The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1882-02-06
Esthetic syllabub.
Oscar Wilde in Washington.

OSON~@
The following account of Oscar Wildes lee
ture in Washington is taken from the Post OF
that city. The writer of it, we violate no con-
fidence in saying, is the lady so affectionately
remembered by us all as Miss Mary Deering,
now Mrs. Caswell:
The appearance of Oscar Wilde upon the
stage at Lincoln Hall last night, caused q po-
lite aesthetic rustic in the audience, which did
not develop however, into a vulgar litter.
This was due possibly to the fact that Oscar
was not arrayed in his gorgeous pea-green coat
and brown velvet knee-breeches, which usually
make him conspicuous when he appears IN
public. His knee-breeches, OF course, were
not lacking, but they were dark in hue, and
the rest of his costume was comparatively
quiet-dark, sombre, Rembran1tic, medl8val,
so to speak. The upper half OF his person re-
sembled an English curate-h lower extremi-
ties an Italian brigand. He wore black SIX
stockings and black knee-breeches, which gave
his legs general and remote resemblance to
two sticks of liquorice. The lecture was de-
livered throughout in sng-songy, languidly
drawlng tone, the voice ascending and de-
scending at regular intervals, and the senten-
ces ending with rising infection. At first
the audience, despite the fact that the speaker
could hardly be heard, seemed inclined to be
attentive, but patience ceased to be virtue.
Then opera glasses Wbf6 ulr6Cl6u W ali pdrlS VI
the hall except the STAGE ladies yawned, the
gentlemen looked bored, and at last so many
arose and left that at times the sound OF the
speakers voice was drowned. In his favorite
position, the lecturer stood with one hand rest
ing on the desk before him and the other
crooked against his side, his body meanwhile
leaning at an angle of thirty degrees to the
perpendicular. Only his left hand was gloved,
and his right caressed the other glove with
soft, poetic fervor.
Mr.. Wilde's features, of which the picture in
The Sunday Post was faithful copy, were oc-
casionally relaxed by sickly, almost imbecile
smile. This was when he said something
that he thought was rather pretty, or when, by
adroitly appealing to national pride, he Sc
cured little applause. His manner is mild
and deliberative, and he announces the most
startling facts and astounding theories with an
innocent nonchalance that is perfectly delic-
ious. He talked about rev volutions and 1aience
in the same breath, and skipped from the har-
monies of the soul to Japanese wickerwork
with the utmost agility. The whole charac-
ter of the lecture is Kaleidoscope, II not
slightly mixed. Keats and Goethe. carved
doorways and painted chests are delightfully."-
combined with Achilles and the Duke Of We'll
lington. There is kind OF boyish simplicity
about him that absolutely disarms serious critl-
cism, as when he says that the trst duty OF a
critic is to keep silent upon all occasions and
on all Subjects remark that comes much
nearer bull than witticism. AS a lecture,
his performance is severely commonplace. 1t
has 4 good deal of Ruskin and Goethe favored
with Burne Jones and Swinburne, and largely
dilated with Oscar Wilde, and is perfectly
harmless
"I have not come to America with sinister
motives" Mr.. Wilde condescended to say but
rather to try to tell you what We are doing in
England for art, that you may at least under
stand it, whether you praise it or not" The
audience would have been glad, if in the first
place, it could have understood what the lee
turer was endeavoring to drive at. He COM
menced with telling the story OF the Pre-Raph-
aelites who. he said, we're group OF young
men possessing youth, power and enthusiasm
three things which the English public
could not tolerate. His remark that Satire
always as impudent as it is insolent-paid
them that usual homage which mediocrity
pays to genius was thought to bea hit back
at those who ridcule the aesthetic craze Inc
first applause which the lecturer received was
reference to piece of advice which Walt
Whitman had given him about writing poetry,
and the second was when he alluded TO Poe.
He was saying that the workings OF poets
soul, which men will persist in calling 'insplr-
ation" had always had charm for the
Greeks, when he referred to Poe in the follow
ing words: II need not remind you how deep
ly the young French poets OF the romantic
movement were stirred by Edgar Allen Foe's
analysis of the working OF his own lmagina-
ton when he wrote that supremely 1magina-
tive work, THE Raven
Everybody is affected, according TO Mrs
Wilde, by sunsets and sunses, but the abso-
lutte distinction of the artist is not SO much in
his capacity to feel as to interpret nature, and
the workings of the artistic spirit in the choice
of subject To the artist the present is not
whit more real than the past. For him no
form is obsolete, no expression out OF date;
whether in the desert of Judea or the Arcadi-
an valley; whether by the rivers of Troy or the
rivers of Damascus; in the streets OF the city
or the byways of the country; he will take
from his Surroundings whatever is sslutary Tor
his own spirit with the artistic control OF one
who is in the possession of the secret of beauty
From the artist Mr.. Wilde turned to the
poet. and gave his audience his idea of poets.
All things we're not fit subjects for poetry
nothing that is harsh or disturbing; nothing
that is debateable or about which men argue
Calm and perfect repose were incarnate IN
Keats code to the Grecian Urn," and the
one dominant note in Morris Earthly Para
dise," and in Burne-Jones knights and ladies'
To the spoet all times and places are one.
There is but one time-the artistic moment;
one law-the law of form; one land-the land
of beauty-'a land removed, indeed, from the
real world, and yet more sensuous because
more enduring; calm, yet with that calm
which dwells in the faces OF the Greek stat
ues." The wild-eyed sbys and mighty-limb-
ed prophets in the Sistine Chapel, tell more OF
the real spirit OF the Italian renaissance, OF the
dream of Savonarola and the crime of Borgia
than the brawling bcors and cooking women OF
Dutch art teachof the real spirit OF the MS
tory of Holland.
Towards the close of his lecture Oscar told
little story of how he and others had endeav-
ored to make a road across swamp In order
that some villagers might thereby be beneht-
ed. He did not say, however, whether knee
breeches were an fat on such occasions or not
He said that their enemies came and mocked
them at their efforts. 1--WE did not mind IL
much then and do not mind it now at all. APP
plause] And so we worked for two months at
our road. You ask, what became of that road?
Well, that road ended like a bad lecture
abruptly and in the midst of a swamp. Laugh
ter.
The Young gentlemen whom Mr.. Wilde met
at the german on Friday night were referred to
as ':brilliant" This provoked great applause
He liked their dancing, but they ought to COW
or the naked pedestals of their character with
something noble. If they danced, he would
rather they danced minuets than polkas, Tor
minuets had more beauty. The city OF
Washington had a great future in its sculp-
ture. ''You have got enough, now, ne
said, ''to have more, but don't think you
want any more bronze generals. lLaugnterJ
He wanted children to grow up in what Pa
to called 'sthe simplei atmosphere OF fair
things" The meanest vessel in the house
could awake the secret depths and longing OF
the soul. 1t was in the nature OF things that
there should always be hewers OF wood ana
drawers of water, but the pitcher at the well
could and shonld be thing of beauty. Every
object should be beautiful, and give light to
its maker, as we'll as its user. and tighten the
burden of the toilers. For those, the lecturer
said, with whom the end of life is not action
but thought, 'who must burn always win
one of the passions of this little, fiery. colored
world, and to whom. valuing passion for its in
tensty and not for its permanence, over and
over again in the progress of their culture find
what was once precious has become Indifferent
for those who find life interesting not for its
secrets but for its situations, for its pulSatons
not for its purpose, the passion of beauty en-
gendered by the decorative arts will be more
satisfying than any political or religious enthu-
siasm, any enthusiasm for humanity, any ecs-
tasv or sorrow of love, for art comes to you
protesting frankly to give nothing but the
highest qualities to your moments as they
pass"