Editing Lord Alfred Douglas (section)

==1895 trials==
{{Main|Oscar Wilde#Trials}}
With Douglas's avid support, but against the advice of friends such as [[Robbie Ross]], [[Frank Harris]] and [[George Bernard Shaw]], Wilde had Queensberry arrested and charged with criminal [[libel]] in a [[private prosecution]], as [[sodomy]] was then a criminal offence. According to the libel laws of the time, since his authorship of the charge of sodomy was not in question, Queensberry could avoid conviction by demonstrating in court not only that the charge he had made was true but also that there was a public interest in having made the charge public. [[Edward Carson]], Queensberry's lawyer, portrayed Wilde as a vicious older man who preyed upon naive young boys and with extravagant gifts and promises of a glamorous lifestyle seduced them into a life of homosexuality. Several highly suggestive erotic letters that Wilde had written to Douglas were introduced as evidence; Wilde claimed they were works of art. Wilde was questioned closely on the homoerotic themes in ''[[The Picture of Dorian Gray]]'' and ''[[The Chameleon (magazine)|The Chameleon]]'', a single-issue magazine published by Douglas to which Wilde had contributed  "Phrases and Philosophies for Use of the Young".

[[File:Somdomite.jpg|thumb|The calling card, labelled Exhibit A in the trial (bottom left corner)|left]]

Queensberry's attorney announced in court that he had located several male prostitutes who were to testify that they had had sex with Wilde. Wilde's lawyers advised him that this would make a conviction on the libel charge very unlikely; he then dropped the libel charge, on his lawyers' advice, to avoid further pointless scandal. Without a conviction, the libel law of the time meant that Wilde was responsible for Queensberry's considerable legal costs which, along with other debts, left him [[bankruptcy|bankrupt]]. Based on the evidence raised during the case, Wilde was arrested the next day and charged with committing criminal [[sodomy]] and "[[gross indecency between men|gross indecency]]", a crime capable of being committed only by two men, which might include sexual acts other than sodomy.

Douglas's September 1892 poem "[[s:Two Loves (1894 poem)|Two Loves]]" (published in the Oxford magazine ''The Chameleon'' in December 1894) was used against Wilde at the latter's trial. It ends with the famous line that refers to male homosexuality as ''[[the love that dare not speak its name]]'', which is often attributed wrongly to Wilde. Wilde gave an eloquent but counter-productive explanation of the nature of this love on the witness stand. The trial resulted in a [[hung jury]].

In 1895, when Wilde was released on bail during his trials, Douglas's cousin [[Sholto Johnstone Douglas]] stood [[surety]] for [[pound sterling|£]]500 of the bail money.<ref>Maureen Borland, ''Wilde's Devoted Friend: A Life of Robert Ross, 1869–1918'' (Lennard Publishing, 1990) [https://books.google.com/books?id=j2lnAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Sholto+Johnstone+Douglas%22 p. 206] at books.google.com, accessed 22 January 2009.</ref> The prosecutor opted to retry the case. Wilde was convicted on 25 May 1895 and sentenced to two years' [[hard labour]], first at [[HM Prison Pentonville|Pentonville]], then [[HM Prison Wandsworth|Wandsworth]], then famously in [[HM Prison Reading|Reading Gaol]]. Douglas was forced into exile in Europe.

While in prison, Wilde wrote Douglas a long and critical letter titled ''[[De Profundis (letter)|De Profundis]]'', describing how he felt about him. Wilde was not permitted to send it but it might have been sent to him after Wilde's release. It was given to Robbie Ross with instructions to make a copy and send the original to Lord Alfred Douglas. Lord Alfred Douglas later said that he received only a letter from Ross with a few choice quotations and did not know there was a letter until reference was made to it in a biography of Wilde on which Ross had consulted. After Wilde's release on 19 May 1897, the two reunited in August at [[Rouen]] but stayed together only a few months due to personal differences and various pressures on them.