Oscar Wilde
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27 “My dear old Boy.” Ibid., Willie Wilde to Oscar Wilde, Nov. 27, 1883.
28 “What will you do.” Ibid., Lady Wilde to Oscar Wilde, Nov. 27, 1883.
29 “looked more like George IV.” Irish Times, May 30, 1884.
30 “It’s so wonderful.” Clark, Robert Sherard to A.J.A. Symons, June 3, [1937].
31 “For my part.” Morning News (Paris), June 10, 1884.
32 “a kind of pre-figuring type.” Dorian, p. 158.
33 “Everything is sure.” Letters, p. 157.
34 “Here am I.” Ibid., p. 165.
35 “some deliberate artistic composition.” Yeats, p. 132.
36 “absolutely delightful.” Letters, p. 175.
37 “Modern wallpaper.” Sherard, Unhappy Friendship, p. 74.
38 “fighting a duel.” Hyde, Oscar Wilde, p. 226.
39 “Quill pens and notepaper.” Letters, p. 183.
40 “perpetually performed a play.” Yeats, p. 138.
41 “the most essentially womanlike.” Locke Scrapbook, Billy Rose Theatre Collection, New York Public Library.
42 “What was a bud.” Letters, p. 167.
43 “that curious love.” Intentions, “Pen, Pencil and Poison,” p. 66.
44 “For his sake.” Pearson, Oscar Wilde, p. 103.
45 “ ‘My wife has a cold.’ ” Letters, p. 177.
46 “I love superstitions.” Ibid., p. 349.
47 “The baby is wonderful.” Ibid., p. 177.
48 “Every one has some secret reason.” More Letters, p. 152.
49 “Desire is killed.” Harris, Oscar Wilde, p. 285.
50 “A man with the toothache.” Sherard, Unhappy Friendship, p. 57.
51 “chatters all day long.” Clark, Constance Wilde to Emily Thursfield, Jan. 1, 1889.
52 “growing crooked.” Ibid., June 25, Sept. 2, 1895.
53 “Irish gift of speaking well.” Ibid., June 25, 1895.
54 “I have never learned.” Letters, p. 181.
55 “a long and lovely suicide.” Ibid., p. 185.
56 “Young Oxonians.” Ibid., p. 186.
57 “I myself would sacrifice.” Ibid., p. 185.
CHAPTER ELEVEN: CROSSING OVER
1 “ ‘Know thyself!’ ” Writings, “The Soul of Man Under Socialism,” p. 27.
2 “I have always been.” Plays, The Importance of Being Earnest, p. 265.
3 “a kiss may ruin.” Plays, A Woman of No Importance, p. 153.
4 “there is no friendship possible.” Plays, Lady Windermere’s Fan, p. 28.
5 “The one charm.” Dorian, p. 26.
6 “I hope you are enjoying.” Clark, Oscar Wilde to Robert Ross, [1888].
7 “The children are enchanted.” Ibid.
8 “must be ruthlessly set aside.” Melville, Mother of Oscar, p. 148.
9 “to sum up a situation.” Arthur Binstead, The Works of Arthur M. Binstead, vol. 1 (London: T. Werner Laurie, 1927), p. 231.
10 “Good morning.” Ibid.
11 “peer round short-sightedly.” James Edward Holroyd, “Brother to Oscar,” Blackwood’s Magazine, Mar. 1979, p. 231.
12 “personification of good nature.” Ibid., p. 232.
13 “Quel monstre!” Ibid., p. 235.
14 “My Darling Boz.” Clark, Willie Wilde to Oscar Wilde, [188?].
15 “Did you read Willie.” Ellmann, p. 294.
16 “As for modern journalism.” Intentions, “The Critic as Artist,” pt. 1, p. 109.
17 “In the old days.” Writings, “The Soul of Man Under Socialism,” p. 40.
18 “To have a style.” Intentions, “Pen, Pencil and Poison,” p. 78.
19 “they limit the journalist.” Writings, “The Soul of Man Under Socialism,” p. 41.
20 “The light stole softly.” Fiction, “Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime,” p. 32.
21 “talk itself.” Oscar Wilde, “Should Geniuses Meet?” Court and Society Review, May 4, 1887.
22 “the Murray of matrimony.” Oscar Wilde, Pall Mall Gazette, Nov. 18, 1885.
23 “healthy and harmless.” “The Poets’ Corner,” Ibid., April 6, 1888.
24 “might have made his book.” Critic, p. 80.
25 “any sense of limit.” Ibid., p. 146.
26 “a mock-heroic poem.” Ibid., p. 85.
27 “A man can live.” Ibid., p. 21.
28 “by the silly vanity.” Ibid., p. ix.
29 “too feminine.” Letters, p. 194.
30 “aims at being the organ.” Ibid., p. 203.
31 “snob to the marrow.” The Playwright and the Pirate: Bernard Shaw and Frank Harris, A Correspondence, ed. Stanley Weintraub (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1982), p. 35.
32 “Tomorrow I start.” Letters, p. 196.
33 “to have been.” Ibid., p. 205.
34 “Well, it’s as good as true.” Helena Maria Swanwick [Sickert], I Have Been Young (London: Gollancz, 1935), p. 65.
35 “I hope I will be able.” Clark, Oscar Wilde to Helena Sickert, n.d. [1887].
36 “I am beginning.” Fiction, “The Happy Prince,” p. 100.
37 “I do not propose.” Mason, p. 220.
38 “Really what will people.” W. H. Auden, “An Improbable Life,” New Yorker, Mar. 6, 1963, p. 159.
39 “I think the sonnet.” Letters, p. 210.
40 “I have just been reading.” Ibid., p. 205.
41 “Work never seems to me.” Ibid., p. 352.
42 “You make up your mind.” Sherard, An Unhappy Friendship, p. 55.
43 “Is it necessary.” Hyde, Oscar Wilde, p. 125.
44 “I have known men.” Yeats, p. 131.
45 “so indolent.” Ibid.
46 “only two things.” Letters, p. 276.
47 “a most reliable.” More Letters, p. 86.
48 “platform ladies.” Pall Mall Gazette, May 24, 1889.
49 “no false coils.” Rational Dress Society’s Gazette, Apr. 1889, p. 7.
50 “carve a Cerberus.” Yeats, p. 361.
51 “No one will speak.” Ellmann, p. 320.
52 “studies in prose.” Letters, p. 219.
53 “being in turn.” Holland, Son of Oscar Wilde, p. 52.
54 “really beautiful things.” Ibid., p. 54.
55 “at its best.” Universal Review, June 1888.
56 “some day to NICE people.” Fiction, introduction, p. 9.
57 “what Life is.” Ibid., “The Canterville Ghost,” p. 87.
58 “lost much of their charm.” Ibid., introduction, p. 2.
59 “amusing enough.” United Ireland, Sept. 26, 1891.
60 “Could it be.” Fiction, “Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime,” p. 27.
61 “wake the slumbering city.” Ibid., p. 29.
62 “An odd feeling.” Ibid., p. 30.
CHAPTER TWELVE: ENEMIES AND FRIENDS
1 “There are terrible temptations.” Plays, An Ideal Husband, p. 193.
2 “his crimes seem.” Intentions, “Pen, Pencil and Poison,” p. 89.
3 “The fact of a man being.” Ibid., p. 90.
4 “A Truth in art.” Ibid., “The Truth of Masks,” p. 263.
5 “What is termed Sin.” Ibid., “The Critic as Artist,” pt. 1, p. 129.
6 “the industrious prattle.” Ibid.
7 “if the Greeks.” Ibid., p. 119.
8 “the creative faculty.” Ibid., p. 120.
9 “the record of one’s own soul.” Ibid.
10 “It is only by intensifying.” Ibid., pt. 2, p. 156.
11 “We put each other out.” Stanley Weintraub, ed., The Playwright and the Pirate: Bernard Shaw and Frank Harris: A Correspondence (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1982), p. 30.
12 “it was very witty.” Writings, introduction, p. 15.
13 “It is through disobedience.” Ibid., “The Soul of Man Under Socialism,” pp. 22, 26, 46.
14 “Selfishness is not living.” Ibid., p. 49.
15 “It was my sole
experience.” Weintraub, Correspondence, p. 31.
16 “Merrion Square Protestant pretentiousness.” Ibid., p. 35.
17 “a citizen of all civilised capitals.” Hyde, Oscar Wilde, p. 37.
18 “was incapable of friendship.” Weintraub, Correspondence, p. 35.
19 “no enemies.” Yeats, p. 133.
20 “half-civilized blood.” Ibid., p. 138.
21 “Books of poetry.” Critic, p. 150.
22 “the basis of literary friendship.” Yeats, p. 131.
23 “overnight with labour.” Ibid., p. 130.
24 “perplexed by my own shapelessness.” Ibid., p. 136.
25 “at the happiest moment.” Ibid.
26 “could not endure.” Ibid., p. 138.
27 “is simply to charm.” Writings, “The Decay of Lying,” p. 72.
28 “citron green leather.” Dorian, p. 198.
29 “Bending over their blocks.” Robert Speaight, William Rothenstein (London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1962), p. 69.
30 “What a charming old house.” Charles Ricketts, Self-Portrait (London: Peter Davies, 1939), pp. 12, 33.
31 “His face had grown full.” Ibid., p. 28.
32 “a Hungarian bandmaster.” Ibid., p. 29.
33 “the reasonable wife.” Stephen Calloway, Charles Ricketts: Subtle and Fantastic Decorator (London: Thames and Hudson, 1979), p. 7.
34 “the most marvelous human relationship.” Ibid., p. 10.
35 “the one house.” Ricketts, Self-Portrait, p. 36.
36 “beauty out of a little coloured paper.” Ibid., p. 39.
37 “Both you and Shannon.” Ibid., p. 40.
38 “advantage and resentment.” Ibid., p. 27.
39 “Ah, I suppose.” Ibid., p. 17.
40 “everything to them.” J.G.P. Delaney, Charles Ricketts (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990), p. 45.
41 “Why did you bring.” Ricketts, Self-Portrait, p. 52.
42 “But you are.” Ibid., p. 26.
43 “There were two personalities.” [Raymond] and Ricketts, Oscar Wilde, p. 13.
44 “I like hearing myself.” Fiction, “The Remarkable Rocket,” p. 134.
45 “Flaubert had just told me.” [Raymond] and Ricketts, Oscar Wilde, p. 37.
46 “I propose publishing.” Ibid., p. 30.
47 “It is not a forgery.” Letters, p. 250.
48 “half yours.” Ibid., p. 247.
49 “Writing plays was liking copying.” Locke Scrapbooks, ser. 3, vol. 480, Billy Rose Collection, p. 201.
50 “Men shake hands.” Clyde Fitch, Beau Brummell (New York: John Lane, 1953), p. 26.
51 “Observe me, Mortimer.” Ibid., p. 137.
52 “You precious maddening man.” Clark, Clyde Fitch to Oscar Wilde, 1889.
53 “It is 3.” Ibid., [1889].
54 “Oh! you adorable creature.” Ibid., [1889].
55 “Nobody loves you.” Ibid., [1890].
56 “To project one’s soul.” Dorian, p. 60.
57 “My real life.” Letters, p. 426.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: THE DORIAN PROPHECY
1 “Every impulse.” Dorian, p. 41.
2 “sorrows never come.” Masao Miyoshi, The Divided Self (New York: New York University Press, 1969), p. 321.
3 “all the things.” Ibid., p. 323.
4 “I am in love.” Clark, Lionel Johnson to Arthur Galton, Feb. 18, 1890.
5 “fourteen times running.” Ibid., Lord Alfred Douglas to A.J.A. Symons, July 8, 1930.
6 “the Overloved met.” W. H. Auden, “An Improbable Life,” New Yorker, Mar. 6, 1963, p. 162.
7 “I had seen.” Dorian, p. 144.
8 “Laughter is not at all.” Ibid., p. 30.
9 “his finely-curved scarlet lips.” Ibid., p. 39.
10 “Every portrait that is painted.” Ibid., pp. 27, 34.
11 “an artist should create.” The Mask, 1912–1913, vol. 5 (Florence: Goldoni, n.d.), p. 19.
12 “To reveal art.” Dorian, p. 21.
13 “All art is at once.” Ibid., p. 22.
14 “each man lived.” Ibid., p. 226.
15 “One pays for one’s sins.” Plays, Lady Windermere’s Fan, p. 39.
16 “Yes; there is a terrible moral.” Letters, p. 259.
17 “what I would like.” Ibid., p. 352.
18 “played with the idea.” Dorian, p. 66.
19 “nothing can cure.” Ibid., p. 44.
20 “what I think I am.” Letters, p. 352.
21 “with matters only fitted.” Scots Observer, July 5, 1890.
22 “madly, extravagantly.” Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine, June 1890, p. 56.
23 “adored a young man madly.” Trials, p. 112.
24 “You became to me.” Dorian, p. 144.
25 “I love you.” Plays, Lady Windermere’s Fan, p. 28.
26 “personality.” Dorian, p. 144.
27 “I went to look.” Ibid., p. 71.
28 “Nowadays people know.” Ibid.
29 “If you want.” Ibid., p. 100.
30 “Whenever a man.” Ibid.
31 “a man whom no pure-minded girl.” Ibid., p. 183.
32 “is so fatal.” Ibid.
33 “There is no such thing.” Ibid., p. 21.
34 “Suddenly from a lumpy tussock.” Ibid., p. 239.
35 “crouching by a little charcoal stove.” Ibid., p. 223.
36 “I have a duty.” André Gide, Oscar Wilde, trans. Bernard Frechtman (London: Kimber, 1951), p. 28.
37 “You have killed my love.” Dorian, p. 115.
38 “There is always something ridiculous.” Ibid., p. 117.
39 “If the British public.” J. A. Symonds to Horatio Brown, July 22, 1890, in John Addington Symonds, Letters and Papers of John Addington Symonds (London: Murray, 1923), p. 240.
40 “effeminate frivolity.” Karl Beckson, ed. Oscar Wilde: The Critical Heritage (New York: Barnes & Noble, 1970), p. 72.
41 “tedious and dull.” Ibid., p. 260.
42 “All excess.” Letters, p. 259.
43 “a dreadful book.” [Raymond] and Ricketts, Oscar Wilde, p. 178.
44 “skill” and “subtlety.” “A Novel by Mr. Oscar Wilde,” Bookman, Nov. 1891.
45 “a wonderful book.” Letters, p. 270.
46 “unmanly sickening.” Beckson, Oscar Wilde, p. 77.
47 “It is the most wonderful piece.” Clark, Lady Wilde to Oscar Wilde, [June 1890].
48 “extremely ugly.” Belford, Violet Hunt, p. 65.
49 “a woman made.” Ibid.
50 “heavy odours.” Oscar Wilde, “A Bevy of Poets,” Pall Mall Gazette, Mar. 27, 1885.
51 “came to London.” O’Sullivan, Aspects of Wilde, p. 92.
52 “horrid old Jew.” Dorian, pp. 77, 109.
53 “Oscar says he likes you.” Alexander Michaelson, “Oscar Wilde,” Black-friars, Nov. 1927, p. 700.
54 “Never again did I speak.” Ibid.
55 “an extremely recent.” Letters, p. 311.
56 “You cannot be Oscar’s friend.” Michaelson, “Oscar Wilde,” p. 701.
57 “the odious Silverpoints.” Jerusha Hall McCormack, John Gray: Poet, Dandy, and Priest (Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England, 1991), p. 144.
58 “sublime inversion.” Marc-André Raffalovich, Uranisme et unisexualité; Étude sur différentes manifestations de l’instinct sexuel bibliothèque de criminologie, vol. 15 (Lyons: A. Storck, 1896), p. 78.
59 “The Rhine is of course tedious.” Letters, p. 248.
60 “a huge success.” Ibid., p. 282.
61 “a practiced writer.” New York Tribune, Jan. 27, 1891.
62 “I am not satisfied.” Letters, p. 282.
63 “the symbolic incarnation.” J.-K. Huysmans, A rebours or Against the Grain (New York: Dover, 1969), p. 52.
64 “succeeded in rendering.” Ibid.
65 “If the book.” O’Sullivan, Aspects of Wilde, p. 32.
66 “le ‘great event,’ ” H. P. Clive, P
ierre Louÿs (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1978), p. 71.
67 “I don’t like your lips.” Gide, Oscar Wilde, p. 33.
68 “nothing but harm.” Ibid.
69 “what Thackeray calls the ‘chief gift.’ ” Ibid., p. 15.
70 “I choose my friends.” Dorian, p. 30.
71 “a large pasty face.” Pierre Champion, Marcel Schwob et son temps (Paris: Grasset, 1927) p. 99.
72 “terrible absinthe drinker.” Ibid.
73 “after the first glass.” Leverson, Letters to the Sphinx, p. 39.
74 “a hallucinatory resurrector.” Marcel Schwob, The King in the Golden Mask and Other Stories, trans. Iain White (New York: Carcanet, 1984), p. 4.
75 “gigantic, smooth-shaven.” Ellmann, p. 351.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: MORE THAN LAUGHTER
1 “Luxury—gold-tipped matches.” David Cecil, Max: A Biography (London: Constable, 1964), p. 71.
2 “In the drama.” Writings, “The Soul of Man Under Socialism,” p. 44.
3 “Ladies and Gentlemen.” A.E.W. Mason, Sir George Alexander and the St. James’s Theatre (London: Macmillan, 1935), p. 224.
4 “she will be very nervous.” More Letters, p. 114.
5 “You have had a brilliant success.” Clark, Lady Wilde to Oscar Wilde, Feb. 24, 1892.
6 “It’s perhaps not very proper.” Ellmann, p. 366 n.
7 “Quite Too-Too.” Punch, March 5, 1892.
8 “delightful and immortal.” Letters, p. 312.
9 “unspeakable animal.” Henry James, Henry James Letters, ed. Leon Edel (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1980), p. 373.
10 “What does it mean?” W. Graham Robertson, Life Was Worth Living: Reminiscences (London: Harper, 1931), p. 125.
11 “I love fruit.” Arthur Wing Pinero, The Social Plays of Arthur Wing Pinero, The Second Mrs. Tanqueray (New York: Dutton, 1917), p. 82.
12 “How on earth.” Plays, Lady Windermere’s Fan, p. 54.
13 “one of those modern drawing room plays.” Letters, p. 331.
14 “is, or should be.” Ibid., p. 311.
15 “I do not think.” Royal General Theatrical Fund, report of a speech Wilde gave on May 26, 1892, Berg Collection.
16 “ ‘This passion is too terrible.’ ” Letters, p. 331.
17 “The chief merit.” Ibid., p. 309.
18 “I do not like it.” Clark, Lady Wilde to Oscar Wilde, n.d. [1892].
19 “Your reward?” Plays, Lady Windermere’s Fan, p. 35.
20 “With regard to the new speech.” Letters, p. 308.