Max Markham is the author of Indigo Bird – An Erotic Novel. For more information on the author and his work, please visit Max Markham’s Section on this website.
This article is part of a series of posts about my favorite top ten gay Englishmen.
Oscar Wilde has as much claim to be regarded as an Englishman as has Freddie Mercury. As with Freddie, if domicile be the deciding factor, he passed more of his life in England than anywhere else; mainly in London, for which he had a passionate fondness. Wilde was a playwright, novelist, poet, and critic. In his lifetime he wrote nine plays, one novel and numerous poems, short stories and essays. Most are still in print. Wilde was a proponent of the Aesthetic Movement, which emphasized aesthetic values over moral or social themes. He was caricatured as “Archibald Grosvenor” in Gilbert and Sullivan’s “Aesthetic” operetta Patience.
Wilde is also regarded as an Irish writer. He was undoubtedly born in Ireland, where he lived until he had completed his studies at Trinity College, Dublin in 1874. He then, aged 20, moved to Magdalen College, Oxford, where he had won a scholarship (a demyship) and continued his studies in England until 1878. Thereafter he plunged into the London social and literary scene and rarely returned to Ireland. Wilde’s Irish roots were not deep, despite his resoundingly Irish middle names. His father, Sir William Wilde, was a distinguished Dublin eye surgeon, of Dutch descent. The family name was originally de Wilde. The de Wildes appear to have arrived in Britain and later Ireland after 1688, in the train of William of Orange, later King William III; one of the least popular monarchs in Irish history. Wilde’s mother, born Jane Francesca Elgee, claimed Italian descent, which is possible, and wrote under the pen-name of “Speranza”. She also claimed to be collaterally descended from Dante Alighieri: this seems less likely. Some of her poetry was Irish Nationalist in sentiment. The de Wildes, later Wildes, were Protestant and intermarried with the Anglo-Irish Anglican ascendancy, of which they became part; much like the ancestors of T E Lawrence.
In 1881 Wilde published his first collection of poetry, Poems, which received mixed reviews from the critics; some of whom considered that the poems were derivative to the point of plagiarism. Wilde worked as an art reviewer (1881), lectured in the United States and Canada (1882) and lived in Paris (1883). He lectured in Britain and Ireland (1883 – 1884). In May 1884 Wilde married Constance Lloyd, the granddaughter of a wealthy Cork Barrister, Horace Lloyd. They had two sons, Cyril and Vyvyan. To support his family Wilde accepted the post of editor of Woman’s World magazine, where he worked from 1887 to 1889.
In 1888 Wilde published The Happy Prince and Other Tales; fairy-stories written for his two sons. These short stories were a success and are still in print. His first and only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, was published in 1891 and received quite a negative response. This had much to do with the novel’s homoerotic overtones, which caused a sensation amongst Victorian critics. The bad reviews also however ensured brisk sales of the novel; a succes de scandale. The media’s reaction should have been a warning to Wilde but, arrogant and cocksure, he took no warning. In any case Dorian Gray has remained in print, has been dramatised and made into a film several times.
Shortly after this, Wilde discovered his true vocation. His greatest talent was for writing plays. Not tragedy; he had already and unsuccessfully tried his hand at this, but comedy in the vein of Sheridan, and satire. His first successful play, Lady Windermere’s Fan, opened in February 1892. He then produced a string of popular comedies, including A Woman of No Importance (1893), An Ideal Husband (1895), and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895). All of these plays are still frequently performed and most have been filmed. At the time they were highly acclaimed and established Wilde as a major playwright. There were two immediate results: Wilde became affluent for the first time in his life. He also became a celebrity, in demand as a dinner and house-party guest by everyone who was anyone, up to and including the Prince of Wales, for his brilliant conversation. It seemed that all he had to do was to continue to delight the public with his wit, and to outlive Queen Victoria. At that point, as King Edward VII’s favourite playwright, he would no doubt become Sir Oscar and part of the British literary establishment. He might even become Poet Laureate; much less distinguished people had done so, and the post was to remain vacant for some time after Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s death in 1892.
At what point Wilde became consciously gay is not certain. He had always been flamboyant in dress and manner. By the 1890s he was a fully-fledged dandy, patronising the same tailors and hairdresser as the Prince of Wales. He had always been capable of deep male friendships, which was regarded as normal in the nineteenth century; at least until 1895. He was, equally, capable of responding to attractive women; especially witty and clever ones. Prior to his marriage he had briefly been engaged to an Anglo-Irish beauty, Florence Balcombe, who later became Mrs Bram Stoker. He seems to have had flirtations, and perhaps affairs, with pretty actresses: Mrs Wilde certainly suspected as much. He had had a very public crush on the beautiful Lillie Langtry, “the Jersey Lily” and the Prince of Wales’s mistress. Lillie, while willing to be amused by Wilde’s coruscating wit, had no intention of conducting a romance with him.
Buoyed on his new-found wealth and popularity, Wilde spent less and less time at home and more time in London literary and cafe society. He became less and less discreet. His first male lover may have been Robbie Ross (1869 – 1918), a Canadian journalist and art critic. Ross is best known as the executor of Wilde’s literary estate. There were others, ranging from telegraph boys to members of the nobility. In 1891 Wilde began an affair with Lord Alfred Douglas, nicknamed ‘Bosie’, who became both the love of his life and his downfall. Douglas seems to have closely resembled the handsome, destructive Dorian Gary. The novel was however prophetic; not based on Lord Alfred. It was written and published before Wilde had met Douglas. The pair behaved with great lack of circumspection: indiscretions scored for the attention of the percussionist and timpanist. Lord Alfred’s father, the Marquis of Queensberry, a violent and dangerous psychopath, increasingly resented Wilde’s intimacy with his son, which was becoming the talk of London. In April 1895 Wilde sued Queensberry for libel: the Marquis had accused him of homosexuality. Wilde’s suit was unsuccessful: he was bankrupted by the legal costs. He was soon arrested and tried by a criminal court for gross indecency; not with Douglas, whose identity was protected, but with male prostitutes and other members of the lower orders, who had been persuaded by Queensberry to turn Queen’s evidence. Wilde was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment with hard labour. During his time in prison he wrote De Profundis, which was addressed to Lord Alfred. Wilde’s period in prison ruined his health. He wrote very little after his release.
Upon his release in 1897, Wilde wrote The Ballad of Reading Gaol, revealing his concern for inhumane prison conditions. He spent the rest of his life wandering Europe, staying with friends and living in cheap hotels. He died of cerebral meningitis on November 30, 1900, penniless, in a cheap Paris hotel. He is buried in Pere Lachaise cemetery, Paris.
Wilde and Douglas, by their indiscretions and provocative behaviour, were the main authors of the tragedy, which involved many other people, including Mrs Wilde (who sued for divorce and died soon afterwards); Wilde’s two sons, who were traumatised; and the other members of the Douglas family, as well as many of their friends. Mrs Wilde and her sons changed their surname to Holland, which is still borne by Wilde’s surviving descendants. They even changed their coat of arms. It was the start of a period of official persecution of gay men, which lasted until the 1960s; much later, in the case of members of the armed forces and certain other special categories. To the last moment Wilde seems to have enjoyed a delusory feeling of immunity: he was too important and well-connected for the mud to stick; he had only to appear in court and brilliantly ridicule the prosecution, to win the case. That is not what happened. Yet there had been another notorious case, only six years earlier, which should have sounded a warning.
The Cleveland Street scandal had occurred in 1889, when police discovered a homosexual male brothel in Cleveland Street, London. Sexual acts of any kind between men were illegal in Britain under the recent Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1885; the brothel’s clients faced both prosecution and social ostracism. Rumour suggested that one client might have been Prince Albert Victor, the elder son of the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII) and the elder brother of future King George V. There is no reliable evidence that he ever went near Cleveland Street, but the rumours continue to the present day. Another client was Lord Arthur Somerset, an equerry to the Prince of Wales. There seems little doubt that he was guilty as alleged. He and the brothel keeper, Charles Hammond, fled abroad before a prosecution could be brought. The Prince of Wales probably helped them; he certainly arranged later that his friend “Podge” Somerset should be allowed to revisit England secretly, to see his sick elderly mother, without fear of prosecution. In the event no Cleveland Street clients were ever prosecuted. The male prostitutes were given light sentences. After the Earl of Euston was named in the Press as a client, he successfully sued for libel. He may or may not have been guilty. The Government was accused of covering up the scandal to protect aristocratic patrons. The scandal fuelled the perception, particularly in the Press and Parliament, that male homosexuality was an aristocratic vice that corrupted lower-class youths. Such perceptions were still prevalent in 1895 when Lord Queensberry accused Oscar Wilde of being an active homosexual. Even if Wilde had not been a patron of the house on Cleveland Street, he could hardly have been ignorant of the prurient media hysteria that the case had provoked. Yet he did nothing to minimise the danger of a fresh scandal, of which he would be the leading figure.
It has often been alleged that “the British establishment was determined to destroy Wilde”. The evidence does not support this. After all, they adored his plays. The Marquis of Queensberry; brawler, aggressive atheist and secularist, whose public feuds were conducted against such luminaries as Tennyson (the Poet Laureate) and the bench of Bishops, as well as Oscar Wilde, was not an establishment figure. By contrast the chief Bow Street Magistrate, at the heart of the establishment , kept a policeman waiting for many hours before he signed the warrant for Wilde’s arrest. He only did so when he had been assured that the Boat Train had left Victoria Station for the continent. He devoutly hoped that Wilde would be on it. Unfortunately, he was not: Wilde had been persuaded to stay and brazen out the crisis. The political establishment hoped that Wilde would do the sensible thing and get the hell out of England, like others in a similar situation.
The British literary establishment was divided. Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, was sympathetic to Wilde. As a doctor he opined that he should have had medical (i.e. psychiatric) treatment; not been sent to prison. Jerome K Jerome, a prominent journalist and author of Three Men in a Boat, called for the reintroduction of capital punishment for homosexuals.
There was a politico-religious aspect to the Wilde scandal, as there tends to be to most episodes of gay persecution. Some influential writers, politicians and Christian moralists were concerned that the British were becoming decadent and might be less well-equipped as a result to confront the emerging threats to their position as the richest and most successful nation on earth. Resurgent Germany, noted for its military virtues and dynamic science-based culture, was one. So was the USA. Decadence, whether in art or morals, corrupting British youth, should not be tolerated. There was also a public relations aspect: undeniably the Wilde scandal damaged Britain’s image abroad. As the late Philippe Jullian put it:
“So this is how your poets behave,” said the shocked Americans, and;
“So this is how you behave to your poets,” said the cynical French.
The alarmists were not entirely wrong, although cultural decadence was not the main or only threat. Political, economic and military factors were also at work. The nineteenth century, the British century, during which the United Kingdom had enjoyed an unprecedented period of peace and prosperity, won by Nelson and Wellington, was drawing to a close. At the time of Wilde’s death the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902 was in mid-course. It would severely dent the British Army’s reputation for invincibility. The Great War of 1914-18 would end the United Kingdom’s role as a global superpower. Ruined by two world wars, by 1944 Britain would be bankrupt. Oscar Wilde’s literary reputation is however still intact. His homosexuality, while interesting, is no longer important. We still enjoy his plays.
The Indigo Bird
An Erotic Novel by Max Markham
James Graveney, a young Major in a respectable regiment, is outwardly conventional. In private James is bisexual, with a strong urge for his own sex. Gay sex, however, is illegal in the Army, so he is discreet about this.
James’ world is turned upside-down when he meets Lieutenant Richard Finch. Richard is intelligent, charismatic and exceptionally handsome. He doesn’t mess around. He gets what he wants, and is completely unscrupulous about how he gets it. Richard will stop at nothing to achieve this, including Machiavellian deception and a cunning and brutal murder. James starts responding to Richard, cautiously at first, then gets swept along on the great love affair of his life.
The Indigo Bird is a rollercoaster of surprises set against backdrops varying from the jungles of Belize to London, the English countryside, and Ireland, and the scene is set for more shocks and adventures. [Read more...]
The Indigo Bird is available through Amazon.Com, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords.com, Amazon Kindle US, Amazon Kindle UK, and any other good bookstore.
