Silverfoxesclub-digest
Friday, December 1 2000
Volume 01 : Number 062

In this issue:

-Re: Today is Oscar Wilde Day
-Conclusion of Oscar & Bosie
-World AIDS Day
-Might be overheard in 2999

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Date: Thu, 30 Nov 2000 13:32:28 -0800 (PST)
From: "Robert Feinstein"

Subject: Re: Today is Oscar Wilde Day

Hi, list friends. Bob and guide dog Harley here. I recently had the pleasure of listening to some of Oscar Wild's fairytales, read to me by a friend in California via phone. I call this guy about 4 times a week, and he reads to me for an hour and a half or so. My favorite fairytale so far is the Fisherman and his Soul which is so magical and beautiful, having witches, mermaids, and incredible descriptions of foreign lands. I would highly recommend it to those of you who like legends and fairytales.

My 51st birthday is tomorrow, December 1st; I am glad something memorable will be happening.

Bob and Harley
P.S. How did Oscar get in trouble for being gay? Did his lover report him? I don't know too much about what happened.
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Date: Thu, 30 Nov 2000 13:33:11 -0800
From: "Ben Boxer"

Subject: Conclusion of Oscar & Bosie

To judge from letters received today, my little piece on Oscar Wilde and his beloved Bosie captured the fancy of quite a few Silverfoxes Club members. Here is a conclusion to it, limning by year the general pattern of their relationship, plus a picture of them together taken in 1893 when Oscar was 39 and Bosie, 23.

1891
Tradition has it that Bosie was formally introduced to Oscar Wilde by Lionel Johnson when Oscar was 37 and Bosie 21. Oscar became so enamored of Bosie he wrote a sonnet to him, The New Remorse. Recent discoveries indicate, however, that they may actually have met four years earlier, when Bosie was 16.

1892
Bosie introduced Oscar to his father, the Marquess of Queensberry, at lunch in the Cafe Royal, London. The Marquess was an ill-tempered bully of a man who, appropriately, lent his patronage and his name to the Marquess of Queensberry Rules developed in 1867 by John Graham Chambers to elevate roughhouse pugilism to the gentlemanly sport of boxing in order to attract a better class of patrons to the matches.

1893
Oscar Wilde wrote an infamous "prose poem" expressing his infatuation and sent it to Bosie. It was later translated to the French in sonnet form and published, to the everlasting embarrassment of the Marquess of Queensberry, as well as of Wilde's wife and family.

1894
Queensberry threatened to disown Bosie, unless he ceased his association with Wilde.

1895
Queensberry sent a card to Wilde at the Albemarle Club, accusing Wilde of "posing as a somdomite (sic)," a misspelling which gave the lie to his presumption of superiority to the most linguistically gifted writer of the age with the single exception of George Bernard Shaw. Foolishly, though, Wilde retaliated with legal action against the good advice of all his friends, including the famous actress Lily Langtry. The subsequent three trials resulted in a two-year prison sentence for Wilde, at hard labor. It broke his body, but not his poet's soul, for he continued to write gloriously.

1897
Wilde was released from prison; Bosie, still faithful and defiant of his father, met him in Naples, Italy, on September 4th. They enjoyed a brief, passionate reconciliation, but Bosie had to return to England.

1900
Now in Paris and destitute, Wilde died unexpectedly on November 30th at the age of 46. Bosie was chief mourner and paid the funeral expenses for Oscar's interment in the insignificant Bagneaux Cemetery. There must have been plans to transfer the body from the start, since Wilde was buried in quicklime. This was done to reduce the corpse to bone, so moving it to another location would be a 'clean' affair. When the great day finally came, however, the gravediggers were shocked by the sinister sight of Wilde: his body was preserved very well and his hair and beard had grown even longer. The quicklime had only served to preserve the body, instead of skeletizing it. Wilde's remains were moved to Phre Lachaise Cemetery on July 19, 1909. He had to wait for another few years before his monument was finished. Not before 1914 the famous tomb by Jacob Epstein was unveiled. It had taken the American three years to sculpt it. When it was almost finished is was found to be indecent by the conservateur. This was resolved by a plaque that served as a fig leaf to cover the sculpture's penis. This plaque was hacked away in 1922 (presumably by some students). Actually, they hacked away a little more than just the plaque! On the back of the tomb there's a fragment of his last major work, The Ballad of Reading Gaol (English spelling for "jail"):

And alien tears will fill for him
Pity's long broken urn
For his mourners will be outcast men
And outcasts always mourn

1901
In memory of Wilde, Bosie wrote one of his most moving and finely written sonnets, The Dead Poet.

1902
Bosie married, and spent his remaining years as an editor and poet, suing and being sued over matters pertaining to Oscar Wilde until his own death of congestive heart failure in 1945 at the age of 74. He spent much of his life in denial of the sexual side of his relationship with Wilde, but in the end it was clear that Oscar had been his great and perhaps his only love.

They will always be together in the eyes of the world, as they should be.
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Date: Fri, 1 Dec 2000 10:36:27 -0500 (EST)
From: Edward

Subject: World AIDS Day

To all,

Today is World AIDS Day. Let's all remember those who are fighting this disease, and remember those whom have succumbed to it.

Edward
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Date: Fri, 1 Dec 2000 07:42:12 -0800
From: "Ben Boxer"

Subject: Might be overheard in 2999

Things that might be overheard in 2999:

"Hi, I'm Dick Clark, here to count you down into the new millennium!"

"Okay, I'll go over it one more time: It doesn't really start until January 1, 3001, because..."

"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of Microsoft..."

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End of silverfoxesclub-digest V1 #62
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