Clarke’s speech was a good one, but nothing out of the common:  no new arguments were used in it; not one striking illustration.  Needless to say the higher advocacy of sympathy was conspicuous by its absence.

Again, the interesting part of the trial was the cross-examination of Oscar Wilde.

Mr. Gill examined him at length on the two poems which Lord Alfred Douglas had contributed to The Chameleon, which Mr. Wilde had called “beautiful.”  The first was in “Praise of Shame,” the second was one called “Two Loves.”  Sir Edward Clarke, interposing, said: 

“That’s not Mr. Wilde’s, Mr. Gill.”

Mr. Gill:  “I am not aware that I said it was.”

Sir Edward Clarke:  “I thought you would be glad to say it was not.”

Mr. Gill insisted that Mr. Wilde should explain the poem in “Praise of
Shame.”

Mr. Wilde said that the first poem seemed obscure, but, when pressed as to the “love” described in the second poem, he let himself go for the first time and perhaps the only time during the trial; he said: 

“The ‘love’ that dare not speak its name in this century is such a great affection of an older for a younger man as there was between David and Jonathan, such as Plato made the very base of his philosophy and such as you find in the sonnets of Michaelangelo and Shakespeare—­a deep spiritual affection that is as pure as it is perfect, and dictates great works of art like those of Shakespeare and Michaelangelo and those two letters of mine, such as they are, and which is in this century misunderstood—­so misunderstood that, on account of it, I am placed where I am now.  It is beautiful; it is fine; it is the noblest form of affection.  It is intellectual, and it repeatedly exists between an elder and younger man, when the elder man has intellect, and the younger man has all the joy, hope and glamour of life.  That it should be so the world does not understand.  It mocks at it and sometimes puts one into the pillory for it.”

At this stage there was loud applause in the gallery of the court, and the learned Judge at once said:  “I shall have the Court cleared if there is the slightest manifestation of feeling.  There must be complete silence preserved.”

Mr. Justice Charles repressed the cheering in favour of Mr. Oscar Wilde with great severity, though Mr. Justice Collins did not attempt to restrain the cheering which filled his court and accompanied the dispersing crowd into the street on the acquittal of Lord Queensberry.

In spite, however, of the unfair criticisms of the press; in spite of the unfair conduct of the prosecution, and in spite of the manifest prejudice and Philistine ignorance of the Judge, the jury disagreed.

Then followed the most dramatic incident of the whole trial.  Once more Sir Edward Clarke applied for bail on behalf of Oscar Wilde.  “After what has happened,” he said, “I do not think the Crown will make any objection to this application.”  The Crown left the matter to the Judge, no doubt in all security; for the Judge immediately refused the application.  Sir Edward Clarke then went on to say that, in the case of a re-trial, it ought not to take place immediately.  He continued: