A Peep Into the Past

A PEEP INTO THE PAST
This Edition is limited to 300 copies printed from type on Japan Vellum, and the type distributed.
MAX BEERBOHM
PRIVATELY PRINTED
1923

This hitherto unpublished essay was written by Max Beerbohm for the first number of The Yellow Book , but it was held over to make way for his famous Defence of Cosmetics , which duly appeared in April, 1894. Whether this change was made because of the impending Wilde scandal it is, of course impossible to say with certainty, but the probabilities favour this explanation. The Wilde case did not come to the ears of the general public until the spring of 1895, just one year after the founding of The Yellow Book , but literary London was aware of what was happening long before that date, and already in 1894 Wilde’s friends were very anxious about the recklessness of his behaviour. It is significant that Oscar Wilde, the archetype of the Decadent Nineties, did not contribute either to The Yellow Book or The Savoy , which were the literary organs of that whole movement. It is difficult not to see some connection between the remarkable absence of Wilde’s name from these periodicals and the fact that this brilliant essay on him was never published.
The essay itself is one of the deftest and cleverest pieces of writing which Max Beerbohm has ever achieved. In it one can see how from the very beginning of his career Beerbohm was destined to be the satirist of the period with which he is associated, although he never displayed any of the qualities—or defects—of the Decadents. No cartoon of his is more devastating and illuminating than this solemn buffoonery of Wilde in terms of a domesticity as preposterous as Wilde’s own pose of diabolism. At the same time Wilde had no more devoted admirer or faithful friend. It is characteristic of the good nature of Max’s satire that it does not necessarily imply disapproval. It is just his fun.

Oscar Wilde! I wonder to how many of my readers the jingle of this name suggests anything at all? Yet, at one time, it was familiar to many and if we search back among the old volumes of Punch, we shall find many a quip and crank out at its owner’s expense. But time is a quick mover and many of us are fated to outlive our reputations and thus, though at one time Mr. Wilde, the old gentleman, of whom we are going to give our readers a brief account, was in his way quite a celebrity; today his star is set, his name obscured in this busy, changeful city.