New Zealand Herald - Monday, April 8, 1895

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

The Wilde-Queensberry libel case has had a sensational termination. The plaintiff's counsel withdrew from the case on the grounds, apparently, that he could not defend his client against the serious charges of immorality which the other side had brought forward; the jury returned a verdict for the defendant, amid the cheers of a crowded Court, holding that the letters he had written to the plaintiff, and on which the action was based, were in the interests of public morality; and lastly, a warrant was issued against Oscar Wilde, who was arrested, and who will now be prosecuted on one of the most odious and degrading charges of which a man can be guilty. It is a complete and terrible turning of the tables. But yesterday Oscar Wilde was regarded as the apostle of culture and nineteenth century aestheticism; to-day he stands accused of bestial and unnameable practices. Wilde was born in 1856, his father being Sir William R. Wills Wilde, M.D., surgeon-oculist to Her Majesty, and man of letters, while his mother, Lady Wilde, is known as a poetess of no mean ability. He was educated at Portora Royal School;, Enniskillen, afterwards proceeding to Trinity College, Dublin, of which he was a Scholar, and, on obtaining the Berkeley gold medal for Greek, he went to Oxford in 1874. He obtained first Demyship at Magdalen College; a First-class in Moderations, 1876, and a First-class in Greats, and the Newdigate prize for English poetry 1878. He went to London the following year and was the originator of the Aesthetic movement. He published a volume of poems in 1880, and in 1881 he proceeded to Merica where he delivered over 200 lectures on Art. His drama of "Vera" was produced in New York in 1882; "The Happy Prince and other Fairy Tales" was published in 1888. He is also the author of "Dorian Gray"; "The Duchess of Padua," a five-act tragedy produced at the Star Theatre, London, in 1892; "Salome," a play written in French for Sara Bernhardt; "A Woman of No Importance," a comedy produced at the Haymarket Theatre in 1893; and a farcical piece titled "The Importance of being Earnest," which was produced at the St. James's Theatre, London, last February. He has also contributed many clever articles to the leading magazines. In 1884 he married Constance, daughter of Mr. Horace Lloyd, Q.C., and has a son and daughter aged respectively 10 and 9 years.