Patricia Belier: Oscar Wilde in Fredericton.
[Editor’s Note: This was originally published The Officers' Quarterly vol. 12, no.
4, Fall 1996, pp. 29-31 and we thank Patricia Belier for permission
to reproduce it here.]
'There is only one thing in the world worse than being
talked about, and that is not being talked about.' (Oscar Wilde)
And the Irish playwright, poet and essayist, Oscar Wilde,
was certainly being talked about during his nearly year-long visit to North
America in 1882. Lately, much attention, both in the popular and academic press
and in theatres around the world, has been paid to Wilde. On the one hundredth anniversary of the
first staging of two of his very successful plays, An Ideal Husband and The
Importance of Being Earnest, Sir John Gielgud unveiled a plaque in
London's West End theatre district; in addition, a diamond of blue-and-grey
stained glass in Westminster Abbey's Poets' Corner was dedicated to Wilde. (In
March of 1995, DouglasHughes profiled Wilde and the TNB production of Earnest in Th
eNew Brunswick Reader.) Regrettably, 1995 was also the centenary of
Wilde's arrest on charges of indecency, and his imprisonment, marking the
beginning of the end of his creative life. Exiled from England, he died in
Paris on 30th November 1900.
Oscar Wilde, wearing the fur-trimmed coat that he purchased in
Canada. This picture was taken in New York City in 1882 by Canadian-born
photographer Napoleon Sarony (1821-1896).
(Courtesy
Library of Congress)
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was born in Dublin,
Ireland on 16th October 1854, the younger son of Sir William Wilde, an eye and
ear surgeon, and his poet wife, Jane Francesca Elgee, who wrote patriotic
nationalist tracts under the pen-name 'Speranza'. He graduated from Oxford
in 1878, having been awarded the prestigious Newdigate Prize for his poem
'Ravenna'. His first volume of poetry Poems
was published in 1881 and he was preparing a play for production, Vera. So,
after only three years in London, the centre of the English-speaking literary
world, he was quite well-known. His notoriety, though, was also linked to his
being clearly identified with the æsthetic movement. Wilde was the
personification of the 'æsthete' or foppish dandy: an eccentric dresser who
wore his hair unfashionably long, was clean-shaven, and who favoured lilies,
sunflowers and Japanese decoration. Æsthetes cultivated an appreciation of what
was beautiful in all aspects of life, and sought to surround themselves with
beautiful things. Representatives of the movement, such as Wilde, Ruskin
and Swinburne, were frequently satirised in newspapers and magazines of the
day. Most notably, they were the basis for some of the characterizations in
Gilbert and Sullivan's Patience, which
opened in London in April 1881. The character of Bunthorne is widely believed
to be modeled on Wilde. To whet the appetite of American audiences, where this
operetta was due to open in New York in September 1881, Wilde was invited to
the United States on a speaking tour by the famous impresario Richard D'Oyly
Carte.
Books abound on the life of Oscar Wilde, but in reading
most of them you would never have guessed that he had set foot in New
Brunswick, let alone in Fredericton. In fact, he undertook speaking engagements
in seven Maritime cities over a ten-day period in October 1882, stopping in
Fredericton, Saint John (twice), Amherst, Truro, Halifax, Charlottetown and
Moncton. Most biographers comment on his generally well-documented tour of the
United States but give little attention to his Canadian appearances. However,
in 1982, Professor Kevin
O'Brien of St. Francis Xavier University
published his Oscar Wilde in Canada: An
apostle for the arts, the result of in-depth research, frequently in
the newspaper and periodical accounts of the day, giving the reader a wealth of
detail about Oscar in Canada.
Wilde arrived in New York on 2nd January 1882 board the Arizona, his epigrams being recorded and
making the rounds almost immediately. Clearing customs, he was reputed to have
cited, 'nothing except my genius', when asked the proverbial question, 'Have
you anything to declare?' He aroused intensive media interest wherever he
appeared; one modern commentator likened it to the spectacle common in our day
surrounding an appearance by a movie or rock star.
Three lectures were prepared for his tour. As it
progressed, they were reworked and by the time he reached the Maritimes, he was
presenting his main lecture known as The Decorative
Arts. He hoped 'to influence […] the growing spirit of art in
[America] [.. .] and to make one person love beautiful things a little more […].'
Wilde's Canadian 'advance man' was Mr. H.C. Husted. His job was to secure sponsors for each
lecture in individual cities. Fredericton was the first Canadian stop on the
autumn leg of the tour, which included the Maritimes and New England. The local
sponsors were reported to be a Mr. Kerr and H. Lebaron Smith. The 800-seat
Opera House Hall in Fredericton's City Hall was the site for the lecture, to be
presented at 8 p.m. on 4th October 1882. Wilde had arrived by train from
Bangor, Maine earlier that day and was staying overnight at the Barker House on
Queen Street before traveling on to Saint John. The New Brunswick Reporter and Fredericton Advertiser for
4th October advertised his appearance in glowing terms:'All lovers of the
beautiful in life and nature will have the privilegeof listening to Oscar Wilde
in the City Hall this evening. The subject of his lecture will be "The
practical application of the principals ofthe Æsthetic Theory to exterior and
interior house decorations, with observations upon dress and personal
ornamentation''! Who could resist attending such an event? The copywriter
warned that 'already most of the reserved seats have been taken and no doubt
those remaining will be in great demand to-day.' It was then further predicted
that 'the enterprise that prompted [his] appearance will be amply
rewarded.'
By all accounts, the prediction was proven correct. A very short item in the Evening Capital of 5th October reported that
' this famous and ever-popular individual drew a large audience [...] The
reserved seats were all taken, and the body of the house was well filled […] The
lecture was a financial success.' It was not until two days later, 7th
October, that the full story became known. In an anonymous letter to the editor
of the Evening Capital, 'A
disgusted lady' angrily referred to the insulting behaviour of the 'gang of
young men from the University [of New Brunswick]' who attended the lecture en masse and who, in her view 'were not
only trying to [Wilde] but disgusting to the whole audience, from the almost
constant stamping and mock plaudits which these fellows set up from the
beginning to the end of the lecture. 'The
students had apparently decided to follow the earlier example of their counterparts
at Harvard, arriving a full five minutes after the start of the evening,
marching 'in procession [. . .] into the Hall and all the way down to the front
seats [. . .]. Some of them had sun-flowers in their button-holes.' The
anonymous complainant saw their imitation of the Bunthorne character as a clear
insult to Wilde whom she considered 'a man of refinement and culture, of
excellent presence, voice, language and actions […].' For the record, Wilde himself appeared for his lectures dressed
in a velvet suit, frilly shirt with ruffles on the sleeve, knee-breeches, grey
or black silk stockings, and silver-buckled shoes. 'I do not know a greater
heroism than that which opposes the conventionalities of dress; the sombre
dress of the age is robbing life of its beauty and is ruinous to art,' declared
Wilde during the lecture.
Punch, 25th June 1881, courtesy UNB
Archives.
The students' own view of these events, as recorded in
the October 1882 University Monthly
was, not surprisingly, somewhat different. About 25 students attended the talk
and 'by their frequent and animated applause, they showed that their sentiments
were entirely in accord with those of the eloquent lecturer. It is to be
regretted that their appreciation of the lecture was misinterpreted by some [.
. .].' One of UNB's archival copies of the University
Monthly, annotated by its donor, Arthur William Teed (BA 1884),
states that 'I was one' of the 25 students in attendance. Interestingly,
two of Teed's fellow classmates that year were W.F. Ganong and Joseph Whitman
Bailey; the latter's diaries give no indication tha he was among the
twenty-five.
A week after the event, another anonymous letter to the
editor appeared, signed 'One present at the lecture,' stating tha 'A disgusted
lady' had misrepresented the facts in the case, and asserting that '[. . .] a
set of more perfect gentlemen than our Collegians it would be hard to find.'
The writer agreed that the students' applause was 'loud and frequent' but that
Wilde was reported to have said, after his lecture, that 'they were highly
intelligent looking boys, all of them. They had their fun and I did not mind.'
Ironically, this was just the very gracious response that admirers, such as 'A
disgusted lady,' would have expected. It
is unfortunate that the newspaper accounts did not provide more adequate coverage
of some of the more serious, and witty, of Wilde's remarks. Part of the text of
his lecture reads: 'You must encourage and support art in your own city; […]
you should make by your own workmen beautiful art for the enjoyment of your
citizens: weave your own carpets, design your own furniture, make your own
pottery […].' One can only assume that Wilde would be well-pleased in
encountering the healthy artistic community that is Fredericton in the 1990s.
He also chided: 'There is no excuse for the ugly water jugs or pitchers today;
[. . .] yet we continue to submit to the depressing jugs with the handle all on
one side' […]. ' Why I have seen wallpaper which must lead a boy brought up
under its influence to a career of crime.'
(It is also interesting to note that even today, many
letters to the Editor of the
Daily Gleaner continue to be printed unsigned.)
It had been arranged for later in the evening, that Wilde
should meet the young Fredericton poet Charles G.D. Roberts. In fact, they did spend some time together,
reading their poems to one another and drinking gin at the Barker House. Wilde
was only six years Roberts' senior, and both were still in the early stages of
their literary careers. In a letter written in 1885, Roberts commented that 'I
have a very high opinion indeed of Wilde's possibilities [. . .].' Elsie
Pomeroy, Roberts' biographer, reports that he was 'charmed' by Oscar and
retained his high opinion of him, even after the playwright's social disgrace
in 1895. Laurel Boone, editor of Roberts' letters, notes that the
evidence seems to indicate they did not have an extensive correspondence,
perhaps exchanging only the one letter in which Wilde is said to have written
to Roberts that ' [. . .]with the beginning [Roberts] had made, he didn't believe
there could be any heights in song beyond [his] reach.' When speaking with a
Nova Scotia reporter near the end of his Canadian tour, Wilde remarked to him
'You have poets with you. In New Brunswick a young man; Mr. Roberts has
published a little book [Orion, and other
poems (1880) ].'
Although some critics labelled Wilde a 'notorious dilettante',
merely posing as the leader of an intellectual movement, and attracting
attention 'solely by means of his dress and personal grooming,' he was
generally well received in Canada. 'I am having charming audiences,' he wrote
from Halifax on 8th October 1882; ' [. . .] the Canadians are very appreciative
people, but it is a great fight in this commercial age to plead the cause of
Art.' The Halifax Morning Herald
reporter, interviewing him on 10th October at his hotel, wrote that Wild 'found
Canadians pleasant.' He liked New Brunswick's scenery, as it 'lent itself
readily to art […]. The scenery was always changing as one passed through. Every turn in the road brought a small
surprise.'
Professor O'Brien concludes that 'the final assessment of
[Oscar Wilde's] Canadian tour must be that it was a success.' As for the man
himself, readers today should turn to the writings of Oscar Wilde and his
thought-provoking quotations. A small
sampling: 'Being natural is simply a pose'; 'Only dull people are brilliant at
breakfast'; 'Fashion is what one wears oneself, and what is unfashionable is
what other people wear'; 'Resist everything except temptation'; 'The only
possible exercise is to talk, not to walk'; 'To love oneself is the beginning
of a lifelong romance'; 'Only the shallow know themselves'; 'Vulgarity is
simply the conduct of other people.'
The Daily Evening News, Saint
John, New Brunswick, 30th September 1882.
As a footnote to the Oscar Wilde story in New Brunswick,
readers may be interested to know that Shaw Brothers launched the steamboat Oscar Wilde in 1883 (built the year
before) and began by operating it between Woodstock and Grand Falls. George
MacBeath and Donald F. Taylor, in their Steamboat
Days (1982), state that it was then an 87-foot stern-wheeler of 147
tons, and was used to carry bark from Shogomoc and to transport Shaw's products
to Hartland. In the late 1880s it was bought by David Coy of Upper Gagetown,
refitted and lengthened to 111 feet, and was put on the Saint John--Fredericton
run. In 1890 the steamboat was bought by Starline and G. VanWart. Its name was
changed twice, first to 'The Brittain' and later, in 1891, to 'The
Springfield'. Under the latter name it plied the Belleisle waters, where it
was destroyed by fire in 1907 at Hatfield's Point.
Unfortunately, the Barker House register no longer exists,
but Oscar Wilde did leave his signature in an unusual place here in
Fredericton. The Legislative Building was completed in February of 1882 and,
when Oscar Wilde arrived in October of that year, he was given a tour. According
to Phyllis LeBlanc, the current Sergeant-at-Arms, the famous author signed his
name on the stairwell wall that leads to the dome. The autograph remained,
along with countless others, until the early 1990s, when a painter
inadvertently covered it forever with one stroke of the brush!
v Patricia Belier is a Librarian at the Harriet Irving Library, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada.
http://www.lib.unb.ca
http://www.unb.ca
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