A C ollection of " OR I G INAL MANUSCRI PTS LETTERS Co BOOKS O S C A R W I L D E including his LETTERS WR ITTEN TO ROBERT ROSS FROM READING GAOL ° UNPUBL ISHED LETTERS POEMS 63 PLAYS formerly in the possession of E S ILLA D S UA A ON O OSS C . S R B RT R . M R (T RT M ) THE YOUNGER SON OF OSCAR WILDE C AB LES DULAU 6b” C OM PANY L IM ITED TE LEP HONE C HA USC RIP T RE G ENT LONDON 3 2 OLD BOND STREET LONDON W I 42 1 0 WE have submitted the letters in this catalogue for examination to Lord Alfred D L ouglas . ord Alfred raises no objection to their dispersal in View of their - ff historical and self revealing interest, and considers that his consent is su i ciently indicative of the attitude he takes up towards the references to himself which they contain . Th e copyright in the unpublished material in this catalogue is strictly E reserved by the Estate of Oscar Wilde . We are indebted to the state for permission to make , under licence , the extensive quotations which appear herein . I N T R O D U C T O R Y N O T E No logical principle of arrangement has been found for the material in this l catalogue. It is hoped and be ieved that the copious index at the end will Th e compensate for the comparative chaos of the text . letters and figures in ’ brackets which follow some items give reference to Stuart Mason s Bibliography : B T M 1 0 . S . e. g . ( ) refers to the tenth item in the ibliography here is a list of hi these items at the end of the catalogue , as well as another list of items w ch . L . al r are not in the Bibliography References to W . Nos refer to W te ’ ' lome 1 S a No . 2 L edger s Bibliography of (see 7 in this catalogue) . A few items “ ” B T are described as boards with ibliography label . hese are the actual B copies which Millard used in preparing his ibliography , with the special index label which he had printed for the purpose . Items described as with Large book- plate or Small book- plate carry ’ - one or the other of lVIillard s book plates . A reproduction of the large book plate is given below . B k - ooks oo S . M i a d ua M i d in all b plate of C. ll r (St rt as on) conta ne in his u - t catalog e des cribed as having the large book plate . V l l C O N T E NT S N E P a e 11 INTRODUCTORY OT , g vii ‘ P a e flLIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS , g xi ‘ n o P a e flMSS . , , g I P a e 8 11 BOOKS BY WILDE , g 9 ‘ W IL DEA NA . fl , BOOKS ABOUT WILDE , ETC , P a e 1 11 INDEXES , g 35 L I S T O F I L L U S T R A T I O N S ’ A Wom an s Tra ed P a e . 2 A page of the MS of g y, g Sen Art s t P a e A page of the MS . of y g 7 Th a e e . P 1 . MS of an unpublished poem , g 4 P a e 1 IV . A letter to Robert Ross , g 9 Pa e 2 V . A letter from Reading Gaol , g 9 B allad o Readin Gaol P a e A letter containing a stanza of the f g , g 3 7 i Pa e VII . An unpubl shed letter from Rome , g 73 Pa e VIII . Another unpublished letter from Rome , g 7 7 D h P a e 8 rawings by Wilde to illustrate a letter to his mot er , g 3 T - u r . S essed P ortion o D e P ro undis P a e 1 0 1 X itle page of the pp f f , g T - D orian Gra Pa e 1 08 itle page of y , g T - P oem s B 1 88 1 P a e 1 0 itle page of , oston , g 9 r The i Lam a . w r t S i P e XIII apper of p p , g I I I - . T Ravenna Pa e 1 XIV itle page of , g I 3 T - A Wom an o N0 I m ortance Pa e 1 1 itle page of f p , g 7 ’ E Pa e 1 2 XVI . pstein s monument , g 7 O S C A R W I L D E C R I P T S A U T O G R A P H L E TT E RS M A N U S , FI R S T E D I T I O N S & , c . A CON SIDERA BLE PORTION of the ORIGINAL MS . of an unfinished and entirely I ’ unpublished play , in Wilde s hand throughout , on 49 foolscap pages , ’ - - about one third in ink and two thirds in pencil , entitled A W O M A N S T R A G E D Y From time to time there have been reported discoveries of new and i unpubl shed plays or poems by Wilde , all of which have proved baseless i t on investigation . Since Messrs . Methuen publ shed their second collec ed edition , only one Short poem has been discovered which is indisputably T the work of Wilde . his manuscript , coming as it does from a source impossible of suspicion , is of the greatest possible importance , as it was x generally unknown that such a play e isted . While it is in the form of only l a rough draft , it is possible briefly to out ine the plot , from which it will appear that the form of the play bears only the faintest resemblance to ’ Wilde s usual plots . While it is probably true that if the work had been finished it would have been more polished and studded with epigrams , the bare outline of it which emerges from this fragment is a society melo ’ ’ I t Lad Winderm ere s Fan drama . has this likeness to y , and also Wilde s Th e usual setting of a fashionable circle of people . characters are Gerald ’ L L M erto n L . u ovel , a poet Mrs ovel , his wife ord , a friend of Gerald s L - M rs . Fresh e and afterwards in love with Mrs . ovel , a society low comedy T character , and her friend , a foreign Countess . here is a reckless : e changing of names throughout thus G rald starts as Arthur , but that L M r o n Th e name is suddenly transferred to ord e t u . manuscript begins at L Act II . , when Mr . and Mrs . ovel are living in Venice and expecting r n an d a visit from L ord M e tou . In this act there are several epigrams witticisms , of which a few specimens are L i [ OVEL] I have written very l ttle since my marriage . M E RTOUN [ ] When a poet has his ideal to pour out tea for him , his occu patl on IS gone . [He has] a lot of blue china . I hope he lives up to it . An angel on earth nowadays would have to pay for his wings . He had given Arthur a terrible black eye , or Arthur had given him , — ’ I . really don t remember , but I know they were great friends He either died of a broken heart or got a situation in the Civil Service . I really am not quite sure which , but I know he was very wretched . I (U s W (‘ J M 1 ' u t T h c /u j —9 L 5 g ( “J g c t “ C A A - h ) M ) R 4 4 , “ s w, 4 A J w Q “ \ ” Q 72 ? s ‘ ' b “ R l a fi c , V A 5 0 3 5 w M O J L i l JD - z m a lt . /u , . A f M P " Fa s i i r . I . M o c m le pagef om the S Qf N . I . In Act III . , which is in pencil , the melodramatic plot is introduced . From this it appears that on their marriage Lovel gave his wife diamonds P worth Some time afterwards , when he was in debt in aris , she pledged the diamonds with a Bond Street jeweller for to pay his debts , with the right to repurchase them at any time within two years T P f for his act Opens with the visit of a arisian legal o ficial , serving L notice on Mrs . ovel to produce the diamonds within six weeks . She is in despair at the prospect of producing the money, and there is indication that she seeks it from Lord M ertou n . In the margins of the manuscript are numerous thumbnail sketches of heads , buildings , grotesques , etc . Most of the manuscript is very hastily scribbled down , probably in the first flights of inspiration , and occasion ally it is diffi cult to decipher when Wilde drops into a sort of shorthand of his own . It may be said without much fear of contradiction that the opportunity i i of acqu ring such a manuscript as this will never occur aga n . (See N .