Oscar Wilde [antikvár]

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he Marquess, a brutish man known for creating the rules of modern boxing, was profoundly displeased by Oscar Wilde's relatively public affair (and loving, intimate friendship) with his good-looking son, the 16-years younger Lord Alfred "Bosie" Douglas. In 1895, he left a card at Wilde's club on which he had written, "To Oscar Wilde posing as a somdomite" [sic]. Wilde was offended, and, in what would turn out to be a horrible mistake, had the Marquess arrested for libel. Ten years earlier, the criminal code had been updated to outlaw "gross indecency." To that point, indecent acts between men in private were not prosecutable. In 1885 they became so. The Marquess's libel trial had the unfortunate result, with Wilde trying to disprove he was posing as a sodomite, of introducing the testimony of various young men with whom Wilde had allegedly had sexual relations. When it became clear to Wilde's solicitors that he could not win the prosecution of the Marquess, they abandoned it and the Marquess was found not guilty. At this point Wilde's friends, including his wife, urged him to flee England for the Continent. But Wilde dithered, and an arrest warrant was issued for him based on the acts of gross indecency brought up by the libel trial. He was soon in prison, and on trial with a co-defendant, Alfred Taylor, who was also accused of procuring young men for Wilde.