February 14: On this day in 1895, Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest opened in London. Wilde called his
play a "Trivial Comedy for Serious People," and the opening night
reviewers concurred: "There is no discordant note of seriousness. It is of
nonsense all compact, and better nonsense, I think, our stage has not
seen." The opening night audience expected their applause to bring the
author out for a curtain call. When an actor went backstage to ask Wilde if he
would oblige, he demurred: "I don't think I shall take a call tonight. You
see, I took one only last month at Haymarket, and one feels so much like a
German band."
But Wilde's reluctance to
step on stage is linked to larger, darker events. Having heard that his
eventual nemesis, the Marquess of Queensbury, planned to publicly confront him
on opening night, Wilde had arranged to have Queensbury's ticket withdrawn, but
he was not going to offer himself onstage, just in case. In notes to his son,
Lord Alfred Douglas, Queensbury had made clear his belief that, personally and
symbolically, Wilde was fair game: "…I should be quite justified in
shooting him at sight. These christian English cowards and men, as they call
themselves, want waking up." Denied access to the opening, and incensed
that it was on Valentine's Day, Queensbury left a "phallic bouquet"
of carrots and turnips for Wilde backstage. Three days later he appeared at
Wilde's Albemarle Club with a witness and a calling card inscribed, "To
Oscar Wilde posing Somdomite [sic]."
These public insults, the
desire of Lord Douglas to spar with his father in public, and Wilde's naive understanding
of the British legal system quickly led to disaster. His last, tail-spin years
ended in one of the cheapest, un-Oscar hotels in Paris, somewhat as predicted
in his play:
JACK: Poor Ernest! He had
some many faults, but it is a sad, sad blow.
CHASUBLE: Very sad indeed.
Were you with him at the end?
JACK: No. He died abroad;
in Paris, in fact. I had a telegram last night from the manager of the Grand Hotel.
CHASUBLE: Was the cause of
death mentioned?
JACK: A severe chill, it
seems.
MISS PRISM: As a man sows,
so shall he reap.
Daybook is contributed by Steve King, who teaches in the English Department of Memorial University in St. John's, Newfoundland. His literary daybook began as a radio series syndicated nationally in Canada. He can be found online at todayinliterature.com.
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