This hitherto unpublished essay was writtenby Max Beerbohm for the first number of TheYellow Book, but it was held over to make wayfor his famous Defence of Cosmetics, which dulyappeared in April, 1894. Whether this changewas made because of the impending Wilde scandalit is, of course impossible to say with certainty,but the probabilities favour thisexplanation. The Wilde case did not come tothe ears of the general public until the springof 1895, just one year after the founding of TheYellow Book, but literary London was awareof what was happening long before that date,and already in 1894 Wilde’s friends were veryanxious about the recklessness of his behaviour.It is significant that Oscar Wilde, the archetypeof the Decadent Nineties, did not contributeeither to The Yellow Book or The Savoy, whichwere the literary organs of that whole movement.It is difficult not to see some connectionbetween the remarkable absence of Wilde’s namefrom these periodicals and the fact that this brilliantessay on him was never published.

The essay itself is one of the deftest and cleverest[4]pieces of writing which Max Beerbohmhas ever achieved. In it one can see how fromthe very beginning of his career Beerbohm wasdestined to be the satirist of the period withwhich he is associated, although he never displayedany of the qualities—or defects—of theDecadents. No cartoon of his is more devastatingand illuminating than this solemn buffooneryof Wilde in terms of a domesticity aspreposterous as Wilde’s own pose of diabolism.At the same time Wilde had no more devotedadmirer or faithful friend. It is characteristicof the good nature of Max’s satire that it doesnot necessarily imply disapproval. It is justhis fun.