The old Yorkshire guy in the very dull recording sounds as though he says 'Ponce Street' - which would please the old Marquis of Queensberry! Wilde's grandson and great-grandson disapprove of the Richard Ellmann biography, BTW.

Last edited by Dudley Clarke (2013-09-26 06:16:35)

Random: Is that a Yorkshire accent ?

I only know Harrogate up there, the least Yorkshire town in Yorkshire...

^I thought it was the ravages of absinthe?

Ellmann suggests that it was syphilis contracted from a lady of the night at Oxford and points to the fact that he had damaged teeth from mercury treatment. However, syphilis does often involve a more protracted decline, as many of the guys in my -er- outfit - can attest.

He was a fool to go to Reading. Entirely his call. He could have got across to Paris with ease and been safe.

There's a story that that night the boat train was officially delayed at Victoria to avoid the stupid 'Wilde Scandal' which nobody higher up really wanted. He still had every chance to flee, even if that story isn't true.

But no...

Two old drama queens, Queensbury and Wilde, had to have a little queeny battle to see who could draw the most attention to themselves. Wilde won, but at such a stupid cost.

God, yes.

But just another ego-driven and misguided choice: He wanted the blond aristocratic lover he'd already fantasised and written about (It's all in Bartlett).

He just picked the wrong one.

And his ego was such that he couldn't admit the mistake and move on to a better boy.

Then, as now, a Posh Puff is/was hardly a rarity. But he couldn't allow himself to be seen as wrong.

Fool.

I am on a couch watching a chick flick with a chick ("13 going on 30") and in the last scene when Jennifer Garner tries to persuade whats his name not to get married, what's one of the books on the bookshelf in the background? Oscar Wilde by Ellmann!

It's Kismet...or something like that!