#OSCAR WILDE PLAYS MEANT TO BE READ TRIAL#

Although not agreed to, arrangements were made to move him from Reading back to Pentonville on 18 May and he was released at 06:15 on. In the third he asked for his release date to be brought forward by just four days to 15 May to avoid unwanted attention.

Wilde sent two further unsuccessful petitions in November 1896 and April 1897. Nelson kept the manuscript and gave it to Wilde on his release. He asked the governor for it to be sent to Douglas, and Major Nelson wrote to the Prison Commissioners (PCOM 8/434), but the request was refused. While in prison in 1897 he wrote ‘De Profundis’ his letter to Lord Alfred Douglas. The Prison Commissioners, however, did authorise more books and allowed him additional writing materials (PCOM 8/433). There was no reply to the petition and no mitigation of his sentence. In Reading Gaol he petitioned the Home Secretary on 2 July 1896 (HO 45/24515). Wilde was then moved again from Wandsworth to Reading on 21 November – on this day he was forced to wait for the Reading train on the platform at Clapham Junction, where he was recognised and abused by the crowd. In the meantime, his health completely broke down and he suffered a serious fall in his cell. He was moved to Wandsworth in July and had the ignominy of having to attend the Bankruptcy Court on 24 September and again on 12 November. He was kept in solitary confinement and the food and conditions began to have an effect on his health. Sent first to Pentonville, Wilde was passed as fit for light labour: oakum-picking, sewing mailbags, working the crank and the treadmill. A podcast by Charles Tattersall, Genius on trial: key sources relating to Oscar Wilde at The National Archives is available to listen to on our Archives Media Player. However, the trials were widely reported in the press, and detailed accounts of the proceedings in the newspapers were used to reconstruct the trials by H Montgomery Hyde in his book ‘The Trials of Oscar Wilde’, originally published in 1948.

#OSCAR WILDE PLAYS MEANT TO BE READ TRIAL#

Unfortunately, no shorthand notes or transcription of the trial proceedings have survived. The National Archives has an important collection of records relating to the trials and imprisonment of Oscar Wilde among the papers of the Home Office (HO), the Central Criminal Court (CRIM) and the Prison Commission (PCOM). This was the maximum sentence allowed, which was considered excessive for a man of his class at that time. On Wilde was convicted at the Central Criminal Court of gross indecency and sentenced to two years’ hard labour. The Solicitor-General refused to halt further proceedings and a retrial went ahead from 22 to 25 May. Wilde lost the libel case in March – he was arrested on 5 April and his first trial began on 26 April however, the jury were unable to reach a verdict. He then made the fateful decision to prosecute Lord Queensbury. Wilde did not receive the message until the 28 February.

On 18 February the Marquis of Queensbury left his calling card at the Albemarle Club, endorsed ‘For Oscar Wilde posing Somdomite’ (Catalogue reference CRIM 1/41/6).

Oscar wilde plays meant to be read