[48] Oscar here crosses the t’s and dots the i’s of his charge.

[49] The previous accusation repeated, with bitterest sarcasm.

[50] Lord Alfred Douglas is well above the middle height:  he holds himself badly but is fully five feet nine inches in height.

[51] The old accusation.

[52] Mr. Beerbohm Tree.

[53] The very truth, it seems to me.

[54] Proving another guilty would not have exculpated Oscar.  Readers of my book will remember that I urged Oscar to tell the truth and how he answered me.

[55] As will be seen from a letter of Oscar Wilde which I reproduce later, I supplied the clothes.

[56] His letter was merely an acknowledgment that he had received the clothes and cheque and was grateful.  I saw nothing in it to answer as he had not even mentioned the driving tour.

[57] I felt hurt that he dropped the idea without giving me any reason or even letting me know his change of purpose.

[58] I think this was true; though it had never struck me till I read this letter.  Later, in order to excuse himself for not working, he magnified the effect on his health of prison life.  A year after his release I think he had as large a reserve of nervous energy as ever.

[59] Fifty pounds was all Oscar asked me:  the whole sum agreed upon.  As a matter of fact I gave him fifty pounds more before leaving Paris.  I didn’t then know that he had ever told the scenario to anyone else, much less sold it; though I ought perhaps to have guessed it.—­F.H.

[60] I (Frank Harris) noticed at Reading that his hair was getting grey in front and at the sides; but when we met later the grey had disappeared.  I thought he used some dye.  I only mention this to show how two good witnesses can differ on a plain matter of fact.

[61] Ross found afterwards that they amounted to L620.

MEMORIES OF OSCAR WILDE

BY G. BERNARD SHAW

Copyright, 1918, BY BERNARD SHAW

INTRODUCTION

George Bernard Shaw ordered a special copy of this book of mine:  “Oscar Wilde:  His Life and Confessions,” as soon as it was announced.  I sent it to him and asked him to write me his opinion of the book.

In due course I received the following MSS. from him in which he tells me what he thinks of my work:—­“the best life of Wilde, ...  Wilde’s memory will have to stand or fall by it”; and then goes on to relate all his own meetings with Wilde, the impressions they made upon him and his judgment of Wilde as a writer and as a man.

He has given himself this labor, he says, in order that I may publish his views in the Appendix to my book if I think fit—­an example, not only of Shaw’s sympathy and generosity, but of his light way of treating his own kindness.