Dublin Evening Telegraph - Wednesday, May 1, 1895
This report was originally published in English. Machine translations may be available in other languages.
OUR London Correspondent informs us "that Pressmen who were present in court on both occasions say that anything more striking than the contrast between Oscar Wilde as he acted originally in the witness-box and as he "did yesterday could not possibly be conceived. The change was not so much in his clothes as in his appearance and demeanour. Then he looked sleek, overfed, and charmed with himself; now he looks worn, anxious, depressed, and disgusted. His style of answering was entirely changed, and plain speech gave place to epigram and paradox. He looks at least ten years older than he did a month ago, and his health looks quite broken. As a matter of fact, he was not a strong man, and it is quite likely that the privation of prison life may have serious, if not fatal, consequences in the case of a man who lived only for self-indulgence. To give Sir E Clarke his due, he made a sturdy defence, and pressed every available point to the very utmost."