The marquess carried a bouquet of cabbages

Oscar Wilde's sensational action for libel against the Marquess of Queensberry began in a London magistrate's court on March 11th, 1895, and moved to the Old Bailey for a full hearing. The playwright was at the height of his success. A Woman of No Importance had been staged at London's Haymarket theatre in 1894, and was followed by An Ideal Husband.

April 4, 1895
All the appearances of a sensational trail were present today at the Old Bailey when the Marquess of Queensberry entered the dock to answer the charge of criminally libelling Mr Oscar Wilde . . . The clerk read out the indictment that the marquess "did unlawfully and maliciously write and publish a false and malicious and defamatory libel" concerning Mr Oscar Wilde in the form of a card directed to him. The marquess said that he pleaded not guilty, and the libel was true and it was in the public interest that it should be published.

Mr Oscar Wilde gave evidence. "I am an author and a dramatist", he declared. Sydney Wright, a hall porter at the Albermarle Club, gave evidence of receiving a card from the Marquess of Queensberry, the father of Oscar Wilde's friend Sir Alfred Douglas, on which the Marquess had written to give to Mr Wilde.

The court also heard that the Marquess of Queensberry, had turned up for a performance of The Importance of Being Earnest a few months earlier but had been refused admittance as he was carrying a "bouquet" of cabbages. A little later he had handed in the note to the Albermarle club, of which Wilde was a member.

Footnote: Wilde later received a two-year sentence of hard labour for the homosexual practices revealed in the abortive libel action.

Sept 5, 1895.
At the London Bankruptcy court yesterday [ counsel] Mr Grain applied for an adjournment in the case of Mr Oscar Wilde. The debtor had filed a statement which disclosed total indebtedness of £3,591, with substantially no assets.

March 4, 1905
From an advertisement for Combridge's booksellers: De Profundis, Oscar Wilde, five shillings.