The Complete Short Fiction (36 page)

21
large Saroni photographs
(p.
221
) Napoleon Sarony (1821–96) moved from his native Canada to begin work on photography in Birmingham, England. He returned to North America to open what became a highly successful New York studio in 1866 and was reputed to have photographed over 30,000 actors and actresses. He took publicity portraits of Wilde at the beginning and end of his American lecture tour.

22
clam-bake
(p.
221
) In the United States, a picnic party to eat baked clams.

23
euchre
(p.
221
) An American card game played with thirty-two cards.

24
guineas
(p.
222
) See
note 19
to p. 176.

25
en secondes noces
(p.
222
) I.e., as a second wife.

26
free passage
(p.
224
) An ironic reference to the schemes for assisted emigration to the British colonies or to the USA, often for ‘fallen' women or reformed prostitutes, which Wilde was to mock in
WNI
.

27
no ruins and no curiosities… navy and your manners
(p.
225
) A variation on a much used joke; cf. the exchange in
WNI
on the British aristocracy and American life:
‘Lady Caroline
: There are a great many things you haven't got in America, I am told, Miss Worsley. They say you have no ruins, and no curiosities.
Mrs Allonby
:… What nonsense! They have their mothers and their manners.
Hester Worsley
: The English aristocracy supply us with our curiosities, Lady Caroline. They are sent over every summer, regularly, in the steamers, and propose to us the day after they land' (II, 245–53).

28
hemlock… nightingale
(p.
225
) The poisonous hemlock plant (
Conium maculatura
) has white flowers (which are usually small, however), and is traditionally associated with drowsiness and death. The nightingale was a Romantic symbol, used by Shelley and particularly Keats, and connoting the oblivion achieved through art.

29
mortmain
(p.
231
) A legal term referring to land held in perpetuity by a family or institution.

30
Virginia received the coronet… reward of all good little American girls
(p.
233
) Another topic freely re-used; cf.
WNI
: ‘These American girls carry off all the good matches. Why can't they stay in their own country?' (I, 206–7).

1
Ruff's Guide and Baile's Magazine
(p.
235
) See
note 33
to p. 183.

2
butterfly to do among bulls and bears
(p.
235
) A dense set of allusions. The term butterfly connotes irreverence – James McNeill Whistler, Wilde's friend from the early 1880s (and with whom he later quarrelled) signed his picture with a butterfly motif. A bull market is Stock Exchange jargon for a market which is rising, whereas a bear market is one which is falling.

3
pekoe and souchong
(p.
235
) Types of tea.

4
ineffectual young man with a perfect profile and no profession
(p.
235
) Cf. ‘Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young': ‘There is
something tragic about the enormous number of young men there are in England at the present moment who start life with a perfect profile, and end by adopting some useful profession.' The lines were read out in court during Wilde's trials.

5
Men who are dandies and women who are darlings rule the world
(p.
236
) A familiar sentiment. Cf. Lord Ulingworth in
WMI
: ‘The future belongs to the dandy. It is the exquisites who are going to rule' (III, 56–7); and ‘A Few Maxims for the Instruction of the Over-Educated': ‘Dandyism is the assertion of the absolute modernity of Beauty'.

6
trouvaille, mon cher
(p.
236
) I.e., a find, my dear fellow.

7
hock and seltzer
(p.
237
) See
note 45
to Marcobriinner, p. 191.

8
A chacun son métier
(p.
238
) I.e., to each his trade, or, more colloquially, each to his own.

9
Que voulez-vous? La fantaisie d'un millionaire!
(p.
238
) I.e., ‘What do you want? The fantasy of a millionaire!'

10
Son affaire c'est l'argent des autres
(p.
239
) I.e., ‘his business is other people's money'.

11
Row
(p.
239
) See
note 6
to p. 201.

12
de la part de
(p.
239
) on behalf of.

1
Narcissus
(p.
246
) In the Greek legend, to which Wilde's story gives an ironic twisf, Narcissus was caused by Nemesis to become enamoured of his own image reflected in the waters of a spring. He pined away and was changed into the flower which bears his name.

2
Oreads
(p.
246
) Mountain nymphs of classical mythology.

3
Joseph of Arimathea
(p.
246
) Who in the Gospels took the body of Christ for burial.

4
Centaur
(p.
252
) A mythical beast with the head, trunk and arms of a man, and the body and legs of a horse.

^a
Sonnet xx, 2.

^b
Sonnet xxvi, 1.

^c
Sonnet cxxvi, 9.

^d
Sonnet cix, 14.

^e
Sonnet i, 10.

^f
Sonnet ii, 3.

^g
Sonnet viii, 1.

^h
Sonnet xxii, 6.

ⁱ
Sonnet xcv, 1.