| The Columbia World of Quotations. 1996. |
| |
| |
| NUMBER: | 64556 |
| QUOTATION: | “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 Jonathan, such as Plato made the very basis of his philosophy, and such as you find in the sonnets of Michelangelo and Shakespeare. It is that deep, spiritual affection that is as pure as it is perfect.... It is in this century misunderstood ... and on account of it I am placed where I am now. |
| ATTRIBUTION: | Oscar Wilde (1854–1900), Anglo-Irish playwright, author. Quoted in H. Montgomery Hyde, Oscar Wilde, ch. 6 (1976).
Wilde made this statement during his first trial for “indecent acts,” Regina v. Wilde and Taylor (April 30, 1895). “I am the Love that dare not speak its name,” was the concluding line of the poem Two Loves, contributed by Lord Alfred Douglas to the undergraduate magazine The Chameleon. |
| BIOGRAPHY: | Columbia Encyclopedia. |
| WORKS: | Wilde Collection. |
| |
| | | The Columbia World of Quotations. Copyright © 1996 Columbia University Press. |
|
|
