The Pall Mall Gazette - Wednesday, April 3, 1895

OSCAR WILDE LIBEL CASE.
TRIAL AT THE OLD BAILEY.
LORD QUEENSBERRY IN THE DOCK.
PLEA OF JUSTIFICATION.

Mr. Oscar Wilde came down to the Old Bailey this morning to prosecute the Marquis of Queensberry for criminal libel. The Marquis was already on the spot prepared to do his best to justify that criminal libel. Mr. Justice Henn Collins took his seat punctually at 10.30. Sir Edward Clarke, Q.C., Mr. Charles Mathews, and Mr. Travers Humphreys (instructed by Mr. C. 0. Humphreys) were for Mr. Wilde; Mr. Carson, Q.C., Mr. C. F. Gill, and Mr. A. Gill (instructed by Mr. Charles Russell) were for the Marquis; and Mr. Besley, Q.C., and Mr. Monckton held watching briefs at the instance of Lord Douglas of Hawick. The Marquis wore a Cambridge blue hunting-stock instead of a collar and tie, and until his name was called as the signal for his surrender he stood a yard or two away from where Mr. Wilde sat at the solicitors table. There was none of that tendency to flippancy on Mr. Wilde's part which some thought they detected at the police-court. He was intensely grave, and his first request was that a glass of water might be placed in front of him, and passed on to him in the witness-box. The consultations Mr. Charles Russell had with Inspector Littlechild, indicated that it was he who was the private detective who had had charge of some evidence involved by the plea of justification. The Marquis went into the dock, heard the indictment charging him with libelling Mr. Wilde on a card (the other letters mentioned at the police-court were not referred to), and pleaded justification. Sir Edward Clarke was at once on his feet to open the trial. He said that Mr. Wilde was a person who had borne a high reputation in this country. The card which Lord Queensberry left at Mr. Wilde's club charged him with "posing as"

A CRIMINAL OF A PARTICULARLY ODIOUS DESCRIPTION.

It did not make any accusation of the gravest of all offences. The words "posing as" appeared to suggest there was no guilt of the actual offence. The plea of justification gave particulars of matters which the defendant alleged to be true. There was no allegation in the plea that Mr. Wilde had been guilty of the gravest offence, but a series of accusations were made, mentioning many persons, and it was said with regard to all these persons, that Mr. Wilde had solicited them to commit with him a grave offence, and that he had been guilty with each and all of them of criminal practices. These charges covered a considerable period of time. Mr. Oscar Wilde was the son of Sir William Wilde, a notable Irishman. He had had a brilliant University career, and in 1884 he had had the good fortune to marry the daughter of the late Horace Lloyd, Q.C. He had ever since lived in Tite-street, where with his wife and two sons he had received his various friends, including Lord Alfred Douglas, Lady Queensberry, the wife of the defendant, until she obtained release from him by reason of his conduct, and the sons of the Douglas family. On more than one occasion Lord Alfred Douglas had been the guest of Mr. and Mrs. Wilde--at Tite-street, at Cromer, at Goring, and at Worthing among other places. In November, 1892, Mr. Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas were lunching together at the CafÈ Royal, and Lord Queensberry entered. Mr. Wilde knew that, owing to unhappy family matters with which he (Mr. Wilde) had nothing to do, there was a strained feeling between father and son, and Mr. Wilde suggested to Lord Alfred Douglas that this was a good opportunity for a reconciliation. Lord Alfred went and spoke to his father; introduced Mr. Wilde, and the three lunched together. It was in 1893 that Mr. Wilde first heard that

HIS CHARACTER WAS BEING IMPUGNED.

He did not mean by Lord Queensberry, but there was a man named Wood, whom Mr. Wilde had once or twice seen, but of whom Mr. Wilde knew very little. This man had been given some clothes by Lord Alfred Douglas, and he said he had found in the pocket of a coat thus given him four letters written by Mr. Wilde to Lord Alfred Douglas. Whether those letters were found in the pocket as stated or stolen they could only speculate at present; but Wood took those letters to Mr. Wilde, said he was very anxious to go to America, and obtained from Mr. Wilde £15 or £20 to pay his passage to America. Wood handed over three very ordinary letters, but apparently kept a fourth back. After this, through Mr. Beerbohm Tree, to whom it was anonymously sent, Mr. Wilde got a copy of the fourth letter. A man named Allen next brought the original of the fourth letter, and wanted to sell it to Mr. Wilde; but Mr. Wilde refused, saying, "I now have a copy. The original is of no use. I look upon it as a work of art. Now you have sent me a copy, I don't want the original." He gave Allen a sovereign, and sent him away with the original ; and to a man named Clyburn, who next came and returned Mr. Wilde the original,--he gave another sovereign for his trouble. Mr. Wilde was certainly sensitive over the circumstance that this letter was supposed to be of an incriminating character. He (Mr. Wilde) regarded it himself as a " prose sonnet; " and, indeed, since then, in May, 1893, it had appeared in sonnet form in the Spirit Lamp, an aesthetic magazine edited by Lord Alfred Douglas. It was a French poem, this sonnet, and was described in the magazine as "a letter written in prose as poetry by Mr. Oscar Wilde to a friend, and translated into rhymed poetry by

"A POET OF NO IMPORTANCE";

and the poem was a paraphrase of the letter itself. The letter, of which he now held in his hand the original, was (said Sir Edward) as follows, being written from Torquay: "My own Dear Boy,-Your sonnet is quite lovely, and it is a marvel that those red roseleaf lips of yours should be made no less for music of song than for madness of kissing. 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 and 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, said Sir Edward, might seem extravagant to those who were in the habit of writing commercial correspondence--(Great laughter, in which Mr. Oscar Wilde joined)--but it was mere poetry, and not indicative of crime, maintained Sir Edward in effect. The next incident to which Sir Edward came was the first night of "The Importance of Being Earnest" at St. James's Theatre. The Marquis of Queensberry went to the theatre with a bouquet of vegetables--(laughter)--but was kept out of the theatre. This would not have been the first theatre disturbance the Marquis had made, and, indeed, the jury would, he believed, have grave reason to doubt whether the Marquis was always responsible for his actions. Mr. Oscar Wilde could have proceeded earlier against the Marquis for criminal libel, but to do so he would have involved other people and other members of the Douglas family in the trial, and that he would never do. The first letter written directly to him by the Marquis of Queensberry was the letter upon which he now proceeded. There were added to the plea of justification two curious statements. It was set out that Mr. Wilde in July, 1890, wrote and published a certain immoral and obscene work in the form of a narrative entitled

"THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GREY,"

which said work was designed by Mr. Wilde, and it was also set out that in December, 1894, was published a certain other immoral and obscene work in the form of a magazine entitled The Chameleon, which contained divers obscene matters, and that he was joined in procuring the publication of that magazine, and that he contributed thereto "certain immoral maxims" as an introduction to the same under the title of "Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young. This magazine, which was limited to a hundred copies, was published by Messrs. Gay and Bird, and Mr. Wilde, at the request of the editor, a young Oxford man, did contribute to it. But he saw therein a contribution entitled "The Priest and the Acolyte," a contribution which was a disgrace to literature, rendering it amazing that anyone could write it, and still more amazing that any decent publishers should allow it to be issued under their names. Directly Mr. Oscar Wilde saw that, he wrote to the editor, and it was upon Mr. Wilde's insistence that the editor withdrew the issue of the magazine as far as possible. With regard to " The Picture of Dorian Grey," it had been on sale for five years, with Mr. Wilde's name on its title- page. It was the story of a young man of good birth, of great wealth, of much personal beauty, whose friend, a distinguished painter, paints a portrait of him, and represents him in all the brightness and brilliance of his youthful beauty. Certainly the vices in which this youth eventually indulges were hinted at, but he (Sir Edward) should be surprised if his learned friend could point to any passage which did more than describe, as novelists and dramatists must, the passions and vices of the life which they might desire to reproduce in a work of art. The mere inclusion of these two matters in the plea of justification suggested that those who appeared for the Marquis had a second string to their bow, because they realized how little they could depend upon the other part of the plea.

After formal proof of the publication of the libel, Mr. Oscar Wilde was called and examined by Sir E. Clarke. He lounged over the rail of the witness stand in graceful pose, and clasped his hands in front of him upon the gloves he held. He said it was in 1891 he made the acquaintance of Lord Alfred Douglas, who called on him with a friend.