Oscar Wilde. Leonard Cresswell Ingleby
"
1906
| January | 3, | p. | 18. | Our Booking-Office. (R. H. Sherard's "Twenty Years in Paris.") |
This list at least spells, and spelt, celebrity and a recognition of the importance of the Æsthetic movement.
Especially did the American lecturing tour of Oscar Wilde excite the comment and ridicule of Punch.
I quote some paragraphs from a pretended despatch from an "American correspondent."
A POET'S DAY
(From an American Correspondent)
| Oscar at Breakfast! | Oscar at Luncheon!! |
| Oscar at Dinner!!! | Oscar at Supper!!!! |
"You see I am, after all, but mortal," remarked the Poet, with an ineffable affable smile, as he looked up from an elegant but substantial dish of ham and eggs. Passing a long, willowy hand through his waving hair, he swept away a stray curl-paper with the nonchalance of a D'orsay.
After this effort, Mr. Wilde expressed himself as feeling somewhat faint; and, with a half-apologetic smile, ordered another portion of
HAM AND EGGS
in the evident enjoyment of which, after a brief interchange of international courtesies, I left the Poet.
The irresponsible but not ungenial and quite legitimate fun of this is a fairly representative indication of the way in which the young "Apostle of Beauty" was thought of in England during his American visit.
The writer goes on to tell how, later in the day, he once more encountered the "young patron of Culture." It is astonishing to us now to realise how even the word "culture" was distorted from its real meaning and made into the badge of a certain set. At anyrate, Mr. Punch's contributor goes on to say that "Oscar" was found at the business premises of the
CO-OPERATIVE DRESS ASSOCIATION.
On this occasion the Poet, by special request, appeared in the uniform of an English Officer of the Dragoon Guards, the dress, I understand, being supplied for the occasion from the elegant wardrobe of Mr. D'oyley Carte's "Patience" Company.
Several ladies expressed their disappointment at the "insufficient leanness" of the Poet's figure, whereupon his Business Manager explained that he belonged to the fleshy school.
To accommodate Mr. Wilde, the ordinary lay-figures were removed from the showroom, and, after a sumptuous luncheon, to which the élite of Miss——'s customers were invited, the distinguished guest posed with his fair hostess in an allegorical tableau, representing English Poetry extending the right hand to American Commerce.
"This is indeed Fair Trade," remarked Mr. Wilde lightly, and immediately improvised a testimonial advertisement (in verse) in praise of Miss——'s patent dress-improver.
At a dinner given by "Jemmy" Crowder (as we familiarly call him), the Apologist of Art had discarded his military garb for the ordinary dress of an
ENGLISH GENTLEMAN
in which his now world-famed knee-breeches form a conspicuous item, suggesting indeed the Admiral's uniform in Mr. D'Oyley Carte's "Pinafore" combination.
"I think," said the Poet, in a pause between courses, "one cannot dine too well"—placing everyone at his ease by his admirable tact in partaking of the thirty-six items of the menu.
The skit continues wittily enough, but it is not necessary to quote more of it. The paragraphs sufficiently explain the attitude of Mr. Punch, which was the general attitude at the time.
It was hammered in persistently. "Oscar Interviewed" appeared under the date of January 1882, and again, in the following extracts the reader will recognise the same note.
"Determined to anticipate the rabble of penny-a-liners ready to pounce upon any distinguished foreigner who approaches our shores, and eager to assist a sensitive Poet in avoiding the impertinent curiosity and ill-bred insolence of the Professional Reporter, I took the fastest pilot-boat on the station, and boarded the splendid Cunard steamer, the Boshnia, in the shucking of a peanut."
HIS ÆSTHETIC APPEARANCE
He stood, with his large hand passed through his long hair, against a high chimney-piece—which had been painted pea-green, with panels of peacock-blue pottery let in at uneven intervals—one elbow on the high ledge, the other hand on his hip. He was dressed in a long, snuff-coloured, single-breasted coat, which reached to his heels, and was relieved with a sealskin collar and cuffs rather the worse for wear. Frayed linen, and an orange silk handkerchief, gave a note to the generally artistic colouring of the ensemble, while one small daisy drooped despondently in his buttonhole. … We may state that the chimney-piece, as well as the sealskin collar, is the property of Oscar, and will appear in his Lectures "on the Growth of Artistic Taste in England."
HE SPEAKS FOR HIMSELF
"Yes; I should have been astonished had I not been interviewed! Indeed, I have not been well on board this Cunard Argosy. I have wrestled with the glaukous-haired Poseidon, and feared his ravishment. Quite: I have been too ill, too utterly ill. Exactly—seasick in fact, if I must descend to so trivial an expression. I fear the clean beauty of my strong limbs is somewhat waned. I am scarcely myself—my nerves are thrilling like throbbing violins—in exquisite pulsation.
"You are right. I believe I was the first to devote my subtle brain-chords to the worship of the Sunflower, and the apotheosis of the delicate Tea-pot. I have ever been jasmine-cradled from my youth. Eons ago, I might say centuries, in '78, when a student at Oxford, I had trampled the vintage of my babyhood, and trod the thorn-spread heights of Poesy. I had stood in the Arena and torn the bays from the expiring athletes, my competitors."
LECTURE