Franny Moyle (56 page)

25.
  Bosie's elder brother Lord Drumlaurig, who died in a suspicious hunt ing accident, was rumoured to have had an affair with Rosebery. Some have speculated that while Rosebery's name was kept out of the Wilde trial, the prime minister continued to show particular interest in the case.

26.
  Arthur Clifton to Constance, 14 July 1895. MSS collection of John Holland.

27.
  Constance to Emily Thursfield, 25 June 1895. Clark Library.

28.
  MSS collection of John Holland.

29.
  Ibid.

30.
  Constance to Mary Holland, 15 Sept 1895. MSS collection of John Holland.

31.
  R. H. Sherard,
The Real Oscar Wilde
(Werner Laurie, London, 1917), p 173

32.
  Constance to Emily Thursfield, 12 Oct 1895. Clark Library.

33.
  Constance to Lady Mount-Temple, 18 Oct 1895. BR 57/22/12.

34.
  Juliet Deschamps to Constance, undated. MSS collection of John Holland.

35.
  Charles Brooke was the second white Rajah, inheriting the title from his uncle, who was made Rajah, or King, of Sarawak by the Sultan of Brunei in 1841.

36.
  Margaret Brooke, Ranee of Sarawak,
Good Morning & Good Night
(Constable, London, 1934), p. 258.

37.
  Constance to Lady Mount-Temple, 5 Dec 1895. BR 57/22/14.

38.
  Ibid.

Chapter 14: Madame Holland

1.
  Constance to Otho, 6 Jan 1896. MSS collection of Merlin Holland.

2.
  Constance to Lady Mount-Temple, 29 Dec 1895. BR 57/22/16.

3.
  Constance to Lady Mount-Temple, 11 Jan 1896. BR 57/22/17.

4.
  Undated letter. Clark Library.

5.
  Constance to Otho, 21 Feb 1896. MSS collection of Merlin Holland.

6.
 
Complete Letters
, p. 766.

7.
 
Complete Letters
, p. 652.

8.
  Constance to Otho, 31 March 1896. MSS collection of Merlin Holland.

9.
  Ibid.

10.
 
Complete Letters
, p. 654.

11.
  Constance to Lady Mount-Temple, 1 April 1886. BR 57/22/21.

12.
  When Constance refers to ‘Hejlsberg College' in her letters, it is in fact clear that she is referring to the English Neuenheim College, since she notes that one of the staff attended Clifton College in Bristol, as Otho had done.

13.
  Constance to Otho, 19 July 1896. MSS collection of Merlin Holland.

14.
  Constance to Robbie Ross, 21 June 1896. Clark Library.

15.
  Adela Schuster to More Adey, 23 June 1896. Clark Library.

16.
  In a letter to Otho dated 17 Jan 1898 (MSS collection of Merlin Holland) Constance wrote: ‘I am glad that Cyril goes away tomorrow as I am afraid that if he stayed here he might be got hold of. Apparently the Ranee had a letter sent her from Posilippo asking if I lived here or
something and she wrote a formal answer saying that I did not. She did not tell me till long afterwards and I have never seen the letter and don't know who sent it.'

17.
  Clark Library.

18.
  Clark Library.

19.
  Oscar to the Home Secretary, 2 July 1896.
Complete Letters
, p. 656.

20.
 
Complete Letters
, p. 675

21.
 
Complete Letters
, p. 784.

22.
 
Complete Letters
, p. 829.

Chapter 15: Life is a terrible thing

1.
 
Complete Letters
, p. 906.

2.
  Constance to Vyvyan, 21 June 1897. BL Eccles 81727.

3.
  Notes made in Otho's notebook. MSS collection of John Holland.

4.
  Constance to Vyvyan, 27 Sept 1896. BL Eccles 81727.

5.
  Constance to Vyvyan, 23 Feb 1897. BL Eccles 81727.

6.
  Ibid.

7.
  Constance to Vyvyan, undated. BL Eccles 81727.

8.
  Constance to Vyvyan, 27 May 1897. BL Eccles 81727.

9.
 
Complete Letters
, p. 865

10.
 
Complete Letters
, p. 912.

11.
  Constance to Otho, 5 Aug 1897. MSS collection of Merlin Holland.

12.
  Constance to Otho, 7 Oct 1897. MSS collection of Merlin Holland.

13.
  Constance to Blacker, 25 Sept 1897. BL Eccles 81727.

14.
  Constance to Blacker, 26 Sept 1897. BL Eccles 81727.

15.
  Ibid.

16.
  Constance to Blacker, 30 Sept 1897. BL Eccles 81728.

17.
 
Complete Letters
, p. 954.

18.
  Constance to Blacker, 1 Oct 1897. BL Eccles 81727.

19.
  Constance to Otho, 17 Jan 1898. MSS collection of Merlin Holland.

20.
  Constance to Arthur Humphreys, 24 Oct 1897. Clark Library.

21.
  Constance to Otho, 19 Feb 1898. MSS collection of Merlin Holland.

22.
  Constance to Otho, 17 Jan 1898. MSS collection of Merlin Holland.

23.
  Constance to Blacker, 4 Feb 1898. BL Eccles 81727.

24.
  Constance to Blacker, 10 March 1898. BL Eccles 81727.

25.
  Ironically, unbeknown to Constance, Oscar had already written
De Profundis
, a confessional letter to Bosie in which he admitted he had grown bored with married life.

26.
  Constance to Blacker, 18 March 1898. BL Eccles 81727.

27.
  BL Eccles 81728. Leonard Smithers was a publisher and bookseller who published Oscar's work, including
The Ballad of Reading Gaol
.

28.
  Constance to Lady Mount-Temple, 27 Sept 1893. BR 57/50/9.

29.
  Vyvyan Wilde,
Son of Oscar Wilde
, p. 130.

30.
  Otho quoting Constance's telegram in his letter to Lady Mount- Temple, 9 April 1898. BR 57/23/1.

31.
  Otho to Lady Mount-Temple, 9 April 1898. BR 57/23/1.

32.
  This account from Laura Hope to Lady Mount-Temple, based on Otho's explanation to her.

33.
  Otho to Lady Mount-Temple, 9 April 1898. BR 57/23/1.

34.
  Otho to Lady Mount-Temple, 29 May 1898. BR 57/23/6.

35.
 
Complete Letters
, p. 1055

36.
 
Complete Letters
, p. 1055

37.
 
Reynolds's Newspaper
(17 April 1898).

38.
 
Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper
(17 April 1898).

39.
  Laura Hope to Juliet Deschamps, 14 April 1898. BR 57/23/5.

40.
  Jane Simon to Lady Mount-Temple, 16 April 1898. BR 57/23/4.

41.
  Jane Simon to Lady Mount-Temple, 13 April 1898. BR 57/23/3.

42.
  Douglas,
Oscar Wilde: A Summing Up
, p. 99.

43.
  Otho to Lady Mount-Temple, 29 May 1898. BR 57/23/3.

44.
  Oscar to Robbie Ross,
c. 1
March 1899.
Complete Letters
, p. 1128.

Epilogue

1.
  Juliet Deschamps to Oscar, 10 October 1898. Clark Library.

Select Bibliography

Manuscript Collections

The largest collection of Constance's autograph letters is of those between her and Lady Mount-Temple, held as part of the Broadlands Archive in the University of Southampton. Over a hundred letters from Constance to her brother Otho are in the private collection of Merlin Holland. The Library of William Andrews Clark Jr at the University of California in Los Angeles has some letters from Constance, while the British Library, as part of its Eccles collection, holds a significant number, not least those between Constance and the Blackers and from Constance to Vyvyan, all written during her period in exile on the Continent. The Morgan Library and Museum holds the MS of ‘The Selfish Giant', written by Constance. Important original correspondence relating to Constance's flight from England and her time in exile is held in the private collection of John Holland.

Published Sources

Amor, Anne Clark,
Mrs Oscar Wilde: A Woman of Some Importance
(Sidgwick & Jackson, London, 1983)

Beddington, Mrs Claude,
All That I Have Met
(Cassell & Co., London, 1929)

Bentley, Joyce,
The Importance of Being Constance
(Robert Hale, London, 1983)

Borras, Maria Luisa,
Arthur Cravan: une strategic du scandale
(Editions Jean-Michel Place, Paris, 1996)

Braddon, Mary,
The Rose of Life
(Hutchinson, London, 1905)

Brémont, Anna, Comtesse de,
Oscar Wilde and His Mother
(Everett & Co., London, 1911)

Byrne, Patrick,
The Wildes of Merrion Square
(Staples Press, London, 1953)

Cherry, Deborah,
Beyond the Frame: Feminism and Visual Culture, Britain
,
1850–1900
(Routledge, London, 2000)

Corkran, Henriette,
Celebrities and I
(Hutchinson, London, 1902)

Douglas, Lord Alfred,
Oscar Wilde and Myself
(John Long, London 1914 )

——,
Autobiography
(Seeker, London, 1929)

——,
Without Apology
(Martin Seeker, London, 1938)

——,
Oscar Wilde: A Summing Up
(Icon Books, London, 1962)

Ellmann, Richard,
Oscar Wilde
(Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1988)

Field, Michael [Katherine Bradley and Edith Cooper],
Works and Days:
From the Journal of Michael Field
(John Murray, London, 1933)

Fryer, Jonathan,
Robbie Ross: Oscar Wilde's Devoted Friend
(Carroll & Graf, New York, 2000)

Gere, Charlotte, with Lesley Hoskins,
The House Beautiful: Oscar Wilde and

the Aesthetic Interior
(Lund Humphries in association with the Geffrye Museum, London, 2000)

Gide, Andre,
Oscar Wilde: in memoriam (souvenirs)
(Mercure de France, Paris, 1925) Gilbert, R. A.,
The Golden Dawn Companion
(Aquarian Press, Wellingborough, 1986)

Gregory, James, ‘And May I Say Nothing',
The Oscholars
, vol. Ill, no. 12, issue 31;
www.oscholars.com

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

Holland, Merlin,
The Wilde Album
(Fourth Estate, London, 1997)

——,
Irish Peacock and Scarlet Marquess: The Real Trial of Oscar Wilde
(Fourth Estate, London, 2003)

——, and Rupert Hart-Davis (eds),
The Complete Letters of Oscar Wilde
(Fourth Estate, London, 2000)

——,
The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde
(Collins, London, 2003)

Holland, Vyvyan,
Son of Oscar Wilde
(Rupert Hart-Davis, London, 1954)

——,
Time Remembered after Père LaChaise
(Gollancz, London, 1966)

Hope-Nicholson Jacqueline (ed.),
Life amongst the Troubridges: Journals of a Young Victorian, by Laura Troubridge, 1873–1884
(Tite Street Press, London, 1999)

Howe, Ellic,
The Magicians of the Golden Dawn: A Documentary History of a
Magical Order 1887–1923
(Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1972)

Hyde, H. Montgomery,
The Trials of Oscar Wilde
(Hodge, Edinburgh, 1948)

——,
Oscar Wilde: The Aftermath
(Methuen, London, 1963)

——,
Oscar Wilde: A Biography
(Eyre Methuen, London, 1976)

Ingleby, Leonard Cresswell,
Oscar Wilde
(T. Werner Laurie, London, 1907)

Jopling, Louise,
Twenty Years of My Life, 1867 to 1887
(John Lane, London, 1925)

Kingston, Angela,
Oscar Wilde as a Character in Victorian Fiction
(Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, 2007)

Lancaster, Marie-Jaqueline (ed.),
Letters of Engagement: The Love Letters of
Adrian Hope and Laura Troubridge
(Tite Street Press, London, 2000)

Langtry, Lillie,
The Days I Knew
(Hutchinson, London, 1925)

Le Gallienne, Richard,
The Romantic 'gos
(Putnam & Co., London, 1951)

Leverson, Ada,
Letters to the Sphinx from Oscar Wilde: With Reminiscences of
the Author
(Duckworth, London, 1930)

Lowndes, Marie Belloc,
Diaries and Letters, 1911–1947
(Chatto & Windus, London, 1971)

McKenna, Neil,
The Secret Life of Oscar Wilde
(Arrow Books, London, 2004)

Melville, Joy,
Mother of Oscar: The Life of Jane Francesca Wilde
(John Murray, London, 1994)

Newnham-Davis, Lieut.-Col.,
Dinners and Diners
(Grant Richards, London, 1899)

Newton, Stella Mary,
Health, Art & Reason: Dress Reformers of the 19th
Century
(John Murray, London, 1974)

Owen, Alex,
The Place of Enchantment: British Occultism and the Culture of the
Modern
(Chicago University Press, Chicago, 2004)

Page, Norman,
An Oscar Wilde Chronology
(Macmillan, London, 1991)

Pearson, Hesketh,
The Life of Oscar Wilde
(Methuen, London, 1946)

Queensberry, Marquess of,
Oscar Wilde and the Black Douglas
(Hutchinson & Co., London, 1949)

Raffalovich, Andre,
L'Affaire Oscar Wilde
(A. Stork, Lyon, 1895)

——,
Uranisme et unisexualité
(Lyon, 1896)

Robb, Graham,
Strangers: Homosexual Love in the Nineteenth Century
(Picador, London, 2003)

Ruskin, John,
Mornings in Florence
(George Allen, London, 1875)

Schroeder, Horst,
Additions and Corrections to Richard Ellman's ‘Oscar Wilde'
(privately printed, Braunschweig, 2002)

Shaw, George Bernard,
The Diaries, 1885–1897
, vols 1 and 2, ed. Stanley Weintraub (Pennsylvania State University Press, Philadelphia, 1986)