had provoked the whole investigation:
"on March 30th, Mr. Wilde," he said, "knew the catalogue of
accusations"; and he asked: did the jury believe that, if he had been
guilty, he would have stayed in England and brought about the first
trial? Insane would hardly be the word for such conduct, if Mr. Wilde
really had been guilty. Moreover, before even hearing the specific
accusations, Mr. Wilde had gone into the witness box to deny them.

Clarke's speech was a good one, but nothing out of the common: no new
arguments were used in it; not one striking illustration. Needless to
say the higher advocacy of sympathy was conspicuous by its absence.

Again, the interesting part of the trial was the cross-examination of
Oscar Wilde.

Mr. Gill examined him at length on the two poems which Lord Alfred
Douglas had contributed to _The Chameleon_, which Mr. Wilde had called
"beautiful." The first was in "Praise of Shame," the second was one
called "Two Loves." Sir Edward Clarke, interposing, said:

"That's not Mr. Wilde's, Mr. Gill."

Mr. Gill: "I am not aware that I said it was."

Sir Edward Clarke: "I thought you would be glad to say it was not."

Mr. Gill insisted that Mr. Wilde should explain the poem in "Praise of
Shame."

Mr. Wilde said that the first poem seemed obscure, but, when pressed
as to the "love" described in the second poem, he let himself go for
the first time and perhaps the only time during the trial; he said:

"The 'love' that dare not speak its name in this century is such a
great affection of an older for a younger man as there was between
David and Jonathan, such as Plato made the very base of his philosophy
and such as you find in the sonnets of Michaelangelo and
Shakespeare--a deep spiritual affection that is as pure as it is
perfect, and dictates great works of art like those of Shakespeare and
Michaelangelo and those two letters of mine, such as they are, and
which is in this century misunderstood--so misunderstood that, on
account of it, I am placed where I am now. It is beautiful; it is
fine; it is the noblest form of affection. It is intellectual, and it
repeatedly exists between an elder and younger man, when the elder man
has intellect, and the younger man has all the joy, hope and glamour
of life. That it should be so the world does not understand. It mocks
at it and sometimes puts one into the pillory for it."

At this stage there was loud applause in the gallery of the court, and
the le