Island Life Magazine Ltd October/November 2008 | Page 38

life

FEATURE

Dedicated
Follower
In early October 1884
twenty-nine year-old Mr
Oscar Wilde arrived in Ryde
to deliver a public lecture
on Dress. It was a subject
dear to his heart. He had
long made it known that in
his view the common enemy
was fashion – “a form of
ugliness so unbearable that
we are compelled to alter it
every six months.“ He insisted
that “bustles, stays, corsets
must go,” and condemned the
wearing of high heels that
distorted the deportment.
Instead he advocated clothing
in the Greek style, hanging
from the shoulder rather then
emphasising the waist - no
doubt that fashion was more
comfortable for the portly
figure.
How long he stayed in Ryde
is uncertain but at the time he
had a busy schedule, lecturing
as far afield as Glasgow,
Edinburgh, Stoke on Trent,
Leeds, London and later,
Dublin. He had recently
returned from the United
States, was soon to be thirty
and had been married for just
five months. His period of
fame was still to come but he
was already known as a wit
and a poet.
Always outspoken, Wilde
was recognised as an
authority on aestheticism,
a philosophical view of the
world as experienced through

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By Jan Toms
the senses but tempered with
moral judgements. It was
a philosophy embraced by
the Pre-Raphaelites. Not
everybody appreciated
his ideas however and Mr
Gilbert and Mr Sullivan had
unashamedly poked fun at him
in their operetta Patience. It
was as the butt of their joke
that many came to Ryde Town
Hall to see him.
The subject of dress was a
provocative one for Wilde’s
own style of wear had been
condemned as “unmanly.”
Whether the Isle of Wight was
ready for his unconventional
approach to life remained to
be seen. Always a paradox,
he appeared on stage quite
soberly attired.
A good number of the
curious came to look and
listen. In the weekly editions
of October 11 1884, the event
was recorded in two Island
newspapers: The Newport and
Isle of Wight Advertiser and
the Isle of Wight Observer. It
is hard to believe that the two
reporters had been present at
the same lecture.
The Observer commented
that many of the audience had
come to laugh but that they
were “speedily undeceived”
and were instead “instructed.”
Wilde presented none of
the postures the critic was

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