Constance Lloyd
| Constance Holland (previously Constance Wilde) | |
|---|---|
 Constance with her son Cyril in 1889 |
|
| Born | Constance Mary Lloyd 2 January 1859 Dublin, Ireland |
| Died | 7 April 1898 (aged 39) Genoa, Italy |
| Occupation | Author |
| Nationality | Irish |
| Ethnicity | Anglo-Irish |
| Citizenship | British Subject |
| Period | Victorian |
| Genres | Children's stories |
| Notable work(s) | There Was Once |
| Spouse(s) | Oscar Wilde |
| Children | Cyril Holland Vyvyan Holland |
Constance Wilde (January 2, 1859 – April 7, 1898), born Constance Mary Lloyd, was the wife of Irish playwright Oscar Wilde and the mother of his two sons, Cyril and Vyvyan. The daughter of Horace Lloyd, an Irish barrister, and Adelaide Atkinson Lloyd, she married Wilde on May 29, 1884, and had both her sons within the next two years.[1] In 1888 she published a book based on children's stories she had heard from her grandmother, called There Was Once.[2] She and her husband were involved in the dress reform movement.[3]
It is unknown at what point Constance became aware of her husband's homosexual relationships. In 1891 she met his lover Lord Alfred Douglas when Wilde brought Douglas to their home for a visit. It was around this time that Wilde was living more in hotels than at their home in Tite Street and since the birth of their second son they had become sexually estranged. It is claimed that on one occasion, when warning his sons about naughty boys who made their mamas cry, Wilde's sons asked him what happened to absent papas who made mamas cry. Nevertheless, by all accounts, they still remained on good terms.[4]
By 1895 she was incapable of ignorance on the subject, as Oscar was tried and imprisoned for "gross indecency", or homosexual acts.[5]
After Wilde's imprisonment, Constance changed her and her sons' last name to Holland to disassociate themselves from Wilde's scandal.[6] The couple never divorced and though Constance visited Oscar in prison so she could tell him the news of his mother's death in person,[7] she also forced him to give up his parental rights and later, after he had been released from prison, refused to send him any money unless he no longer associated with Lord Alfred Douglas.
A fall down the stairs in the Tite Street home she had shared with Wilde caused Constance to have a form of paralysis, and she died on April 7, 1898, after spinal surgery. She is buried in Genoa, Italy.[8]
Contents |
[edit] Gallery
-
Funerary monument, Monumental Cemetery of Staglieno, Genoa
[edit] References
- ^ The Official Web Site of Oscar Wilde
- ^ (Victorian Colorplate); There was Once-Grandma's Stories by Mrs. Oscar (Constance) Wilde with colour pictures by John Lawson
- ^ Wilde: The making of the motion picture Wilde
- ^ Oscar Wilde by Richard Ellman, published in 1987
- ^ The Trials of Oscar Wilde
- ^ The Incomparable Oscar Wilde
- ^ Ellman, Richard. Oscar Wilde. New York: Vintage Books, 1988. 497-98.
- ^ Oscar Wilde Biography - Poems
[edit] Further reading
Moyle, Franny (2011). Constance: the Tragic and Scandalous Life of Mrs Oscar Wilde. John Murray.
[edit] External links
- "Constance Lloyd". Find a Grave. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=10930027. Retrieved August 28, 2010.
- Lucy Russell - Friend of Constance
