Today, November 30, 2000, marks 100 years to the day when Oscar Wilde -- gay genius, playwright and poet -- died penniless in Paris. Feted by high society until his downfall after three trials revealed the intimate details of his "secret" life as a homosexual and earned him a prison sentence, he left as his legacy to the world a string of witticisms and plays which still entertain. His plays are made into popular films; his wit sparkles as brightly today as in his own time. Dorothy Parker, American wit and writer who is remembered by the most common of men for her famous remark that "men seldom make passes at girls who wear glasses," once wrote about Wilde's bon mots: “If, with the literate, I am Impelled to make an epigram, I never seek to take the credit; We all assume that Oscar said it.” It strikes me as a fitting tribute to Oscar Wilde that tomorrow, Friday, December 1, 2000, the age of consent for consensual sex between gay males will be reduced to 16 in the United Kingdom. What has that to do with Wilde? Recently uncovered historical records indicate that Lord Alfred Douglas, a younger man for the love of whom Wilde would be pilloried years later, may have first met Wilde while both were on holiday at Rouen in France in August of 1887. "Bosie," as Lord Alfred was known from childhood, would not turn 17 until October 22; thus, he was 16 at the time. Wilde may have been only 33, but considering that he was twice Bosie's age, the relationship should be counted as intergenerational. Had Bosie been 30 and Wilde 60, such a perception would clearly qualify them as foxhunter and silverfox. Bosie was a classic twink. Wilde described him: "He is quite like a narcissus - so white and gold...he lies like a hyacinth on the sofa and I worship him." Of Wilde, Bosie would write: "I am passionately fond of him and he of me. There is nothing I would not do for him and if he dies before I do I shall not care to live any longer. Surely there is nothing but what is fine and beautiful in such a love as that of two people for one another, the love of the disciple and the philosopher." Wilde referred to homosexuality as: "The love that dares not speak its name." That was true in his 19th century as it remains true for the majority of us in our 21st. I have attached a composite photograph of this famously infamous twosome as they really were, but including actor Stephen Frye in his convincing role as Wilde in the film of that name. Headline: Centenary of the death of Oscar Wilde (BBC News, 11/30/00) Text: Actors and writers are gathering in London (today) to mark the centenary of the death of Oscar Wilde. Actor Simon Callow and author Sir John Mortimer will pay tribute to the Irish writer and wit, who died penniless in a hotel in Paris aged 46 on 30 November 1900. Callow will read from De Profundis, the letter Wilde wrote from prison to his young lover Lord Alfred Douglas, better known as Bosie. Wilde's affair with him landed the writer a two-year hard labour sentence in 1895 after he was found guilty of seven counts of gross indecency. The sentence, handed down weeks after his most famous work, The Importance of Being Earnest, made its London stage debut, left Wilde a broken man. Upon his release he fled to France, where he lived until his death. Singers from the Royal and Guildhall Schools of Music will perform music from the Gilbert and Sullivan opera Patience, which is closely associated with Wilde. Sir John Mortimer, who created Rumpole of The Bailey, will talk about Wilde and socialism, and his grandson Merlin Holland will lay a wreath beneath a window dedicated to Wilde in the abbey's Poets Corner. Other performers invited to the event include Dame Judi Dench, Jeremy Irons and Vanessa Redgrave, who played Wilde's mother in the 1997 film of his life. Guests will move on to a reception at the British Library to join Irish President Mary McAleese, where comedian Graham Norton will join Holland in toasting the writer. The centenary of Wilde's death has sparked a revival of interest in the writer, whose works include An Ideal Husband and Lady Windermere's Fan. The British Library is staging an exhibition, while Merlin Holland recently published a collection of his letters. It had been believed that Wilde died of syphillis, but recent research claimed his life had been ended by a rare ear infection. ADDENDUM: 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 sodomite." Foolishly, 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 Père 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 (pictured below) 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. THE END