Letters shed light on Oscar Wilde trial

Letters shed light on Oscar Wilde trial

JANE BARTON

A stunning cache of letters recently discovered in Sydney’s Mitchell Library has cast new light on the circumstances surrounding playwright Oscar Wilde’s criminal trial and imprisonment in London in 1895.

Wilde, his lover Lord Alfred Douglas, aka Bosie (pictured, right in inset, with unnamed companion), and Maurice Schwabe probably met at Oxford. These young men from wealthy, upper class backgrounds scandalised London society by openly consorting with rent boys. This eventually resulted in Wilde being on put trial, found guilty and sentenced to two years hard labour which contributed to his early death.

Schwabe is thought to have introduced Douglas and Wilde to the rent boy scene, thus proving a pivotal player in Wilde’s trial. He was sent away by his wealthy society family to Sydney, the letters reveal.

Two letters dated 1893, written by Douglas to Schwabe, reveal details of Bosie’s passionate affair with Schwabe. In a third letter, Schwabe’s mother begged her son to make the most of his fresh start, but said, “I fear that you have again fallen in with bad companions in Sydney”.

The letters are important cultural documents revealing frank language between two young men in love. Douglas referred to himself as Schwabe’s “loving boy-wife, or your ‘little bitch’ if you prefer it”.

Douglas also made casual references to Wilde being blackmailed by Alfred Wood, who he called the “worst blackguard of all the renters in London”. Wood would later give evidence against Wilde in the 1895 trial.

“He [Wood] is trying to rent [blackmail] Oscar with two letters which Oscar had written to me, and which AW stole from my pocket when I took him to Oxford,” Douglas wrote in one letter.

Mitchell Library cultural historian Margot Reilly stumbled on the treasure while preparing for a history talk about gay meeting places for Mardi Gras’ Queer Thinking Day 2011.

She said the library had recently re-classified the letters which meant a broad search under the term ‘homosexual’ identified their content. The three letters were found in the library’s vault. They had been donated in 1919 by a detective who, Reilly surmised, was involved in keeping Schwabe and other ‘Oscar Wildes of Sydney’ under surveillance.

The letters and some photographs are on public display in the entrance of the Mitchell Library until April 18.

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One response to “Letters shed light on Oscar Wilde trial”

  1. Very interesting. It’s amazing what we find out years after from these historical documents.