Editing Oscar Wilde (section)

=== ''Regina v Wilde'' ===
After Wilde left the court, a warrant for his arrest was applied for on charges of [[sodomy]] and [[Gross indecency between men|gross indecency]]. [[Robbie Ross]] found Wilde at the Cadogan Hotel,<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000378/18950406/022/0005 |url-access=subscription |title=The Arrest of Oscar Wilde at the Cadogan Hotel |date=6 April 1895 |newspaper=[[Hartlepool Mail]] |access-date=15 May 2021}} Via {{cite web |title=The Arrest of Oscar Wilde at the Cadogan Hotel – 6 April 1895 |url=https://blog.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/2013/04/05/the-arrest-of-oscar-wilde-at-the-cadogan-hotel-6-april-1895/ |website=[[British Newspaper Archive]] |date=5 April 2013 |access-date=27 November 2018 |archive-date=27 November 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181127194250/https://blog.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/2013/04/05/the-arrest-of-oscar-wilde-at-the-cadogan-hotel-6-april-1895/ |url-status=live}}</ref> [[Pont Street]], [[Knightsbridge]], with [[Reginald Turner]]. Both men advised Wilde to go at once to [[Dover]] and try to get a boat to France; his mother advised him to stay and fight. Wilde, lapsing into inaction, could only say, "The train has gone. It's too late."{{sfn|Ellmann|1988|p=455}} On 6 April 1895, Wilde was arrested for "gross indecency" under Section 11 of the [[Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885]], a term meaning homosexual acts not amounting to [[buggery]] (an offence under a separate statute).{{efn|See [[Offences against the Person Act 1861#Unnatural offences|Offences Against the Person Act 1861, ss 61, 62]]}}{{sfn|Hyde|1948|p=5}} At Wilde's instruction, Ross and Wilde's butler forced their way into the bedroom and library of 16 Tite Street, packing some personal effects, manuscripts, and letters.{{sfn|Ellmann|1988|p=429}} Wilde was then imprisoned on remand at [[Holloway (HM Prison)|Holloway]], where he received daily visits from Douglas.

Events moved quickly and his prosecution opened on 26 April 1895, before [[Arthur Charles (judge)|Mr Justice Charles]]. Wilde pleaded [[not guilty (plea)|not guilty]]. He had already begged Douglas to leave London for Paris, but Douglas complained bitterly, even wanting to give evidence; he was pressed to go and soon fled to the Hotel du Monde. Fearing persecution, Ross and many others also left the United Kingdom during this time. Under cross-examination, Wilde was at first hesitant, then spoke eloquently:

{{blockquote|
'''Charles Gill''' (prosecuting): What is "[[the love that dare not speak its name]]"?

'''Wilde:''' "The love that dare not speak its name" in this century is such a great affection of an elder for a younger man as there was between [[David and Jonathan]], such as Plato made the very basis of his philosophy, and such as you find in the sonnets of Michelangelo and Shakespeare. It is that deep spiritual affection that is as pure as it is perfect. It dictates and pervades great works of art, like those of Shakespeare and Michelangelo, and those two letters of mine, such as they are. It is in this century misunderstood, so much misunderstood that it may be described as "the love that dare not speak its name", and on that account of it I am placed where I am now. It is beautiful, it is fine, it is the noblest form of affection. There is nothing unnatural about it. It is intellectual, and it repeatedly exists between an elder and a younger man, when the elder man has intellect, and the younger man has all the joy, hope and glamour of life before him. That it should be so, the world does not understand. The world mocks at it, and sometimes puts one in the pillory for it.
(Loud applause, mingled with some hisses.)<ref>{{cite web |title=Testimony of Oscar Wilde |url=https://famous-trials.com/wilde/342-wildetestimony |website=Famous Trials |publisher=[[University of Missouri–Kansas City School of Law|UMKC School of Law]] |access-date=21 September 2024}}</ref>{{sfn|Ellmann|1988|p=435}}}}

[[File:oscarwildetrial.jpg|thumb|right|upright|alt=A cartoon drawing of Wilde in a crowded courtroom|Wilde in the dock at the [[Old Bailey]], from ''The Illustrated Police News'', 4&nbsp;May 1895]]
This response was counter-productive in a legal sense, for it only served to reinforce the charges of homosexual behaviour. The trial ended with the jury unable to reach a verdict. Wilde's counsel, Sir Edward Clarke, was finally able to get a magistrate to allow Wilde and his friends to post bail.<ref name="oldbailey">{{Old Bailey|defendant=Oscar Fingal O'Fflahartie Wills Wilde, Alfred Waterhouse Somerset Taylor|trialdate=22 April 1895|id= t18950520-425|access-date=22 April 2010}}</ref> The Reverend [[Stewart Headlam]] put up most of the £5,000 surety required by the court, having disagreed with Wilde's treatment by the press and the courts.{{sfn|Foldy|1997|p=40}} Wilde was freed from Holloway and, shunning attention, went into hiding at the house of Ernest and [[Ada Leverson]], two of his firm friends. Edward Carson approached [[Frank Lockwood (politician)|Sir Frank Lockwood]] QC, the [[Solicitor General for England and Wales|Solicitor General]], and asked "Can we not let up on the fellow now?"{{sfn|Ellmann|1988|p=435}} Lockwood answered that he would like to do so, but feared that the case had become too politicised to be dropped.

The final trial was presided over by [[Alfred Wills|Mr Justice Wills]]. On 25 May 1895, Wilde and Alfred Taylor were convicted of gross indecency and sentenced to two years' hard labour.<ref name="oldbailey" /> The judge described the sentence, the maximum allowed, as "totally inadequate for a case such as this", and that the case was "the worst case I have ever tried".{{sfn|Foldy|1997|p=47}} Wilde's response of "And I? May I say nothing, my Lord?" was drowned out in cries of "Shame" in the courtroom.<ref>[http://famous-trials.com/wilde/335-statement Sentencing Statement of Justice Wills] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180326143605/http://famous-trials.com/wilde/335-statement |date=26 March 2018}}.</ref>

Although it is widely believed that the charges were related to Wilde's consensual activities, ''The Trials of Oscar Wilde'', which includes an original transcript of the libel trial (which came to light in 2000), suggests that he took advantage of teenagers.<ref name="Trials">{{cite news |last=Field |first=Marcus |title=Is Oscar Wilde's reputation due for another reassessment? |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/features/oscar-wilde-facing-retrial-9773718.html |url-status=live |work=[[The Independent]] |date=4 October 2014 |access-date=16 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210302134040/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/features/oscar-wilde-facing-retrial-9773718.html |archive-date=2 March 2021}}</ref> Antony Edmonds feels that Wilde would have faced prosecution today: "For example, he certainly paid for sex with youths under the age of 18 which is a criminal offence. But even if his activities had led only to exposure and not to arrest, he would have been savagely pilloried in the media. Wilde was 39 when he seduced Alphonse Conway, and Conway was an inexperienced boy of 16". Another teenager who said he had engaged in sex acts with Wilde, Walter Grainger, who was 16 at the time, said Wilde had threatened him with "very serious trouble" if he told anyone about their relationship.<ref name="Trials" /> [[Marriageable age#Modern history|Marriageable age]] (and the age of consent) in England was 16 at the time, having been 13 as recently as 1885: the [[Offences against the Person Act 1875]] raised the age of consent to 13 years old, and a decade later, the [[Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885]] raised the age of consent to 16 years old, just ten years before the trial.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.swarb.co.uk/acts/1885Criminal_Law_AmendmentAct.shtml|title=Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885 {{snd}}An Act to make further provision for the Protection of Women and Girls, the suppression of brothels, and other purposes. |date=1885|website=www.swarb.co.uk}}</ref>