Who was Oscar Wilde?
Dramatist and Poet.
Date and Place of Birth:
16th October 1854, 21 Westland Row, Dublin, Ireland.
Family Background:
Second Son of William Robert Wills Wilde, Ireland’s
leading eye and ear surgeon. Besides medical texts his father was
well known for works on Celtic and Irish history. His mother, Jane,
was a revolutionary poet and writer under the pen name of “Speranza”.
Education:
Tutored at home until the age of ten. Then Portora
Royal School, Enniskillen. Scholarship to Trinity College, Dublin.
Then five years studying classics at Magdalen College, Oxford.
Chronology/Biography of Oscar Wilde:
1852: 26th
September. Brother William Born.
1857: Sister Isola
Emily Francesca is born.
1874: At Oxford
University he is influenced by John Ruskin,
Slade Professor of Fine Arts and Walter Pater, one of Oxford’s leading
members of the “Aesthete Movement”.
1875: Hears the
catholic convert Cardinal Manning preach at the dedication service
at St. Alysius Church, Oxford.
1876: 19th April.
His father dies of overwork. Accepted into the University’s Freemason
Lodge. Apollo Rose-Croix.
1877: Visits Athens
with his former Trinity College tutor the reverend J.P. Mahaffy.
16th November. Called to the Vice Chancellor’s Court
to pay an overdue tailor’s bill.
1881: Approached
by Richard D’Oyly Carte to make a lecture tour of the U.S.A. 23rd
April. Gilbert and Sullivan’s
“Patience” satirising Wilde and the ”Aesthete Movement” opens in
London. 24th December. Sets sail on the SS Arizona.
1882: 2nd January
Arrives in New York. Meets US actress Mary Anderson to discuss staging
his blank verse play “The Duchess of Padua”. 27th December.
Sets sail for England at the end of his American Tour.
1883: Constance
Lloyd attends Oscar’s first lecture on “The House Beautiful” in
Dublin. Goes to Liverpool to greet the actress Lillie Langtrey on
her return form the US. Finishes “The Duchess of Padua” rejected
by Mary Anderson.
1884: 6th May. Leaves
Paris to join “Bosie” in Florence. Embarks on a British lecture
tour on the general subject of “Beauty, Taste and Ugliness in Dress”.
Sends his wife a love letter from Edinburgh in December.
1885: 11th April.
Poem “Harlot’s House” first appears in “The Dramatic Review”.
1886: 25th November
Second child Vyvyan is born.
1888: Constance
Wilde gives a lecture on the subject “Dress”.
1891: Meets the
writers Andre Gide and Emile Zola in Paris. 26th January.
“The Duchess of Padua” is staged at the Broadway Theatre New York
under the title “Guido Ferranti.”
1892: 20th February.
“Lady Windermere’s Fan” is first produced at the “St. James’s Theatre,
London. 29th July. Lady Windermere’s Fan” ends its run at the St.
James’s Theatre, London prior to a tour of the provinces.
1894: Visits Paris
to avoid further confrontation with the Marquess of Queensbury.
1895: 3rd January.
“An Ideal Husband” opens at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket, London.
18th January. Travels with “Bosie” (Lord Alfred Douglas) the son
of the Marquess of Queensbury, whom he has fallen love with to Algiers
for a holiday. 14th February. “The Importance of Being Earnest”
opens at St. James’s Theatre, London produced by George Alexander.
28th February. Wilde receives Queensbury’s libellous note at his
London Club the Albermarle, entitled “For Oscar Wilde posing Sodomite”.
1st. March. Goes to Marlborough Street Police Station
to report receipt of the Queensbury’s note. 3rd April. Marquess
of Queensbury’s trial for criminal libel opens at the Old Bailey
Court, London. 24th April. Wilde’s possessions are sold by auction
at his home in Tite Street to pay for the trial. 20th May. After
his first trial ends with a hung jury, Wilde’s re-trial opens. After
loosing the case he is arrested at the Cadogan Hotel. 25th May.
Convicted of Gross Indecency and sentences to two years hard labour.
30th May. “The Soul of Man under Socialism” is published by Arthur
Humphreys, Manager of Hatchards Bookshop. 4th July. Moved from Pentonville
Prison to Wandsworth Prison. 20th November. Transferred to Reading
Gaol.
Monument to Oscar WIlde near St Martins in the Fields Church,
London
(© Anthony Blagg)
1896: 3rd February.
His mother Jane dies. 11th February. Sarah Bernhardt produces Salome
at the Theatre de l’Oeuvre in Paris after it is banned in England
due to its biblical theme. Petitions the Home Secretary about a
reduction in his sentence but receives no reply.
1897: 19th May.
Released from Reading Gaol early in the morning and travels on the
night boat from Newhaven to Dieppe. Arrives at at Dawn and is met
by two close friends Robert Ross and Reggie Turner. 28th August
Re-united with “Bosie” at the Hotel de la Poste in Rouen, France.
29th September. Constance writes from Genoa forbidding Oscar to
visit her and the children after hearing of his re-union with “Bosie”.
1898: 7th April.
Constance dies after an operation on her spine.
1899: 13th March.
His brother Willie dies.
Written Works:
- 1881:
“Poems”.
- 1883:
“Vera, or the Nihilists”.
- 1887:
“The Canterville Ghost.”.
- 1888:
“The Happy Prince and other Tales”.
- 1892:
“Lady Windermere's Fan”.
- 1891:
“A House of Pomegranates”. “Intentions”. “Lord Arthur Saville's
Crime”. “The Picture of Dorian Gray”. “The Duchess of Padua”.
- 1893:
"A Woman of No Importance".
- 1895:
“An Ideal Husband”. “The Importance of Being Earnest.”
- 1898:
"The Ballad of Reading Gaol."
- (1905):
“De Profundis”.
Marriage:
29th May 1884 to Constance Mary Lloyd
at St. James Church, Sussex Gardens, Paddington, London.
Places of Interest:
LONDON:
The British Library, St. Pancras.
Date and Place of Death:
30th November 1900, Hotel d’Alsace, 13 Rue des
Beaux Arts, Paris, France of cerebral meningitis after an operation
for an ear infection.
Age at Death:
46.
Site of Grave:
Originally given a Sixth Class burial in Bagneux
Cemetery, Paris. Transferred to Le Pere Lachaise Cemetery, Paris
in 1909. His tomb is sculpted by Sir Jacob Epstein.
Further Information:
Oscar Wilde Society
c/o Vannesa Harris
100 Peacock Street
Gravesend
Kent
DA12 1ER
