Table Talk - Friday, May 17, 1895
This report was originally published in English. Machine translations may be available in other languages.
On and Off the Stage.
OSCAR Wilde was in Paris just before the crash came, befêted and befooled to the top of his bent. He had a dozen clever things to say on every possible occasion, as for example, the other night at a dinner: "Good women are always fat, aren't they? They had a fat girl to play the part of my Lady Windermere in London, you know, but they couldn't have let her play the adventuress. The adventuress must be long and lean, mustn't she?" This addressed to the longest, leanest, haziest woman with-a-career in all Paris. A few moments later the following dialogue was overheard between him and his right-hand neighbour:
Madame - I shall have to confess I read Sheriden's plays before I saw yours, Mr. Wilde.
Oscar - Oh, yes; one must read the Old
Testament before he comes to the New.