23 “The intellect is.” Jane Wilde, Social Studies, p. 70.

  24 “Willie got introduced.” Clark, Lady Wilde to Oscar Wilde, n.d.

  25 “any real pleasure.” Letters, p. 15.

  26 “with everything filled.” Ibid.

  27 “I am sorry.” Clark, Lady Wilde to Oscar Wilde, n.d.

  28 “I am just going out.” Letters, p. 24.

  29 “too much occupied.” Ibid., p. 25.

  30 “real Irish home.” Clark, Willie Wilde to Margaret Campbell, Sept. 2, 1878.

  31 “a pretty little bare-footed girl.” Ibid.

  32 “I look back.” Letters, p. 31.

  33 “This is an era.” Ibid., p. 34.

  34 “Seeing Greece.” Ibid., p. 35.

  35 “I was sent down.” Ibid., p. 36 n.

  36 “had become Hellenized.” Blair, In Victorian Days, p. 136.

  37 “One should either.” Critic, p. 434.

  38 “wretched stupidity.” Letters, p. 36.

  39 “more lovely than ever.” Ibid.

  40 “Well Done!” Peter Vernier, “A ‘Mental Photograph’ of Oscar Wilde,” The Wildean, July 1998, p. 28. “Album for Confessions of Tastes, Habits and Convictions” was auctioned in 1997 by Christie’s, London, for £23,000.

  41 “I am little more than a boy.” Letters, p. 37.

  42 “little more than a stray sheet.” Ibid., p. 43.

  43 “I always say I.” Ibid., p. 39.

  44 “To say ‘perhaps.’ ” Ibid., p. 47.

  45 “my sonnet must be printed.” Ibid., p. 40.

  46 “You possess some beautiful.” Ibid., p. 47.

  47 “Why do you always write.” Oscar Wilde, “Mr. Pater’s Last Volume,�
�� Speaker, Mar. 22, 1890, p. 319.

  48 “Was he ever alive?” Max Beerbohm’s Notes on Wilde.

  49 “to whom we were all.” Letters, p. 42.

  50 “It is a terrible disappointment.” Ibid., p. 43.

  51 “over so many miles.” Ibid., p. 51.

  52 “Oh Gloria, Gloria!” Clark, Lady Wilde to Oscar Wilde, n.d.

  53 “I understand that some young man.” Mrs. J. Comyns Carr, Reminiscences (London: Hutchinson, n.d.), p. 85.

  54 “A year ago.” Poetry, “Ravenna,” p. 31.

  55 “Worthless though the trinket be.” Letters, p. 54.

  56 “to eat of the fruit.” Letters, p. 475.

  57 “bird-haunted walks.” Ibid.

  58 “directly due to meningitis.” Arthur Ransome, Oscar Wilde: A Critical Study (London: Martin Secker, 1912), p. 199.

  59 “adopted mercury.” Ellmann, p. 95.

  60 “a shining row.” New York Tribune, Jan. 3, 1882.

  61 “conception of Wilde’s character.” Ellmann, p. 92n.

  62 “interpretation of many things.” Ibid.

  CHAPTER SIX: ARTISTS AND BEAUTIES

  1 “To drift with every passion.” Poetry, “Hélas,” p. 132.

  2 “To get into the best society.” Plays, A Woman of No Importance, p. 132.

  3 “Individualism is.” Writings, “The Soul of Man Under Socialism,” p. 36.

  4 “worth looking at.” Oscar Wilde, “The Grosvenor Gallery,” Dublin University Magazine, July 1873.

  5 “seen and heard.” John Ruskin, Fors Clavigera, July 2, 1877.

  6 “The labor of two days.” Horace Gregory, The World of James McNeill Whistler (New York: Nelson, 1959), p. 141.

  7 “There was something.” Ellen Terry, Ellen Terry’s Memoirs, ed. Edith Craig and Christopher St. John (London: Gollancz, 1933), p. 231.

  8 “I hate people.” Fiction, “The Remarkable Rocket,” p. 134.

  9 “set the world.” Letters, p. 61.

  10 “You must come.” Dorian, p. 70.

  11 “Hip, hip, hurrah!” Arthur Gold and Robert Fizdale, The Divine Sarah: A Life of Sarah Bernhardt (New York: Knopf, 1991), p. 149.

  12 “Yes, yes—you’ll see.” Ibid., p. 150.

  13 “realised the sweetness.” Oscar Wilde, “Literary and Other Notes,” Woman’s World, Jan. 1888.

  14 “For thou wert weary.” Poetry, “Phèdre,” p. 98.

  15 “Most men who are civil.” Gold and Fizdale, Divine Sarah, p. 151.