Arts
Come Out, Come Out: M. Signorile's Queer in America
Pride Before a Fall
Pride Before a Fall
by Bob Wolff
|
The Real Trial of Oscar Wilde: The first uncensored manuscript of the trial of Oscar Wilde vs. John Douglas (Marquess of Queensbury, 1895)
Merlin Holland |
Having
read earlier texts of the trial, attended several plays and seen at least
one film on Oscar Wilde's trials, why am I reading Merlin Holland's book
on his grandfather's first trial? The word "real" in the title
has something to do with it. As does the idea that a grandson would revisit
this well known story 100 years after the death of the playwright. Why
was the grandson interested? Maybe yet another viewpoint of the incident
that began Oscar Wilde's cascade to destruction would bring me satisfaction
that Wilde saw a higher purpose for his behavior. I hoped for that.
Merlin Holland provides a clear, detailed
introduction to the new manuscript. Both Holland's introduction and Mortimer's
preface confirm my feelings of disbelief each time I study this piece
of our community's history: why would Wilde, so clearly intelligent, be
so dumb or so lulled by passion that he disregarded all the signals and
even his friends' urgent advice? Why wouldn't Wilde see the trap he was
being drawn into when he sued John Douglas (Marquess of Queensbury), father
of the young man with whom he was in an intimate relationship? Why would
Wilde allow the 20 year-old Lord Alfred (Bosie) Douglas convince him to
take up this battle with his father in a courtroom where lawyers would
bring forth damning evidence against him and where the jury would show
him no leniency?
It is as if Wilde was thinking and behaving
as a 2004 out gay man - so familiar with living among his own accepting
friends, family and in his own gay community, that he thought he was entering
a San Francisco court in 2004. But it was 1895 London. This tragic behavior
resulted in the very early loss of one of the world's very best playwrights.
His wit is without peer. A hundred years later his plays still draw well.
But Oscar Wilde was 46 when he died following 2 years of prison hard labor.
In this new, uncensored manuscript there
are no more answers to these questions than there are answers to why Macbeth
makes dumb, emotionally driven moves in the Scottish Play. Did he think
that he could get away with lying about his intimate experiences with
men in a time when having such experiences was illegal? Did he think that
none of these young men would be sought out to tell their stories in court?
Was he so oblivious to the way others denigrated these relationships that
he could simply give witty responses to probing questions? While there
are no answers to these questions, in this more complete trial text there
are details and juxtiposition of questions and answers that illuminate
the situation, the times, and the rarified and separate-from-society world
of Oscar Wilde. When Wilde's friends warned him to depart immediately
for France, we are told his pride kept him in England and he was arrested.
For those who don't know the story, here
are the highlights: John Douglas, Marquess of Queensbury, was an angry,
difficult man. Queensbury, in 1895, had suffered the loss of his first
son to homosexuality and suspected suicide. Queensbury had evidence of
Wilde and his son carrying on an affair in many public places in France
and England and had previously warned them to halt their relationship.
John Douglas left his card with the doorman at Oscar Wilde's club with
the condemning handwritten phrase, "For Oscar Wilde, posing somdomite
(sic)". The son in question, Lord Alfred Douglas (Bosie), urged Wilde
to sue his father for libel, and told Oscar that he and his mother would
support Wilde's court battle. Mother and son, however, didn't come through
with support, and, in time, Wilde lost all his papers, belongings and
house to pay court and lawyer costs. In the first of three trials, Wilde
sued for Queensbury's supposed libel, even though Wilde (and Bosie) knew
that Queensbury's lawyers could easily prove that he was not only "posing"
as a sodomite, he was one as then defined by English law.
Wilde responded with wit and arrogance to
Carson's (the Queensbury lawyer) questions. For example, Carson read a
portion of one of Wilde's letters to Bosie and then asked: "Is that
an extraordinary letter?"
"Wilde: An extraordinary letter? I
think everything I write extraordinary. I think that is an extraordinary
letter. Yes, I don't pose as being ordinary. Ask me any questions you
like about it.
"Carson: I am afraid I have a good
deal to ask you. Isn't that a love letter?
"Wilde: It is a letter expressive of
love.
"Carson: Is it the kind of letter that
one man writes towards another man?
"Wilde: It is the kind of letter that
I have written to Lord Alfred Douglas. What other men write to other men
I know nothing about, nor do I care."
After Queensbury's defense made a circumstantial
case for Wilde being a sodomite without bringing forth witnesses, Wilde,
through his lawyer, withdrew the suit. Even though he knew he would be
arrested, he remained in England against the advice of his friends. He
was arrested, tried, convicted of gross indecency and sentenced to two
years of hard labor.
Following his release, Wilde wrote The
Ballad of Reading Gaol, a response to the agony he experienced in
prison. Bosie and Wilde reunited briefly, but Oscar wandered Europe the
last three years of his life, staying with friends and living in cheap
hotels. The author was unable to be creative again, meningitis set in,
and Oscar Wilde died in Paris on November 30, 1900.
Bob Wolff makes things of clay, fibers, and paints in watercolor and
acrylics. He also designs scenery and lighting for theatre productions
in Vermont and is providing theatre design, acoustics and consulting services
for several performing arts facility projects.