- Apr 2023
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terribly.
From LAWLER 188: Wilde cancelled the following line from his original manuscript: "If you set yourself to know life, you will look evil; if you are afraid of life, you will look common."
ZABROUSKI: The homoerotic undertone of this sentence wouldn't have gone unnoticed if it was included in this edition. Though Lord Henry seems to be talking about the changes in appearance through aging, if those lines were included in this edition, Lord Henry could've been implicitly addressing society's view on homosexual relations rather than society's view on physical appearance. The phrase "afraid of life" may suggest being afraid of acting on one's true desires, and the phrase looking "common" may suggest an unwanted submission to a heterosexual relationship.
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impulses
From LAWLER 186: Wilde changed his word to "influences" in 1891.
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to whom he had rather taken a fancy. He was so unlike Hallward. They made a delightful contrast. And he had such a beautiful voice.
From LALWER 185: Added from the original manuscript.
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Basil
ZABROUSKI: Changed to "Hallward" in 1891.
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Mr. Gray.
From LAWLER 184: Wilde added the following epigram in 1891: "It is so tedious a subject that one would have to talk seriously about it."
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He was made to be worshipped.
From LAWLER 184: Deleted in 1891.
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house
From LAWLER 183: The original conclusion of the chapter, cancelled in the manuscript, read: "'I don't suppose I shall care for him, and I am quite sure he won't care for me,' replied Lord Henry, smiling..."
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that makes life absolutely lovely to me, and that gives to my art whatever wonder or charm it possesses.
From LAWLER 183: Changed to "who gives to my art whatever charm it possesses: my life as an artist depends on him" in 1891.
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for me.
ZABROUSKI: Cut in 1891.
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about the housing of the poor, and the necessity for model lodging-houses.
ZABROUSKI: Changed to "the feeding of the poor and the necessity for model lodging-houses. Each class would have preached the importance of those virtues, for whose exercise there was no necessity in their own lives. The rich would have spoken on the value of thrift, and the idle grown eloquent over the dignity of labour" in 1891.
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He thought with pleasure of
ZABROUSKI: Changed to "He pictured to himself with silent amusement" in 1891.
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in the ivy,
ZABROUSKI: Changed to "in the green lacquer leaves of the ivy" in 1891.
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Those who are faithful know only the pleasures of love:
ZABROUSKI: Changed to "Those who are faithful know only the trivial side of love:" in 1891.
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"Harry, don't talk like that
From LAWLER 182: The following lines were cut from the original manuscript: "I am not afraid of things, but I am afraid of words. I cannot understand how it is that no prophecy has ever been fulfilled. None has I know. And yet it seems to me that to say a thing is to bring it to pass. Whatever has found expression becomes true, and what has not found expression can never happen. As for genius lasting longer than beauty, it is only the transitory that stirs me. What is permanent is monstrous and produces no effect. Our senses become dulled by what is always with us."
ZABROUSKI: ADD SOMETHING HERE
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The worst of having a romance is that it leaves one so unromantic.”
From LAWLER 182: Changed to "What you have told me is quite a romance, a romance of art one might call it, and the worst of having a romance of any kind is that it leaves one so unromantic" in 1891.
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day
From LAWLER 181: The following lines were cancelled form the manuscript: "Who seems to take a real delight in giving me pain. I seem quite adjusted to it. I can imagine myself doing it. But not to him, not to him. Once or twice we have been away together. Then I have had him all to myself. I am horribly jealous of him, of course. I never let him talk to me of the people he knows. I like to isolate him from the rest of life and to think that he absolutely belongs to me. He does not, I know. But it gives me pleasure to think he does."
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I give myself away.
From LAWLER 181: Wilde dropped this sentence from the 1891 text together with the phrase "walk home together from the club arm in arm" from the next sentence.
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"Oh, she murmured, 'Charming boy—poor dear mother and I quite inseparable—engaged to be married to the same man—I mean married on the same day—how very silly of me! Quite forget what he does—afraid he—doesn't do anything—oh, yes, plays the piano—or is it the violin, dear Mr. Gray?' We could neither of us help laughing, and we became friends at once."
ZABROUSKI: Changed to "Oh, something like, 'Charming boy--poor dear mother and I absolutely inseparable. Quite forget what he does--afraid he--doesn't do anything--oh, yes, plays the piano--or is it the violin, dear Mr. Gray?' Neither of us could help laughing, and we became friends at once" in 1891.
The phrase "engaged to be married to the same man--I mean married on the same day" suggests that Dorian was engaged to a man, and in accidentally sharing that piece of information, Lady Brandon attempts to correct herself. The 1891 text omits that phrase completely, for readers may have pointed out the homosexual undertone in the 1890 edition.
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"Because I have put into it all the extraordinary romance of which, of course, I have never dared to speak to him. He knows nothing about it. He will never know anything about it. But the world might guess it; and I will not bare my soul to their shallow, prying eyes. My heart shall never be put under their microscope. There is too much of myself in the thing, Harry,—too much of myself!"
From LAWLER 181: Wilde altered this paragraph in every revision.
ZABROUSKI: In the 1891 version, Wilde wrote, “Because, without intending it, I have put into it some expression of all this curious artistic idolatry, of which, of course, I have never cared to speak to him. He knows nothing about it. He shall never know anything about it. But the world might guess it, and I will not bare my soul to their shallow prying eyes. My heart shall never be put under their microscope. There is too much of myself in the thing, Harry—too much of myself!” In the original manuscript, Wilde had (after "But the world might guess it") "where there is merely love, they would see something evil. Where there is spiritual passion, they would suggest something vile." If Wilde kept those two sentences in, it could be assumed that critics would have used it as fuel for their argument on what constitutes a moral vs immoral book.
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garden
From LAWLER 181: Wilde canceled the following at this point from the manuscript: "A curious smile crossed his face. He seemed like a man in a dream."
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I must see Dorian Gray."
LAWLER 180: Henry's response in the manuscript is too heavily blotted to read fully, but he protests Basil's being in Dorian's power: "to make yourself the slave of your slave. It is worse than wicked, it is silly. I hate Dorian Gray!" In one stroke, Wilde rid himself of some silly dialogue and removed a clue, perhaps, to the nature of the relationship between Dorian and Basil as a form of homoerotic bondage so fashionable among the English that the French referred to it as le vice anglais.
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me
ZABROUSKI: Wilde added "Some subtle influence passed from him to me, and for the first time in my life I saw in the plain woodland the wonder I had always looked for and always missed" to the end of this paragraph in 1891.
LAWLER 180: From the original manuscript, Wilde deleted "and as he leaned across to look at it, his lips touched my hand. The world becomes young to me when I hold his hand..." In 1891, Wilde added another sentence here (which I transcribed above) emphasizing Dorian's influence over Basil's art.
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Harry!
ZABROUSKI: Deleted in 1891.
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that
ZABROUSKI: Changed to "a model or a sitter" in 1891.
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model from him.
ZABROUSKI: Changed to "sketch from him" in 1891.
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lad
From LAWLER 180: "Lad" substituted for "boy" here and in several other places from the original manuscript. Additionally, Wilde removed "Through twenty summers have shown him roses less scarlet than his lips" from the manuscript.
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Of course sometimes it is only for a few minutes. But a few minutes with somebody one worships mean a great deal."
ZABROUSKI: Changed to "He is absolutely necessary to me" in 1891.
From LAWLER 180: This change omits the homoerotic overtones.
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He has stood as Paris in dainty armor, and as Adonis with huntsman's cloak and polished boar-spear. Crowned with heavy lotus-blossoms, he has sat on the prow of Adrian's barge, looking into the green, turbid Nile. He has leaned over the still pool of some Greek woodland, and seen in the water's silent silver the wonder of his own beauty.
From LAWLER 180: Was moved by Wilde to another context (in Chapter IX) in 1891.
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Art sounds better, doesn't it?
From LAWLER 180: Wilde revised the dialogue above in 1891, leaving out "worship" and muting the homoerotic overtones.
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They
ZABROUSKI: Changed to "The masses" in 1891.
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classes
ZABROUSKI: Changed to "orders" in 1891.
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right or wrong.
From LAWLER 179: Wilde altered details here and in the preceding two paragraphs in 1891.
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I choose my friends for their good looks, my acquaintances for their characters, and my enemies for their brains.
From LAWLER 178: Another epigram Wilde touched up a little in 1891.
ZABROUSKI: Changed to "I choose my friends for their good looks, my acquaintances for their good characters, and my enemies for their good intellects" in 1891.
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She either explains them entirely away, or tells one everything about them except what one wants to know. But what did she say about Mr. Dorian Gray?"
ZABROUSKI: Wilde changed this sentence and added more dialogue in the 1891 text.
"She either explains them entirely away, or tells one everything about them except what one wants to know."
"Poor Lady Brandon! You are hard on her, Harry!" said Hallward, listlessly.
"My dear fellow, she tried to found a salon, and only succeeded in opening a restaurant. How could I admire her? But tell me, what did she say about Mr. Dorian Gray?"
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Hallward buried his face in his hands.
From LAWLER 178: Wilde made several stylistic changes in the preceding eight lines in the 1891 text.
ZABROUSKI: Changed to "Hallward shook his head" in 1891.
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"Laughter is not a bad beginning for a friendship, and it is the best ending for one," said Lord Henry, plucking another daisy.
ZABROUSKI: Changed to "'Laughter is not at all a bad beginning for a friendship, and it is far the best ending for one,' said the young lad, plucking another daisy" in 1891.
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something like 'Sir Humpty Dumpty—you know—Afghan frontier—Russian intrigues: very successful man—wife killed by an elephant—quite inconsolable—wants to marry a beautiful American widow—everybody does nowadays—hates Mr. Gladstone—but very much interested in beetles: ask him what he thinks of Schouvaloff.'
From LAWLER 178: Removed from 1891 text.
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personality
From LAWLER 178: Was originally "beauty had so stirred me."
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My father destined me for the army. I insisted on going to Oxford. Then he made me enter my name at the Middle Temple. Before I had eaten half a dozen dinners I gave up the Bar, and announced my intention of becoming a painter.
From LAWLER 177: Deleted in 1891.
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A grasshopper began to chirrup in the grass, and a long thin dragonfly floated by on its brown gauze wings.
From LAWLER 176: Several stylistic changes made here in 1891.
ZABROUSKI: Changed to "A grasshopper began to chirrup by the wall, and like a blue thread a long thin dragon-fly floated past on its brown gauze wings" in 1891.
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little golden white-feathered disk,
From LAWLER 176: Wilde deleted "that had charmed all the poets from Chaucer to Tennyson" from his manuscript and modified the style of the epigram following 1891.
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feeling
From LAWLER 176: Wilde changed the original "passion" to "feeling."
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looking him straight in the face,
From LAWLER 176: Wilde canceled the phrase "taking hold of his hand" from the original manuscript.
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"Please don't."
From LAWLER 176: This sentence and Henry's "I must" deleted in 1891.
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"Well, this is incredible," repeated Hallward, rather bitterly,—"incredible to me at times. I don't know what it means.
From LAWLER 177: Opening lines of this paragraph deleted in 1891.
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and for a time they did not speak.
ZABROUSKI: "and... speak" changed to "and ensconced themselves on a long bamboo seat that stood in the shade of a tall laurel bush" in 1891.
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shaking his hand off,
From LAWLER 175: "shaking... off" deleted in 1891.
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laying his hand upon his shoulder;
From LAWLER 175: "laying... shoulder" deleted in 1891. This is the first of many such deletions or rewrites eliminating descriptions of physical contact suggestive of homoerotic behavior.
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fame
From LAWLER 175: Changed to "art" in 1891.
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faltering steps of kings.
From LAWLER 175: Original manuscript had "to dog the steps of kings."
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an exaggeration,
From LAWLER 174: Changed to "a mode of exaggeration" in 1891.
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consequently
From LAWLER 174: Changed to "as a natural consequence" in 1891.
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"No: I won't send it anywhere."
From LAWLER 174: Original manuscript had "and yet, you are quite right about it. It is my best work."
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other
ZABROUSKI: Added in from the original manuscript.
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"I don't think I will send it anywhere,"
From LAWLER 174: Wilde wrote Coulson Kernahan, editor of the revised edition of Ward, Lock and Company, asking that he "look after my 'wills' and 'shalls' in proof," explaining that his "usage was not Celtic English" (Letters 289).
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The Grosvenor is the only place."
From LAWLER 174: This last sentence was omitted in 1891.
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in an art that is necessarily immobile
ZABROUSKI: Refined to "through the medium of an art that is necessarily immobile" in 1891.
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round the black-crocketed spires of the early June hollyhocks
From LAWLER 173: Changed to "round the dusty gilt horns of the straggling woodbine," in 1891.
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as usual
From LAWLER 173: Changed to "as was his custom" in 1891.
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slanting
ZABROUSKI: Removed "silent" before "slanting beams" from the original manuscript.
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Gray
ZABROUSKI: Replaced "him" from original manuscript.
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he is
ZABROUSKI: Replaced "we are" from the original manuscript.
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would
ZABROUSKI: Replaced "did" from the original manuscript.
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round the black-crocketed spires of the early June hollyhocks,
ZABROUSKI: Changed to "round the dusty gilt horns of the straggling woodbine," in 1891.
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in an art that is necessarily immobile
ZABROUSKI: Refined to "through the medium of an art that is necessarily immobile" in 1891.
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as usual
From LAWLER 173: Changed to "as was his custom" in 1891.
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slanting
ZABROUSKI: Removed "silent" before "slanting beams" from the original manuscript.
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Gray
ZABROUSKI: Replaced "him" from original manuscript.
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would
ZABROUSKI: Replaced "did" from the original manuscript.
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he is
ZABROUSKI: Replaced "we are" from the original manuscript.
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correctly."
From LAWLER 179: J.M. Stoddart, Lippincott's editor changed the original reading "live with their wives," removing an expression inadmissible to the American public. Wilde let these and similar changes stand even though they are clearly inferior to the original.
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