Editing Oscar Wilde (section)

== Final years: 1897–1900 ==

=== Exile ===
{{see also|The Ballad of Reading Gaol|l1=''The Ballad of Reading Gaol''}}
[[File:Oscar Wilde's visiting card (as Sebastian Melmoth).jpg|thumb|Oscar Wilde's [[visiting card]] after his release from gaol]]
Though Wilde's health had suffered greatly from the harshness and diet of prison, he had a feeling of spiritual renewal. He immediately wrote to the [[Society of Jesus]] requesting a six-month Catholic retreat; when the request was denied, Wilde wept.{{sfn|Holland|Hart-Davis|2000|pp=841–842}} "I intend to be received into the Catholic Church before long", Wilde told a journalist who asked about his religious intentions.<ref>Pearce, Joseph [https://books.google.com/books?id=TedJfEcWpokC The Picture of Dorian Gray (Introduction)] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160508171715/https://books.google.com/books?id=TedJfEcWpokC&dq |date=8 May 2016}}, p.&nbsp;X, Ignatius Press, 2008.</ref>

He spent his last three years impoverished and in exile. He took the name "Sebastian Melmoth", after [[Saint Sebastian]] and the titular character of ''[[Melmoth the Wanderer]]'' (a [[Gothic fiction|Gothic novel]] by [[Charles Maturin]], Wilde's great-uncle).{{sfn|Holland|Hart-Davis|2000|p=842}} Wilde wrote two long letters to the editor of the ''[[Daily Chronicle (United Kingdom)|Daily Chronicle]]'', describing the brutal conditions of English prisons and advocating [[penal reform]]. His discussion of the dismissal of Warder Martin for giving biscuits to an anaemic child prisoner repeated the themes of the corruption and degeneration of punishment that he had earlier outlined in ''[[The Soul of Man under Socialism]]''.{{sfn|Holland|Hart-Davis|2000|pp=847–855}}

Wilde spent mid-1897 with Robert Ross in the seaside village of [[Berneval-le-Grand]] in northern France, where he wrote ''The Ballad of Reading Gaol'', narrating the execution of [[Charles Thomas Wooldridge]], who murdered his wife in a rage at her infidelity. It moves from an objective story-telling to symbolic identification with the prisoners.{{sfn|Sandulescu|1994|p=308}} No attempt is made to assess the justice of the laws which convicted them but rather the poem highlights the brutality of the punishment that all convicts share. Wilde juxtaposes the executed man and himself with the line "Yet each man kills the thing he loves".{{sfn|Sandulescu|1994|p=310}} He adopted the proletarian ballad form and the author was credited as "C33", Wilde's cell number in Reading Gaol. He suggested that it be published in ''Reynolds' Magazine'', "because it circulates widely among the criminal classes&nbsp;– to which I now belong&nbsp;– for once I will be read by my peers&nbsp;– a new experience for me".{{sfn|Kiberd|2000|p=336}} It was an immediate roaring commercial success, going through seven editions in less than two years, only after which "[Oscar Wilde]" was added to the title page, though many in literary circles had known Wilde to be the author.{{sfn|Mason|1972|pp=408–410}}{{sfn|Ellmann|1988|p=526}}

Although Douglas had been the cause of his misfortunes, he and Wilde were reunited in August 1897 at [[Rouen]]. This meeting was disapproved of by the friends and families of both men. Constance Wilde was already refusing to meet Wilde or allow him to see their sons, though she sent him money – three pounds a week. During the latter part of 1897, Wilde and Douglas lived together near [[Naples]] for a few months until they were separated by their families under the threat of cutting off all funds.{{sfn|Hyde|1948|p=308}}

Wilde's final address was at the dingy Hôtel d'Alsace (now known as [[L'Hôtel]]), on rue des Beaux-Arts in [[Saint-Germain-des-Prés]], Paris. "This poverty really breaks one's heart: it is so ''sale'' [filthy], so utterly depressing, so hopeless. Pray do what you can" he wrote to his publisher.{{sfn|Holland|Hart-Davis|2000|p=1092}} He corrected and published ''[[An Ideal Husband]]'' and ''[[The Importance of Being Earnest]]'', the proofs of which, according to Ellmann, show a man "very much in command of himself and of the play", but he refused to write anything else: "I can write, but have lost the joy of writing".{{sfn|Ellmann|1988|p=527}}

He wandered the boulevards alone and spent what little money he had on alcohol.{{sfn|Ellmann|1988|p=528}} A series of embarrassing chance encounters with hostile English visitors, or Frenchmen he had known in better days, drowned his spirit. Soon Wilde was sufficiently confined to his hotel to joke, on one of his final trips outside, "My [[wallpaper]] and I are fighting a duel to the death. One of us has got to go".{{sfn|Ellmann|1988|p=546}} On 12 October 1900 he sent a telegram to Ross: "Terribly weak. Please come".{{sfn|Holland|Hart-Davis|2000|p=1119}} His moods fluctuated; [[Max Beerbohm]] relates how their mutual friend [[Reginald Turner|Reginald 'Reggie' Turner]] had found Wilde very depressed after a nightmare. "I dreamt that I had died, and was supping with the dead!" "I am sure," Turner replied, "that you must have been the life and soul of the party."<ref>M. Beerbohm (1946), "Mainly on the Air"</ref>{{sfn|Holland|Hart-Davis|2000|p=1213}} In early 1900 in Sicily, Oscar Wilde became involved in a relationship with the 15 year old Giuseppe Loverde.<ref name="Trials" />

=== Death ===
[[File:Oscar Wilde on his Deathbed 1900 by Maurice Gilbert.jpg|thumb|right|Oscar Wilde on his deathbed in 1900. Photograph by Maurice Gilbert.]]
By 25 November 1900, Wilde had developed [[meningitis]], then called "cerebral meningitis". Robbie Ross arrived on 29 November, sent for a priest, and Wilde was [[Conditional baptism|conditionally baptised]] into the Catholic Church by Fr Cuthbert Dunne, a [[Passionists|Passionist]] priest from Dublin,{{sfn|Holland|Hart-Davis|2000|p=1224}}<ref>Cavill, Paul, Heather Ward, Matthew Baynham, and Andrew Swinford, [https://books.google.com/books?id=X2HG2SyNkaoC The Christian tradition in English literature: poetry, plays, and shorter prose] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160516172554/https://books.google.com/books?id=X2HG2SyNkaoC&dq |date=16 May 2016}}, p.&nbsp;337, Zondervan 2007.</ref> Fr Dunne recorded the baptism:

<blockquote> As the ''voiture'' rolled through the dark streets that wintry night, the sad story of Oscar Wilde was in part repeated to me... Robert Ross knelt by the bedside, assisting me as best he could while I administered conditional baptism, and afterwards answering the responses while I gave [[Anointing of the Sick in the Catholic Church|Extreme Unction]] to the prostrate man and recited the prayers for the dying. As the man was in a semi-comatose condition, I did not venture to administer the [[Holy Viaticum]]; still I must add that he could be roused and was roused from this state in my presence. When roused, he gave signs of being inwardly conscious... Indeed I was fully satisfied that he understood me when told that I was about to receive him into the Catholic Church and gave him the [[Last rites|Last Sacraments]]... And when I repeated close to his ear the Holy Names, the [[Act of Contrition|Acts of Contrition]], Faith, Hope and Charity, with acts of humble resignation to the Will of God, he tried all through to say the words after me.{{sfn|Holland|Hart-Davis|2000|p=1223}}{{efn|Robert Ross, in his letter to [[More Adey]] (dated 14 December 1900), described a similar scene: "(Wilde) was conscious that people were in the room, and raised his hand when I asked him whether he understood. He pressed our hands. I then went in search of a priest and with great difficulty found Fr Cuthbert Dunne, of the Passionists, who came with me at once and administered Baptism and [[Anointing of the Sick (Catholic Church)|Extreme Unction]] – Oscar could not take the [[Eucharist]]".{{sfn|Holland|Hart-Davis|2000|pp=1219–1220}}}}</blockquote>

Wilde died of meningitis on 30 November 1900.<ref name="OWNYTObit1900">{{Cite news |date=1 December 1900 |title=Death of Oscar Wilde |pages=1 |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1900/12/01/archives/death-of-oscar-wilde-he-expires-at-an-obscure-hotel-in-the-latin.html |url-status=live |url-access=subscription |access-date=1 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180917215406/https://www.nytimes.com/1900/12/01/archives/death-of-oscar-wilde-he-expires-at-an-obscure-hotel-in-the-latin.html |archive-date=17 September 2018 |issn=0362-4331 |id={{ProQuest|96020365}}}}</ref> Different opinions are given as to the cause of the disease: Richard Ellmann judged it was [[syphilis|syphilitic]]; [[Merlin Holland]], Wilde's grandson, thought this to be a misconception, noting that Wilde's meningitis followed a surgical intervention, perhaps a [[mastoidectomy]]; Wilde's physicians, Paul Cleiss and A'Court Tucker, reported that the condition stemmed from an old [[suppuration]] of the right ear (from the prison injury, see above) treated for several years (''{{lang|fr|une ancienne suppuration de l'oreille droite d'ailleurs en traitement depuis plusieurs années}}'') and made no allusion to syphilis.{{sfn|Ellmann|1988|pp=92, 582}}

=== Burial ===
{{Main|Oscar Wilde's tomb}}

[[File:Tomb of Oscar Wilde, Père Lachaise cemetery, Paris, France.jpg|thumb|alt=A large rectangular granite tomb. A large, stylised angel leaning forward is carved into the top half of the front. There are a few flowers beside a small plaque at the base. The tomb is surrounded by a protective glass barrier that is covered with graffiti.|The tomb of Oscar Wilde (surrounded by glass barrier) in [[Père Lachaise Cemetery]]]]

Wilde was initially buried in the [[Cimetière de Bagneux]] outside Paris; in 1909 his remains were disinterred and transferred to [[Père Lachaise Cemetery]], inside the city.{{sfn|Holland|Hart-Davis|2000|p=1230}} [[Oscar Wilde's tomb|His tomb]] there was designed by Sir [[Jacob Epstein]].{{efn|Epstein produced the design with architect [[Charles Holden]], for whom Epstein produced several controversial commissions in London.}} It was commissioned by Robert Ross, who asked for a small compartment to be made for his own ashes, which were duly transferred in 1950. The modernist angel depicted as a relief on the tomb was originally complete with male genitalia, which were initially censored by French authorities with a golden leaf. The genitals have since been vandalised; their current whereabouts are unknown. In 2000, Leon Johnson, a multimedia artist, installed a silver prosthesis to replace them.<ref>{{cite web |last=Johnson |first=Leon |year=2000 |title=(Re)membering Wilde |url=http://www.leonjohnson.org/projects/wilde.html |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141021073735/http://www.leonjohnson.org/projects/wilde.html |archive-date=21 October 2014 |access-date=24 July 2015}}</ref> In 2011, the tomb was cleaned of the many lipstick marks left there by admirers and a glass barrier was installed to prevent further marks or damage.<ref>{{cite news |last=Tagliabue |first=John |date=16 December 2011 |title=Walling Off Oscar Wilde's Tomb From Admirers' Kisses |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/16/world/europe/oscar-wildes-tomb-sealed-from-admirers-kisses.html |url-access=limited |access-date=1 February 2023 |issn=0362-4331 |id={{ProQuest|1620500886}}}}</ref>

The epitaph is a verse from ''[[The Ballad of Reading Gaol]]'',

<blockquote><poem>
And alien tears will fill for him
Pity's long-broken urn,
For his mourners will be outcast men,
And outcasts always mourn.{{sfn|Ellmann|1988|p=553}}
</poem></blockquote>

=== Posthumous pardon ===
In 2017, Wilde was among an estimated 50,000 men who were pardoned for homosexual acts that were no longer considered offences under the [[Policing and Crime Act 2017]] (homosexuality was [[Sexual Offences Act 1967|decriminalised in England and Wales in 1967]]). The 2017 Act implements what is known informally as the [[Alan Turing law]].<ref>{{cite news |date=31 January 2017 |title=Turing's Law: Oscar Wilde among 50,000 convicted gay men granted posthumous pardons |work=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/01/31/turings-law-thousands-convicted-gay-bisexual-men-receive-posthumous/ |access-date=5 April 2018 |archive-date=3 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190403080023/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/01/31/turings-law-thousands-convicted-gay-bisexual-men-receive-posthumous/ |url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Honours ===
[[File:Memorial window.jpg|thumb|upright|Wilde is commemorated in this stained glass window at [[Westminster Abbey]], London.]]
On 14 February 1995, Wilde was commemorated with a stained-glass window at [[Poets' Corner]] in [[Westminster Abbey]]. The memorial, above the monument to [[Geoffrey Chaucer]], was unveiled by his grandson [[Merlin Holland]], while Sir [[John Gielgud]] read from the final part of ''De Profundis'' and Dame [[Judi Dench]] read an extract from ''The Importance of Being Earnest''.<ref>{{cite news |title=Oscar Wilde |agency=Westminster Abbey |url=https://www.westminster-abbey.org/abbey-commemorations/commemorations/oscar-wilde |access-date=29 August 2020 |archive-date=23 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200923062103/https://www.westminster-abbey.org/abbey-commemorations/commemorations/oscar-wilde |url-status=live}}</ref>

In 2014, Wilde was one of the inaugural honorees in the [[Rainbow Honor Walk]], a [[List of halls and walks of fame|walk of fame]] in San Francisco's [[Castro District, San Francisco|Castro neighbourhood]] noting [[LGBTQ]] people who have "made significant contributions in their fields".<ref name=":022">{{Cite web |last=Shelter |first=Scott |date=14 March 2016 |title=The Rainbow Honor Walk: San Francisco's LGBT Walk of Fame |url=https://quirkytravelguy.com/lgbt-walk-fame-rainbow-honor-san-francisco/ |access-date=28 July 2019 |website=Quirky Travel Guy |archive-date=28 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190728105852/https://quirkytravelguy.com/lgbt-walk-fame-rainbow-honor-san-francisco/ |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |date=2 September 2014 |title=Castro's Rainbow Honor Walk Dedicated Today: SFist |url=https://sfist.com/2014/09/02/castros_rainbow_honor_walk_dedicate/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190810075052/https://sfist.com/2014/09/02/castros_rainbow_honor_walk_dedicate/ |archive-date=10 August 2019 |access-date=13 August 2019 |website=SFist – San Francisco News, Restaurants, Events, & Sports}}</ref><ref name=":3">{{cite web |last=Carnivele |first=Gary |date=2 July 2016 |title=Second LGBT Honorees Selected for San Francisco's Rainbow Honor Walk |url=http://www.gaysonoma.com/2016/07/second-lgbt-honorees-selected-for-san-franciscos-rainbow-honor-walk/ |access-date=12 August 2019 |website=We The People |archive-date=12 August 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190812121249/http://www.gaysonoma.com/2016/07/second-lgbt-honorees-selected-for-san-franciscos-rainbow-honor-walk/ |url-status=live}}</ref>

The Oscar Wilde Temple, an installation by visual artists [[McDermott & McGough]], opened in 2017 in cooperation with Church of the Village in New York City,<ref>{{cite web |title=McDermott & McGough to Open Temple Dedicated to Oscar Wilde in New York's Church of the Village |url=https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/mcdermott-mcgough-to-open-temple-dedicated-to-oscar-wilde-in-new-yorks-church-of-the-village-8717/ |access-date=28 June 2020 |website=ArtNews |date=19 July 2017 |archive-date=6 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200806004201/https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/mcdermott-mcgough-to-open-temple-dedicated-to-oscar-wilde-in-new-yorks-church-of-the-village-8717/ |url-status=live}}</ref> then moved to [[Studio Voltaire]] in London the next year.<ref name="Q Spirit2019">{{cite web |date=30 November 2019 |title=Oscar Wilde: Gay martyr with complex faith journey honored in art |url=http://qspirit.net/oscar-wilde-gay-martyr-faith/ |access-date=28 June 2020 |website=Q Spirit |archive-date=22 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200622233605/http://qspirit.net/oscar-wilde-gay-martyr-faith/ |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>[https://www.oscarwildetemple.org "The Oscar Wilde Temple"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210815071636/https://www.oscarwildetemple.org/ |date=15 August 2021}}. oscarwildetemple.org.</ref>