Compare Documents

The sequel to the Wilde scandal would not have astonished anyone who has read the reports of the Queensberry-Wilde case had the fracas in Piccadilly taken place between the Marquis of Queensberry and Lord Alfred Douglas. Those reports contain some correspondence between the Marquis and his son Lord Alfred Douglas which pointed to the possibility of something even worse than the fracas in the street chronicled by the cable on Thursday morning. It opened with a letter from the Marquis adjuring his son to leave the company of Wilde, and threatening violence to Wilde in case of non-compliance. To that letter the hopeful youth replied with a telegram winding up with the dutiful words: "What a funny little man you are." He was at once called "an impertinent young jackanapes," and told that the first opportunity would be taken for "marking" Wilde.

The young man answered with the following precious epistle:—

As you return my letters unopened I am obliged to write a postcard. I write to inform you that I consider your absurd threats with absolute indifference. Ever since your last exhibition at O.W.'s house I have made a point of appearing with him at many public restaurants—such as the Berkeley, Willis' Rooms, the Café Royal, &c., &c.—and I shall continue to go to these places when and with just whom I choose. I am of age, and my own master. You have disowned me at least a dozen times, and have very meanly deprived me of money. You have, therefore, no rights over me, legal or moral. If O.W. was to prosecute you for libel in the criminal courts you would get seven years' penal servitude for your outrageous libels. Much as I detest you, I am anxious to avoid this for the sake of the family, but I you try to assault me I shall defend myself with a loaded revolver, which I always carry, and if I shoot you, or if he shoots you, we should be completely justified, as we should be acting in self-defence against a violent and dangerous rough; and I think if you were dead not many people would miss you. (Signed, A.D.)

What reply the Marquis made to the "impertinent young jackanapes" was not recorded at the time; but the kind of reply he intended to make the cable account of the fracas in the street has explained. But it has deepened the mystery of the Wilde case by telling us that another Douglas got the benefit of the paternal intention.

The facts which have been elicited in the course of the trial of Lord Queensberry for a criminal libel upon Oscar Wilde, have created a strong feeling of disgust amongst all decent people, and the newspapers are giving as few of the details as possible. Indeed the St. James Gazette insists that the proceedings should have been in camera, and refuses to report the case at all. It is, perhaps, sufficient to state that Lord Queensberry, indignant at the intimacy between his son, Lord Alfred Douglas and Oscar Wilde, left a card on the latter, in which he charged him with the commission of a horrible crime. For this libel Lord Queensberry was committed for trial. The Marquis admitted that he had written the libel, and stated that the words were true, and that he published them for the public benefit. In the course of the trial Oscar Wilde said that he had written the following letter to Lord Alfred: –

My own boy, — Your sonnet is quite lovely, and it is a marvel that those red roseleaf lips of yours should have been made no less for music of song than for madness of kisses. Your slim gilt soul walks between passion and poetry. I know Hyacinthus, whom Apollo loved so madly, was you in Greek days. Why are you alone in London, and when do you go to Salisbury? Do go there to cool your hands in the grey twilight of Gothic things, and come here whenever you like. It is a lovely place — it only lacks you; but go to Salisbury first. — Always with undying love, yours, OSCAR."

This letter fell into the possession of some persons who tried to blackmail him. Mr. Wilde insisted that it was a poem, and would as such be regarded by artists and men of letters.

Another letter was as follows: —

Savoy Hotel, Thames Embankment, W.C. — Dearest of all boys, — Your letter was delightful, red and yellow wine to me, but I am sad and out of sorts. Boysie you must not make scenes with me. They kill me, they wreck the loveliness of life. I cannot see you, so Greek and gracious, distorted with passion. I cannot listen to your curved lips saying hideous things to me. I would sooner — [here a word is indecipherable] — than have you bitter, unjust, hating. I must see you soon. You are the divine thing I want, the thing of grace and beauty, but I don't know how to do it. Shall I come to Salisbury. My bill here is £49 for a week. (Laughter.) I have also got a new sitting room. Why are you not here, my dear, my wonderful boy? I fear I must leave. No money, no credit. — Your own OSCAR.

In cross-examination Wilde was asked, "ls that an extraordinary letter?" to which he replied, "Everything I write is extraordinary. I do not pose as being ordinary." He admitted being on friendly terms with a number of boys and young men, for he revelled in the society of youth, but he denied the inference which Mr. Carson, Q.C., who represented Lord Queensberry, tried to draw from this admission.

Letters from Lord Queensberry to Lord Alfred Douglas were read in court. The first was a letter dated Sunday, 1st April, from Carter's Hotel, Albemarle-street. It began, "Alfred, — It is extremely painful to me to have to write to you in the terms I must," and said Lord Alfred must understand that no answers in writing would be received, or if received would be burnt unread. " After your previous hysterically impertinent one, I refuse to be annoyed with such, and must ask you, if you have anything to say to me, to come here and say it in person." His lordship, after asking if he was to understand that his son, having left Oxford in disgrace, and fallen away from his intention to enter the Civil Service or the Foreign Office, intended to take up any other serious line of life, proceeded: —

I decline to supply you with funds to loaf and loll. You are preparing a wretched future for yourself, and it would be cruel and wrong of me to encourage you in this. Secondly, I come to the more painful part of this letter — your infamous intimacy with this man Wilde must cease, or I will disown you and stop all supplies...I'm not going to analyse this intimacy, and I make no accusations, but to my mind to pose as a thing is as bad as to be the real thing. I saw you from my own window only yesterday with this man. It simply turned my blood cold. Never in my human experience have I seen such a sight as I saw in your horrible faces...I hear on good authority that his wife is going to divorce him on grounds of unnatural crimes. Is this right, and if so do you know of it, going about as you do with him? If I thought the thing was true and it becomes public property, I should be quite justified in shooting him at sight. — Your disgusted so-called father, QUEENSBERRY.

In reply to this Lord Alfred telegraphed:

To Lord Queensberry, Carter's Hotel, Albemarle-street. — What a funny little man you are.

Lord Queenberry's retort was another letter, beginning: —

To Lord Alfred Douglas, — You impertinent young jackanapes! I request you will not send me such messages through the telegraph. If you come to me with any of your impertinences I will give you the thrashing you so richly deserve. The only excuse for you is that you must be crazy. I heard from a man who was at Oxford with you that this was your reputation there. It accounts a good deal for what has happened. If I catch you with that man again I will make a public scandal in a way you little dream of. Unless it ceases, I shall carry out my threat and stop all supplies. So you know what to expect. —QUEENSBERRY.

The next letter was written by Lord Queensberry from Skindles to Mr. Alfred Montgomery, the father of Lady Queensberry, divorced. Among much that was incoherent, Lord Queensberry said: —

Your daughter is the person who is supporting my son to defy me. I have had a quibbling, prevaricating message from her saying the boy denied having been to the Savoy for the last year. Why send it at all unless he denies ever having stayed at the Savoy at all with Oscar Wilde? As a fact he did do so, and there has been a hideous scandal. I was told they were warned off. This hideous scandal has been going on for years. I don't want to make out a case against my son, nothing of the kind, but I have made out a case against Oscar Wilde. If I were quite certain of the actual thing I would shoot the fellow at sight. But I am only accusing him of posing, and for that I will chastise him and mark him. I don't believe Wilde will now dare to defy me. He plainly showed the white feather the other day, the damned cur and coward! He is no son of mine. His mother may support him, but she shall not do it in London and with this going on. The Rosebery-Gladstone-Royal insult which came to me through my other son came to me through her. I thought it was you, but it appears it was not... I saw Drumlanrig here on the river last night, which much upset me. Rosebery not only insulted me by lying to the Queen, which she knows, and makes her as bad as him, but Gladstone also has made a lifelong quarrel between my son and me.

The last letter was written from Scotland to Lord Alfred Douglas. If Lord Alfred really were his son, Lord Queensberry wrote, how right he had been to face any outcry or ignominy rather than run the risk of bringing any more such creatures into the world. When Lord Alfred was quite a baby Lord Queensberry had looked upon him in his cradle and wept the bitterest tears a man could shed at thinking he had brought such a creature into the world. In this Christian country it was a wise father who knew his own son. There was madness on the mother's side, and few families in this Christian country were without it if they could be looked into. "I make allowances; I think you are demented, and I am very sorry for you. No wonder you have fallen a prey to that horrible brute. You must gang your ain gait."

The following postcard from Lord Alfred to his father shows the feelings with which he regards his parent: —

As you return my letters unopened I am obliged to write a postcard. I write to inform you that I consider your absurd threats with absolute indifference. Ever since your last exhibition at O.W.'s house I have made a point of appearing with him at many public restaurants — such as the Berkeley, Willis's Rooms, the Café Royal, &., &. — and I shall continue to go to these places when and with just whom I choose. I am of age, and my own master. You have disowned me at least a dozen times, and have very meanly deprived me of money. You have, therefore, no rights over me, legal or moral. If O.W. was to prosecute you for libel in the criminal courts you would get seven years’ penal servitude for your outrageous libels. Much as I detest you I am anxious to avoid this for the sake of the family, but if you try to assault me I shall defend myself with a loaded revolver, which I always carry, and if I shoot you, or [O.W.] shoots you, we should be completely justified, as we should be acting in self defence against a violent and dangerous rough; and I think if you were dead not many people would miss you. (Signed, A.D.)

In defence Mr. Carson reiterated the charges made by Lord Queensberry, and said that he intended to prove them to the hilt. However, he had no opportunity of doing so, for Sir Edward Clarke withdrew from the case, and Lord Queensberry was acquitted by the jury finding that the charge was true, and that its publication was for the public benefit.