[1] First produced at the Opera Comique, April 23rd, 1881. Wilde was
burlesqued as Reginald Bunthorne, a Fleshly Poet.
[2] Wilde repeated this lecture throughout the States during his tour.
At Rochester, on February 7th, he met with a most disorderly reception
on the part of the College Students. Two days later Mr. Joaquin Miller,
of St. Louis, wrote to Wilde saying that he had “read with shame about
the behaviour of those ruffians.” To this Wilde replied, “I thank you
for your chivalrous and courteous letter,” and in the course of his
letter makes a more special attack on that critic whom he terms “the
itinerant libeller of New England.”