The Doleful Downfall and Death of Oscar Wilde

By © Jack Ragsdale

On the afternoon of February 18, 1895, a man of medium height and athletic build, called at the Albermarle Club in London. To the porter he found on duty, he handed his printed calling card, on the back of which he had scrawled: "For Oscar Wilde Posing as a somdomite (sic).” The Abermarle was Constance and Oscar Wilde’s club. The porter glanced at the card, and very properly placed it in an envelope to await the next visit of Mr.Wilde.

The athletic gentleman who delivered the card was wealthy John Sholto Douglas, eccentric eighth Marquess of Queensbury, the very same of the boxing rules that bear his name today. He was the father of young Lord Alfred Douglas who had become the intimate friend of Oscar Wilde. Oscar and Bosie, as Lord Alfred was called, had met in 1891 when Wilde was thirty-six and Bosie twenty-one. Oscar was brilliant and famous. Bosie was athletic, handsome and titled. They were inseparable; a matter which did not please the marquess. Bosie was a spoiled and rebellious son. He and his father had issued threats of violence against each other. His father's objections to Wilde merely intensified the attachment his son had for the playwright. Only the presence of detectives hired for the purpose, foiled Queensbury’s attempt to disrupt the opening of The Importance of Being Earnest on Valentine’s day, February 14, 1895.

When Wilde received the card, he went immediately into consultation with his former lover Robert Ross, with Bosie, and others. In an act of bravado and bad judgment, he decided to prosecute his antagonist and on March 2nd Queensbury was arrested and charged with libel.

In connection with Wilde's charges against Queensbury, and his own prosecution, there were three trials, with Queensbury's “justification" the result of the first. Immediately, Bosie, Ross and many of their acquaintances, fearful of the worst from authorities, fled to the continent. Everyone counseled Oscar to abandon the litigation and flee to France, but he refused. His mother, whom Oscar adored, with no understanding of this case, encouraged him to stay and fight. He remained in a mild stupor, fearful, but unable to think clearly.

Oscar and Constance had two young sons: Cyril and Vyvyan; he was a literary lion, very successful and famous after a long struggle for renown. He had been a much sought-after guest for his ability as an entertaining raconteur, a talent G. B. Shaw grudgingly acknowledged. Given every opportunity to escape his threatened downfall, Wilde stayed behind, seeming finally to aid in his own misfortune. From this point, an avalanche of published material, much of it official documentation, probes every aspect and shift of the principal player. In more than one hundred biographies little of the intimate is omitted.

Wilde’s first trial, the second of this series, resulted in a hung jury. Separate hearings, in the meanwhile, had revealed much derogatory material against Oscar and in the third trial, he was convicted of “gross indecency” and sentenced to two years penal servitude.

Poor Constance, in panic at the ransacking of her house by her husband’s creditors, changed their name to Holland and fled with the children to the continent where, for a time, she wandered ceaselessly without a destination. Fortunately she was solvent in her own right, for her father had left her well situated financially.

Oscar had a particularly cruel jailor. His time was spent at the crank picking oakum and it was only at the end of his sentence that he was allowed pen and paper. In that period he wrote “De Profundis,” a lengthy letter, full of hateful recriminations—a book of unequaled bitching and rancor meant for Bosie. He blamed his former friend for every evil in his life.

Ross, who had taken on the task of paying off Wilde’s debts, extracted all the venom from De Profundis, and published an innocent, untrue version for the money it would produce. However, to insure the eternal damnation of Bosie in Wilde’s own words, Ross delivered one of the three original manuscript copies to the British Museum where it rests today. The true libelous De Profundis had to wait for the death of Bosie for publication.

Released from prison in 1897, broken in spirit, but in better health for the regularity of his life in prison, Oscar fled to France and became Monsieur Sebastian Melmoth. His living came from Robbie Ross who remained ever loyal, and from Constance, by way of her lawyers. Lonely in France, with his memories of loving Bosie, he forgot the bitterness of De Profundis and flew off to Italy to live with him. Robbie Ross, Constance Wilde and Bosie's mother, Lady Queensbury, all objected and cut off their funds. That ended the short return to old times, and Wilde and Bosie parted forever. In that short stint, Wilde had written The Ballard of the Reading Gaol and Bosie a few sonnets. Wilde never wrote again, his career as poet, playwright, essayist, novelist, and writer of children’s stories was over.

The exact cause of Wilde’s death has never been determined but at the end he suffered great pain from ear trouble and an abscess is suspected. He always drank heavily and in his last years indulged in poisonous Absinthe. Once in youthful impetuosity, Wilde had contemplated becoming a Catholic but the loss of an expected benefit removed that chic and trendy gambit from consideration. Now as Wilde lay unconscious and dying, Robbie Ross arranged his baptism into the Catholic faith. Both Ross and Lord Alfred were converts to that religion.

Buried first in Bagneux Cemetery, in 1909 Wilde’s body was removed to prestigious Pere La Chaise, under an elaborate monumental sculpture by Jacob Epstein. From Wilde’s works, Robbie Ross paid off all of the playwright’s debts. Cyril, Wilde’s oldest son, was killed in WWI; Vyvyan, his youngest, lived a full life with no other fame than that reflected from his father.

As posterity, we may ask: What benefit did society reap from Wilde’s imprisonment?