This Day in History: 1895-04-03

Oscar Wilde’s libel trial begins on this day in 1895 at London’s Old Bailey Courthouse. Wilde brought the charge of libel against the Marquess of Queensbury for alleging that Wilde was a  “sodomite.”  Evidence introduced at the trial proves that Wilde had engaged in homosexual acts, which were illegal at the time. Wilde was sentenced to two years in jail and never recovered his reputation or his health.  In one of his last published letters, Wilde wrote: “When first I was put into prison some people advised me to try and forget who I was. It was ruinous advice. It is only by realising what I am that I have found comfort of any kind. Now I am advised by others to try on my release to forget that I have ever been in a prison at all. I know that would be equally fatal…. To regret one’s own experiences is to arrest one’s own development. To deny one’s own experiences is to put a lie into the lips of one’s own life. It is no less than a denial of the soul.”