The Duchess of Padua

Title: The Duchess of Padua

Author: Wilde, Oscar

Publication: London: Methuen and Co., 1908.

Description: Inscribed by Wilde’s literary executor Robert Ross to Edmund Gosse in February 1909.

The first authorized published edition in English, edited by Ross and issued as part of Wilde's collected works, preceded only by the privately printed edition of 20 copies (1883), a translation into German (1904), and piracies back-translated from the German. One of a limited edition of 1000 copies in full cream cloth, with gilt lettering and decoration. 8.5 x 6.25 inches; [12], 209, [3] pages.

Lacking the scarce dust jacket. Binding and top edge moderately soiled, spine rather darkened and with a slight lean, moderate foxing to the endpapers, and small spots of insect damage at the foot of the front free endpaper, else a Very Good copy with a clean interior.  

Mason reports that, on p. v of this edition, the date and place of the first production of the play should read, “on January 26, 1891, at the Broadway Theatre.” In this copy, as in a digitized institutional copy, the statement reads, “on November 14, 1891, at Hammerstein’s Opera House.” Whether this is a variant or simply an error by Mason remains unclear.

Robert Ross played a significant role in Oscar Wilde's life, from their early romantic relationship (Wilde's first gay relationship when Ross was only 17) to his later efforts to manage Wilde's estate and acquire rights to his works, which had been widely pirated. Ross attempted to convince Wilde to flee to France when his arrest for “gross indecency” was imminent. After Wilde was arrested and declared bankrupt, Ross went to Wilde’s home to retrieve his personal papers and manuscripts. He determined that the manuscript for “The Duchess of Padua” was missing and likely stolen, along with several other unpublished manuscripts. However, Ross retained a privately printed copy of the play with the author's manuscript corrections, which Ross used when preparing this edition.

This copy of “The Duchess of Padua” is inscribed by Ross to Edmund Gosse, an influential literary figure in late Victorian and Edwardian England. Gosse is best known for his autobiographical novel "Father and Son" (1907) and for translating the works of continental European writers, including Henrik Ibsen. He served as librarian to the House of Lords and befriended writers like Henry James and Thomas Hardy. Gosse, who was married to a woman, eventually acknowledged his attraction to men and his struggle to suppress it in a letter to poet John Addington Symonds in 1890. "Years ago I wanted to write to you about all this," Gosse wrote, "and withdrew through cowardice. I have had a very fortunate life, but there has been this obstinate twist in it!" (Kellogg, Stuart. Essays on gay literature, p. 87). 

Mason 420.

References:
- Kellogg, Stuart, ed. Essays on Gay Literature. New York: Harrington Park Press, 1985.
- Mason, Stuart. Bibliography of Oscar Wilde. Boston: Milford House, 1972.