Dandy and Dandyism

Dandy and Dandyism

The trial of Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde was involved in a homosexual relationship with Lord Alfred Douglas.

Douglas was the son of the Marquess of Queensbury – the man who provided the rules for professional boxing. The Marquess was outraged that Wilde would lead his son ‘astray’ and became determined to ruin the world famous playwright. He had originally planned to ruin the opening of The Importance of Being Earnest but Wilde got to hear of this and Queensbury was banned from attending. Instead he decided to leave a calling card on the notice board at Wilde’s gentleman’s club. It read, “ To Oscar Wilde, posing somdomite.” Wilde swore out a warrant for arrest of the Marquess of Queensbury on the charge of libel.

The result of all of this was a trial. The Marquess of Queensbury was represented by Edward Carson. Carson set out to prove that Oscar Wilde was, in fact, a homosexual and therefore that his client was not guilty of libel. Carson soon came up with the names of ten boys who Wilde had allegedly solicited for sex. He also obtained letters that Wilde had written to Douglas, revealing his feelings towards the Marquess’ son.

On the first day of the trial, Wilde attempted to have the proceedings overshadowed by his quick wit. But, over time, the dogged attacks by Carson wore him down. His humour was wearing thin. At one point the forty year old Wilde remarked to Carson, “You sting me and insult me and try to unnerve me; and at times one says things flippantly when one ought to speak more seriously.” When the trial concluded it was obvious that Queensbury had not committed an act of libel – Oscar Wilde was a homosexual. And so it was. The judge completely exonerated Queensbury, going further to actually state that he had been justified in calling Wilde a sodomite in public. Wilde’s friends urged him to get out of the country to avoid arrest on what was then the crime of homosexuality. Wilde’s pride, however, would not allow him to flee. He awaited arrest at the Cadogen hotel, confident that he could win. Yet, on the 5th of April the police did, indeed, arrive to arrest the world’s most famous playwright.

Wilde now faced a second trial to prove the charge of homosexuality. Now the truly lurid stuff started to come out. Hotel cleaners were called in to testify. Clerks told about the different male bed partners Wilde had been seen sharing rooms with. Despite this evidence the jury could not reach a decision. A second trial was ordered. Wilde was released on 5000 pounds bail on May 7th.

The second trial began on May 22. This time the jury was unanimous. Oscar Wilde was found guilty and sentenced to two years of hard labor at Pentonville Prison. At Pentonville Wilde found the going tough, almost unbearable. He was required to walk a treadmill for six hours each day. He became increasingly morose and unkempt. Jail officials feared that he was suicidal. Finally he was moved to Reading Jail. On May 18, 1897 he was released. But he was a broken man. Two and a half years after his release, on November 30, 1900 Oscar Wilde died while exiled in France. He was 46 years of age.

Famous words from Wilde’s discourse: "'The Love that dare not speak its name' in this century is such a great affection of an elder for a younger man as there was between David and Jonathan, such as Plato made the very basis of his philosophy, and such as you find in the sonnets of Michelangelo and Shakespeare. It is that deep, spiritual affection that is as pure as it is perfect. It dictates and pervades great works of art like those of Shakespeare and Michelangelo, and those two letters of mine, such as they are. It is in this century misunderstood, so much misunderstood that it may be described as the "Love that dare not speak its name," and on account of it I am placed where I am now. It is beautiful, it is fine, it is the noblest form of affection. There is nothing unnatural about it. It is intellectual, and it repeatedly exists between an elder and a younger man, when the elder man has intellect, and the younger man has all the joy, hope and glamour of life before him.”

The Picture of Dorian Gray

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Read the 1st and 2nd chapter.

À rebours by J.K.Huysmans

À rebours (translated into English as "Against the Grain" or "Against Nature") (1884) is a novel written by the French novelist Joris-Karl Huysmans.

It is a novel in which very little happens; its narrative concentrates almost entirely on its principal character, and is mostly a catalogue of the tastes and inner life of Jean Des Esseintes, an eccentric, reclusive aesthete and antihero, who loathes 19th century bourgeois society and tries to retreat into an ideal artistic world of his own creation.

À rebours contained many themes which became associated with the Symbolist aesthetic. In doing so, it broke from naturalism and became the ultimate example of "decadent" literature.

(from Wikipiedia)

J. K. Huysmans, an important figure in the Aesthetic and Decadent movements, exemplified a style of homosexuality at a pivotal moment in the emergence of a gay identity.

He was born Charles-Marie-Georges Huysmans on February 5, 1848, in Paris, the only child of a French mother and Dutch father. He earned his degree under a private tutor, studied law at the University of Paris, and worked as a civil servant in the Ministry of the Interior, where he remained for thirty-two years.
A cosmopolitan man of refined taste and sensibility, Huysmans admired the descriptive writing of Charles Dickens, but practiced a poetic novel, a form known in France as the prose poem. This genre, which typically emphasized sensation and an elaborate or exotic setting, was perfectly suited to his elegant style and rich vocabulary.

Victorian Art

Next lesson will be on The Nude in Victorian Art.
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