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What was extraordinary about 1895, for Oscar Wilde, this was his—the year of Icarus,
if you like. In, in January, he opened "An Ideal Husband," and it was a massive success.
On Valentine's Day, little more than a month later, he had the opening night of "The Importance
of Being Earnest," which was attended by the Prince of Wales by the all society, and his
nemesis, the Marquess of Queensberry tried to get into the theatre, and he had been banned,
but he saw Wilde and gave him a bunch of rotting vegetables— bouquet of rotting vegetables,
and Wilde brilliantly said, "My dear Marquess, thank you so much. Every time I sniff this,
I shall think of you." But, Queensberry had his revenge because two months after the first
night, the triumph of his life, "The Importance of Being Earnest," Wilde was sentenced to
two years imprisonment, so everybody in the theatre, in England particularly, is aware
of this extraordinary fall that was about to overtake him, and that heightens in the
way that shadows heighten sunlight, that heightens the sunlight of this last glorious play. But
now, all these years have gone by, so we don't have to think about that, and we're just left
with the sunlight.