The Trials of Oscar Wilde

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The Trials of Oscar Wilde

Book excerpt

By: H. Montgomery Hyde

Date: 1973

Source: Hyde, H. Montgomery. The Trials of Oscar Wilde. New York: Dover, 1973.

About the Author: H. Henry Hyde first published the Trials of Oscar Wilde in 1948, adding commentary and appendices in 1962 and 1973. A scholar of criminal law, Hyde published a wide range of books including a biography of Lord Alfred Douglas and a biography of Oscar Wilde.

INTRODUCTION

On February 14, 1895, writer Oscar Wilde's latest play, The Importance of Being Earnest, premiered in London at the St. James Theater. Wilde, in his early forties and a literary sensation, learned that the Marquess of Queensberry, John Douglas, was prepared to disrupt the play's premiere.

The Marquess was livid after learning that Wilde and the Marquess's son, Lord Alfred "Bosie" Douglas, had been homosexual lovers. At a time when English law declared homosexuality a crime against nature, and the 1885 Labouchere Amendment definied homosexual sex as "gross indecency," the Marquess planned to reveal Wilde's relationship with his son, placing the writer in a precarious, if not potentially criminal, position.

The Marquess was blocked from entering St. James Theater but left a calling card for Oscar Wilde, on which the Marquess wrote: "To Oscar Wilde posing Somdomite [sic]." Wilde was angered by the public insult and Bosie encouraged him to file a libel suit against the Marquess.

Wilde was known in his circle of literary friends to have homosexual affairs with younger men; Bosie was twenty-four and Wilde forty at the time of the Marquess's card and insult. Wilde filed the lawsuit and a trial was held in April 1895. As part of his defense, the Marquess and his lawyer, Edward Carson, found approximately ten young men with whom Wilde had either had sexual relations or whom he had solicited for sexual relations. Wilde went forward with his suit. By the third day of the trial, Wilde, as the plaintiff, found himself in the odd position of defending his actions.

The judge found that not only was the Marquess's note acceptable, but that in effect, the defense had shown that the note was justified, for Wilde most likely was, the court said, a homosexual. On April 6, 1895, the day after the libel trial was dismissed, Wilde was himself arrested and detained for "gross indecency" under the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1885.

The excerpts from Wilde's criminal trial that follow demonstrate Wilde's wit, the prosecutor's arguments, and how English law handled the issue of homosexual acts between consenting males in the latter nineteenth century.

PRIMARY SOURCE

G—:

Listen, Mr. Wilde, I shall keep you only a very short time in the witness box. Counsel, read the following poem from The Chameleon.

"Last night unto my bed methought there came
Our lady of strange dreams, and from an urn
She poured live fire, so that mine eyes did burn
At sight of it. Anon the floating flame
Took many shapes, and one cried: I am Shame
That walks with Love, I am most wise to turn
Cold lips and limbs to fire; therefore discern
And see my loveliness, and praise my name.
And afterwards, in radiant garments dressed
With sound of flutes and laughing of glad lips,
A pomp of all the passions passed along
All the night through; till the white phantom ships
Of dawn sailed in. Whereat I said this song,
"Of all sweet passions Shame is loveliest."

G—: Is that one of the beautiful poems?

Sir Edward Clarke—: That is not one of Mr. Wilde's.

G—: I am not aware that I said it was.

Sir Edward Clarke—: I thought you would be glad to say it was not.

Mr. Justice Charles—: I understand that was a poem by Lord Alfred Douglas.

G—: Yes, my lord, and one which the witness described as a beautiful poem. The other beautiful poem is the one that follows immediately and precedes "The Priest and the Acolyte."

G—: Your view, Mr. Wilde, is that the "shame" mentioned here is that shame which is a sense of modesty?

W—: That was the explanation given to me by the person who wrote it. The sonnet seemed to me obscure.

G—: During 1893 and 1894 You were a good deal in the company of Lord Alfred Douglas?

W—: Oh, yes.

G—: Did he read that poem to you?

W—: Yes.

G—: You can, perhaps, understand that such verses as these would not be acceptable to the reader with an ordinarily balanced mind?

W—: I am not prepared to say. It appears to me to be a question of taste, temperament, and individuality. I should say that one man's poetry is another man's poison!

G—: I daresay! The next poem is one described as "Two Loves." It contains these lines:

    "'sweet youth,
    Tell me why, sad and sighing, dost thou rove
    These pleasant realms? I pray thee tell me sooth,
    What is thy name?' He said, 'My name is Love,'
    Then straight the first did turn himself to me,
    And cried, 'He lieth, for his name is Shame.
    But I am Love, and I was wont to be
    Alone in this fair garden, till he came
    Unasked by night; I am true Love, I fill
    The hearts of boy and girl with mutual flame.'
Then sighing said the other, 'Have thy will,
    I am the Love that dare not speak its name'."

G—: G—Was that poem explained to you?

W—: I think that is clear.

G—: There is no question as to what it means?

W—: Most certainly not.

G—: Is it not clear that the love described relates to natural love and unnatural love?

W—: No.

G—: What is the "Love that dare not speak its name"?

W—: "The Love that dare not speak its name" in this century is such a great affection of an elder for a younger man as there was between David and Jonathan, such as Plato made the very basis of his philosophy, and such as you find in the sonnets of Michelangelo and Shakespeare. It is that deep, spiritual affection that is as pure as it is perfect. It dictates and pervades great works of art like those of Shakespeare and Michelangelo, and those two letters of mine, such as they are. It is in this century misunderstood, so much misunderstood that it may be described as the "Love that dare not speak its name," and on account of it I am placed where I am now. It is beautiful, it is fine, it is the noblest form of affection. There is nothing unnatural about it. It is intellectual, and it repeatedly exists between an elder and a younger man, when the elder man has intellect, and the younger man has all the joy, hope, and glamour of life before him. That it should be so the world does not understand. The world mocks at it and sometimes puts one in the pillory for it.

G—: Then there is no reason why it should be called "Shame"?

W—: Ah, that, you will see, is the mockery of the other love, love which is jealous of friendship and says to it, "You should not interfere."

G—: I wish to call your attention to the style of your correspondence with Lord Alfred Douglas?

W—: I am ready. I am never ashamed of the style of my writings.

G—: You are fortunate, or shall I say shameless? I refer to passages in two letters in particular?

W—: Kindly quote them.

G—: In letter number one you use the expression "Your slim gilt soul," and you refer to Lord Alfred's "red rose-leaf lips." The second letter contains the words, "You are the divine thing I want," and describes Lord Alfred's letter as being "delightful, red and yellow wine to me." Do you think that an ordinarily constituted being would address such expressions to a younger man?

W—: I am not happily, I think, an ordinarily constituted being.

G—: It is agreeable to be able to agree with you, Mr. Wilde.

W—: There is nothing, I assure you, in either letter of which I need be ashamed. The first letter is really a prose poem, and the second more of a literary answer to one Lord Alfred had sent me.

G—: And these witnesses have, you say, lied throughout?

W—: Their evidence as to my association with them, as to the dinners taking Place and the small presents I gave them, is mostly true. But there is not a particle of truth in that part of the evidence which alleged improper behaviour.

G—: Why did you take up with these youths?

W—: I am a lover of youth.

G—: You exalt youth as a sort of god?

W—: I like to study the young in everything. There is something fascinating in youthfulness.

G—: So you would prefer puppies to dogs and kittens to cats?

W—: I think so. I should enjoy, for instance, the society of a beardless, briefless barrister quite as much as that of the most accomplished Q.C.

G—: I hope the former, whom I represent in large numbers, will appreciate the compliment.

G—: You made handsome presents to all these young fellows?

W—: Pardon me, I differ. I gave two or three of them a cigarette case: Boys of that class smoke a good deal of cigarettes. I have a weakness for presenting my acquaintances with cigarette cases.

G—: Rather an expensive habit if indulged in indiscriminately, isn't it?

W—: Less extravagant than giving jewelled garters to ladies.

SIGNIFICANCE

At the time of his trial, Oscar Wilde had been married to Constance Lloyd Wilde for nearly eleven years; the couple had two young sons. Constance Wilde changed her last name to Holland and refused to see Wilde or let him see his children.

The prosecution's discussion of the "love that dare not speak its name" as well as Wilde's letters to Lord Alfred Douglas showcased what many considered to be Wilde's homosexual inclinations. Testimony from young men concerning Wilde's propositions, gifts of cigarette cases and rings, and the prosecution's ability to present many different men with similar reports of Wilde's companionship with younger men in the hotel built a case against Wilde.

Wilde was found guilty of gross indecency on May 25, 1895 and sentenced to two years labor in prison at Reading Gaol. He later published The Ballad of Reading Gaol, in which he describes the desperation of fellow inmates, the imprisoned children, and the horrid conditions; prison reforms came about after his death, in part due to his writings. He died on November 30, 1900, three years after his release.

English law continued to treat homosexual acts as criminal offenses throughout the next six decades. Mathematician and early computer science pioneer Alan Turing was tried for homosexuality in 1952 under the same law, Section 11 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1885, under which Oscar Wilde had been tried. Turing, like Wilde, was convicted of the crime of homosexual acts with another man, but unlike Wilde, Turing did not receive prison as a sentence. The court ordered Turing to undergo hormonal treatment that would control or destroy his homosexual desires. Turing lost government security clearance for his job on a cryptography project with the British government. Forced hormonal injections of estrogens were considered an appropriate treatment for homosexuality under English law at the time; Turing's health and mental stability suffered as a result of the treatments. In 1954, Turing died after ingesting cyanide; his death was ruled a suicide.

Private sexual acts between two members of the same sex were decriminalized in England in 1967 with the passage of the Sexual Offences Act of 1967.