![]() A few years later, Wilde died, alone and flat broke. But when Douglas' family threatened to cut off his allowance if he remained with Wilde, he left. The letter is both the story of Wilde and Douglas' relationship and a merciless takedown of Douglas' character and behavior.īosie didn't see that letter for decades, however, and in an incredible twist, The Guardian reports the two men reunited after Wilde's release, living together in Naples. In the 2017 National Education Technology Plan, the Department defines openly licensed educational resources as teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under a license that permits their free use, reuse, modification, and sharing with others. As the encyclopedia Britannica reports, Wilde composed his last major literary work, the searing love letter-cum-revenge note "De Profundis" ("Out of the Depths") during his imprisonment. The City Of The Soul Alfred Bruce Douglas - Openly Licensed Educational Resources. Famous Trials notes that testimony from Douglas very likely would not have saved Wilde, but the way Douglas abandoned him cut Wilde deeply. As The Guardian notes, Lord Alfred failed to make an appearance at Wilde's trial to defend him, and generally kept his distance. In short, Bosie got Wilde into his mess, made it worse, and then did nothing to help.īut what might have been the worst part of it for Wilde was the fact that his lover had betrayed him. That was a huge mistake, as it forced the Marquess to publicly prove his accusations - which was pretty easy because, as The Guardian relates, Bosie had left incriminating letters in the pockets of suits he'd given Wilde, and because Bosie refused to testify in Wilde's defense. He could have fled and waited for the storm to blow over, but Bosie urged him to go on the offensive, and so Wilde sued the Marquess for libel. When Bosie's powerful and deeply conservative father the Marquess of Queensberry, lost patience, he went to Wilde's club and left a card for him that read, "For Oscar Wilde, posing somdomite ," essentially outing Wilde for all to see at a time when being gay was very dangerous. ![]() Besides introducing Wilde to the underground world of gay prostitutes, the two engaged in a loud and impossible-to-ignore gay relationship that soon had tongues wagging. The thing about the recently departed Sinden being the last link to Bosie reminded me of this, and more generally about the “living link” idea.Wilde's affair with Bosie changed everything. Nevertheless, I posted on a few Irish history sites to no avail (or reply) Which, when I read it, got me thinking – was he the last surviving attendee at Collins’ funeral? Probably not, as apparently 500,000 – a fifth of the population according to various sources – turned up and I guess a few among them are nearing 100 now. He was probably the last living link with the egregious Lord Alfred.Ĭharles Hughesdon received one of the classic Telegraph obits – – as evinced by the strapline “Charles Hughesdon was an amorous aviator who married a film star and crashed in the African bush during a 1930s air race”Īmongst other incidents of a packed life, we read “A notion (soon abandoned) that he might be suited to the priesthood allowed for a short spell in 1922 at a seminary near Dublin, where he attended the funeral of Michael Collins.” When Douglas eventually died, in 1945 in Hove, his funeral was attended by only two people – one of whom, according to his son, was the actor Donald Sinden, who himself died last year. He claimed afterwards that his health had been ruined for life by sleeping on a prison bed without a mattress. While there, he wrote his poetic testament, In Excelsis (cp De Profundis), but was obliged to leave it behind when he was released. Happily, Lord Alfred was found guilty of libel on this occasion and sentenced to six months in prison. Churchill’s reward was to be a houseful of furniture, to the value of £40,000. His motive, Douglas alleged, was to bring about a crash in British securities, enabling a cabal of Jewish financiers to buy them up cheaply. In its pages he accused Winston Churchill of falsely reporting that the British fleet had been defeated at Jutland. One astonishing example came in the course of his editorship of a magazine called Plain English, devoted largely to vicious anti-Jewish propaganda (blood libel, Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, etc). ![]() Wilde and Douglas by Gillman & Co, gelatin silver print, May 1893 – copyright National Portrait Gallery
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