Jan 31, 2020
☘ THE IRISH WIT - OSCAR WILDE (1854-1900) When Oscar Wilde arrived in the United States in 1882, he was already a known figure in England. The reasons for his much heralded visit was to promote Gilbert & Sullivan's latest operetta, 'Patience' (which mocked the kind of dandy aesthete embodied by Wilde) while conducting a series of lectures on subjects of his own choosing. At this point, he was mostly known for his flamboyant behaviour and his wit rather than his writing--since, at this stage, he had published just a single volume of poetry. Asked by customs if he had anything to declare, Wilde memorably replied, ‘Only my genius.’
