Oscar Wilde, Volume 1 | Page 3

idolized by the
populace for her passionate advocacy of Ireland's claim to
self-government; "Speranza" was regarded by the Irish people as a sort
of Irish Muse.
The young lady bringing the action was the daughter of the professor of
medical jurisprudence at Trinity College, who was also the chief at
Marsh's library.
It was said that this Miss Travers, a pretty girl just out of her teens, had
been seduced by Dr. Sir William Wilde while under his care as a
patient. Some went so far as to say that chloroform had been used, and
that the girl had been violated.
The doctor was represented as a sort of Minotaur: lustful stories were
invented and repeated with breathless delight; on all faces, the joy of
malicious curiosity and envious denigration.
The interest taken in the case was extraordinary: the excitement beyond
comparison; the first talents of the Bar were engaged on both sides;
Serjeant Armstrong led for the plaintiff, helped by the famous Mr. Butt,

Q.C., and Mr. Heron, Q.C., who were in turn backed by Mr. Hamill and
Mr. Quinn; while Serjeant Sullivan was for the defendant, supported by
Mr. Sidney, Q.C., and Mr. Morris, Q.C., and aided by Mr. John Curran
and Mr. Purcell.
The Court of Common Pleas was the stage; Chief Justice Monahan
presiding with a special jury. The trial was expected to last a week, and
not only the Court but the approaches to it were crowded.
To judge by the scandalous reports, the case should have been a
criminal case, should have been conducted by the Attorney-General
against Sir William Wilde; but that was not the way it presented itself.
The action was not even brought directly by Miss Travers or by her
father, Dr. Travers, against Sir William Wilde for rape or criminal
assault, or seduction. It was a civil action brought by Miss Travers,
who claimed £2,000 damages for a libel written by Lady Wilde to her
father, Dr. Travers. The letter complained of ran as follows:--
TOWER, BRAY, May 6th.
Sir, you may not be aware of the disreputable conduct of your daughter
at Bray where she consorts with all the low newspaper boys in the place,
employing them to disseminate offensive placards in which my name is
given, and also tracts in which she makes it appear that she has had an
intrigue with Sir William Wilde. If she chooses to disgrace herself, it is
not my affair, but as her object in insulting me is in the hope of
extorting money for which she has several times applied to Sir William
Wilde with threats of more annoyance if not given, I think it right to
inform you, as no threat of additional insult shall ever extort money
from our hands. The wages of disgrace she has so basely treated for and
demanded shall never be given her.
JANE F. WILDE.
To Dr. Travers.
The summons and plaint charged that this letter written to the father of
the plaintiff by Lady Wilde was a libel reflecting on the character and

chastity of Miss Travers, and as Lady Wilde was a married woman, her
husband Sir William Wilde was joined in the action as a co-defendant
for conformity.
The defences set up were:--
First, a plea of "No libel": secondly, that the letter did not bear the
defamatory sense imputed by the plaint: thirdly, a denial of the
publication, and, fourthly, a plea of privilege. This last was evidently
the real defence and was grounded upon facts which afforded some
justification of Lady Wilde's bitter letter.
It was admitted that for a year or more Miss Travers had done her
uttermost to annoy both Sir William Wilde and his wife in every
possible way. The trouble began, the defence stated, by Miss Travers
fancying that she was slighted by Lady Wilde. She thereupon published
a scandalous pamphlet under the title of "Florence Boyle Price, a
Warning; by Speranza," with the evident intention of causing the public
to believe that the booklet was the composition of Lady Wilde under
the assumed name of Florence Boyle Price. In this pamphlet Miss
Travers asserted that a person she called Dr. Quilp had made an attempt
on her virtue. She put the charge mildly. "It is sad," she wrote, "to think
that in the nineteenth century a lady must not venture into a physician's
study without being accompanied by a bodyguard to protect her."
Miss Travers admitted that Dr. Quilp was intended for Sir William
Wilde; indeed she identified Dr. Quilp with the newly made knight in a
dozen different ways. She went so far as to describe his appearance.
She declared that he had "an animal, sinister expression about his
mouth which was coarse and vulgar in the extreme: the large protruding
under lip was most