![]() It was a far cry from his heyday in the early 1890's when he published books and poems and wrote plays that are still appreciated in the 21st century. as much moral damage of the most hideous and repulsive kind as no single individual could well cause". The Daily Telegraph rode its high horse of righteous outrage as they wallowed in his fall from grace: "We have had enough of Oscar Wilde. The headlines screamed of indignation as they indulged in a scandal that was revelled in by a society too quick to judge and too swift to grudge. The tabloids and the broadsheets had a field day. Wilde's destiny was an ignominious retreat from the Old Bailey witness stand to the dock for trial. This forced Oscar to drop the libel prosecution. But the evidence of a succession of young male prostitutes sealed his fate. The Marquess accused Wilde of being a sodomite. The Marquess of Queensbury was unhappy with the relationship Oscar had with his son Lord Alfred Douglas. This all encompassing statute meant that engaging in any form of sexual activity with a member of the same sex was subject to criminal prosecution. In 1895 it was a crime to commit any act of gross indecency. The eloquent pen of Oscar Wilde may have delighted us with a wealth of witticisms but the poor judgement he showed by persisting with the libel case questioned his ability to imagine a final scene where the tables had turned. Before the trial he lunched with George Bernard Shaw who pleaded with him to withdraw the case. ![]() Indeed, many close friends and associates advised Oscar not to proceed with the libel case. His downfall came after an ill thought out libel prosecution of the Marquess of Queensbury which resulted in evidence of Oscar Wilde's homosexuality being discovered. In classic British tradition he was lauded for his literary brilliance, built up and summarily brought crashing down to earth in the most public humiliation possible. Haldane managed to convince the governor to allow him access to books and writing materials.Īdvertise on Quoteikon, click image for details Oscar was doing time in Reading Gaol when his friend the MP and reformer Richard B. Strange and beautiful it seemed to me that the sorrow of a single Florentine in exile should, hundreds of years afterwards, lighten the sorrow of some common prisoner in a modern gaol."įast forward fourteen years and the same book by Dante would prove a mental lifeline for Wilde as he was half way through his own prison sentence of two years hard labour. He was somewhat fixated on cell detail and seemed gleefully surprised to say: "In one I found a translation of Dante, and a Shelley. on a lucrative lecture tour, wrote a letter sharing his penal observations to his friend the suffragette Helena Sickert. The following day Wilde, who was travelling through the U.S. He described the inmates as "odd types of humanity" and went on to call them "all mean looking". The visitor was an impeccably dressed Irishman called Oscar Wilde. Two days later, after giving his lecture in Lincoln he visited the State Penitentiary Nebraska. ![]() On the 22nd April 1882 a curious visitor, dressed like a dandy, strode into the Kansas State Penitentiary at Lansing. ![]()
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