An Ideal Husband. Oscar Wilde

      AN

      IDEAL HUSBAND

      A PLAY

      By

      OSCAR WILDE

      First published in 1893

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      Contents

       Oscar Wilde

       THE PERSONS OF THE PLAY

       THE SCENES OF THE PLAY

       THEATRE ROYAL, HAYMARKET

       FIRST ACT

       SECOND ACT

       THIRD ACT

       FOURTH ACT

      Oscar Wilde

      Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was born in Dublin in 1854. His parents were successful Dublin intellectuals, and Wilde became fluent in French and German early in life. He studied at Trinity College, Dublin, and subsequently won a scholarship to Magdalen College, Oxford, where he was heavily influenced by John Ruskin and Walter Pate. Wilde proved himself to be an outstanding classicist. After university, he moved to London and became involved with the fashionable cultural and social circles of the day. At the age of just 25 he was well-known as a wit and a dandy, and as a spokesman for aestheticism—an artistic movement that emphasized aesthetic values ahead of socio-political themes—he undertook a lecture tour to the United States in 1882, before eventually returning to London to try his hand at journalism. It was also around this time that he produced most of his well-known short fiction.

      In 1891, Wilde published The Picture of Dorian Gray, his only novel. Reviewers criticised the novel's decadence and homosexual allusions, although it was popular nonetheless. From 1892, Wilde focussed on playwriting. In that year, he gained commercial and critical success with Lady Windermere's Fan, and followed it with the comedy A Woman of No Importance (1893) and An Ideal Husband (1895). Then came Wilde's most famous play, The Importance of Being Earnest – a farcical comedy which cemented his artistic reputation and is now seen as his masterpiece.

      In 1895, the Marquess of Queensbury, who objected to his son spending so much time with Wilde because of Wilde's flamboyant behaviour and reputation, publicly insulted him. In response, Wilde brought an unsuccessful slander suit against him. The result of this inability to prove slander was his own trial on charges of sodomy, and the revealing to the transfixed Victorian public of salacious details of Wilde's private life followed. Wilde was found guilty and sentenced to two years of hard labour.

      Wilde was released from prison in 1897, having suffered from a number of ailments and injuries. He left England the next day for the continent, to spend his last three years in penniless exile. He settled in Paris, and didn't write anymore, declaring “I can write, but have lost the joy of writing.” Wilde died of cerebral meningitis on in November of 1900, converting to Catholicism on his deathbed.

      THE PERSONS

      OF THE PLAY

      THE EARL OF CAVERSHAM, K.G.

      VISCOUNT GORING, his Son

      SIR ROBERT CHILTERN, Bart.,

      Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs

      VICOMTE DE NANJAC, Attaché at the French

      Embassy in London

      MR. MONTFORD

      MASON, Butler to Sir Robert Chiltern

      PHIPPS, Lord Goring’s Servant

      JAMES, Footmen

      HAROLD, Footmen

      LADY CHILTERN

      LADY MARKBY

      THE COUNTESS OF BASILDON

      MRS. MARCHMONT

      MISS MABEL CHILTERN, Sir Robert Chiltern’s Sister

      MRS. CHEVELEY

      THE SCENES

      OF THE PLAY

      ACT I. The Octagon Room in Sir Robert Chiltern’s House in Grosvenor Square.

      ACT II. Morning-room in Sir Robert Chiltern’s House.

      ACT III. The Library of Lord Goring’s House in Curzon Street.

      ACT IV. Same as Act II.

      TIME: The Present

      PLACE: London.

      The action of the play is completed within twenty-four hours.

      THEATRE ROYAL,

      HAYMARKET

      SOLE LESSEE: Mr. Herbert Beerbohm Tree

      MANAGERS: Mr. Lewis Waller and Mr. H. H. Morell

      January 3rd, 1895

      THE EARL OF CAVERSHAM, Mr. Alfred Bishop.

      VISCOUNT GORING, Mr. Charles H. Hawtrey.

      SIR ROBERT CHILTERN, Mr. Lewis Waller.

      VICOMTE DE NANJAC, Mr. Cosmo Stuart.

      MR. MONTFORD, Mr. Harry Stanford.

      PHIPPS, Mr. C. H. Brookfield.

      MASON, Mr. H. Deane.

      JAMES, Mr. Charles Meyrick.

      HAROLD, Mr. Goodhart.

      LADY CHILTERN, Miss Julia Neilson.

      LADY MARKBY, Miss Fanny Brough.

      COUNTESS OF BASILDON, Miss Vane Featherston.

      MRS. MARCHMONT, Miss Helen Forsyth.

      MISS MABEL CHILTERN, Miss Maud Millet.

      MRS. CHEVELEY, Miss Florence West.

      AN

      IDEAL HUSBAND

      A PLAY