A Florentine Tragedy (1893)
“A Florentine Tragedy was played by the Literary Theatre Society, London, June 10, 1906.“ (Mason, Bibliography, p. 466).
“A private performance was given [at King’s Hall] by the Literary Theatre Club in 1906 [10 June]. The first public presentation was given by the New English Players at the Cripplegate Institute, Golden Lane, E.C., in 1907 [28 Oct.].“ (The Works of Oscar Wilde: First Collected Edition, vol. 2, London, Methuen and Co., 1908, [p. 84]).
The first publication was in Russian and appeared in Viessy, Moscow, vol. IV, no. 1, January 1907, pp. 17-38 (see Mason, Bibliography, p. 464). Translated by Mikhail Likiardopulo, from a typed copy of Wilde’s manuscript (in the possession of Robert Ross), made by Christopher Millard in December 1906. (https://bit.ly/3xROTyn)
First published in English as a fragment, together with Salomé and Vera; or, The Nihilists, London, Methuen & Co., 1908. (https://bit.ly/37MHiVk)
GENESIS
“The week after next we would like to go down, and I look forward immensely to being at Babbacombe, as I want to write two plays [“A Florentine Tragedy“, “La Sainte Courtisane“], one in blank verse, and I know the peace and beauty of your home will set me in tune, so that I can hear things that the ear cannot hear, and see invisible things.“ (letter to Lady Mount Temple, from the Royal Bath Hotel, Bournemouth, ?November 1892, Complete Letters, p. 538)
“I am lazy and languid, doing no work. I need stirring up.“ (letter to Robert Ross, Babbacombe Cliff, circa December 1892, ibid., p. 542)
“I am rather unhappy as I can’t write – I don’t know why. Things are all wrong.“ (letter to Lord Alfred Douglas, Babbacombe Cliff, ?February 1893, ibid., p. 545)
“Oscar was determined to work hard, and indeed during his stay there [at Babbacombe], which lasted into March [1893], he finished A Woman of No Importance and most of A Florentine Tragedy, a play in blank-verse. He also started to put together another play, to be called La Sainte Courtisane. (Amor, Mrs Oscar Wilde, p. 116)
“I remember Oscar Wilde telling us the plots of three short plays he had in his mind – Salomé, The Florentine Tragedy and La Sainte Courtisane, almost writing them on the tablecloth as he glowed over his themes [March/April 1893].“ (Max Beerbohm, Herbert Beerbohm Tree, p. 80)
“The moment, in the early December of the year to which I have been alluding [1893], I had succeeded in inducing your mother to send you out of England, I collected again the torn and ravelled web of my imagination, got my life back into my own hands, and not merely finished the three remaining acts of The Ideal Husband, but conceived and had almost completed two other plays of a completely different type, the Florentine Tragedy and La Sainte Courtisane, when suddenly, unbidden, unwelcome, and under circumstances fatal to my happiness you returned. The two works left then imperfect I was unable to take up again. The mood that created them I could never recover.“ (letter [De Profundis] to Lord Alfred Douglas, January – March, 1897, Reading prison, Complete Letters, pp. 686-7)
“On Sunday I hope to send you, or read you, the vital parts of my Florentine play. I think you will like it. In any case, some day soon I would like to talk to you about it.“ (letter to George Alexander, February 1895, Complete Letters, p. 633)
“And, while The Importance of Being Earnest was filling the St. James’s Theatre, he was trying to finish La Sainte Courtisane, and had submitted to a manager the latter part of A Florentine Tragedy, which he had never been able to begin.“ (Ransome, p. 153)
“A Florentine Tragedy, a play in blank verse which Wilde originally intended for Lewis Waller, but never finished.“ (Complete Letters, p. 633n)
“Ask Bobby to go to Tite Street and get a type-written manuscript, part of my blank-verse tragedy [A Florentine Tragedy], also a black book containing La Sainte Courtisane in bedroom.“ (letter to More Adey and Robert Ross, 9 April 1895, ibid., p. 642)
“The history of the ‘Florentine Tragedy’ was related by Robert Ross to a representative of
‘The play was written,’ he said, ‘for Mr. George Alexander, but for certain reasons was not produced by him. In April, 1895, Mr. Wilde requested me to go to his house and take possession of all his unpublished manuscripts. He had been declared a bankrupt, and I reached the house just before the bailiffs entered. Of course, the author’s letters and manuscripts would have been exempt from seizure, but I found that the “Florentine Tragedy“ – together with the manuscripts of two other unpublished plays and the enlarged version of “The Portrait of Mr. W. H.“ upon which I knew he was engaged – had mysteriously disappeared. Someone had been there before me.
‘The thief was never discovered, nor have we even seen the “Florentine Tragedy,“ the “Mr. W. H.“ story, or one of the other plays – “The Duchess of Padua“ – since that time.’ Curiously enough, the manuscript of the third play [“La Sainte Courtisane“], a tragedy somewhat on the lines of “Salome,“ was discovered by a friend of Mr. Wilde’s in a second-hand bookshop in London in 1897. It was sent to the author in Paris, and was not heard of again. After his death in 1900 it could not be found. With regard to “The Duchess of Padua,“ the loss was not absolute, for this play, a five act tragedy, had previously been performed in America, and I possessed the “prompt“ copy. [see “The Duchess of Padua“, no. 26].“ (“Play’s Strange History“, interview Robert Ross, in The Tribune, London, 4 June 1906, see also Ingleby, Oscar Wilde, pp. 215-6)
“When Wilde was arrested at an Hotel in Sloane Street in April 1895, he asked me to go to his house, 16 Tite Street, Chelsea, in order to secure his unpublished MSS. These consisted chiefly of ‘The Duchess of Padua,’ the enlarged version of ‘Mr W. H.’ and ‘A Florentine Tragedy.’ On reaching the house I found that the door of his library had been locked. He subsequently wrote from Holloway Prison and again asked if I had found any of the MSS. Accompanied by another of his friends I obtained access to the room, but was unable to find the missing works. A remarkable feature of the case was that all the published MSS. were lying about in various fragmentary states, and it was perfectly obvious that some one familiar with the author’s writing had been there before us. …
Whether any of the three MSS. escaped my notice, and were included in the sale, of course I cannot say. ‘The Duchess of Padua’ I possessed in a transcript, so the loss of the MS. was of no special consequence. I have been told, however, that all three MSS. are now in America, but I have never been able to hear anything definite or satisfactory on the subject.“ (Ross, “Introductory Note“ in The Writings of Oscar Wilde, vol. IX, 1925, pp. 207-8)
“I have tried to remember and write down the Florentine Tragedy: but only bits of it remain with me, and I find that I cannot invent: the silence, the utter solitude, the isolation from all humane and humanising influences, kills one’s brain power: the brain loses its life: becomes fettered to monotony of suffering.“ (letter to More Adey, 25 September 1896, from Reading prison, Complete Letters, p. 666)
“I have determined to finish the Florentine Tragedy, and to get £500 for it – from somewhere. America perhaps.“ (letter to Robert Ross, Bernaval-sur-Mer, 2 June 1897, ibid., p. 876)
“I am going at Rouen to try to rewrite my Love and Death – Florentine Tragedy.“ (letter to Robert Ross, Dieppe, 4 September 1897, ibid., p. 934)
“Tomorrow I begin the Florentine Tragedy. After that I must tackle Pharaoh [one of Wilde’s unwritten prose-poems].“ (letter to Robert Ross, Villa Giudice, Posilippo, Naples, October 1, 1897, ibid., p. 950)
“‘To return to the “Florentine Tragedy.“ I had heard portions of it read, and was acquainted with the incidents and language, but for a long time I gave it up as lost. Then, after Mr. Wilde’s death, I had occasion to sort a mass of letters and papers which were handed to me by his solicitors. Among them I found loose sheets containing the draft of a play which I recognized as the “Florentine Tragedy.“ By piecing these together I was able to reconstruct a considerable portion of the play. The first five pages had gone, and there was another page missing, but some 400 lines of blank verse remained. Now the introductory scene of the single act of which the play consists has been rewritten by Mr. Sturge Moore, and the “Tragedy“ will be presented to an English audience for the first time at the King’s Hall, Covent Garden, next Sunday.“ (“Play’s Strange History“, interview Robert Ross, in The Tribune, London, 4 June 1906, see also Ingleby, Oscar Wilde, p. 216)
“A few years afterwards I was looking over the papers and letters which I had succeeded in rescuing from Tite Street, and came across loose sheets of MS. and typewriting which I had imagined at the time were fragments of ‘The Duchess of Padua.’ On putting them together in a coherent form I immediately recognized that they belonged to the lost ‘Florentine Tragedy,’ or such portions of it as Wilde ever wrote. I assumed that the opening scene, though once extant, had disappeared. One day, however, I heard from Mr. Willard, the well known actor [most likely Edward Smith Willard, English Actor, famous for his villains in melodrama. Had lunch with Wilde in May 1893 and they discussed business matters. See Complete Letters, pp. 566, 566n], that he possessed a typewritten fragment of a play which Wilde had submitted to him, and this he kindly forwarded for my inspection. It agreed in every particular with what I had taken so much trouble to put together. This suggests, conclusively I imagine, that Wilde had never written the opening scene, as Mr. Willard’s version began where mine did. It was characteristic of the author to have finished what he never began.“ (Ross, “Introductory Note“, 1925, pp. 208-9, see also Robert Ross, “Preface“, 1910, pp. xvii-xviii)
“When the Literary Theatre Society produced Salomé in 1906 they asked me for some other short drama of Wilde to present at the same time, as ‘Salomé’ does not take very long to play. I offered them the fragment of ‘A Florentine Tragedy.’ By a fortunate coincidence the poet and dramatist, Mr Thomas Sturge Moore, happened to be on the committee of this Society, and to him was entrusted the task of writing an opening scene to make the play complete.“ (Ross, “Introductory Note“, 1925, p. 209)
“This play is only a fragment and was never completed. For the purpose of the presentation, the well-known poet, Mr T. Sturge Moore, has written an opening scene … . A private performance was given by the Literary Theatre Club in 1906. The first public presentation was given by the New English Players at the Cripplegate Institute, Golden Lane, E. C., in 1907. … First published by Methuen and Co., February 1908.“ (Ledger, Walter, “Bibliography“, in Oscar Wilde Salomé, La Sainte Courtisane, A Florentine Tragedy, 1910, p. 128)
“The surviving fragments of manuscript were published in Volume II of the Collected Edition of 1908.“ (Complete Letters, p. 633n)
“Ross himself, according to an introduction he wrote for the American edition of that work, had based his text on a typescript of the play (now presumed lost) which had been given to him by the actor Edward Smith Willard (Willard in turn claimed that the typescript had been sent to him by Wilde). Significantly, that typescript, according to Ross, began at the same place as some loose manuscript fragments of the play which he had in his own possession, having retrieved them from Wilde’s Tite Street home in 1895 following Wilde’s bankruptcy proceedings. Ross’s fragments in turn were almost certainly the same incomplete manuscript draft that is now held in the collection of the Clark Library in the University of California [no. 3]; the first page of that draft – numbered as it is in Wilde’s hand – begins (as we must presume the Willard typescript did) with the stage direction ‘Enter the Husband’ followed by Simone’s first speech.“ (Guy and Small, Studying Oscar Wilde, pp. 150-1)
“… other surviving manuscript fragments, which were not in Ross’s possession when he put together the 1909 edition of A Florentine Tragedy, show that Wilde had indeed worked on a beginning for his play, although whether these lines had been composed before or after the typescript made for Willard is not clear. That these fragments are on unnumbered pages may seem to suggest that they came from a very early draft, as Wilde tended to number manuscript pages only when he was making a fair copy for a typist. On the other hand, we know from Wilde’s other works that he habitually had drafts typed up, and that these would subsequently be heavily corrected, and new manuscript pages interleaved with them. The typescript he sent to Willard, then, did not necessarily represent finished work, and the unnumbered pages where he is apparently drafting out a possible opening do not necessarily represent discarded ideas.“ (ibid., p. 151)
NOTES, DRAFTS, MANUSCRIPTS
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Version |
Present Location |
Shelfmark |
Provenance |
Catalogue Entries / Notes |
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1. Autograph Notebook |
William Andrews Clark Memorial Library |
W6721M3 P576 [189-] Bound no digital copy |
purchased in September 1951, from Ivor Poole |
“Wilde, Oscar “Phrases, aphorisms and fragments of verse. 1890 |
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“[Phrases, aphorisms and fragments of verse]. |
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“Lined AMS notebook. At one end of the book are AMS fragments of verse in pencil for 9 pages. Some lines are fragments from a verse drama – at one point from A Florentine Tragedy … At the other end of the notebook are aphorisms, sometimes for use in the plays. AMS on six pages, one of which is ripped out.“ |
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Ivor Poole |
(see Clark Library, personal correspondence, Aug. 30, 2021) |
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2. Autograph Notebook 43 pages n. d. |
Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas, Austin, TX
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MS-4515 digital copy: |
acquired with the second batch of T. E. Hanley’s collection in Nov. 1964 |
“holograph notebook with author notes, revisions, and sketches for the play, 43 pp [unnumbered], nd.“ [with cut out catalogue entries of First Editions of Esteemed Modern Authors …, American Art Association, New York, 1925 (see below), at the beginning of the notebook, image 3, https://bit.ly/3l3XkRr, and of Valuable Books, Hodgson & Co., London, 8-10 Nov. 1922 (see below) at the end, https://bit.ly/3t8izot] |
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“AMS/draft fragments and workings; written in a notebook, bound in limp roan, 43ff., paper watermarked D.K. & Co., London. Early sketch of the play in pencil, with revisions and emendations in ink. Pencil notes made at different times. Two sorts of revisions made in pen. No dramatis personae, no attribution of speeches; no parts; no act or scene divisions. Contains four small pen and ink sketches. Like the early drafts of other plays, there are speech fragments, but no dramatic structure. Lines, phrases and speeches embodied in the finished play.“ |
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T. E. Hanley |
Hanley bought the manuscript for $165 as indicated by Hanley’s code CRE on image 8 top corner to denote price paid for the item: C=1, R=6, E=5. Hanley used the code “Cumberland“ to denote the price. [neither date nor auction or dealer given] |
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First Editions of Esteemed Modern Authors, Inscribed Copies, Autograph MSS. and Letters, … Including selections from the Libraries of Vincent Starrett, of Chicago, Illinois, And of Waldo R. Browne, of Wyoming, New York, American Art Association, New York, Nov. 18-19, 1925, lot 911 |
“WILDE MANUSCRIPT OF ABOUT 3000 WORDS There are two original pen-and-ink sketches, presumably of characters in the tragedy.“ [see also text of sale catalogue pasted onto cover of autograph manuscript notebook, https://bit.ly/3pC9xxR] |
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Walter T. Spencer |
purchased for £19 10s |
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“… he was recounting for me the sequel to a purchase he had lately made at Hodgson’s sale-rooms of a note-book used by Oscar Wilde during his college-days, another notebook used in the preparation of ‘A Florentine Tragedy,’ and, moreover, the typescript of part of Wilde’s essay (1882) on’Art and the Handicraftsman.’ Soon afterwards Mr Spencer received a visit from a stranger who brought with him twenty-seven Wilde MSS., a good proportion of them, by the way, not yet published. The name given by the visitor conveyed nothing until he explained that he was the son of Oscar Wilde.“ |
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A Catalogue of Valuable Books including The Library from Sarsden House, Chipping Norton (sold by Order of Lady Eversely), Rare Books from an Old Country Library, and other Properties, Hodgson & Co., London, 8-10 Nov. 1922, lot 123 |
[other properties] “MS. – A Note-Book of Lines, Phrases, Passages, and Scenes set down in the composition of ‘A Florentine Tragedy,’ roughly scribbled (though for the most part embodied in the unfinished play as printed), in pencil, [“sold by Order of Wilde’s Literary Executor“ (see inner title page of catalogue)] |
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[excerpt from catalogue, see end of autograph notebook, https://bit.ly/3t8izot] |
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“A Note-Book of Lines, Phrases, Passages and Scenes set down in the composition of ‘A Florentine Tragedy,’ roughly scribbled, in pencil, in Oscar Wilde’s handwriting, on 43 pages, in a 4to. note-book, limp roan (123) No. 8, Hodgson – Spencer £19 10s.“ “A Note-Book of Lines, Phrases, Passages, and Scenes set down in the composition of ‘A Florentine Tragedy,’ roughly scribbled, in pencil, in Oscar Wilde’s handwriting, on 43 pages, 4to, Note-book, roan. (H. Nov. 8; 123) Spencer, £19 10s“ |
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Vyvyan Holland |
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?Christopher Millard / Stuart Mason |
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?Robert Ross |
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3. Autograph Manuscript 13 leaves / 25 pages [1893] |
William Andrews Clark Memorial Library |
W6721M2 F633 [1893] no digital copy [? or: |
purchased in 1923, from A. S. W. Rosenbach |
“Wilde, Oscar. “MS. 13 leaves. 13×8-1/2 in. Bound in full green morocco, by Wood. 13-1/2×8-3/4×1-1/4 in.“ |
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“[A Florentine tragedy]. |
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Facsimile of the first autograph page of the play, see Mason, Bibliography p. 463 (https://bit.ly/2ThOXEs) [this could be an indication that the manuscript was in Millard’s / Ross’s hands at the time] |
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“MS in 13 leaves. Pencil and ink on lined paper, with pencil and ink corrections. First two folios are unnumbered; remaining folios are Ross’s copy-text for 1908 Collected Edition (vol. II), and run as follows: ff. 1-7 are printed as pp. 85-94 [https://bit.ly/3agGBoC]; ff. 20-23 are printed as pp. 109-114 [https://bit.ly/3oxClGm]. The MS is mentioned by Mason, p. 465. Of the two remaining folios, Mason prints one [https://bit.ly/3owtDZ3] and the first part of the first speech of the second [https://bit.ly/2L3CBzo]. It is not in Ross/s edition, and seems to be a fragment of an alternative opening for the play …“ |
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A. S. W. Rosenbach |
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Books – Manuscripts – Drawings of Superlative Importance Acquired by or for a Noted Philadelphia Collector, American Art Association, New York, April 16-18, 1923, lot 981 i.e. “Mr Hughes“ |
“Portions of the This short play by Wilde was first published in the Collected Edition of his Works, 1907, but the manuscript of the first scene could not then be discovered, and an opening scene was specially written for the stage by T. Sturge Moore. The two unpublished pages in the present manuscript are ‘A Scenario’ and one full leaf of text of this missing scene, which describes the meeting of Guido and Bianca, … . From the John B. Stetson, Jr., collection, with his bookplate.“ |
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“Portions of the MS. of Play ‘A Florentine Tragedy.’ About 2400 words, on 13 fol. leaves, 2 unnumbered and numbered 1-7, 20-23. Mounted and bnd. with blank leaves, lev. mor., by Wood. From J. B. Stetson collection. G., April 16, ’23 (981) $375.00.“ |
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Colonel H. D. Hughes |
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Gabriel Wells |
purchased for $410 |
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The Oscar Wilde Collection of John B. Stetson, Jr., Anderson Galleries, New York, April 23, 1920, lot 153 |
“A FLORENTINE TRAGEDY. The copy contains many corrections, in some cases amounting to whole paragraphs. |
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“MS. of ‘A Florentine Tragedy.’ 25 pages fol. (Lacks pages 7-19.) Bound in lev. mor., g.e., by Wood. Stetson, A., April 23, ’20 (153) $450.00“ |
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John B. Stetson, Jr. |
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A Catalogue of Rare and Valuable Works, Bernard Quaritch, no. 316, London, July 1912, item 108 |
“Original Holograph MS. of portions of “ |
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Bernard Quaritch |
purchased for £56 |
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Valuable Books, Autograph Letters and Illuminated and Other Manuscripts, Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, London, 27 July 1911, lot 204 [Subtitle: “A Collection of Autograph Manuscripts, Printed Books, Newspaper Cuttings, &c., By and Relating to Oscar Wilde, the Property of a Gentleman“ – “Lots 195 to 200, and 204 to 212, 214 and 219 uniformly bound in green morocco extra, gilt backs, line sides.“] |
“ The play was first published in the collected edition of Wilde’s works, 1907 [1908], but the MS. of the first scene could not then be discovered, and an opening scene was specially written for the stage by Mr T. Sturge Moore. The unpublished page is a part of the missing scene, and describes the meeting of Guido and Bianca.“ |
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“This unpublished portion begins as follows: ‘Bianca, a beautiful woman, is kneeling before an image of the Madonna. She is simply but beautifully dressed. – Enter by Widow Guido – Guido: “Last night it snowed in Florence but to-night / It rains red roses. Ny, my gentle dove, / Why do you lure the hawk to follow/visit you?“’“ [this quotation is an indication that the manuscript was in Millard’s / Ross’ hands at the time] |
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“The [sic] Florentine Tragedy. Portions of the MS. in blank verse, with one unpublished page, on 12 pages folio, numbered pages 1-7, 20-23, and an unnumbered page (204) Quaritch, £56“ |
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Vyvyan Holland |
“Forgive me for having … [?] you. Poor Vyvyan Holland has come a fearful smash [?]. He has been repudiated by his broker & I have had to send him off to Spain, which has made a sudden & unpleasant strain on my resources. The sale at Sothebys which I made early on his behalf was not enough, & he has banked his share of his father’s estate long ago“ |
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?Christopher Millard / Stuart Mason |
(see also Beattie, “Wilde in Russia“ (https://bit.ly/3kkXVPV) |
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Robert Ross |
(see also Beattie, “Wilde in Russia“ (https://bit.ly/3kkXVPV) |
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4. Autograph Manuscript 5 leaves [1893] |
William Andrews Clark Memorial Library
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W6721M2 F633 [1893]a no digital copy |
purchased in 1950, from Winifred Myers |
“Wilde, Oscar. “A Florentine tragedy. 1893 |
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“[A Florentine Tragedy] |
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“MS in 5 leaves. Pencil and ink on lined paper with pencil and ink corrections. The first, unnumbered folio – the setting of the play – is reproduced by Mason, p. 463 [https://bit.ly/2ThOXEs]; but the MS which he reproduces is not that of the remaining folios. The second folio is a pencil draft of what could be an opening scene. … The final three folios are numbered 10, 11, 12, and are part of the MS described above [no. 3]. “ |
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Winifred Myers |
(Clark Library, personal correspondence, 10 Sept. 2021) |
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Frederick E. Peters |
(Clark Library, personal correspondence, 10 Sept. 2021) |
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?Robert Ross / Stuart Mason |
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5. Autograph Fragment 5 pages [?August-September 1894] |
Arents Collection |
Arents S 1534 no. 1 digital copy: |
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[5 leaves of autograph manuscript of The Importance of Being Earnest, notebook three, Arents S 1534 no. 1 [see TIOBE, no. 4], which contain holograph drafts of passages from A Florentine Tragedy and La Sainte Courtisane] |
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“Unconnected with the present manuscript of Lady Lancing [see TIOBE, no. 4, Act II], two fragments appear at the end of the notebook, which has been turned over so as to make the back end the front – a common habit of Wilde’s when he feels an urgent need to follow a sudden inspiration and has no separate blank notebook at hand. The two fragments are of brief speech sequences identifiable as relating to two plays, A Florentine Tragedy and La Sainte Courtisane. The fortunate presence of these fragments in a precisely datable notebook allows us to fix Wilde’s interest in writing these two other plays as occurring in a period that evidently includes August and September of 1894. It is the second instance of the appearance of evidence indicating that, while Wilde was ostensibly entirely engrossed in writing the play that became The Importance of Being Earnest, he was simultaneously pursuing three other plays: A Florentine Tragedy, La Sainte Courtisane, and an untitled play whose scenario Wilde lays out in full in a letter to George Alexander written sometime in August of that same year. Wilde never completed A Florentine Tragedy or La Sainte Courtisane, nor did he ever write the play whose scenario he sent to Alexander, but he later sold the scenario to Frank Harris (and to several other persons as well); Harris hoped to collaborate with Wilde on it, but eventually wrote entirely by himself a successful play entitled Mr and Mrs Daventry, based on the Wilde scenario.“ |
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6. Autograph Manuscript 46 pp. [n.d.] |
unknown |
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[?forgery] |
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Kim Herzinger, book dealer, Greenwich Village |
[Gardner, Anthony, “The Oscar Wilde Forgeries“, Sunday Times Magazine, [8 July] 2007, see https://bit.ly/3fu033s] |
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“… the three leather-bound volumes being touted in that last week of April [2007] by the owner of a small shop in Greenwich Village. Kim Herzinger explained that the volumes contained six Oscar Wilde manuscripts recently inherited by one of his clients. Here in the Irish genius’s hand were the opening of A Woman of No Importance; a fragment of another play, never published or produced [‘La Sainte Courtisane’]; a letter; a poem; the essay The Tomb of Keats. Most exciting of all, there was the manuscript of one of Wilde’s best-love stories, The Happy Prince, which even if sold separately could be expected to fetch £200,000 or more – provided it was genuine. … Kim Herzinger acknowledges that there are difficulties with the New York manuscripts, among them a lack of provenance: ‘They were bought by a relative of the owner back in 1935, who was a very, very good book collector but not a Wilde expert, and we don’t know where he bought them or who from.“ |
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Books, Autographs, Manuscripts from the Libraries of Mrs. Frederick A. DePeyster, New York City, James M. Kennedy, Garden City, L. I., and Others, American Art Association, Anderson Galleries, New York, Feb. 9, 1932, lot 275
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“Autograph Manuscript, 46 pp., folio. ‘A Florentine Tragedy.’ Bound in red crushed levant morocco, gilt tooled, by Zaehnsdorf. |
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“Several Oscar Wilde items will be offered. The autograph manuscripts include ‘La Sainte Courtisans [sic],’ a fragment; ‘The Happy Prince’ inscribed to Leonard Smithers, written In purple ink on lavender paper, with the first two pages of the autograph manuscript of ‘A Woman of No Importance’ bound in; ‘A Florentine Tragedy’ and ‘The Tomb of Keats,’ with an autograph letter signed by Wilde and a poetical manuscript bound in. In this group also Is an autograph manuscript of ‘The Importance of Being Earnest,’ apparently the first draft of Wilde’s famous comedy, divided into two acts. It is believed that Wilde later expanded the latter part, making it a four-act play.“ |
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“Six Oscar Wilde items were withdrawn yesterday afternoon from an auction sale of rare books, autographs and manuscripts at the American Art Association, Anderson Galleries, Inc. The galleries declined to reveal the name of the owner but announced that he had withdrawn them, because of ‘a question of title.’ The catalogue of the sale listed the items as important Wilde manuscripts. One was described as ‘the autograph manuscript of one of Wilde’s masterpieces, ‘The Happy Prince.’’ Another was called *the autograph manuscript of ‘A Florentine Tragedy.’ Others were catalogued as the autograph manuscript of“ ‘La Sainte Courtisane,’ autograph manuscript of ‘The Tomb of Keats,’ autograph manuscript of ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ and a copy of ‘SaIomé’ with two autograph letters by Wilde.“ |
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7. Autograph Fragment [1894] |
Eccles Collection |
Add MS 81623 B no digital copy |
bequeathed to the BL in 2003 |
“Autograph fragment; 1894. Grey board cover by Robert Baldwin Ross Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde, author: Manuscript ‘A Florentine Tragedy’: [1894]: Partial.“ |
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Eccles Collection |
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Mary Hyde / Viscountess Eccles |
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?H. Montgomery Hyde |
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8. Autograph Manuscript 41/2 pages |
unknown |
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Valuable Books and Autograph Letters … A Collection of Autograph Manuscripts by Oscar Wilde, Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, London, 23-24 April 1923, lot 539 [All bound in boards, with paper labels on top covers, except where otherwise stated] |
“A Florentine Tragedy, Auto. MS 41/2 pp. folio, in ink and pencil, of a portion of this play n. d. [1893-4] This play was first published in the collected edition of Wilde’s works, 1908. A reduced facsimile of the first page of this MS. appears in Mr. Mason’s Bibliography, p. 463 [https://bit.ly/3Dsj2WH].“ [sold [illegible] for £ 14 (see handwritten note in catalogue)] |
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“A collection of twenty-four autograph manuscripts by Oscar Wilde, sold separately, realized £476.“ |
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Vyvyan Holland |
“He [Vyvyan Holland] also has a valuable collection of his father’s manuscripts including large portions of Vera and The Duchess of Padua and indeed nearly all those mentioned in my Bibliography.“ |
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?Christopher Millard / Stuart Mason |
“A manuscript of A Florentine Tragedy contains the following unpublished fragments: … [details see Mason, Bibliography, pp. 463, 464-5] The manuscript contains the next five lines of Simone’s speech practically identical with the published version.“ [this could be an indication that the manuscript was in Millard’s / Ross’s hands at the time] |
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Robert Ross |
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9. Autograph Manuscript 41/2 pages |
unknown |
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Valuable Books and Autograph Letters … A Collection of Autograph Manuscripts by Oscar Wilde, Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, London, 23-24 April 1923, lot 540 [All bound in boards, with paper labels on top covers, except where otherwise stated] |
“A Florentine Tragedy, Auto. MS. about 41/2 pp. 4to, of a portion of this tragedy, [sold to [illegible] for £ 10 (see handwritten note in catalogue)] |
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“A collection of twenty-four autograph manuscripts by Oscar Wilde, sold separately, realized £476.“ |
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Vyvyan Holland |
“He [Vyvyan Holland] also has a valuable collection of his father’s manuscripts including large portions of Vera and The Duchess of Padua and indeed nearly all those mentioned in my Bibliography.“ |
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?Christopher Millard / Stuart Mason |
“A manuscript of A Florentine Tragedy contains the following unpublished fragments: … [details see Mason, Bibliography, pp. 464-5] The manuscript contains the next five lines of Simone’s speech practically identical with the published version.“ [this could be an indication that the manuscript was in Millard’s / Ross’s hands at the time] |
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Robert Ross |
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10. Typewritten Manuscript 20 pages [1893] |
Eccles Collection |
Add MS 81623 A no digital copy |
bequeathed to the BL in 2003 |
“Typewritten draft with extensive autograph revisions and corrections; 1893. Green paper cover.“ |
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Eccles Collection |
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Mary Hyde / Viscountess Eccles |
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English Literature and History, Sotheby’s, London, 13 Dec. 1990, lot 171 |
“ (i) … (ii) … (iii) Unmarked typescript of part of the play inscribed at the head of the first leaf by Robbie Ross ‘Florentine Tragedy by Oscar Wilde. A Fragment’ and his own name and address on the verso of the final leaf, 20 pages, 4to, some fraying, unbound A Florentine Tragedy, a play in blank verse, was largely written by Wilde during his visit to Florence with Alfred Douglas in 1894. The manuscript was among the items stolen from the sale of Wilde’s possessions in 1895 but was subsequently recovered by Robbie Ross. Oscar Wilde, who had promised it to George Alexander in 1895, but never finished it, described it as a ‘beautiful, coloured, musical’ thing (The Letters [1962], p.492). On its performance in 1906 Thomas Sturge Moore added an opening scene and it received three curtain calls. Puccini expressed a desire to turn it into an opera (M. Borland, Wilde’s Devoted Friend, pp. 112-113). £1,000-1,500“ [?not sold] |
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?Robert Ross |
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?Tite Street |
“Ask Bobby to go to Tite Street and get a type-written manuscript, part of my blank-verse tragedy [A Florentine Tragedy], also a black book containing La Sainte Courtisane in bedroom.“ |
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11. Typewritten Manuscript 16 pages [1894] |
Eccles Collection |
Add MS 81623 C no digital copy |
bequeathed to the BL in 2003 |
“Typewritten script for the role of ‘Bianca’ with extensive autograph revisions and corrections; 1894. Written on the first page is the note ‘To be returned to Mrs Patrick Campbell, 33 Kensington Square, W.’ Blue cloth cover.“ |
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Eccles Collection |
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Mary Hyde / Viscountess Eccles |
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English Literature and History, Sotheby’s, London, 13 Dec. 1990, lot 171 |
“ (i) … (ii) Marked rehearsal copy for the part of Bianca,with extensive working annotations anddeletions in pencil with the autographinscription at the head of the drop-head tide‘To be returned to Mrs Patrick Campbell,33, Kensington Sq. W’ and again in her handon the inside of the upper wrapper ‘MrsJosephine Andrews, 33, Kensington Sq.W.’, 16 pages, oblong 8vo, cloth wrappers (iii) … A Florentine Tragedy, a play in blank verse, was largely written by Wilde during his visit to Florence with Alfred Douglas in 1894. The manuscript was among the items stolen from the sale of Wilde’s possessions in 1895 but was subsequently recovered by Robbie Ross. Oscar Wilde, who had promised it to George Alexander in 1895, but never finished it, described it as a ‘beautiful, coloured, musical’ thing (The Letters [1962], p.492). On its performance in 1906 Thomas Sturge Moore added an opening scene and it received three curtain calls. Puccini expressed a desire to turn it into an opera (M. Borland, Wilde’s Devoted Friend, pp. 112-113). £1,000-1,500“ [?not sold] |
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?Robert Ross |
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?Tite Street |
“Ask Bobby to go to Tite Street and get a type-written manuscript, part of my blank-verse tragedy [A Florentine Tragedy], also a black book containing La Sainte Courtisane in bedroom.“ |
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12. Typewritten Manuscript 24 pages [1893] |
Eccles Collection |
Add MS 81623 D no digital copy |
bequeathed to the BL in 2003 |
“Typewritten fragments with revisions and corrections; [1893].“ |
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Eccles Collection |
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Mary Hyde / Viscountess Eccles |
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English Literature and History, Sotheby’s, London, 13 Dec. 1990, lot 171 |
“ (i) Marked rehearsal copy of the play, with extensive working annotations and deletions in pencil, mainly for the part of Bianca or parts relating to it, in a very rough hand which has a number of the features of (ii) … (iii) … A Florentine Tragedy, a play in blank verse, was largely written by Wilde during his visit to Florence with Alfred Douglas in 1894. The manuscript was among the items stolen from the sale of Wilde’s possessions in 1895 but was subsequently recovered by Robbie Ross. Oscar Wilde, who had promised it to George Alexander in 1895, but never finished it, described it as a ‘beautiful, coloured, musical’ thing (The Letters [1962], p.492). On its performance in 1906 Thomas Sturge Moore added an opening scene and it received three curtain calls. Puccini expressed a desire to turn it into an opera (M. Borland, Wilde’s Devoted Friend, pp. 112-113). £1,000-1,500“ [?not sold] |
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?Tite Street |
“Ask Bobby to go to Tite Street and get a type-written manuscript, part of my blank-verse tragedy [A Florentine Tragedy], also a black book containing La Sainte Courtisane in bedroom.“ |
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13. Typewritten Manuscript (with Autograph Manuscript Corrections) (plus second copy) [n.d., 1907] |
Bodleian Library |
MS 7018/8 no digital copy |
presented to the Bodleian by Merlin Holland, 14 August 1990 |
“ |
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Merlin Holland |
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?Vyvyan Holland |
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Robert Ross |
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?F. Stanley Smith |
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?Tite Street |
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14. Lord Chamberlain’s License Copy |
?British Library |
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15. Library of Congress Copyright Copy |
Library of Congress |
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Sept. 25, 1903 |
Dramatic Compositions Copyrighted in the United States, 1870 to 1916, Volume 1, Library of Congress, Washington, 1918, p. 709 |