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On being cross-examined at his trial
Mr. C. F. Gill (cross-examing): What is “the love that dares not speak its
name?”
Wilde: “The love that dares not speak its name”
in this century is such a great affection of an elder for a younger
man as there was between David and Jonathan, such as Plato made
the very basis of his philosophy, and such as you find in the
sonnets of Michelangelo and Shakespeare. It is that deep spiritual
affection that is as pure as it is perfect. It dictates and pervades
great works of art, like those of Shakespeare and Michelangelo,
and those two letters of mine, such as they are. It is in this
century misunderstood, so much misunderstood that it may be described
as “The love that dares not speak its name,” and on
that account of it I am placed where I am now. It is beautiful,
it is fine, it is the noblest form of affection. There is nothing
unnatural about it. It is intellectual, and it repeatedly exists
between an older and a younger man, when the older man has intellect,
and the younger man has all the joy, hope and glamour of life
before him. That it should be so, the world does not understand.
The world mocks at it, and sometimes puts one in the pillory
for it.
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Oscar Wilde
Photograph by S. Narony
William Andrews Clark
Memorial Library
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