Stood Ever Woman So Alone?

Woman Alone, from the series: The Dancing Pair Vigano
Johann Gottfried Schadow (1764–1850)
[The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 49.21.90]

OSCAR WILDE ON SEXUAL POLITICS

If we wish to gauge our men of the past, should we not determine on which side of history they stand? Or is that presentism?

To help you decide, take the political rights of women, for instance. At the time of the suffragist movement in Britain, women were second-class citizens under the law. One honorable gentleman in the House of Commons asked, “is the House prepared to hand over the government of this country to women, the majority of whom…do not understand the responsibilities of life?”

This was a view that resounded to the crown of the establishment. In 1907, King Edward VII wrote to the Liberal Prime Minister, Henry Campbell-Bannerman: “I rejoice to see that you put your foot down regarding the Channel Tunnel…I only wish you could have done the same regarding Female Suffrage. The conduct of the so-called Suffragettes has really been so outrageous and does their cause (for which I have no sympathy) much harm.”

No sympathy with the cause!? This was the king of the British commonwealth writing to the political head of the country to deprecate half the population within a decade or two of the faltering steps of the franchise being equalized.

Or, take the “idiotical” W. S. Gilbert, by now Sir William Gilbert, who mocked the “Votes For Women” mantra of the movement by saying, “I think I shall chain myself to the railings of Queen Charlotte’s Maternity Hospital and shout ‘Babes for men’.”¹

Meanwhile, on the other side of history, consider the foresight of thinkers such of Edward Carpenter, and revisit the works of a playwright like Shaw. But don’t be surprised if things haven’t changed too much. Fewer than 30 countries are led by a woman today, and there are still 113 countries that have never had a female political leader.

One of those countries is the United States.

And so, if an independent woman should now stand alone, to whom might she turn to re-empower laughter in the face of chauvinism?

There are many examples of Oscar Wilde’s championing of women, but this lesser known speech by The Duchess of Padua, in Wilde’s play of that name, seems most appropriate:

Duchess:
Stood ever woman so alone indeed?
Men when they woo us call us pretty children,
Tell us we have not wit to make our lives,
And so they mar them for us. Did I say woo?
We are their chattels, and their common slaves,
Less dear than the poor hound that licks their hand,
Less fondled than the hawk upon their wrist.
Woo, did I say? bought rather, sold and bartered,
Our very bodies being merchandise.
I know it is the general lot of women,
Each miserably mated to some man
Wrecks her own life upon his selfishness:
That it is general makes it not less bitter.
I think I never heard a woman laugh,
Laugh for pure merriment, except one woman,
That was at night time, in the public streets.
Poor soul, she walked with painted lips, and wore
The mask of pleasure: I would not laugh like her;
No, death were better.

The Duchess of Padua, Act II.

The Duchess of Padua

As Erik Ryding points out in his recent Wilde in New York documentary, not only was Wilde’s first play staged in New York (Vera, Or, The Nihilists) but his second play was too. That second play was properly titled The Duchess of Padua, but it was presented as Guido Ferranti, for reasons that you can explore here.

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