Of the sorrows and sufferings of the last few years of his life, his friend Mr. Robert Harborough Sherard has written in The Story of an Unhappy Friendship, and M. Gide refers to them in the following pages.
After several weeks of intense suffering 'Death the silent pilot' came at last, and the most brilliant writer of the nineteenth century passed away on the afternoon of November 30th, 1900, in poverty and almost alone. The little hotel in Paris—Hotel d'Alsace, 13 rue des Beaux Arts,—where he died, has become a place of pilgrimage from all parts of the world for those who admire his genius or pity his sorrows. He was buried, three days later, in the cemetery at Bagneux, about four miles out of Paris.
Stuart Mason.
[1] In 1890 Lady Wilde received a pension of £50 from the Civil List.
[2] The subject for this year, 1874, was 'The Fragments of the Greek Comic Poets, as edited by Meineke.' The medal was presented annually, from a fund left for the purpose by Bishop Berkeley.
[3] The demyship was of the annual value of £95, and was tenable for five years. Oscar Wilde's success was announced in the University Gazette (Oxford), July 11, 1874.
[4] On Wednesday, May 1st, Oscar Wilde, dressed as Prince Rupert, was present at a fancy dress ball given by Mrs. George Herbert Morrell at Headington Hill Hall.
[5] 'The Newdigate was listened to with rapt attention and frequently applauded.'—Oxford and Cambridge Undergraduates' Journal, June 27, 1878.
[6] The degree of B. A. was conferred upon him on Thursday, Novemher 28, 1878.
[7] Amongst the places he visited were New York, Louisville (Kentucky), Omaha City and California. In the autumn of this same year, 1882, after leaving the States, Mr. Wilde went to Canada and thence to Nova Scotia, arriving at Halifax about October 8th.