Oscar Wilde: Lady Windermere´s Fan
Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900): Lady Windermere's Fan (1892)
Oscar Wilde er nok mest kendt som en vittig og dekadent dandy, som måtte betale en høj pris for at udleve sin seksualitet i victoriatidens England.
Det viste sig, at der var mere under den festlige overflade - nedenfor et link til det meget personlige digt: The Ballad of Reading Gaol.
Her er et uddrag af en kodet samtale mellem tre victorianske bøsser. Stjernerne bruges muligvis som udtryk for håbet om engang at blive fri for frygten - for omverdenens fordømmelse...
CECIL GRAHAM. Now, my dear Tuppy, don't be led astray into the paths of virtue. Reformed, you would be perfectly tedious. That is the worst of women. They always want one to be good. And if we are good, when they meet us, they don't love us at all. They like to find us quite irretrievably bad, and to leave us quite unattractively good.
LORD DARLINGTON. They always do find us bad!
DUMBY. I don't think we are bad. I think we are all good, except Tuppy.
LORD DARLINGTON. No, we are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.
(...)
The Ballad of Reading Gaol:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45495/the-ballad-of-reading-gaol
