Edward Carson:
In this poem by Lord Alfred Douglas, 'Two Loves', there is one love, true love, which, and I quote 'fills the hearts of boy and girl with mutual flame.' And there is another: 'I am the love that dare not speak its name.' Was that poem explained to you?
Oscar Wilde:
I think it's clear.
Edward Carson:
There's no question as to what it means?
Oscar Wilde:
Most certainly not.
Edward Carson:
So, is it not clear that the love describe relates to natural and unnatural love?
Oscar Wilde:
No.
Edward Carson:
Oh. Then what is 'the love that dare not speak its name?'
Oscar Wilde:
[after a long pause]
'The love that dare not speak its name', in this century, is such a great affection of an elder for a younger man as there was between David and Johnathan. Such as Plato made the very basis of his philosophy, and such as you may find in the sonnets of Michelangelo or Shakespeare. It is, in this century, misunderstood. So much misunderstood that it may be described as 'the love that dare not speak its name', and on account of it I am placed where I am now. It is beautiful. It is fine. It is the noblest form of affection. There is nothing unnatural about it. It is intellectual. And it repeatedly exists between an elder and a younger man when the elder has intellect and the younger man has all the joy, hope and glamour of life before him. That it should be so, the world does not understand. The world mocks at it and sometimes puts someone in the pillory for it.
[after a beat, Robbie Ross and another man begin to applaud, as the other spectators boo and jeer]
