title: John S. Trower

texts:
<mask><mask> (1849-1911) was an American businessman. He was among the wealthiest African Americans in Pennsylvania and possibly the United States at the time of his death. Early life and career
Trower was born on October 3, 1849, in Eastville, Northampton County, Virginia. His parents, Luke and Anna M<mask>, were free black farmers and of mixed white, Native American and African American descent. From age 16 to 21, Trower worked on the farm with his family, saving all that he could. All through his early life young Trower was hobbled with the necessity of servicing his family's debt. By the time he was 21 he had saved enough to lift this burden from his family and he felt free to go in search of a fortune.He presented his mother with the deed of the farm and bade her goodbye. At that time, the tide of immigration had already set in from the Virginia plantations toward the cities and young Trower drifted with it in the direction of Baltimore. There was $52 surplus after the farm was paid for and with this sum Trower, wholly inexperienced in the difficulties and dangers of city life, landed in Baltimore. Trower was fortunate there in meeting the Mack family, with whom he made his home during the larger part of the time that he was in Baltimore. They gave him advice which proved of great value to him in his later life. While he was in Baltimore he obtained work in a restaurant as an oyster-opener and soon began, in spite of the small salary he received there, to accumulate a small capital. Partly because he believed he could better his condition in a Northern city and partly led by mere desire to see more of the world, he determined in 1870 to leave Baltimore and go to

masks:
John S
. Trower
. Trower


title: John S. Trower

type: original

texts:
 Iowa, the Columbia, the Baltimore, the Minneapolis, the Newark, the Brooklyn, the Variag, the Retvizan, the Mecidiye, the Colorado and the Pennsylvania.Trower's place of business was one of the most complete of its kind in the country. On the first floor were his offices, dining-room, delivery department and ice cream plant, which was run by electricity. On the second floor was a reception-room and a dining hall, which seated 150 guests, and the baking department. On the third floor were the storeroom and laundry. In the basement were china closets and storage-rooms. In his office he employed five clerks, all of whom were young African American men and women. The culinary, ice cream, baking, and delivery service departments employed 20 people.A large element of Trower's success must be attributed to the fact that he constantly sought to improve and extend his business. His trade was not limited to Germantown and Philadelphia, but extended throughout the state. On several occasions he served large orders in the South and West. At the time when <mask>, of Philadelphia, was Postmaster General, Trower served him as caterer in a reception which was at that time one of the most elaborate that had ever been given in Washington, D.C. In addition to his caterer's trade he did a lucrative real estate business. He owned considerable property both in Germantown and Ocean City, New Jersey, where he had his summer residence. Personal life
Outside of his business, Trower was a member of the well known Cherry Street Baptist Church.He was a member of the board of deacons, and of the board of trustees, and superintendent of the Sunday school. The National Baptist Convention made him the


title: James Temple

texts:
<mask> (1606–1680) was a puritan and English Civil War soldier who was convicted of the regicide of Charles I. Born in Rochester, Kent, to a well-connected gentry family, he was the second of two sons of Sir <mask>, although his elder brother died in 1627. As a child, <mask> moved with his father from Rochester to Chadwell St Mary in Essex and then to Etchingham in Sussex, where he settled. <mask> gained military experience as a member of the Duke of Buckingham's expedition to the Isle of Ré in 1627. As a puritan, he joined the Parliamentary army at the outbreak of the Civil War and fought at the Battle of Edgehill. He rose to become a colonel and commanded Tilbury Fort, an important defensive position on the approach to London by river. He was elected as a Member of Parliament (MP) for Bramber in September 1645 to replace an ejected Royalist.He sided with the army in opposing any compromise with the King, and was appointed as a judge at the trial of King Charles I of England. <mask> attended most of the court sessions and was the 28th (of 59) to sign the King's death warrant. After the restoration of Charles II, he was convicted of regicide, but avoided execution and was imprisoned on Jersey, where he died. Early life

<mask> was born to Sir <mask> and Mary Sommer while his parents were living in the parish of St. Margaret's in Rochester, Kent in the house previously owned by his mother's first husband. His family was closely related to the <mask> family of Stowe House. The family belonged to the gentry, having a reasonable income, without being members of the aristocracy. His father had been knighted at the Tower of London by <mask> following the King's accession to the English throne - one of many members of the gentry who were knighted during the first years of the King's reign.<mask> had an older brother (John) and a sister (Susan). As a result of his mother's first marriage, he had two half-brothers (including Sir Thomas

masks:
James Temple
Alexander Temple
Temple
Temple
Temple
Temple
Alexander Temple
Temple
James I
Temple


title: James Temple

texts:
 Peniston) and two half-sisters. He was born into a well connected family. His uncles included Sir <mask>, 1st Baronet, of Stowe and William Fiennes, 1st Viscount Saye and Sele. His sister, <mask>, Lady Lister, was the mother of Martin Lister and the grandmother of Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough. In 1607, following his mother's death, he moved to Longhouse Place (now known as Chadwell Place) in Chadwell St Mary, Essex. Both he and his older brother John, were admitted to Lincoln's Inn in 1622.In the same year, <mask> was given permission by the privy council to travel abroad for up to three years. He was allowed to take a servant with him, but he was strictly forbidden to visit Rome. While <mask> was living in Chadwell St Mary, a number of <mask> family portraits were painted by Cornelius Johnson. These may have been part of a family commission. They include <mask>'s father (which hangs in Hagley Hall) and his sister (which is in the Tate Gallery). These family portraits may have included <mask> himself, but no portrait is known to have survived. In the early 1620s, as a result of his father's marriage to Mary Bankworth (who was previously married to John Busbridge), he moved, this time to Haremere Hall in Etchingham, Sussex.His father's third marriage gave him step siblings, including his stepsister, Mary Busbridge to whom <mask> was married in March 1627. Over the next few years, they had six children. Isle of Ré expedition
In June 1627, George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham led an expedition to the island of Île de Ré to support the Huguenots besieged in La Rochelle by King Louis XIII of France. With no standing army, Buckingham's forces were largely volunteers and mercenaries. Since public opinion in England (particularly among extreme Protestants) supported the Huguenots, a number of well connected gentry came forward. The volunteers to join Buckingham included <mask>, his elder brother John and other members

masks:
Thomas Temple
Susan Temple
Temple
Temple
Temple
Temple
Temple
Temple
Temple


title: James Temple

texts:
 of his family. The expedition to the Isle of Ré, was a disaster and altogether, Buckingham lost more than 5,000 men in the campaign out of a force of 7,000.Among those who died was <mask>'s brother. Life in Sussex
When his father died in 1629, <mask> was the main beneficiary of his father's estate. However, much of his father's property was held via his wife, mortgaged or being used to meet other commitments. <mask> had a relatively meagre inheritance - no grand country house, no great estate and certainly no large fortune. His financial affairs were not in good order and were discussed by other members of the family. Margaret Longville, <mask>'s cousin, wrote to her mother, "my cousin Cary Saunders is broke for forty thousand pounds and is not able to pay five shillings in the pound and <mask> is in too much". (Cary was the family name for Carew Saunders.)During Charles I's Personal Rule (1629–1640), he was part of a network of Puritan gentry in Sussex and in due course became a Sussex Justice of the Peace (JP). Civil War
 <mask>, like most members of his family, was a puritan and supported Parliament against the King. His uncle Lord Saye and Sele was one of the King's principal opponents. <mask>'s military experience became useful when the First English Civil War broke out in August, 1642. He was appointed captain of a troop of horse raised by Lord Saye and Sele and commanded by <mask>'s cousin, John Fiennes. <mask> was related to Oliver Cromwell via his kinsman Edward Whalley and was able to secure a commission for Whalley in his uncle's unit. He saw action close to the <mask> family home at Stowe where both Temple and Whalley fought at the Battle of Edgehill in October 1642.<mask> was also present at the Battle of Bramber Bridge in December 1643. In March 1643, he had returned to Sussex, and along with his stepbrother, John Busbridge, he was appointed by Parliament to the Sussex committee set for the sequestration (i.e.

masks:
Temple
Temple
Temple
Temple
James Temple
Temple
Temple
Temple
Temple
Temple
Temple


title: James Temple

texts:
 seizure and administration) of the assets of prominent Royalists. In December 1643, <mask> was prominent in the defence of the crossing of the River Adur at Bramber Castle against a Royalist attack during Lord Hopton's attempt to obtain control of Sussex for the King. His actions were described by Dr Cheynell: "Upon the 12th of December I visited a brave soldier of my acquaintance, Captn Jas <mask>, who did that day defend the fort of Bramber against a bold and daring enemy to the wonder of all the country ; and I did not marvel at it, for he is a man that hath his head full of stratagems, his heart full of piety and valour, and his hand as full of success as it is of dexterity." As the war progressed, <mask> was promoted to colonel and became governor of Tilbury Fort in Essex, a post that had previously been held by his father. The fort was close to <mask>'s childhood home at Longhouse Place and was of strategic importance because it controlled the approach to London by river.During the Second Civil War, there were Royalist uprisings in Kent and Essex. <mask>'s control of Tilbury Fort for Parliament enabled Lord Fairfax's troops to cross from Gravesend to Tilbury en route to Colchester for the siege of royalists in that town. Trial of Charles I and Commonwealth
 In September 1645, <mask> was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Bramber to replace Sir Thomas Bowyer, the royalist member who had been ejected. He belonged to the political and religious group known as Independents who were opposed to any compromise in Parliament's negotiations with the King. As a result, he was one of the MPs allowed to remain after Pride's Purge - a military coup that excluded from Parliament roughly three quarters of the MPs, particularly those who were believed to be unsympathetic to the Army. In January 1649, the army and the Independents decided to bring Charles I to trial. <mask> was one of the judges named to the High Court of Justice

masks: Temple Temple Temple Temple Temple Temple Temple


title: James Temple

texts: that conducted the trial.He attended nine sessions of the court in both the Painted Chamber and Westminster Hall. He approved the guilty verdict and signed the King's death warrant - the 28th of the 59 judges to so. During the early part of the Commonwealth period, he continued to serve on Parliamentary committees. However, he attracted accusations of corruption. In September 1650, these accusations led to him giving up his post at Tilbury Fort. It was probably around this time that he married his second wife, Joanna van Tromp. <mask> attracted a number of other accusations of financial impropriety, although apparently nothing was proved.In 1648, he was ordered by the House of Commons to respond to the legal action of one Elizabeth Willan who had attempted to serve him with two writs in connection with a bond for £400. He "threw them on the ground and spurned them with his foot". In 1649, <mask> became the guardian of the daughter of one Mrs Eyre. He apparently "inveigled" her to marry his son, Alexander. As a result, <mask> acquired the deeds to property in Ireland which he subsequently refused to return. A few years later, he was accused of improperly benefiting from administering the estate of a prominent Sussex catholic - Sir John Shelley - whose heir was a minor. Following <mask>'s marriage, his father had invested in a farming venture by Edward Whalley who was the brother-in-law of <mask>'s stepsister - Mary Penistone.Sir Alexander apparently intended this to provide an inheritance for his grandchildren (the children of <mask>). As a younger son himself, Sir Alexander wanted to ensure suitable provision for his own younger son. This investment made by <mask>'s father for the benefit of his children had apparently become valueless when Edward Whalley fled to Scotland in the late 1630s. However, in the 1650s, Whalley had become a prominent and successful member of the Puritan establishment and there was a possibility of

masks:
Temple
Temple
Temple
Temple
Temple
James Temple
Temple


title: James Temple

texts:
 recovering some money. In the late 1650s, <mask> and Whalley went to the Court of Chancery to determine what was due to <mask> and his children. However, with the death of Oliver Cromwell and the subsequent restoration of Charles II, both regicides were faced with the possibility of execution and the case appears to have been unresolved. Restoration

<mask> returned to Parliament with the recall of the Rump and Long Parliaments by General Monck, but following the Restoration in 1660, he was excluded from the Indemnity and Oblivion Act, because of his role in the trial and execution of Charles I.He was captured in Warwickshire while trying to travel to Ireland, under his first wife's maiden name of Busbridge. He was held in the Tower of London before being tried as a regicide. He tried to avoid the death penalty by saying that he had only acted as a judge in Charles I's trial in order to give information to the Royalists. He went on to claim that he had tried to prevent the King's execution, begging Oliver Cromwell to spare him. He did avoid execution and was sentenced to life imprisonment. As a result of security concerns, a number of regicides, including <mask> were sent to Jersey in the Channel Islands. Initially he was imprisoned in Mont Orgueil, and subsequently in Elizabeth Castle, where he is reported to have died on 17 February 1680.William Winstanley described him as "not so much famous for his valour as his villainy, being remarkable for nothing but this horrible business of the king's murther, for which he came into the pack to have a share in the spoyle." References

1606 births
1670s deaths
English MPs 1640–1648
Regicides of Charles I
Roundheads
People from Chadwell St Mary
People from Etchingham
People from Rochester, Kent
Prisoners who died in Jersey detention
Members of Lincoln's Inn
17th-century English Puritans
Military personnel of the English Civil War
English politicians convicted of crimes
English MPs

masks: Temple Temple Temple Temple


title: Julian Herman Lewis

texts:
<mask> (May 26, 1891 – March 6, 1989) was an American pathologist. The son of a freed slave, <mask> became the first African-American associate professor at the University of Chicago in 1922 and spent the next 20 years studying racial differences in relation to medicine. In the meantime, he conducted research on immunology, for which he earned a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1926. <mask>'s research on race culminated in the 1942 publication of The Biology of the Negro, a lengthy text summarizing the scientific literature on the demographic, anatomical, physiological and biochemical characteristics of the black population. While <mask> was deeply interested in biological differences between the races, he argued against the viewpoint that black people were biologically inferior. The book, though well reviewed, sold poorly, and <mask> published no further works after 1943. Early life and education
<mask> was born on May 26, 1891, in Shawneetown, Illinois, to <mask>, a freed slave, and Cordelia O<mask>.Both of <mask>'s parents were schoolteachers. <mask> attended the University of Illinois for his undergraduate education, graduating in 1911 with a degree in biology and physiology. He received a master's degree from the University of Illinois in 1912 and then attended the University of Chicago, where he completed his PhD in 1915. <mask> won the Ricketts Prize for his PhD dissertation on lipids and immunity. He graduated from Rush Medical College with an MD in 1917, earning the Benjamin Rush Medal for academic achievement. <mask> married Eva Overton in 1918; the couple had three children. Career

Early career
After his graduation from Rush, <mask> was appointed to the University of Chicago's department of pathology.In 1920 he was hired as a pathologist at the African-American

masks:
Julian Herman Lewis
Lewis
Lewis
Lewis
Lewis
Lewis
John Calhoun Lewis
. Scott Lewis
Lewis
Lewis
Lewis
Lewis
Lewis


title: Julian Herman Lewis

texts:
 Provident Hospital, where he eventually became chief pathologist. During his early years at Chicago, <mask> worked closely with H. Gideon Wells and Ludvig Hektoen. Wells served as a mentor and advocate throughout <mask>'s career, and Hektoen's research on blood groups informed <mask>'s studies of medicine and race. Hektoen had previously published statistics on ABO blood types, but had not noted the race of his subjects, who were all white. In 1922, <mask> published a paper on the frequency of ABO blood types in African-Americans in the Journal of the American Medical Association. <mask> noted that the distribution of blood types differed between white and black people and that it was inaccurate to define what was "normal" based only on white subjects. This would become a major theme of his research.The same year <mask>'s paper was published, he became an associate professor of pathology at Chicago. The first African-American to hold such a position at the university, <mask> served in this role until 1943. The Sprague Institute awarded him a grant in 1922 to research "pathology among Negroes in all countries", and in 1926, he earned a Guggenheim Fellowship for immunology studies at the University of Basel. The Biology of the Negro

In 1942, <mask> published the culmination of the work he had begun 20 years ago: a 400-page volume titled The Biology of the Negro, drawing on medical and anthropological studies from more than 1,300 different researchers. The book—"nothing more than an arranged assembly of the observed and reported facts concerning the biology, including the pathology, of the Negro", as <mask> described it—provided an extensive overview of the literature on racial differences, spending, for example, 35 pages on a discussion of black skin. It was divided into

masks: Lewis Lewis Lewis Lewis Lewis Lewis Lewis Lewis Lewis


title: Julian Herman Lewis

texts: nine chapters, the first three of which covered demographic factors, anatomy, and physiology and biochemistry. The remaining six focused on racial differences in the presentation of various classes of diseases.Special attention was given to sickle cell anemia, which <mask> argued was a disease exclusive to the black population. While <mask> stated that "many of the biological and environmental characteristics of the two peoples...show sharp contrasts", he criticized the use of biological differences to justify belief in the inferiority of blacks to whites. He argued that many physiological differences were advantageous, noting the comparative resistance of blacks to malaria and how it facilitated the building of the Panama Canal by West Indian laborers, and dismissed research on racial differences in mental illness as "in keeping with the conventional vaudeville stage conception of the Negro". A 1942 review in the Journal of the National Medical Association stated " [i]t is noteworthy that the author failed to discover any fundamental evidence to show that the Negro is biologically inferior to other groups". Some, however, considered <mask>'s focus on the biological aspects of race to be regressive. A review in The Crisis, the official magazine of the NAACP, praised the book as "a significant contribution to the long recognized need for a scientific reference volume on constitutional studies of the Negro", but noted that it did little to challenge the contemporary medical literature and in its discussion of sickle cell anemia "approache[d] dangerously the reductio ad absurdum which even the Negro himself denounces in respect to so-called tests of Negro blood". <mask>'s position on sickle cell disease was later characterized by Keith Wailoo as "an endorsement and

masks: Lewis Lewis Lewis Lewis


title: Julian Herman Lewis

texts:
 legitimation of cherished racial categories through blood analysis".The book, although it received mostly positive reviews, sold less than 500 copies in 1942 and was not reprinted. <mask>'s biological approach to the study of race gradually fell out of favor in the academic community. Later career
H. Gideon Wells died in 1943. <mask>'s academic work suffered: after that year he never published a research paper again, and he was put on leave from the university in 1944. The next year, he asked the Sprague Institute to fund the establishment of a laboratory dedicated to the study of racial differences at the Provident Hospital. The Institute agreed to finance the project, but the plans never materialized; the death of <mask>'s wife that year may have played a role. During the later years of his career, <mask> took up various positions at local hospitals, eventually leaving Provident in 1952.He served as the director of pathology at Our Lady of Mercy Hospital in Dyer, Indiana until just before his death. <mask> died on March 6, 1989. Selected publications

References

African-American physicians
Rush Medical College alumni
University of Chicago alumni
University of Chicago faculty
University of Illinois alumni
Physicians from Illinois
People from Shawneetown, Illinois
Writers from Illinois
1891 births
1981 deaths
20th-century African-American

masks: Lewis Lewis Lewis Lewis Lewis


title: Bogdan Wenta

texts:
<mask> (born 19 November 1961) is a Polish politician and handball coach and former Polish and German handball player. He has been a member of the Poland men's national handball team in 1981–1994 and Germany men's national handball team in 1997–2000, a participant of the Olympic Games Sydney 2000, five-time Polish Champion (1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988), and former head coach of Poland. He has been one of the best handball player in the history of Polish handball. Between 2014-2018 he was a Member of the European Parliament for the Polish Civic Platform. In 2018, he was elected as Mayor of Kielce, having run from his own committee with the endorsement of the Civic Platform. Personal life

Since 1984 he has been married to Iwona. They have one son Tomasz (born 13 March 1996).In 2014 <mask> <mask> was elected to European Parliament. Career as player

Clubs
<mask>'s entire career in Poland was connected with one club - Wybrzeże Gdańsk, where he started playing in first team in 1978, when he was 17. He was five-times Polish Champion (1984–1988) and achieved European Cup final twice, losing to RK Metaloplastika Šabac in 1986 and SKA Mińsk in 1987. In 1989 he moved to Spain and played for Bidasoa Irún (1989–1992) and FC Barcelona Handbol (1992–1995). He was first Polish player in FC Barcelona. At last, he emigrated to Germany, and played for TuS Nettelstedt (1995–1998) and SG Flensburg-Handewitt (1998–2000). National teams

Poland 1981–1993
<mask> made his debut in Polish national team in 1981, when he was barely 20.He was appointed by Zygfryd Kuchta. It was match with Switzerland. He represented Poland in 185 official games (including friendly matches 198) and scored 763 goals, which is the third result in history of Polish handball. He took part in IHF World Handball Championship twice - in 1986 (14th place) and 1990 (11th place). He did not participate in Olympic Games as Polish player. In 1993 he was blamed for Poland's

masks:
Bogdan Brunon Wenta
Bogdan
Wenta
Wenta
Wenta


title: Bogdan Wenta

texts:
 elimination during qualifications to 1994 European Men's Handball Championship. Since then he was never called up again to Polish national team.Germany 1997–2000
In 1996 <mask> accepted German citizenship, which caused a lot of controversy in his homeland, Poland. However he has never played against Poland. He represented the German side in 46 official games (and 4 friendly matches) and scored 144 goals. He was a member of German national team in IHF World Handball Championship twice - 1997 and 1999. In 1998 he achieved bronze medal of European Championship and took part in European Championship 2000. He made his Olympic debut at Olympics Sydney 2000 (5th place). He regained Polish citizenship in 2008.Career as coach, 2000–2012
<mask> <mask> retired in 2000 and became coach assistant in SG Flensburg-Handewitt. In 2005 he had to enter the court and play because of many players had injuries. He was 44 and this number was on his shirt. From summer 2006 to autumn 2007 he was head coach of German handball club, SC Magdeburg. On 28 October 2004 <mask> Targi Kielce
 2010  Polish Championship, with Vive Targi Kielce
 2011  Polish Cup, with Vive Targi Kielce
 2011  Polish Championship, with Vive Targi Kielce
 2012  Polish Cup, with Vive Targi Kielce
 2012  Polish Championship, with Vive Targi Kielce
 2013  Polish Cup, with Vive Targi Kielce
 2013  Polish Championship, with Vive Targi Kielce
 2013  EHF Champions League, with Vive Targi Kielce

Involvement in politics, 2014–present
Wenta was a Member of the European Parliament elected in  the 2014 European elections.In European Parliament, he served on the Committee on Culture and Education and on the Committee on Development. In addition to his committee assignments, he was a member of the Parliament's delegation to the ACP–EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly. In 2018, he quit his membership in the European Parliament after being elected as Mayor of Kielce in 2018 Polish local

masks: Wenta Bogdan Wenta Wentaive


title: Herodotus

texts:
<mask> ( ;  ;  BC) was an ancient Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus, part of the Persian Empire (now Bodrum, Turkey). He is known for having written the Histories – a detailed account of the Greco-Persian Wars. <mask> was the first writer to do systematic investigation of historical events. He is referred to as "The Father of History", a title conferred on him by the ancient Roman orator Cicero. The Histories primarily covers the lives of prominent kings and famous battles such as Marathon, Thermopylae, Artemisium, Salamis, Plataea, and Mycale. His work deviates from the main topics to provide cultural, ethnographical, geographical, and historiographical background that forms an essential part of the narrative and provides readers with a wellspring of additional information. <mask> has been criticized for his inclusion of "legends and fanciful accounts" in his work.Fellow historian Thucydides accused him of making up stories for entertainment. However, <mask> explained that he reported what he "saw and [what was] told to him." A sizable portion of the Histories has since been confirmed by modern historians and archaeologists. Life
Modern scholars generally turn to <mask>'s own writing for reliable information about his life, supplemented with ancient yet much later sources, such as the Byzantine Suda, an 11th-century encyclopedia which possibly took its information from traditional accounts. Childhood
Modern accounts of his life typically go

masks: Herodotus Herodotus Herodotus Herodotus Herodotus


title: Herodotus

texts: something like this: <mask> was born at Halicarnassus around 485 BC. The Suda describes his family as influential, and that he was the son of Lyxes and Dryo, and the brother of Theodorus, and that he was also related to Panyassis – an epic poet of the time. Halicarnassus was within the Persian Empire at that time, making Herodotus a Persian subject, and it may be that the young Herodotus heard local eyewitness accounts of events within the empire and of Persian preparations for the invasion of Greece, including the movements of the local fleet under the command of Artemisia I of Caria.Inscriptions recently discovered at Halicarnassus indicate that Artemesia's grandson Lygdamis negotiated with a local assembly to settle disputes over seized property, which is consistent with a tyrant under pressure. His name is not mentioned later in the tribute list of the Athenian Delian League, indicating that there might well have been a successful uprising against him sometime before 454 BC. <mask> wrote his Histories in the Ionian dialect, yet he was born in Halicarnassus, which was a Dorian settlement. According to the Suda, Herodotus learned the Ionian dialect as a boy living on the island of Samos, to which he had fled with his family from the oppressions of Lygdamis, tyrant of Halicarnassus and grandson of Artemisia. Panyassis, the epic poet related to Herodotus, is reported to have taken part in a failed uprising. The Suda also informs us that Herodotus later returned home to lead

masks: Herodotus Herodotus


title: Herodotus

texts:
 the revolt that eventually overthrew the tyrant. Due to recent discoveries of inscriptions at Halicarnassus dated to about Herodotus's time, we now know that the Ionic dialect was used in Halicarnassus in some official documents, so there is no need to assume (like the Suda) that he must have learned the dialect elsewhere.The Suda is the only source placing <mask> as the heroic liberator of his birthplace, casting doubt upon the veracity of the romantic account. Early travels

As Herodotus himself reveals, Halicarnassus, though a Dorian city, had ended its close relations with its Dorian neighbours after an unseemly quarrel (I, 144), and it had helped pioneer Greek trade with Egypt (II, 178). It was, therefore, an outward-looking, international-minded port within the Persian Empire, and the historian's family could well have had contacts in other countries under Persian rule, facilitating his travels and his researches. <mask>'s eyewitness accounts indicate that he traveled in Egypt in association with Athenians, probably sometime after 454 BC or possibly earlier, after an Athenian fleet had assisted the uprising against Persian rule in 460–454 BC. He probably traveled to Tyre next and then down the Euphrates to Babylon. For some reason, possibly associated with local politics, he subsequently found himself unpopular in Halicarnassus, and sometime around 447 BC, migrated to Periclean Athens – a city whose people and democratic institutions he openly admires (V, 78). Athens


title: Herodotus

texts:
 was also the place where he came to know the local topography (VI, 137; VIII, 52–55), as well as leading citizens such as the Alcmaeonids, a clan whose history features frequently in his writing.According to Eusebius and Plutarch, <mask> was granted a financial reward by the Athenian assembly in recognition of his work. Plutarch, using Diyllus as a source, says this was 10 talents. Later life
In 443 BC or shortly afterwards, he migrated to Thurium, in modern Calabria, as part of an Athenian-sponsored colony. Aristotle refers to a version of The Histories written by "Herodotus of Thurium," and some passages in the Histories have been interpreted as proof that he wrote about southern Italy from personal experience there (IV, 15,99; VI, 127). Intimate knowledge of some events in the first years of the Peloponnesian War (VI, 91; VII, 133, 233; IX, 73) indicate that he might have returned to Athens, in which case it is possible that he died there during an outbreak of the plague. Possibly he died in Macedonia instead, after obtaining the patronage of the court there; or else he died back in Thurium. There is nothing in the Histories that can be dated to later than 430 BC with any certainty, and it is generally assumed that he died not long afterwards, possibly before his sixtieth year.Author and orator
<mask> would have made his researches known to the larger world through oral recitations to a public crowd. John Marincola writes in his introduction to the Penguin edition of The


title: Herodotus

texts:
 Tzetzes,
in which a young Thucydides happened to be in the assembly with his father, and burst into tears during the recital. Herodotus observed prophetically to the boy's father, "Your son's soul yearns for knowledge." Eventually, Thucydides and Herodotus became close enough for both to be interred in Thucydides' tomb in Athens. Such at least was the opinion of Marcellinus in his Life of Thucydides. According to the Suda, he was buried in Macedonian Pella and in the agora in Thurium.Place in history
Herodotus announced the purpose and scope of his work at the beginning of his Histories:

Here are presented the results of the inquiry carried out by <mask> of Halicarnassus. The purpose is to prevent the traces of human events from being erased by time, and to preserve the fame of the important and remarkable achievements produced by both Greeks and non-Greeks; among the matters covered is, in particular, the cause of the hostilities between Greeks and non-Greeks. — Herodotus, The Histories (tr. R. Waterfield, 2008)

Predecessors
His record of the achievements of others was an achievement in itself, though the extent of it has been debated. Herodotus' place in history and his significance may be understood according to the traditions within which he worked. His work is the earliest Greek prose to have survived intact. However, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, a literary critic of Augustan Rome, listed seven predecessors of Herodotus, describing their works as simple, unadorned


title: Herodotus

texts:
 accounts of their own and other cities and people, Greek or foreign, including popular legends, sometimes melodramatic and naïve, often charming – all traits that can be found in the work of Herodotus himself.Modern historians regard the chronology as uncertain, but according to the ancient account, these predecessors included Dionysius of Miletus, Charon of Lampsacus, Hellanicus of Lesbos, Xanthus of Lydia and, the best attested of them all, Hecataeus of Miletus. Of these, only fragments of Hecataeus's works survived, and the authenticity of these is debatable, but they provide a glimpse into the kind of tradition within which <mask> wrote his own Histories. Contemporary and modern critics
It is on account of the many strange stories and the folk-tales he reported that his critics have branded him "The Father of Lies." Even his own contemporaries found reason to scoff at his achievement. In fact, one modern scholar has wondered if <mask> left his home in Greek Anatolia, migrating westwards to Athens and beyond, because his own countrymen had ridiculed his work, a circumstance possibly hinted at in an epitaph said to have been dedicated to <mask> at one of his three supposed resting places, Thuria:

Yet it was in Athens where his most formidable contemporary critics could be found. In 425 BC, which is about the time that <mask> is thought by many scholars to have died, the Athenian comic dramatist Aristophanes created The Acharnians, in which he blames the Peloponnesian War

masks: Herodotus Herodotus Herodotus Herodotus


title: Herodotus

texts:
 on the abduction of some prostitutes – a mocking reference to <mask>, who reported the Persians' account of their wars with Greece, beginning with the rapes of the mythical heroines Io, Europa, Medea, and Helen. Similarly, the Athenian historian Thucydides dismissed <mask> as a "logos-writer" (story-teller).Thucydides, who had been trained in rhetoric, became the model for subsequent prose-writers as an author who seeks to appear firmly in control of his material, whereas with his frequent digressions <mask> appeared to minimize (or possibly disguise) his authorial control. Moreover, Thucydides developed a historical topic more in keeping with the Greek world-view: Focused on the context of the polis or city-state. The interplay of civilizations was more relevant to Greeks living in Anatolia, such as <mask> himself, for whom life within a foreign civilization was a recent memory. See also

Critical editions
 C. Hude (ed.) Herodoti Historiae. Tomvs prior: Libros I–IV continens. (Oxford 1908)
 C. Hude (ed.)Herodoti Historiae. Tomvs alter: Libri V–IX continens. (Oxford 1908)
 H. B. Rosén (ed.) Herodoti Historiae. Vol. I: Libros I–IV continens. (Leipzig 1987)
 H. B. Rosén (ed.)Herodoti Historiae. Vol. II: Libros V–IX continens indicibus criticis adiectis (Stuttgart 1997)
 N. G. Wilson (ed.) Herodoti Historiae. Tomvs prior: Libros I–IV continens. (Oxford 2015)
 N. G. Wilson (ed.) Herodoti Historiae.Tomvs alter: Libri V–IX continens. (Oxford 2015)

Translations
Several English


title: Ron English (American football)

texts:
<mask> (born May 21, 1968) is an American football coach and former player. He is currently the co-defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach at Purdue University. <mask> also served as the head football coach at Eastern Michigan University from 2009 to 2013, compiling a record of 11–46. Playing career and education
From 1987 to 1990, <mask> played college football at the University of California, Berkeley. He graduated in 1991 with a degree in communications. In 1995, he received his master's degree in education administration from Arizona State University. Coaching career

Assistant coach (1992–2008)
<mask> has served as an assistant coach at Mt.San Antonio College, Northern Arizona University, San Diego State University, Arizona State University, the University of Michigan, and University of Louisville. He coached the defensive secondary at Michigan from 2003 through 2005. In February 2006, he accepted a position on the coaching staff of the NFL's Chicago Bears. However, Michigan head coach Lloyd Carr persuaded <mask> to stay on as the defensive coordinator after Jim Herrmann, who coordinated Michigan's defense from 1997 to 2005, accepted a position with the NFL's New York Jets. In the 2006 season, <mask> coached only safeties, rather than the entire defensive secondary, to allow him to concentrate more fully on his responsibilities as defensive coordinator. <mask>'s defense showed great success against most run-heavy teams in the Big Ten Conference and allowed the fewest rushing yards per game in the nation. With Carr's retirement at the end of the 2007 season, <mask>, along with all of the assistant coaches at Michigan except for running backs coach Fred Jackson, was fired by incoming head coach Rich Rodriguez.English interviewed for the head coaching vacancies at the University of Arkansas and at Michigan before accepting the defensive coordinator duties for Steve Kragthorpe at the University of Louisville. Eastern Michigan (2009–2013)
English was

masks:
Ronald Everett English
English
English
English
English
English
English
English


title: Ron English (American football)

texts: hired as head coach at Eastern Michigan in December 2008. At the time of his hiring by Eastern Michigan, he was one of six African American head coaches at Football Bowl Subdivision teams; the others (and their teams at the time) were Turner Gill (Buffalo), Kevin Sumlin (Houston), Mike Locksley (New Mexico), Randy Shannon (University of Miami), and Mike Haywood (Miami University) . Eastern Michigan compiled a 0–12 record in 2009. An article on ESPN.com ranked the Eagles the second-worst team in NCAA FBS football. The Eagles posted a 2–10 record in 2010, <mask>'s second season as head coach, losing all four non-conference games and stretching their losing streak to 18 games before winning an overtime game at Ball State and another game at Buffalo in the latter part of the season. 2011 saw the Eagles achieve their best season in 17 years.They finished the season 6–6, 4–4 in MAC play to finish in a tie for fourth place in the West Division. Despite being 6–6, the Eagles were not bowl eligible because two of their wins came against FCS teams. The 6 wins were the most wins the school had since 1995 when they also had 6 wins. Following the season, <mask> was named the Mid American Conference Coach of the Year. Following the success of the 2011 season, media outlets speculated that <mask> could be a candidate for head coaching openings at BCS schools. Based on his west coast recruiting background and Big Ten coaching experience, the schools most often mentioned were Illinois, Arizona State, and Washington State. <mask> returned to the Eagles as head coach for the 2012 season.Eastern Michigan posted a 2–10 record in 2012, with their wins coming against Army (48–38) and Western Michigan (29–23). EMU faced a difficult schedule, with 7 losses to teams that participated in a post season bowl game. Additionally, the Eagles lost to (FCS) #14 ranked Illinois State by a score of 31–14 in the second week of the season. <mask> was abruptly fired on November 8, 2013 — less than 24

masks: English English English English English


title: Ron English (American football)

texts:
 hours before the Eagles' game against Western Michigan. Later that day, The Detroit News revealed that English had been fired after school officials obtained a tape of a tirade <mask> delivered to his team during an October team meeting. The speech was laden with expletives ("shitbird" was especially plentiful), and included at least one homophobic slur. On November 9, athletic director Heather Lyke confirmed the existence of the tape and condemned it as "wholly inappropriate" and "absolutely unacceptable."<mask> subsequently apologized, admitting that he had "lost my poise," but hoped to be able to coach again. Career after Eastern Michigan (2014–present)
In 2014, English joined the Cleveland Browns' internship program under a Bill Walsh NFL Minority Coaching Fellowship. <mask> also spent more time with his family and in church. <mask> returned to coaching on February 9, 2016 as defensive coordinator at San Jose State under <mask>. On February 2, 2017, <mask> joined Dan Mullen's staff at Mississippi State as safeties coach. Head coaching record

References

External links
 Purdue profile
 Eastern Michigan profile

1968 births
Living people
American football safeties
Arizona State Sun Devils football coaches
California Golden Bears football players
Eastern Michigan Eagles football coaches
Florida Gators football coaches
Louisville Cardinals football coaches
Michigan Wolverines football coaches
Mississippi State Bulldogs football coaches
Mt. SAC Mounties football coaches
Northern Arizona Lumberjacks football coaches
Purdue Boilermakers football coaches
San Diego State Aztecs football coaches
San Jose State Spartans football coaches
High school football coaches in California
Sportspeople from Pomona, California
Coaches of American football from California
Players of American football from California
African-American coaches of American football
African-American players of American football
20th-century African-American sportspeople
21st-century African-American

masks:
English
English
English
English
Ron Caragher
English


title: Dalibor Đurđević

texts:
<mask> (, ; born 25 March 1973) is a Serbian international association football (soccer) assistant referee. In 2011, he received the highest possible FIFA Assistant Referee license. As a part of the Milorad Mažić referee team, <mask> officiated at 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, numerous matches in the UEFA Champions League, including 2018 UEFA Champions League Final, UEFA Europa League, 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup Final, 2016 UEFA Euro in France, 2016 UEFA Super Cup, 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil, 2013 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Turkey, as well as number of appearances in the biggest matches organized by Football Association of Serbia, Chinese Football Association, Qatar Football Association, Saudi Arabian Football Federation, and Egyptian Football Association as Assistant Referee and Assistant Video Assistant Referee (AVAR) . <mask> was selected as The Best Assistant Referee 5 years in a row by the Football Association of Serbia and he is a holder of numerous prestigious awards for a professional football refereeing, both home and abroad. He is married and has two sons. Refereeing career
He started his referee career in 1994 and after only three years received the National Referee badge. He spent 10 years (1999-2009) in the First Serbian Division.The little-known fact is that during that time he refereed 126 games with a whistle in his hands (i.e. as a center official) and even made his debut in the Serbian Super League in 2004. In 2009 he switched to being an Assistant referee and made it to the international FIFA Assistant Referee list a short time after. He later mentioned in one of his interviews that it was the most important decision in his life. He joined the Milorad Mažić team in 2012 and together with FIFA Assistant Referee Milovan Ristić, became an indispensable team member. He praised Mažić

masks:
Dalibor Đurđević
Đurđević
Đurđević


title: Dalibor Đurđević

texts:
 referee the Republic of Ireland vs Sweden group stage match at the Stade de France in Paris on 13 June, which ended 1–1. They refereed the match on June, 17 in group D between Spain and Turkey at the Alianz Riviera in Nice which Spain won 3–0. In the next phase of the Cup, the Serbian team was appointed to run the Round of 16 match between Hungary and Belgium at the Stadium Municipal in Toulouse, which the Belgians won 4–0. 2016 UEFA Super Cup
Fresh from officiating at UEFA EURO 2016, as a result of a great form, UEFA Referees Committee appointed Mažić, Ristić, and <mask> to officiate the most prestigious assignment of their careers (as of that year). The 2016 UEFA Super Cup between Real Madrid CF and Sevilla FC at the Lerkendal Stadium in Trondheim, Norway, that Real won 3:2 after extra time.<mask> referred to that match as one of the most demanding in his career, where the whole team had to make some big and hard decisions, like the 90th-minute goal from a “dead angle” that

Real brought to extra time. All of them had to be made without the Video Assistant Referee (it wasn't until next year when VAR was used in by UEFA).2017 FIFA Confederations Cup Final
FIFA also gave credits to this referee team with the privilege and the responsibility to officiate the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup Final between Chile and Germany, played in Saint Petersburg on 2 July 2017. This was their first final with help of the VAR, which undoubtedly helped with a moment of controversy as Gonzalo Jara was judged to have elbowed Timo Werner in the face. 2018 Champions League finals
On 26 May 2018, Mažić, Ristić and <mask> refereed the 2018 UEFA Champions League Final between Liverpool and Real Madrid in Kyiv. As an Assistant referee, <mask> had an important call - a double offside in the 43rd minute. A retired UEFA elite

masks: Đurđević Đurđević Đurđević Đurđević


title: Dalibor Đurđević

texts:
 match official referee Eduardo Iturralde González in one of his interviews on the Spanish radio commented that the call was entirely because Benzema was slightly offside and so was Cristiano Ronaldo. This game symbolized the greatest success in the team's career, as <mask> reflected on in one of his interviews. It was the result of 25 years of hard work.The referee team's performance was praised by Pierluigi Collina, the legend in the football referee circles and the head of UEFA referee committee at the time. 2018 FIFA World Cup
As a crown of the team's career, The FIFA Referees Committee has selected Milorad Mažić, Milovan Ristić, and <mask> <mask> to be in the pool of 36 referees and 63 assistant referees for the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia. They were in charge of games between South Korea vs Mexico 1-2 (Rostov-on-Don, June 23), Senegal vs Colombia 0-1 (Samara, June 28), and quarterfinal between Brazil and Belgium 1-2 (Kazan, July 6). They were the first candidate for the final match, but since Croatia played in the finals, FIFA tried to avoid any controversy with the Serbian referee team doing this game. Many Croatian fans and sports journalists posted on social media and in various sports news outlets that they wouldn't mind seeing Mažić, Ristić, and Đurđević in the Final and would choose them over Pitana’s team. Despite the fact that the team didn’t get to referee the 2018 FIFA World Cup Final, they were unofficially proclaimed by football fans and professionals one of the best refereeing teams of the tournament. Last games as the team (2018-2019)
The next big game was on October 16th, 2018 at Stade de France as France team came back from a goal down to beat Germany 2-1 in the UEFA Nations League.Their appearance in Champions League play-offs was on where Benfica played with PAOK FC (1:1). In

masks: Đurđević Dalibor Đurđević


title: Dalibor Đurđević

texts:
 the group stage they were in charge of PSV Eindhoven vs Inter Milan (1:2), Manchester United FC vs. Juventus FC (0:1) and FC Barcelona vs Tottenham Hotspur FC (1:1) on December 11th 2018, what was their last CL game. On February 14th, 2019 Mažić, Ristić, and Đurđević were in charge of the Round of 32 game UEFA Europa League FC Zürich vs SSC Napoli (1:3), which was their final international appearance as a team. At the beginning of 2019 Mažić continued his professional career as the Chinese Football Association (CFA) referee, while Ristić and <mask> became a part of the Saudi Professional League. VAR - Video Assistant Referee
<mask>  did around 30 games for the Saudi Professional League, some as an Assistant Referee, and some as a Video Assistant Referee (IFAB certified VAR). Since 2021 <mask> has been on the list of the FIFA VMO (Video Match Officials). As a part of the Football Association of Serbia's new implementation of video technology, he did more than ten matches as a Video Assistant Referee.Serbian Eternal Derby
<mask>  participated in 25 “Eternal Derbies” (a match between Red Star Belgrade and FK Partizan) during his 12-year career as a Serbian SuperLiga referee. It's the match that holds a special place in any Serbian football fan's, player's, and official's heart, because of the long-standing rivalry between the two teams and the difficulty to officiate it that comes with it. Referee education and humanitarian work
<mask> is actively involved in various referee mentorship and talent development programs in Serbia. Recently he initiated and spearheaded a campaign backed by the Football Association of Serbia to raise funds and help Serbian health system in the current fight against COVID-19 pandemic. References

1973 births
Serbian football referees
Living people
2018 FIFA World Cup

masks: Đurđević Đurđević Đurđević Đurđević Đurđević


title: Nathaniel James Clarkson

texts:
NJC (born <mask>, 1978, Ipswich) is a British music producer. Music career
NJC had his debut in 2003 with Dispatches  on British drum and bass label L.Plates. It was the guidance of British drum and bass don Digital aka Steve Carr (Drum and Bass producer and DJ) that gave <mask> his first opportunity to release and develop his music. Over a three-year period <mask> showcased his ability to fuse different genres like bhangra, reggae, hip hop and live music into his drum and bass productions, garnering him the support from several DJ's including Steve Lamacq, Bobby Friction  & Nihal, Digital, Storm, Bailey, DJ Flight, Zinc and Breakage to name a few. Sativa Records was formed in 2003  by YT, NJC, Digital and Gordon Mulrain who later became the fourth member of Sativa Records collective. In 2004 Clarkson & Mulrain joined together as NJC & Innerheart, and went on to produce 7 of the 13 tracks on Straight Outta Britain  the debut album of UK reggae artist YT  (Mark Hull, nicknamed Whitey). <mask> was also introduced to 'Ola' from the then Stage One Music publishing company in London.<mask> put together a sampler of several productions from various genres and sent over to Stage One Music for consideration. In the winter of 2003 he signed a 3-year publishing deal with Stage One Music. Stage One Music split and Ola founded 'The DML' (The Dance Music Library) which is part of JAL (Just Another Label) for which <mask> still writes today. At the start of 2004 <mask> was commissioned to write a theme tune for PlayStation 2 game Dog's Life. The track was used on the cover-mount DVD in Europe for Official UK PlayStation 2 Magazine. The game Dog's Life was later released around the world and Nat's track

masks:
Nathaniel James Clarkson
Clarkson
Clarkson
Clarkson
Clarkson
Clarkson
Clarkson


title: Oscar Wilde

texts: <mask>'<mask> (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is best remembered for his epigrams and plays, his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, and the circumstances of his criminal conviction for gross indecency for consensual homosexual acts in "one of the first celebrity trials", imprisonment, and early death from meningitis at age 46. <mask>'s parents were Anglo-Irish intellectuals in Dublin. A young <mask> learned to speak fluent French and German. At university, <mask> read Greats; he demonstrated himself to be an exceptional classicist, first at Trinity College Dublin, then at Oxford. He became associated with the emerging philosophy of aestheticism, led by two of his tutors, Walter Pater and John Ruskin.After university, <mask> moved to London into fashionable cultural and social circles. As a spokesman for aestheticism, he tried his hand at various literary activities: he published a book of poems, lectured in the United States and Canada on the new "English Renaissance in Art" and interior decoration, and then returned to London where he worked prolifically as a journalist. Known for his biting wit, flamboyant dress and glittering conversational skill, <mask> became one of the best-known personalities of his day. At the turn of the 1890s, he refined his ideas about the supremacy of art in a series of dialogues and essays, and incorporated themes of decadence, duplicity, and beauty into what would be his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890). The

masks:
Oscar Fingal O
Flahertie Wills Wilde
Wilde
Wilde
Wilde
Wilde
Wilde


title: Oscar Wilde

texts:
 opportunity to construct aesthetic details precisely, and combine them with larger social themes, drew <mask> to write drama. He wrote Salome (1891) in French while in Paris but it was refused a licence for England due to an absolute prohibition on the portrayal of Biblical subjects on the English stage. Unperturbed, <mask> produced four society comedies in the early 1890s, which made him one of the most successful playwrights of late-Victorian London.At the height of his fame and success, while The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) was still being performed in London, <mask> prosecuted the Marquess of Queensberry for criminal libel. The Marquess was the father of <mask>'s lover, Lord Alfred Douglas. The libel trial unearthed evidence that caused <mask> to drop his charges and led to his own arrest and trial for gross indecency with men. After two more trials he was convicted and sentenced to two years' hard labour, the maximum penalty, and was jailed from 1895 to 1897. During his last year in prison, he wrote De Profundis (published posthumously in 1905), a long letter which discusses his spiritual journey through his trials, forming a dark counterpoint to his earlier philosophy of pleasure. On his release, he left immediately for France, and never returned to Ireland or Britain. There he wrote his last work, The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898), a long poem commemorating the harsh rhythms of prison life.Early life

<mask> was born at 21 Westland Row, Dublin (now home of the Oscar Wilde Centre, Trinity College), the second of three children born to an Anglo-Irish couple: Jane, née Elgee and Sir <mask>. <mask> was two years

masks:
Wilde
Wilde
Wilde
Wilde
Wilde
Oscar Wilde
William Wilde
Oscar


title: Oscar Wilde

texts: younger than his brother, William (Willie) <mask>. <mask> was a niece (by marriage) of the novelist, playwright and clergyman Charles Maturin (1780 – 1824), who may have influenced her own literary career. She had distant Italian ancestry, and under the pseudonym "Speranza" (the Italian word for 'hope'), she wrote poetry for the revolutionary Young Irelanders in 1848; she was a lifelong Irish nationalist. <mask> read the Young Irelanders' poetry to <mask> and Willie, inculcating a love of these poets in her sons. Her interest in the neo-classical revival showed in the paintings and busts of ancient Greece and Rome in her home. <mask> was Ireland's leading oto-ophthalmologic (ear and eye) surgeon and was knighted in 1864 for his services as medical adviser and assistant commissioner to the censuses of Ireland.He also wrote books about Irish archaeology and peasant folklore. A renowned philanthropist, his dispensary for the care of the city's poor at the rear of Trinity College Dublin, was the forerunner of the Dublin Eye and Ear Hospital, now located at Adelaide Road. On his father's side <mask> was descended from a Dutchman, Colonel <mask>, who went to Ireland with King William of Orange's invading army in 1690, and numerous Anglo-Irish ancestors. On his mother's side, <mask>'s ancestors included a bricklayer from County Durham, who emigrated to Ireland sometime in the 1770s. <mask> was baptised as an infant in St. Mark's Church, Dublin, the local Church of Ireland (Anglican) church. When the church was closed, the records were moved to the nearby St. Ann's Church, Dawson Street. Davis Coakley mentions a second baptism by a

masks:
Wilde
Jane Wilde
Jane Wilde
Oscar
William Wilde
Wilde
de Wilde
Wilde
Wilde


title: Oscar Wilde

texts:
 Catholic priest, Father Prideaux Fox, who befriended <mask>'s mother circa 1859.According to Fox's testimony in Donahoe's Magazine in 1905, <mask> would visit his chapel in Glencree, County Wicklow, for Mass and would take her sons with her. She asked Father Fox in this period to baptise her sons. Fox described it in this way:
I am not sure if she ever became a Catholic herself but it was not long before she asked me to instruct two of her children, one of them being the future erratic genius, <mask>. After a few weeks I baptized these two children, Lady <mask> herself being present on the occasion. In addition to his two full siblings, <mask> had three half siblings, who were born out of wedlock before the marriage of his father: Henry Wilson, born in 1838 to one woman, and Emily and <mask>, born in 1847 and 1849, respectively, to a second woman. Sir William acknowledged paternity of his illegitimate or "natural" children and provided for their education, arranging for them to be reared by his relatives rather than with his legitimate children in his family household with his wife. In 1855, the family moved to No.1 Merrion Square, where <mask>'s sister, Isola Francesca Emily <mask> was born 2 April 1857. She was named in tribute to Iseult of Ireland, wife of Mark of Cornwall and lover of the Cornish knight, Sir Tristan. She shared the name Francesca with her mother while Emily was the name of her maternal aunt. <mask> was very close to her and grief struck when she died at the age of nine of a febrile illness. Isola lit up their lives like "a golden ray of sunshine dancing about our home. The <mask>s' new home was larger.

masks:
Oscar
Jane Wilde
Oscar Wilde
Wilde
Oscar Wilde
Mary Wilde
Wilde
Wilde
Oscar
Wilde


title: Oscar Wilde

texts:
 With both his parents' success and delight in social life, the house soon became the site of a "unique medical and cultural milieu".Guests at their salon included Sheridan Le Fanu, Charles Lever, George Petrie, Isaac Butt, William Rowan Hamilton and Samuel Ferguson. Until he was nine, <mask> was educated at home, where a French nursemaid and a German governess taught him their languages. He joined his brother Willie at Portora Royal School in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, which he attended from 1864 to 1871. At Portora, although he was not as popular as his older brother, <mask> impressed his peers with the humorous and inventive school stories he told. Later in life he claimed that his fellow students had regarded him as a "prodigy" for his ability to speed read, claiming that he could read two facing pages simultaneously and consume a three-volume book in half an hour, retaining enough information to give a basic account of the plot. He excelled academically, particularly in the subject of Classics, in which he ranked fourth in the school in 1869. His aptitude for giving oral translations of Greek and Latin texts won him multiple prizes, including the Carpenter Prize for Greek Testament.He was one of only three students at Portora to win a Royal School scholarship to Trinity in 1871. Until his early twenties, <mask> summered at the villa, Moytura House, which his father had built in Cong, County Mayo. There the young <mask> and his brother Willie played with George Moore. Isola died at age nine of meningitis. <mask>'s poem "Requiescat" is written to her memory:

"Tread lightly, she is nearUnder the snow
Speak gently, she

masks: Wilde Wilde Wilde Wilde Wilde


title: Oscar Wilde

texts:
 can hear
the daisies grow"

University education: 1870s

Trinity College Dublin
<mask> left Portora with a royal scholarship to read classics at Trinity College Dublin, from 1871 to 1874, sharing rooms with his older brother <mask>. Trinity, one of the leading classical schools, placed him with scholars such as R. Y. Tyrell, Arthur Palmer, Edward Dowden and his tutor, Professor J. P. Mahaffy, who inspired his interest in Greek literature. As a student <mask> worked with Mahaffy on the latter's book Social Life in Greece.<mask>, despite later reservations, called Mahaffy "my first and best teacher" and "the scholar who showed me how to love Greek things". For his part, Mahaffy boasted of having created <mask>; later, he said <mask> was "the only blot on my tutorship". The University Philosophical Society also provided an education, as members discussed intellectual and artistic subjects such as Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Algernon Charles Swinburne weekly. <mask> quickly became an established member – the members' suggestion book for 1874 contains two pages of banter (sportingly) mocking <mask>'s emergent aestheticism. He presented a paper titled "Aesthetic Morality". At Trinity, <mask> established himself as an outstanding student: he came first in his class in his first year, won a scholarship by competitive examination in his second and, in his finals, won the Berkeley Gold Medal in Greek, the University's highest academic award. He was encouraged to compete for a demyship (a half-scholarship worth £95 (£ today) per year) to Magdalen College, Oxford – which he won easily.Magdalen College, Oxford
At Magdalen, he read

masks:
Wilde
Willie Wilde
Wilde
Wilde
Wilde
Wilde
Wilde
Wilde
Wilde


title: Oscar Wilde

texts: Greats from 1874 to 1878, and from there he applied to join the Oxford Union, but failed to be elected. Attracted by its dress, secrecy, and ritual, <mask> petitioned the Apollo Masonic Lodge at Oxford, and was soon raised to the "Sublime Degree of Master Mason". During a resurgent interest in Freemasonry in his third year, he commented he "would be awfully sorry to give it up if I secede from the Protestant Heresy". <mask>'s active involvement in Freemasonry lasted only for the time he spent at Oxford; he allowed his membership of the Apollo University Lodge to lapse after failing to pay subscriptions. Catholicism deeply appealed to him, especially its rich liturgy, and he discussed converting to it with clergy several times. In 1877, <mask> was left speechless after an audience with Pope Pius IX in Rome. He eagerly read the books of Cardinal Newman, a noted Anglican priest who had converted to Catholicism and risen in the church hierarchy.He became more serious in 1878, when he met the Reverend Sebastian Bowden, a priest in the Brompton Oratory who had received some high-profile converts. Neither his father, who threatened to cut off his funds, nor Mahaffy thought much of the plan; but <mask>, the supreme individualist, balked at the last minute from pledging himself to any formal creed, and on the appointed day of his baptism into Catholicism, sent Father Bowden a bunch of altar lilies instead. <mask> did retain a lifelong interest in Catholic theology and liturgy. While at Magdalen College, <mask> became particularly well known for his role in the aesthetic and decadent movements. He wore his hair long, openly scorned

masks: Wilde Wilde Wilde Wilde Wilde Wilde


title: Oscar Wilde

texts: "manly" sports though he occasionally boxed, and he decorated his rooms with peacock feathers, lilies, sunflowers, blue china and other objets d'art. He once remarked to friends, whom he entertained lavishly, "I find it harder and harder every day to live up to my blue china." The line quickly became famous, accepted as a slogan by aesthetes but used against them by critics who sensed in it a terrible vacuousness.Some elements disdained the aesthetes, but their languishing attitudes and showy costumes became a recognised pose. <mask> was once physically attacked by a group of four fellow students, and dealt with them single-handedly, surprising critics. By his third year <mask> had truly begun to develop himself and his myth, and considered his learning to be more expansive than what was within the prescribed texts. This attitude resulted in his being rusticated for one term, after he had returned late to a college term from a trip to Greece with Mahaffy. <mask> did not meet Walter Pater until his third year, but had been enthralled by his Studies in the History of the Renaissance, published during <mask>'s final year in Trinity. Pater argued that man's sensibility to beauty should be refined above all else, and that each moment should be felt to its fullest extent. Years later, in De Profundis, <mask> described Pater's Studies... as "that book that has had such a strange influence over my life".He learned tracts of the book by heart, and carried it with him on travels in later years. Pater gave <mask> his sense of almost flippant devotion to art, though he gained a purpose for it through the lectures and writings of critic


title: Oscar Wilde

texts:
 John Ruskin. Ruskin despaired at the self-validating aestheticism of Pater, arguing that the importance of art lies in its potential for the betterment of society. Ruskin admired beauty, but believed it must be allied with, and applied to, moral good. When <mask> eagerly attended Ruskin's lecture series The Aesthetic and Mathematic Schools of Art in Florence, he learned about aesthetics as the non-mathematical elements of painting. Despite being given to neither early rising nor manual labour, <mask> volunteered for Ruskin's project to convert a swampy country lane into a smart road neatly edged with flowers. <mask> won the 1878 Newdigate Prize for his poem "Ravenna", which reflected on his visit there the year before, and he duly read it at Encaenia.In November 1878, he graduated with a double first in his B.A. of Classical Moderations and Literae Humaniores (Greats). <mask> wrote to a friend, "The dons are '' beyond words – the Bad Boy doing so well in the end!" Apprenticeship of an aesthete: 1880s

Debut in society
After graduation from Oxford, <mask> returned to Dublin, where he met again Florence Balcombe, a childhood sweetheart. She became engaged to Bram Stoker and they married in 1878. <mask> was disappointed but stoic: he wrote to her, remembering "the two sweet years – the sweetest years of all my youth" during which they had been close. He also stated his intention to "return to England, probably for good".This he did in 1878, only briefly visiting Ireland twice after that. Unsure of his next step, <mask> wrote to various acquaintances enquiring about Classics positions at Oxford or Cambridge. The Rise of

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texts: Historical Criticism was his submission for the Chancellor's Essay prize of 1879, which, though no longer a student, he was still eligible to enter. Its subject, "Historical Criticism among the Ancients" seemed ready-made for <mask> – with both his skill in composition and ancient learning – but he struggled to find his voice with the long, flat, scholarly style. Unusually, no prize was awarded that year. With the last of his inheritance from the sale of his father's houses, he set himself up as a bachelor in London. The 1881 British Census listed <mask> as a boarder at 1 (now 44) Tite Street, Chelsea, where Frank Miles, a society painter, was the head of the household.He had been publishing lyrics and poems in magazines since entering Trinity College, especially in Kottabos and the Dublin University Magazine. In mid-1881, at 27 years old, he published  Poems, which collected, revised and expanded his poems. Though the book sold out its first print run of 750 copies it was not generally well received by the critics, Punch for example saying "The poet is <mask>, but his poetry's tame". By a tight vote, the Oxford Union condemned the book for alleged plagiarism. The librarian, who had requested the book for the library, returned the presentation copy to <mask> with a note of apology. Biographer Richard Ellmann argues that <mask>'s poem "Hélas!" was a sincere, though flamboyant, attempt to explain the dichotomies the poet saw in himself; one line reads: "To drift with every passion till my soul / Is a stringed lute on which all winds can play".The book had further printings in 1882. It was bound in a rich, enamel parchment


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 cover (embossed with gilt blossom) and printed on hand-made Dutch paper; over the next few years, <mask> presented many copies to the dignitaries and writers who received him during his lecture tours. North America: 1882

Aestheticism was sufficiently in vogue to be caricatured by Gilbert and Sullivan in Patience (1881). Richard D'Oyly Carte, an English impresario, invited <mask> to make a lecture tour of North America, simultaneously priming the pump for the US tour of Patience and selling this most charming aesthete to the American public. <mask> journeyed on the SS Arizona, arriving 2 January 1882, and disembarking the following day. Originally planned to last four months, the tour continued for almost a year owing to its commercial success. <mask> sought to transpose the beauty he saw in art into daily life.This was a practical as well as philosophical project: in Oxford he had surrounded himself with blue china and lilies, and now one of his lectures was on interior design. In a British Library article on aestheticism and decadence, Carolyn Burdett writes, "<mask> teased his readers with the claim that life imitates art rather than the other way round. His point was a serious one: we notice London fogs, he argued, because art and literature has taught us to do so. <mask>, among others, 'performed' these maxims. He presented himself as the impeccably dressed and mannered dandy figure whose life was a work of art." When asked to explain reports that he had paraded down Piccadilly in London carrying a lily, long hair flowing, <mask> replied, "It's not whether I did it or not that's important, but whether people believed


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texts: I did it". <mask> believed that the artist should hold forth higher ideals, and that pleasure and beauty would replace utilitarian ethics.<mask> and aestheticism were both mercilessly caricatured and criticised in the press: the Springfield Republican, for instance, commented on <mask>'s behaviour during his visit to Boston to lecture on aestheticism, suggesting that <mask>'s conduct was more a bid for notoriety rather than devotion to beauty and the aesthetic. T. W. Higginson, a cleric and abolitionist, wrote in "Unmanly Manhood" of his general concern that <mask>, "whose only distinction is that he has written a thin volume of very mediocre verse", would improperly influence the behaviour of men and women. According to biographer Michèle Mendelssohn, <mask> was the subject of anti-Irish caricature and was portrayed as a monkey, a blackface performer and a Christy's Minstrel throughout his career. "Harper's Weekly put a sunflower-worshipping monkey dressed as <mask> on the front of the January 1882 issue. The magazine didn't let its reputation for quality impede its expression of what are now considered odious ethnic and racial ideologies. The drawing stimulated other American maligners and, in England, had a full-page reprint in the Lady's Pictorial. ...When the National Republican discussed <mask>, it was to explain 'a few items as to the animal's pedigree.' And on 22 January 1882 the Washington Post illustrated the Wild Man of Borneo alongside <mask> of England and asked 'How far is it from this to this?'" Though his press reception was hostile, <mask> was well received in diverse settings across America: he drank

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 whiskey with miners in Leadville, Colorado, and was fêted at the most fashionable salons in many cities he visited. London life and marriage
His earnings, plus expected income from The Duchess of Padua, allowed him to move to Paris between February and mid-May 1883. While there he met Robert Sherard, whom he entertained constantly. "We are dining on the Duchess tonight", <mask> would declare before taking him to an expensive restaurant. In August he briefly returned to New York for the production of Vera, his first play, after it was turned down in London.He reportedly entertained the other passengers with "Ave Imperatrix!, A Poem on England", about the rise and fall of empires. E. C. Stedman, in Victorian Poets, describes this "lyric to England" as "manly verse – a poetic and eloquent invocation". In London, he had been introduced in 1881 to Constance Lloyd, daughter of Horace Lloyd, a wealthy Queen's Counsel. She happened to be visiting Dublin in 1884, when <mask> was lecturing at the Gaiety Theatre. He proposed to her, and they married on 29 May 1884 at the Anglican St James's Church, Paddington, in London. Although Constance had an annual allowance of £250, which was generous for a young woman (equivalent to about £ in current value), the <mask>s had relatively luxurious tastes. They had preached to others for so long on the subject of design that people expected their home to set new standards.No. 16, Tite Street was duly renovated in seven months at considerable expense. The couple had two sons together, Cyril (1885) and Vyvyan (1886). <mask> became the sole literary signatory of George Bernard Shaw's petition for a

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 pardon of the anarchists arrested (and later executed) after the Haymarket massacre in Chicago in 1886. In 1886 at Oxford, <mask> met Robert Ross. Ross, who had read <mask>'s poems before they met, seemed unrestrained by the Victorian prohibition against homosexuality. By Richard Ellmann's account, he was a precocious seventeen-year-old who "so young and yet so knowing, was determined to seduce <mask>".According to Daniel Mendelsohn, <mask>, who had long alluded to Greek love, was "initiated into homosexual sex" by Ross, while his "marriage had begun to unravel after his wife's second pregnancy, which left him physically repelled". Prose writing: 1886–1891

Journalism and editorship: 1886–1889

Criticism over artistic matters in The Pall Mall Gazette provoked a letter in self-defence, and soon <mask> was a contributor to that and other journals during 1885–87. He enjoyed reviewing and journalism; the form suited his style. He could organise and share his views on art, literature and life, yet in a format less tedious than lecturing. Buoyed up, his reviews were largely chatty and positive. <mask>, like his parents before him, also supported the cause of Irish nationalism. When Charles Stewart Parnell was falsely accused of inciting murder, <mask> wrote a series of astute columns defending him in the Daily Chronicle.His flair, having previously been put mainly into socialising, suited journalism and rapidly attracted notice. With his youth nearly over, and a family to support, in mid-1887 <mask> became the editor of The Lady's World magazine, his name prominently appearing on the cover. He promptly renamed it as The Woman's

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texts: World and raised its tone, adding serious articles on parenting, culture, and politics, while keeping discussions of fashion and arts. Two pieces of fiction were usually included, one to be read to children, the other for the ladies themselves. <mask> worked hard to solicit good contributions from his wide artistic acquaintance, including those of <mask> and his wife Constance, while his own "Literary and Other Notes" were themselves popular and amusing. The initial vigour and excitement which he brought to the job began to fade as administration, commuting and office life became tedious. At the same time as <mask>'s interest flagged, the publishers became concerned anew about circulation: sales, at the relatively high price of one shilling, remained low.Increasingly sending instructions to the magazine by letter, <mask> began a new period of creative work and his own column appeared less regularly. In October 1889, <mask> had finally found his voice in prose and, at the end of the second volume, <mask> left The Woman's World. The magazine outlasted him by one issue. If <mask>'s period at the helm of the magazine was a mixed success from an organizational point of view, it played a pivotal role in his development as a writer and facilitated his ascent to fame. Whilst <mask> the journalist supplied articles under the guidance of his editors, <mask> the editor was forced to learn to manipulate the literary marketplace on his own terms. During the late 1880s, <mask> was a close friend of the artist James McNeill Whistler and they dined together on many occasions. At one of these dinners, Whistler said a bon mot that <mask>

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 found particularly witty, <mask> exclaimed that he wished that he had said it, and Whistler retorted "You will, <mask>, you will".Herbert Vivian—a mutual friend of <mask> and Whistler— attended the dinner and recorded it in his article The Reminiscences of a Short Life which appeared in The Sun in 1889. The article alleged that <mask> had a habit of passing off other people's witticisms as his own—especially Whistler's. <mask> considered Vivian's article to be a scurrilous betrayal, and it directly caused the broken friendship between <mask> and Whistler. The Reminiscences also caused great acrimony between <mask> and Vivian, <mask> accusing Vivian of "the inaccuracy of an eavesdropper with the method of a blackmailer" and banishing Vivian from his circle. Shorter fiction

<mask> published The Happy Prince and Other Tales in 1888, and had been regularly writing fairy stories for magazines. In 1891 he published two more collections, Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories, and in September A House of Pomegranates was dedicated "To Constance Mary <mask>". "The Portrait of Mr. W. H.", which <mask> had begun in 1887, was first published in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine in July 1889.It is a short story, which reports a conversation, in which the theory that Shakespeare's sonnets were written out of the poet's love of the boy actor "Willie Hughes", is advanced, retracted, and then propounded again. The only evidence for this is two supposed puns within the sonnets themselves. The anonymous narrator is at first sceptical, then believing, finally flirtatious with the reader: he concludes that "there is really a great deal to

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 be said of the Willie Hughes theory of Shakespeare's sonnets." By the end fact and fiction have melded together. Arthur Ransome wrote that <mask> "read something of himself into Shakespeare's sonnets" and became fascinated with the "Willie Hughes theory" despite the lack of biographical evidence for the historical William Hughes' existence. Instead of writing a short but serious essay on the question, <mask> tossed the theory amongst the three characters of the story, allowing it to unfold as background to the plot. The story thus is an early masterpiece of <mask>'s combining many elements that interested him: conversation, literature and the idea that to shed oneself of an idea one must first convince another of its truth.Ransome concludes that <mask> succeeds precisely because the literary criticism is unveiled with such a deft touch. Though containing nothing but "special pleading", it would not, he says "be possible to build an airier castle in Spain than this of the imaginary William Hughes" we continue listening nonetheless to be charmed by the telling. "You must believe in Willie Hughes," <mask> told an acquaintance, "I almost do, myself." Essays and dialogues

<mask>, having tired of journalism, had been busy setting out his aesthetic ideas more fully in a series of longer prose pieces which were published in the major literary-intellectual journals of the day. In January 1889, The Decay of Lying: A Dialogue appeared in The Nineteenth Century, and Pen, Pencil and Poison, a satirical biography of Thomas Griffiths Wainewright, in The Fortnightly Review, edited by <mask>'s friend Frank Harris. Two of <mask>'s four


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texts: writings on aesthetics are dialogues: though <mask> had evolved professionally from lecturer to writer, he retained an oral tradition of sorts. Having always excelled as a wit and raconteur, he often composed by assembling phrases, bons mots and witticisms into a longer, cohesive work.<mask> was concerned about the effect of moralising on art; he believed in art's redemptive, developmental powers: "Art is individualism, and individualism is a disturbing and disintegrating force. There lies its immense value. For what it seeks is to disturb monotony of type, slavery of custom, tyranny of habit, and the reduction of man to the level of a machine." In his only political text, The Soul of Man Under Socialism, he argued political conditions should establish this primacy – private property should be abolished, and cooperation should be substituted for competition. At the same time, he stressed that the government most amenable to artists was no government at all. <mask> envisioned a society where mechanisation has freed human effort from the burden of necessity, effort which can instead be expended on artistic creation. George Orwell summarised, "In effect, the world will be populated by artists, each striving after perfection in the way that seems best to him."This point of view did not align him with the Fabians, intellectual socialists who advocated using state apparatus to change social conditions, nor did it endear him to the monied classes whom he had previously entertained. Hesketh Pearson, introducing a collection of <mask>'s essays in 1950, remarked how The Soul of Man Under Socialism had been an inspirational text for


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 revolutionaries in Tsarist Russia but laments that in the Stalinist era "it is doubtful whether there are any uninspected places in which it could now be hidden". <mask> considered including this pamphlet and "The Portrait of Mr. W. H.", his essay-story on Shakespeare's sonnets, in a new anthology in 1891, but eventually decided to limit it to purely aesthetic subjects. Intentions packaged revisions of four essays: The Decay of Lying; Pen, Pencil and Poison; The Truth of Masks (first published 1885); and The Critic as Artist in two parts. For Pearson the biographer, the essays and dialogues exhibit every aspect of <mask>'s genius and character: wit, romancer, talker, lecturer, humanist and scholar and concludes that "no other productions of his have as varied an appeal". 1891 turned out to be <mask>'s annus mirabilis; apart from his three collections he also produced his only novel. The Picture of Dorian Gray

The first version of The Picture of Dorian Gray was published as the lead story in the July 1890 edition of Lippincott's Monthly Magazine, along with five others.The story begins with a man painting a picture of Gray. When Gray, who has a "face like ivory and rose leaves", sees his finished portrait, he breaks down. Distraught that his beauty will fade while the portrait stays beautiful, he inadvertently makes a Faustian bargain in which only the painted image grows old while he stays beautiful and young. For <mask>, the purpose of art would be to guide life as if beauty alone were its object. As Gray's portrait allows him to escape the corporeal ravages of his hedonism, <mask> sought to juxtapose the beauty he saw


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texts: in art with daily life. Reviewers immediately criticised the novel's decadence and homosexual allusions; The Daily Chronicle for example, called it "unclean", "poisonous", and "heavy with the mephitic odours of moral and spiritual putrefaction". <mask> vigorously responded, writing to the editor of the Scots Observer, in which he clarified his stance on ethics and aesthetics in art – "If a work of art is rich and vital and complete, those who have artistic instincts will see its beauty and those to whom ethics appeal more strongly will see its moral lesson."He nevertheless revised it extensively for book publication in 1891: six new chapters were added, some overtly decadent passages and homo-eroticism excised, and a preface was included consisting of twenty-two epigrams, such as "Books are well written, or badly written. That is all." Contemporary reviewers and modern critics have postulated numerous possible sources of the story, a search Jershua McCormack argues is futile because <mask> "has tapped a root of Western folklore so deep and ubiquitous that the story has escaped its origins and returned to the oral tradition". <mask> claimed the plot was "an idea that is as old as the history of literature but to which I have given a new form". Modern critic Robin McKie considered the novel to be technically mediocre, saying that the conceit of the plot had guaranteed its fame, but the device is never pushed to its full. On the other hand, Robert McCrum of The Guardian lists it among the 100 best novels ever written in English, calling it "an arresting, and slightly camp, exercise in late-Victorian gothic". Theatrical career:

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 1892–1895

Salomé

The 1891 census records the <mask>s' residence at 16 Tite Street, where he lived with his wife Constance and two sons.<mask> though, not content with being better known than ever in London, returned to Paris in October 1891, this time as a respected writer. He was received at the salons littéraires, including the famous mardis of Stéphane Mallarmé, a renowned symbolist poet of the time. <mask>'s two plays during the 1880s, Vera; or, The Nihilists and The Duchess of Padua, had not met with much success. He had continued his interest in the theatre and now, after finding his voice in prose, his thoughts turned again to the dramatic form as the biblical iconography of Salome filled his mind. One evening, after discussing depictions of Salome throughout history, he returned to his hotel and noticed a blank copybook lying on the desk, and it occurred to him to write in it what he had been saying. The result was a new play, Salomé, written rapidly and in French. A tragedy, it tells the story of Salome, the stepdaughter of the tetrarch Herod Antipas, who, to her stepfather's dismay but mother's delight, requests the head of Jokanaan (John the Baptist) on a silver platter as a reward for dancing the Dance of the Seven Veils.When <mask> returned to London just before Christmas the Paris Echo referred to him as "le great event" of the season. Rehearsals of the play, starring Sarah Bernhardt, began but the play was refused a licence by the Lord Chamberlain, since it depicted biblical characters. Salome was published jointly in Paris and London in 1893, but was not performed until 1896 in Paris, during <mask>'s


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 later incarceration. Comedies of society

<mask>, who had first set out to irritate Victorian society with his dress and talking points, then outrage it with Dorian Gray, his novel of vice hidden beneath art, finally found a way to critique society on its own terms. Lady Windermere's Fan was first performed on 20 February 1892 at St James's Theatre, packed with the cream of society. On the surface a witty comedy, there is subtle subversion underneath: "it concludes with collusive concealment rather than collective disclosure". The audience, like Lady Windermere, are forced to soften harsh social codes in favour of a more nuanced view.The play was enormously popular, touring the country for months, but largely trashed by conservative critics. The success of the play saw <mask> earn £7,000 in the first year alone (worth £ today). His first hit play was followed by A Woman of No Importance in 1893, another Victorian comedy, revolving around the spectre of illegitimate births, mistaken identities and late revelations. <mask> was commissioned to write two more plays and An Ideal Husband, written in 1894, followed in January 1895. Peter Raby said these essentially English plays were well-pitched: "<mask>, with one eye on the dramatic genius of Ibsen, and the other on the commercial competition in London's West End, targeted his audience with adroit precision". Queensberry family

In mid-1891 Lionel Johnson introduced <mask> to Lord Alfred Douglas, Johnson's cousin and an undergraduate at Oxford at the time. Known to his family and friends as "Bosie", he was a handsome and spoilt young man.An intimate friendship sprang up


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texts: between <mask> and Douglas and by 1893 <mask> was infatuated with Douglas and they consorted together regularly in a tempestuous affair. If <mask> was relatively indiscreet, even flamboyant, in the way he acted, Douglas was reckless in public. <mask>, who was earning up to £100 a week from his plays (his salary at The Woman's World had been £6), indulged Douglas's every whim: material, artistic, or sexual. Douglas soon initiated <mask> into the Victorian underground of gay prostitution and <mask> was introduced to a series of young working-class male prostitutes (rent boys) from 1892 onwards by Alfred Taylor. These infrequent rendezvous usually took the same form: <mask> would meet the boy, offer him gifts, dine him privately and then take him to a hotel room. Unlike <mask>'s idealised relations with Ross, John Gray, and Douglas, all of whom remained part of his aesthetic circle, these consorts were uneducated and knew nothing of literature. Soon his public and private lives had become sharply divided; in De Profundis he wrote to Douglas that "It was like feasting with panthers; the danger was half the excitement...I did not know that when they were to strike at me it was to be at another's piping and at another's pay." Douglas and some Oxford friends founded a journal, The Chameleon, to which <mask> "sent a page of paradoxes originally destined for the Saturday Review". "Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young" was to come under attack six months later at <mask>'s trial, where he was forced to defend the magazine to which he had sent his work. In any case, it became unique: The Chameleon was not published again.

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 Lord Alfred's father, the Marquess of Queensberry, was known for his outspoken atheism, brutish manner and creation of the modern rules of boxing. Queensberry, who feuded regularly with his son, confronted <mask> and Lord Alfred about the nature of their relationship several times, but <mask> was able to mollify him. In June 1894, he called on <mask> at 16 Tite Street, without an appointment, and clarified his stance: "I do not say that you are it, but you look it, and pose at it, which is just as bad.And if I catch you and my son again in any public restaurant I will thrash you" to which <mask> responded: "I don't know what the Queensberry rules are, but the <mask> rule is to shoot on sight". His account in De Profundis was less triumphant: "It was when, in my library at Tite Street, waving his small hands in the air in epileptic fury, your father... stood uttering every foul word his foul mind could think of, and screaming the loathsome threats he afterwards with such cunning carried out". Queensberry only described the scene once, saying <mask> had "shown him the white feather", meaning he had acted in a cowardly way. Though trying to remain calm, <mask> saw that he was becoming ensnared in a brutal family quarrel. He did not wish to bear Queensberry's insults, but he knew to confront him could lead to disaster were his liaisons disclosed publicly. The Importance of Being Earnest

<mask>'s final play again returns to the theme of switched identities: the play's two protagonists engage in "bunburying" (the maintenance of alternative personas in the town and country) which allows them to escape Victorian social mores.

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texts: Earnest is even lighter in tone than <mask>'s earlier comedies.While their characters often rise to serious themes in moments of crisis, Earnest lacks the by-now stock Wildean characters: there is no "woman with a past", the principals are neither villainous nor cunning, simply idle cultivés, and the idealistic young women are not that innocent. Mostly set in drawing rooms and almost completely lacking in action or violence, Earnest lacks the self-conscious decadence found in The Picture of Dorian Gray and Salome. The play, now considered <mask>'s masterpiece, was rapidly written in <mask>'s artistic maturity in late 1894. It was first performed on 14 February 1895, at St James's Theatre in London, <mask>'s second collaboration with George Alexander, the actor-manager. Both author and producer assiduously revised, prepared and rehearsed every line, scene and setting in the months before the premiere, creating a carefully constructed representation of late-Victorian society, yet simultaneously mocking it. During rehearsal Alexander requested that <mask> shorten the play from four acts to three, which the author did. Premieres at St James's seemed like "brilliant parties", and the opening of The Importance of Being Earnest was no exception.Allan Aynesworth (who played Algernon) recalled to Hesketh Pearson, "In my fifty-three years of acting, I never remember a greater triumph than [that] first night." Earnests immediate reception as <mask>'s best work to date finally crystallised his fame into a solid artistic reputation. In a review of the play for The Pall Mall Gazette H. G. Wells wrote, "More humorous dealing with


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 theatrical conventions it would be difficult to imagine. Mr <mask> has decorated a humour that is Gilbertian with innumerable spangles of that wit that is all his own". The Importance of Being Earnest remains his most popular play. <mask>'s professional success was mirrored by an escalation in his feud with Queensberry. Queensberry had planned to insult <mask> publicly by throwing a bouquet of rotting vegetables onto the stage; <mask> was tipped off and had Queensberry barred from entering the theatre.Fifteen weeks later <mask> was in prison. Trials

<mask> v. Queensberry
On 18 February 1895, the Marquess of Queensberry left his calling card at <mask>'s club, the Albemarle, inscribed: "For <mask>, posing somdomite". <mask>, encouraged by Douglas and against the advice of his friends, initiated a private prosecution against Queensberry for libel, since the note amounted to a public accusation that <mask> had committed the crime of sodomy. Queensberry was arrested for criminal libel, a charge carrying a possible sentence of up to two years in prison. Under the 1843 Libel Act, Queensberry could avoid conviction for libel only by demonstrating that his accusation was in fact true, and furthermore that there was some "public benefit" to having made the accusation openly. Queensberry's lawyers thus hired private detectives to find evidence of <mask>'s homosexual liaisons. <mask>'s friends had advised him against the prosecution at a Saturday Review meeting at the Café Royal on 24 March 1895; Frank Harris warned him that "they are going to prove sodomy against you" and advised him to flee to France.<mask> and Douglas walked out

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