This hitherto unpublished essay was written by Max Beerbohm for the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.
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