Franny Moyle (23 page)

This Christianization is uncharacteristic of Oscar. It seems to contrast with the tale of self-sacrifice in ‘The Happy Prince', which is more secular in tone, suggesting a personal, sensual love between the statue and the bird. And the clear Christian message seems at odds with a man who would go on to write that, far from being moral, art is ‘useless because its aim is simply to create a mood. It is not meant to instruct, or to influence action in any way … A work of Art is useless as a flower is useless. A flower blossoms for its own joy. We gain a moment of joy by looking at it.'
¹⁸

And so, one wonders, was this last portion of the story of ‘The Selfish Giant' of Constance's invention? One of the more significant changes between the manuscript version of the story, in Constance's hand, and the final published version seems to be an attempt to tone down an overtly Christian message. In Constance's handwritten manuscript the child with the stigmata explains to the giant that his wounds were ‘done many years ago that all men might be saved'. By the time this line was published it had been rewritten, as ‘these are the wounds of love'.
¹⁹

When Oscar's
The Happy Prince and Other Tales
and Constance's
There Was Once
were published in the same year, their reputation was cemented not only as a celebrated literary couple but as a
uniquely suited one. Oscar and Constance had apparently successfully embraced the inclusion of children into the concept of artistic marriage.

‘Novels are, comparatively speaking, easy work,' explained
The Weekly Irish Times
.

But to be in sympathy with children, to know what will please them, and be capable of putting yourself sufficiently in their place … demands students of juvenile nature for the work. Mr and Mrs Oscar Wilde possess charming children of their own, and they have utilised their acquaintance with the infant world in giving to it some delightful fairy tales, which even the elders must appreciate.
The Happy Prince and Other Tales
… is one of the happiest works which Mr Oscar Wilde has ever produced; while Mrs Wilde's fairy tales, also published recently … are a charming reproduction of the old stories, familiar to our childish days.
²⁰

Constance went on working with Nister until 1895. After
There Was Once
she contributed versions of Jack and the Beanstalk to
Favourite Nursery Stories
, and
A Long Time Ago
. In Nister's
A Dandy Chair
she wrote a story called ‘The Little Swallow'.
Cosy Corner Stories
was a serial publication to which Constance contributed at least two stories across two different editions, one of which was called ‘Far Japan'.

This last is heavily reminiscent of ‘Was It a Dream?' and it is tempting to consider that it may well have been written at around the same time, even if it was published considerably later, in 1895. The story, beautifully illustrated, tells of a little girl called Isola, who on her birthday is given two gifts ‘that have come all the way from that beautiful land of flowers, Japan'. One gift is a doll with ‘almond-shaped eyes and straight black hair, dressed just like the real Japanese children in soft stuffs and gay colours. She has been told its name is Ai.' The other gift is ‘a Japanese fan – with a garden painted on it – such quaint trees with a river running through them, and over the river an arched rustic bridge'. As Isola falls asleep, she thinks how delightful it would be ‘to be a little Japanese girl and see Japan', and
sure enough she dreams that she is dressed in a kimono like Ai and in a garden just like that painted on the fan.

Isola wants to see more of Japan than the garden surrounding her, and so she sets off and crosses one of the bridges leading out of the garden. But when Isola reaches the end of the bridge, ‘there was nothing there, for she had got to the end of the fan! So down she fell with a bump, and woke to find herself safe in bed with Ai in her arms.'
²¹

If Constance's and Oscar's careers were taking somewhat similar paths, with them both writing reviews and children's stories, the overlap in their professional activity would continue. It was not long before Constance would become a contributor to her husband's magazine.

In November 1887 Oscar launched
The Woman's World
. He had altered the proposed name of the publication from ‘The Lady's World', a title both he and his feminist contributors considered far too vulgar for a magazine that ‘aims at being the organ of women of intellect, culture and position'.
²²

The magazine was a careful mixture of conventional and adventurous elements. Like other magazines, it offered its readers a mix of features, a serial story and travel articles. The inaugural issue opened with a piece about pastoral theatre from a theatre producer and friend of Whistler, Janey Sevilla Campbell. Annie Thackeray, daughter of William Makepeace, wrote a historical item about an influential lady of the past, ‘Madame de Sévigné's Grandmother'. The serial, ‘The Truth about Clement Ker', is a mirage of assumed identities, purported to be written by one Geoffrey Ker. When this was bound and sold as a novel a year later Ker was revealed to be none other than the popular author George Fleming (the pen name of Julia Constance Fletcher). An anonymous piece on ‘The Oxford Ladies' Colleges' was offered by ‘a member of one of them'. And Oscar himself offered ‘Literary and Other Notes', in which he reviewed the month's notable publications by women.

But filleted in between these perhaps more traditional items there were indeed more pioneering pieces that positioned the magazine as
liberal, if not mildly campaigning. Eveline Portsmouth offered a piece on ‘The Position of Women'. In an article that carefully navigated a path between the most advanced feminist thinking and more conventional beliefs on the role of the sexes, Countess Portsmouth noted

Marriage … is ceasing to be the only goal for girlhood. New resources are at hand and eagerly sought. Fresh possibilities are born, and in a widening horizon a wholesome and hopeful spirit is awakened. The workwomen of our large towns are those on whom all burdens fall most heavily … but they are also stirred by the movement that is passing over other women, and may soon give it great impetus. The higher class of women … are eager to use their faculties. With an increasing number a life of pleasure is losing is importance … but it is in the middle class that the greatest change has taken place: there, not only the excellent education attainable by them, but the consideration of health and enjoyment put into the scale weighs heavily … the present type of girl [is described] as altogether different to that [of] … forty years ago, owing to her finer physical and mental qualities.
²³

Constance's first article for the magazine appeared in the July issue. Here she did her bit for rational dress by looking at ‘Children's Dress in this Century'. Condemning the over-fussy, cumbersome and uncomfortable outfits that she saw children being squeezed into in the 1880s, she pointed out that the simple, loose clothes worn at the beginning of the nineteenth century had been far more ‘rational' in terms of comfort.

Compared with the ornate and convoluted writing styles of many of the other contributors, by July 1888 Constance's journalism had attained a clear, succinct and personal aspect. Her scholarly inclination is also evident in an article that she has clearly thoroughly researched.

‘At the beginning of this century the dress of English women possessed at least one merit, that of simplicity – simplicity of material, simplicity of form, simplicity of colouring,' she wrote. ‘All these three things combined to render it a most charming costume
… and the children's dress was equally simple, giving us the pretty costumes of which Kate Greenaway has made such a charming study … There is no doubt that the costume is at once light and graceful, the only drawback being that it is quite unsuited for our winter.'

Constance went on to remind her readers of the dangers of ‘our rains, our fogs, and our treacherous winds' to children, and to promote the benefits of wool as a material that should be used more in clothing in British climes.

Constance's focus on wool chimed in with the latest thinking in the health movement. At around the same time as the ‘Healtheries' was promoting healthy living and dress in London, in Stuttgart the zoologist and physiologist Dr Gustav Jaeger was developing his Sanitary Woollen System, which sought to encourage people to use wool in all domestic textiles, from their clothing to bedding. In a series of lectures in which he expounded purportedly scientific theories that wool allowed the skin to breathe properly, he encouraged people to wear wool next to their skin as a healthier alternative to vegetable-based fabrics.

Jaeger's theories, much discussed by a nation in the midst of a health debate, held sufficient appeal to encourage one entrepreneur, a grocer called Lewis Tomalin, to acquire a licence to open a clothing store in London under Jaeger's name in 1884. Within year the company had a West End branch at Oxford Circus.

Oscar is noted as having shopped at Jaeger, and it follows that Constance was a customer too. Her sons were also undoubtedly subject to the craze for wool, as per her advice to her readers: in terms of styles of uniform for little boys, she points out that ‘At present it is the Navy that is predominant, and it is a very sensible dress. The woollen under vest, the blue blouse for winter, the white one for summer, and the blue serge trousers are very good dress for a boy. He is warmly clad and his limbs are free for movement.'

Constance continues: ‘Nothing can be more charming than the rough, thick, Irish claddagh cloths and coarse flannels, with their beautiful vegetable dyes, for outdoor garments, while for indoor wear
we have the most lovely woollen materials in every range of exquisite colour.'

For girls Constance recommended ‘The Kindergarten costume introduced by the Rational Dress Society', which ‘consists of woollen combinations; woollen stays – to button, not to lace – woollen stockings kept up by suspenders fastened onto the stays; a divided skirt either buttoned on to the stays or made with a Princess bodice; and a smock-frock overall'.

Despite the appeal of Constance's journalism (her contributions were well publicized in the classified ads for
The Woman's World)
, she wrote only two pieces for Oscar, both on dress.
²⁴
This is almost certainly because, just months after Oscar took up his position as an editor, Constance also found herself at the helm of a publication.

Throughout 1887 Constance's involvement in the Rational Dress movement had deepened, and her confidence in public was mounting. In February 1887 she presided over a meeting of the Rational Dress Society in Westminster Town Hall. It was an event to which, the press noted, only women were admitted, and at which Constance gave an introductory speech. After Viscountess Harberton had spoken, a number of women who were sitting on the platform, including Constance, modelled the divided skirt for interested onlookers. Showing how the item could be combined with elegance, Constance wore her divided skirt as part of a costume of striped cheviot wool, trimmed with blue fox and ornamented with birds' wings.

In the month that Oscar launched
The Woman's World
Constance once again caught the attention of the press as she attended the annual meeting of the RDS at the Westminster Palace Hotel. Now one of the most prominent leaders of the movement and noted as such, her literary successes and associations suggested Constance as the natural editor for the society's gazette. At first Constance declined to be called the publication's editor
per se
, and promised only to see the publication launch. The gazette duly went on sale in April 1888, at a cost of 3d per issue. It was published by Hatchard's in Piccadilly, and thus began Constance's relationship with a publishing house
that in the fullness of time would have more significant personal ramifications for her. Despite her agreement to be a launch editor only, she ended up running the publication for all of its relatively short, two-year life.

The gazette could not have been more different from
The Woman's World
. A fraction of the size, more like a pamphlet in its dimensions, nevertheless its voice was loud, clear and unrelentingly campaigning. It was a political instrument for change and it set out its stall, in every issue, in no uncertain terms.

‘The Rational Dress Society protests against the introduction of any fashion in dress that either deforms the figure, impedes the movement of the body, or in any way tends to injure health,' the pamphlet declares. ‘It protests against the wearing of tightly fitting corsets, of high-heeled or narrow toed boots … It protests against crinolines or crinolettes … The maximum weight of underclothing (without shoes) approved of by the Rational Dress Society, does not exceed seven pounds.'
²⁵

The Rational Dress Society was attempting many things. Not just a campaigning body, it sold rational outfits and produced paper patterns. All these were available from the society's depot at 23 Mortimer Street. The need for money to support such initiatives put added pressure on Constance, who was tasked with turning the gazette into a commercial proposition and securing a solid base of subscribers.

It was a tall order. Hatchard's only managed to raise sufficient advertising revenue in the first issue to support a print run of 500. Constance quickly found herself in a Catch-22 situation, with too low a circulation to attract more advertisers and not enough advertisers to support an increased print run. Her letters indicate her unrelenting and thankless schedule of letter-writing to prospective subscribers in addition to her editorial duties. There was also an endless to-ing and fro-ing to Hatchard's, passing on the suggestions from RDS members of enterprises that might be prepared to buy space. Her work was complicated by the necessity of running editorial issues past the RDS committee. The committee's initial decision to deny
prospective contributors by-lines was a constant thorn in the side of someone attempting to attract high-profile contributors.