The Brooklyn Citizen - Sunday, May 12, 1895
This report was originally published in English. Machine translations may be available in other languages.
Mrs. Oscar Wilde according to her American friends–-and she is well known to numerous fashionable people in New York––has some idea of coming to this country, at least for a time. She will probably remain here some months. Her idea is to close certain negotiations pending between her husband and certain theatrical managers and book publishers. Now that the announcement of her intention to obtain a divorce is seen to be premature, attention has been called to the sorry condition of herself and children. They are reduced to absolute beggary, and yet on this side of the Atlantic and in Australia Wilde’s books and plays are selling and running prodigiously. Two of these productions are copyrighted, yet they have been pirated unblushingly. A subscription has been started in London to help poor Mrs. Wilde. It is well known that she was devoted to the melancholy Oscar, and, in truth, looked upon herself as his protector. She spared him everything in the way of a nervous shock, and he was to her almost a sensitive plant. It is recalled here in New York that much fun was poked at him when his pet pug, "Divinity," was killed. Wilde had three of these animals, one being named "Distraction," another "Dreams," and the third "Divinity." Wilde was out walking with his wife and Divinity, when a bulldog set upon the latter. Wilde shrieked aloud and looked as if he would faint when the canines closed in mortal combat, but his wife drove the bulldog off with her parasol. The aesthete was so overcome at the shock that he would do no work for several weeks.
Mrs. Oscar Wilde, according to her American friends — and she is well known to numerous fashionable people in New York — has some idea of coming to America. Her idea is to close negotiations pending between her husband and certain theatrical managers and book publishers. Now that the announcement of her intention to obtain a divorce is seen to be premature, attention has been called to the sorry condition of herself and children. They are reduced to absolute beggary, and yet on this side of the Atlantic and in Australia Wilde's books and plays are selling and running prodigiously. Two of these productions are copyrighted, yet they have been pirated unblushingly. A subscription has been started in London to help poor Mrs. Wilde. It is well known that she was devoted to the melancholy Oscar, and, in truth, looked upon herself as his protector. She spared him everything in the way of a nervous shock, and he was to her almost a sensitive plant. It is recalled in New York that much fun was poked at him when his pet pug, Divinity, was killed. Wilde had three of these animals, one being named Distraction, another Dreams, and the third Divinity. Wilde was out walking with his wife and Divinity, when a bull dog set upon the latter. Wilde shrieked aloud and looked as if he would faint when the canines closed in mortal combat, but his wife drove the bull dog off with her parasol. The aesthete was so overcome with the shock that he would do no work for several weeks. He wrote a long letter to Charles Frohman, with whom he had important engagements, detailing the circumstances and declaring that he was in too wilted a condition for play writing.
He wrote a long letter to Charles Frohman, with whom he had important engagements detailing the circumstances and declaring that he was in too wilted a condition for play writing.