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 years, two children
had been born to him; yet instead of settling down he appeared suddenly to have
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