Speranza, a.k.a Oscar Wilde’s Mom

In this week’s episode Kim and Amy discuss the life and work of “Speranza,” a.k.a Lady Jane Wilde, a.k.a. Oscar Wilde’s mom! An outspoken, rabble-rousing poet who championed Irish independence, she stirred up members of the Young Ireland movement while writing for Dublin’s radical newspaper “The Nation” in the 1840s. Oscar may have inherited his mother’s wit, intellect and larger-than-life personality, but his later legal troubles were also preceded by her own very public and scandalous libel case.

Mentioned in this episode:

The Rest is History podcast on the trials of Oscar Wilde

The Nation

“Jacta Alea Est” by Speranza

“The Poet’s Destiny” by Speranza

“The Famine Year” by Speranza

Charles Gavan Duffy

Melmoth the Wanderer by Charles Maturin

William Wilde (Oscar Wilde’s father)

“The Ballad of Reading Gaol” by Oscar Wilde

“The Importance of Being Earnest” by Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

The Mary Travers libel case

The grave of Lady Jane Wilde

Transcript

it clear that it was the famous “Speranza” whose husband had victimized her. She printed up a thousand copies and had them printed all over Dublin. This is just a small account of her campaign against the Wildes. Jane did not believe Mary’s story and was exasperated by the ongoing harassment from what she believed to be a clearly troubled young woman. She wrote to Mary’s father saying Mary was crazy and needed to knock it off, and to make a very long story short, Mary used this letter to sue Jane for libel. The six-day court case was a complete spectacle. Everyone was following it. Mary won the case, but she was only awarded one farthing plus the cost of court expenses. One thing I discovered was that the case actually bolstered Jane’s public reputation as most people following the case sided with her. I think post #metoo we might think differently. [True crime fans: This is an interesting Internet rabbit hole to go down.]

KIM: Wow. Fascinating and disturbing.  Later in her life, Jane was living in poverty because after her husband's death, 1876, she and her sons discovered that he was basically bankrupt.  It's like a Jane Austen novel, right? And she moved to London where Oscar was living and tried to support herself writing for magazines. So when Oscar Wilde was imprisoned in Reading Gaol, his mother tried to visit him there. She was suffering from bronchitis and near death. Her request was refused.

AMY: Everything about this is awful. Everything about This is awful. Oscar Wilde in jail is just horrible to read about. He actually claimed that he knew the moment his mother died because her apparition appeared in his jail cell. This was 1896. He was able to pay for her burial, but not for her headstone.So she was buried anonymously.   

KIM: It wasn’t until 1996 that she received a plaque honoring her on the gravestone of her husband, William Wilde. A few years later the Oscar Wilde Society honored her in the cemetery where she is buried with a Celtic Cross gravestone monument. 

AMY: And I think we should end this episode with another one of Jane Wilde’s poems because if you read this one while keeping in mind Oscar Wilde’s own tragic fate, this has real poignancy, I think. 

THE POET’S DESTINY.

THE Priest of Beauty, the Anointed One,

Through the wide world passes the Poet on.

All that is noble by his word is crown’d,

But on his brow th’ Acanthus wreath is bound.[Acanthus is a thorny plant)

Eternal temples rise beneath his hand,

While his own griefs are written in the sand;

He plants the blooming gardens, trails the vine—

But others wear the flowers, drink the wine;

He plunges in the depths of life to seek

Rich joys for other hearts—his own may break.

Like the poor diver beneath Indian skies,

He flings the pearl upon the shore—and dies;

KIM: It’s interesting that the “poet” in this verse is a “he,” because if you think about the griefs that Jane had in life, too, I think this could just as easily be about her, be about both of them.

AMY: Yeah, totally. Interesting life and interesting lady. So that’s all for today’s episode, everyone. If you’re a Patreon member, get ready to put on your dancing shoes! In next week’s bonus episode we’ll be exploring the revolutionary history of a scandalous new dance craze of 19th century Europe: The Viennese Waltz. 

Bye, everyone!

KIM: Our theme song was written and recorded by Jennie Malone and our logo was designed by Harriet Grant. Lost Ladies of Lit is produced by Amy Helmes and Kim Askew and supported by listeners like you.