Franny Moyle (55 page)

18.
  Clark Library.

19.
  BR 57/12/14.

20.
  Constance to Lady Mount-Temple, 15 Oct 1891. BR 57/13/12.

21.
  Constance to Lady Mount-Temple, 9 Oct 1891. BR 57/13/6.

22.
  Constance to Lady Mount-Temple, 21 Oct 1891. BR 57/13/14.

23.
  Lord Alfred Douglas,
Autobiography
(Seeker, London, 1929), p. 59.

24.
  Constance to Lady Mount-Temple, 22 Oct 1891. BR 57/13/15.

25.
  Constance to Lady Mount-Temple, 26 Oct 1891. BR 57/12/1.

26.
  Some days were, by Constance's own admission, ‘begun in deep depression'. Constance to Lady Mount-Temple, 12 Nov 1891. BR57/12/10. Speranza's letters to Oscar at this time also relate that, despite her busy life, Constance felt lonely. In an account of a visit from Constance that November, her mother-in-law noted, ‘She is so nice to me always. I am very fond of her. Do come home. She is very lonely, and mourns for you.' Clark Library.

27.
  Constance to Lady Mount-Temple, 28 Oct 1891. BR 57/12/2.

28.
  Constance to Lady Mount-Temple, 2 Nov 1891. BR 57/12/4.

29.
  Constance to Lady Mount-Temple, 15 Nov 1891. BR 57/12/13. The play was
Salome
.

30.
  Oscar was so evidently tempted by Rome as a young man that his half brother Henry Wilson made it a specification in his will that Oscar would only qualify for a small legacy he had left him on the basis that he was still an Anglican.

31.
  Constance to Lady Mount-Temple, 12 Nov 1891. BR 57/12/10.

32.
  Constance to Lady Mount-Temple, 20 Nov 1891. BR 57/12/16.

33.
  Constance to Lady Mount-Temple, 27 Nov 1891. BR 57/14/4.

34.
  Constance to Lady Mount-Temple, 23 Nov 1891. BR 57/14/1.

35.
  Undated letter from Oscar to Lady Mount-Temple. Private collection.

36.
  ‘While in London one hides everything, in Paris one reveals everything … the lowest dive interests me as much as the most elegant café.' McKenna,
Secret Life of Oscar Wilde
, p. 223.

37.
  Constance to Otho, 22 July 1892. MSS collection of Merlin Holland.

38.
  Constance to Lady Mount-Temple, undated. BR 57/15/16.

39.
  Constance to Lady Mount-Temple, 23 Aug 1892. BR 57/15/18.

40.
  Constance to Lady Mount-Temple, undated. BR 57/16/5. The line is in fact from Andrew Marvell's ‘The Garden'. Either Oscar misattributed the line, or Constance misremembered what Oscar said.

41.
  Constance to Lady Mount-Temple, 1 Sept 1892. BR 57/16/6.

42.
  Constance to Oscar, 3 Sept 1892. Clark Library.

Chapter 11: A dark bitter forest

1.
  Constance to Lady Mount-Temple, undated. BR 57/14/93.

2.
  Constance to Lady Mount-Temple, 10 Aug 1883. BR 57/49/11.

3.
  Constance to Lady Mount-Temple, undated. BR 57/50/5.

4.
  Constance to Lady Mount-Temple, undated. BR 57/14/93.

5.
  Constance to Lady Mount-Temple, undated. BR 57/50/02.

6.
  Constance to Otho, 26 Oct 1892. MSS collection of Merlin Holland.

7.
  Constance to Lady Mount-Temple, 16 Aug 1892. BR 57/15/11.

8.
  Constance to Lady Mount-Temple, 17 Nov 1892. BR 57/17/10.

9.
  Constance to Lady Mount-Temple, 4 Dec 1892. BR 57/46/7.

10.
  Constance to Lady Mount-Temple, 12 Dec 1892. 57/18/6.

11.
  Ibid.

12.
  Constance to Lady Mount-Temple, 16 Dec 1892. BR 57/46/8.

13.
  Constance to Lady Mount-Temple, 21 Nov 1892. BR 57/17/12.

14.
  Constance to Lady Mount-Temple, 2 Feb 1893. BR 57/46/10.

15.
  Constance to Lady Mount-Temple, from via Michele, Florence, 4 Feb 1893. BR 57/46/11.

16.
  Constance to Lady Mount-Temple, 4 Feb 1893. BR 57/46/11.

17.
  Constance to Lady Mount-Temple, 11 Feb 1893. BR 57/46/15.

18.
 
Complete Letters
, p. 547.

19.
 
Complete Letters
, p. 556.

20.
  Constance to Lady Mount-Temple, 19 Feb 1893. BR 57/49/2.

21.
 
Complete Letters
, p. 691.

22.
  Ibid.

23.
  ‘Saint C' was the pet name for John Ruskin used by Lady Mount- Temple and others of his close friends. In his book on Florence, Ruskin wrote: ‘rise with the sun, and go to Santa Croce, with a good opera- glass in your pocket, with which you shall for once, at any rate, see an “opus” … Walk straight to the chapel on the right of the choir (“K” in your Murray's guide). When you first get into it, you will see noth ing but a modern window of glaring glass, with a red hot cardinal in one pane – which piece of modern manufacture takes away at least
seven-eighths of the light (little enough before) by which you might have seen what is worth sight. Wait patiently till you get used to the gloom. Then guarding your eyes from the accursed modern window as best you may, take your opera glass and look to the right, at the uppermost of the two figures beside it. It is St Louis, under campanile architecture, painted by – Giotto … or the last Florentine painter who wanted a job – over Giotto?'John Ruskin,
Mornings in Florence
(George Allen, London, 1875), p. 3.

24.
  Constance to Lady Mount-Temple, 9 March 1893. BR 57/49/6.

25.
 
Freeman's Journal and Daily Commercial Advertiser
(20 April 1893).

26.
  Constance to Lady Mount-Temple, 9 Sept 1893. BR 57/50/7.

27.
  Constance to Lady Mount-Temple, 21 Aug 1893. BR 57/49/17.

28.
 
Complete Letters
, p. 693.

29.
  Constance to Lady Mount-Temple, undated. BR 57/50/02.

30.
  Constance to Lady Mount-Temple, 13 Sept 1893. BR 57/50/8.

31.
  Lord Alfred Douglas,
Oscar Wilde: A Summing Up
(Icon Books, London, 1962), p. 98.

32.
  Constance to Lady Mount-Temple, undated. BR 57/50/02.

33.
  E. Nister,
A Dandy Chair
(London,
c
. 1892)

34.
  Constance to Lady Mount-Temple, 30 Sept 1893. BR 57/50/11.

35.
  Constance to Lady Mount-Temple, 9 Oct 1893. BR 57/48/1.

36.
  Constance to Lady Mount-Temple, 10 Oct 1893. BR 57/48/2.

37.
  Constance to Lady Mount-Temple, 12 Oct 1893. BR 57/48/4.

38.
 
Complete Letters
, p. 693.

39.
  Constance to Lady Mount-Temple, 18 Oct 1983. BR 57/48/9.

40.
  Constance to Lady Mount-Temple, 18 Oct 1893. BR 57/48/9.

41.
  Constance to Lady Mount-Temple, 19 Oct 1893. BR 57/48/10.

Chapter 12: Modern-day Martha

1.
 
Complete Letters
, p. 693.

2.
  Lord Cromer was Agent and Consul-General in Egypt at this time.

3.
 
Complete Letters
, p. 575.

4.
  Constance to Lady Mount-Temple, 30 Oct 1893. BR 57/47/2.

5.
  Constance to Lady Mount-Temple, All Souls' Day 1893. BR 57/47/3.

6.
  Constance to Lady Mount-Temple, 10 Nov 1893. BR 57/47/11.

7.
  Constance to Lady Mount-Temple, 17 Nov 1893. BR 57/47/15.

8.
  Constance to Lady Mount-Temple, 22 Oct 1893. BR 57/48/12.

9.
  Constance to Lady Mount-Temple, 17 Nov 1893. BR 57/47/15.

10.
  Constance to Lady Mount-Temple, 29 Nov 1893. BR 57/47/17.

11.
 
Complete Letters
, p. 695.

12.
  Constance to Lady Mount-Temple, undated BR 57/19/10.

13.
  Constance to Lady Mount-Temple, undated BR 57/19/11.

14.
  Constance to Lady Mount-Temple, 11 March 1894. BR 57/20/2.

15.
 
New York Times
(10 Dec 1893).

16.
  Constance to Lady Mount-Temple, 10 Oct 1893? BR 57/17/3.

17.
  This scene was recounted in court by Wilde. McKenna,
Secret Life of Oscar Wilde
, p. 385.

18.
  Constance to Otho, 8 June 1892. MSS collection of Merlin Holland.

19.
  Constance to Arthur Humphreys, 1 June 1894. BL Eccles 81732.

20.
  Constance to Arthur Humphreys, 11 August 1894. BL Eccles 81732.

21.
  This sum is revealed in Constance's letter to her brother Otho dated 31 August 1894. MSS collection of Merlin Holland.

22.
  Henry Scott Holland,
A Lent in London: A Course of Sermons on Social Subjects Organized by the London Branch of the Christian Social Union and Preached during Lent 1895
(Longman, London, 1895).

23.
  Constance to Lady Mount-Temple, 11 Aug 1894. BR 57/20/11.

24.
 
Complete Letters
, p. 599.

25.
  Ibid., p. 623.

26.
  Oscar to Bosie, August 1894.
Complete Letters
, p. 598.

27.
  Constance to Lady Mount-Temple, 25 Aug 1894. BR 57/20/14.

28.
  Constance to Otho, 31 Aug 1894. MSS collection of Merlin Holland.

29.
  Ellmann,
Oscar Wilde
, p. 421.

30.
  Oscar to Bosie, 8 Sept 1894.
Complete Letters
, p. 607.

31.
  Constance to Otho, 31 Aug 1894. MSS collection of Merlin Holland.

32.
  Scribbled in the back pages of Otho's copy of Leonard Ingleby's
Oscar Wilde
. MSS collection of John Holland.

33.
  Constance to Arthur Humphreys, 22 Oct 1894. Clark Library.

34.
  Constance to Lady Mount-Temple, 10 Nov 1894. BR 57/21/16.

35.
  ‘Your letter puzzles me very much, but I
have
finally come to the conclusion that your suggestion is for the best and that I will come to you later on after the boys go back to school.' Constance to Lady Mount-Temple, 8 Dec 1894. BR- 57/22/4.

36.
  Constance to Lady Mount-Temple, 8 Dec 1894. BR 57/22/4.

37.
  The Clark Library holds a response to one such greeting from Florence Stoker,
née
Balcombe.

38.
  Vyvyan Holland,
Son of Oscar Wilde
, p. 55.

39.
  Constance to Lady Mount-Temple, 31 Dec 1894. BR 57/22/7.

40.
  BL Eccles 81727.

41.
 
Complete Letters
, p. 634.

42.
  Both Willie and Speranza also felt that Oscar should face the courts rather than flee, as a matter of honour.

43.
  Constance to Robbie Ross, 12 March 1895. Clark Library.

44.
  In letters between Jane Simon and Lady Mount-Temple after Constance's death, Laura recounted that Aunt Napier had strongly advised against surgery, as had Constance's doctors. BR 57/23/4.

45.
  This anecdote was copied by Otho from an unknown source. MSS collection of John Holland.

46.
 
Pall Mall Gazette
(28 March 1895).

47.
  Frank Harris,
Oscar Wilde
(Constable & Co., London, 1938), p. 138.

48.
  BL Eccles 81732.

49.
  Douglas,
Oscar Wilde: A Summing Up
, p. 97.

Chapter 13: The strife of tongues

1.
 
Complete Letters
, p. 637.

2.
  H. Montgomery Hyde,
Oscar Wilde: The Aftermath
(Methuen, London, 1963), p. 227.

3.
  Ellen Terry to Constance, ‘Thursday', undated. MSS collection of John Holland.

4.
  MSS collection of John Holland.

5.
  Ibid.

6.
  Ibid.

7.
  Autograph letter to Juliet Latour Temple, undated. BR 54/13.

8.
  Susie to Constance, dated 7 April 1895. MSS collection of John Holland.

9.
  Vyvyan Holland,
Son of Oscar Wilde
, p. 61.

10.
  MSS collection of John Holland.

11.
  Vyvyan Holland,
Son of Oscar Wilde
, p. 61.

12.
  Philip Burne-Jones to Constance, 11 April 1895. MSS collection of John Holland.

13.
  Ibid.

14.
  Ibid.

15.
  Constance to Mrs Robinson, 19 April 1895. BL Eccles 8173.

16.
  Mrs Robinson to Constance, undated MSS collection of John Holland.

17.
  Speranza to Constance. MSS Collection of John Holland.

18.
  Vyvyan Holland,
Son of Oscar Wilde
, p. 62.

19.
  A subsequent letter from Arthur Clifton contained a cheque for
fy
2s 9d, ‘for the last two weeks hotel bills ending the 4thJuly', and another cheque for ‘£6 payable to Mme Schuwer'. These, it seems, were the expenses incurred by the boys and their French governess, now being met by the generosity of friends. Clifton went on to say that ‘about £63 or £64 has been spent of the money raised for the children. £25 went in travelling and two months salary at the outset and since the boys started I have written cheques for £39.' Arthur Clifton to Constance, 14 July 1895. MSS collectionjohn Holland.

20.
  Ada Leverson,
Letters to the Sphinx
, p. 41.

21.
  Bosie to Oscar, 15 May 1895. Clark Library.

22.
  Hyde,
Oscar Wilde: A Biography
, p. 293.

23.
  Georgiana Burne-Jones to Constance, 31 May 1895. MSS collection of John Holland.

24.
  Constance to Lady Mount-Temple, 10 June 1895. BR 57/22/10.