Oscar Wilde, Volume 1 (of 2)

me like an hea

with fatal po

uin.-Webster's

ew doors closed to him; but he could afford now to treat his critics with laughter, call them fogies and old-fashioned and explain tha

, making it appear far more effective than in its written form. A well-known actor, piqued at being compelled to play listener, made himself ridiculous by half turnin

urprising, most charmi

tiating manners, always spoke in a gentle smiling way and had a good word to say for everyone, especially for women; h

a new delight. He brings a supernal air into life. I am in truth indebted to you"-all this in an affected purring tone. I no

ell as humour and generally brought in a story or apologue to lend variety to the entertainment. His little weaknesses, too, began to show themselves and they grew rankly in the sunshine. He always wanted to do himself well, as the phrase goes, but now he began to eat and drink more freely th

reland, and I have a right to the

lp it; I burst

at, Frank?" he asked wi

st of the O'Flaherties, with bushy head and dirty rags, warming enormous hairy legs before a smoking peat-fire, flashed before me.

rish were civilised and Christians when the

; he was intoxicated with his own popularity, a little surprised, perhaps, to find that he had won fame so eas

ries all of us, tests every weak point to breaking, and sets

the utmost

yles do

perhaps a half-conscious recognition of this fact. But we moderns are inclined to walk heedlessly, no longer believing in pitfalls or in the danger of gratified desires. And Oscar Wilde was not only an

h of twenty-one, with large blue eyes and golden-fair hair. His mother, the Dowager Lady Queensberry, preserves a photograph of him

d's personal beauty, and enormously affected besides by Lord Alfred Douglas' name and position: he was a snob as only an English artist can be a snob; he loved titular distinctions, and Douglas is one of the few great names in British history with the gilding of romance about it. No doubt Oscar talked better than his best because he was talking t

range and play of thought beyond his imagining, for a world's miracle, one of the Immortals. Before he had listened long, I have been told, the youth declared his admiration passionately. They were an extraordinary pair and were complementary in a hundred ways, not only in mind, but in character. Oscar had reached orig

the first he dreaded Alfred Dougla

ut again and again and I couldn't resist him. That is my only fault. That's what ruined me. He increased my expenses so

he boy was chiefly mental: to Alfred Douglas, Oscar was merely a quickening, inspiring, intellectual influence; but the boy's effect on Oscar was of character and induced imitation. Lord Alfred Douglas' boldness gave Oscar outrecuidance, an

e at a cheap Italian restaurant for a few shillings. But to Lord Alfred Douglas money was only a counter and the most luxurious living a necessity. As soon as Oscar Wilde began to entertain him, he was led to the dearest hotels and res

uglas has decl

preposterous self-deception. An earlier confession of his was much nearer the truth: "It w

' habitual extravagance kept Oscar Wilde hard

uglas and went about with him continually, he came to know his friends and his familiars, and went less into society so-called. Again and again Lord Alfred Douglas flaunted acquaintance with youths of the lowest class; but no one knew him or paid much attention to him; O

which was said to have degenerated into a sort of Roman orgy. I was told of a man who tried to get money by blackmailing him in his own house. I shrugged my shoulders at all these scandals, and asked the talebearers what had been said about Shakespeare to make him rave as he raved again and again

of their vulgar appearance, however, one was nice looking in a fresh boyish way; the other seemed merely depraved. Oscar greeted me as usual, though he seemed slightly embarrassed. I resumed my seat, which was almost opposite him, and pretended to be absorbed in the game. To my astonishment he was talking as well as if he had had

sy they w

ed, "nude, clothed only

in his unspeakable Cockney

eur chess player, Montagu Gattie. "Come along and let us have some dinner

the famous

Oscar, but I never saw h

nown at Oxford. I was at the 'Varsity with him. His r

of it. I recalled the fact that in all our talks I had never heard Oscar use a gross word. His mind, I said to myself, is like Spenser's, vowed away from coarseness and vulgarity: he's the most perfect intellectual companion in the world. He may have wanted to talk to the boys just to see what ef

l the necessary information about well-bred youth. But if he wanted a gutter-snipe in one of his plays, he would have to find a gutter-lad and paint hi

why two boys? It seemed evident to me that my reading of the riddle was the only plausible one. Besides it left my affection unaffec