 | The Duchess of Padua |  |
TO A. S.
Madam,
A few months before his death Mr. Oscar Wilde expressed to me a regret that he had never dedicated any of his works to one from whom he had received such infinite kindness and to whom he was under obligations no flattering dedication could repay. With not very great sincerity, because I knew he was a dying man, I suggested he might still write a play or book which you would accept. He answered with truth, ‘There is nothing but The Duchess of Padua and it is unworthy of her and unworthy of me.’ With all his egoism and self-complacency you will know, perhaps as well as I do, that he never regarded his works as an adequate expression of his extraordinary genius and his magnificent intellectual endowment; many people hardly believe that in his last years he was the severest critic of his own achievements. In the pages of De Profundis there are many references to yourself, and I think I am carrying out my dear friend's wishes in asking your acceptance of a play which was the prelude to a singularly brilliant and, if the last five years are omitted, a very happy life.
| The Duchess of Padua | |