125 years ago today on 26 April 1895 Oscar Wilde’s trial for homosexuality began at the Old Bailey in London. 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
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 between David & Jonathan, as Plato made the very basis of his philosophy, & such as you find in the sonnets of Michelangelo and Shakespeare... It is beautiful, it is fine, it is the noblest form of affection. There is nothing unnatural about it.”
Wilde was sentenced to 2 years in prison, where his health deteriorated rapidly. While imprisoned he wrote The Ballad of Reading Gaol, which was voted one of Ireland’s 100 favourite poems in 1999. Wilde was released in 1897 but his health never recovered and he died in 1900.
