willingly exaggerate here; but I could easily give dozens of instances
to prove that sexual perversion is a "Jacob's Ladder" to most forms of
success in our time in London.
It seems a curious effect of the great compensatory balance of things
that a masculine rude people like the English, who love nothing so
much as adventures and warlike achievements, should allow themselves
to be steered in ordinary times by epicene aesthetes. But no one who
knows the facts will deny that these men are prodigiously influential
in London in all artistic and literary matters, and it was their
constant passionate support which lifted Oscar Wilde so quickly to
eminence.
From the beginning they fought for him. He was regarded as a leader
among them when still at Oxford. Yet his early writings show no trace
of such a prepossession; they are wholly void of offence, without even
a suggestion of coarseness, as pure indeed as his talk. Nevertheless,
as soon as his name came up among men in town, the accusation of
abnormal viciousness was either made or hinted. Everyone spoke as if
there were no doubt about his tastes, and this in spite of the
habitual reticence of Englishmen. I could not understand how the
imputation came to be so bold and universal; how so shameful a
calumny, as I regarded it, was so firmly established in men's minds.
Again and again I protested against the injustice, demanded proofs;
but was met only by shrugs and pitying glances as if my prejudice must
indeed be invincible if I needed evidence of the obvious.
I have since been assured, on what should be excellent authority, that
the evil reputation which attached to Oscar Wilde in those early years
in London was completely undeserved. I, too, must say that in the
first period of our friendship, I never noticed anything that could
give colour even to suspicion of him; but the belief in his abnormal
tastes was widespread and dated from his life in Oxford.
From about 1886-7 on, however, there was a notable change in Oscar
Wilde's manners and mode of life. He had been married a couple of
|