Constance Mary Wilde (née Lloyd; 2 January 1858 – 7 April 1898) was an Irish author. She was the wife of Irish playwright

Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is ...

and the mother of their two sons,

Cyril Cyril (also Cyrillus or Cyryl) is a masculine given name. It is derived from the Greek name Κύριλλος (''Kýrillos''), meaning 'lordly, masterful', which in turn derives from Greek κυριος (''kýrios'') 'lord'. There are various varian ...

and

Vyvyan Vivian (and variants such as Vivien and Vivienne) is a given name, and less often a surname, derived from a Latin name of the Roman Empire period, masculine ''Vivianus'' and feminine '' Viviana'', which survived into modern use because it is the n ...

Early life and marriage

The daughter of

Horace Lloyd Horace Lloyd QC (August 1828 – 30 March 1874) was an English barrister. Background He was the son of John Horatio Lloyd and Caroline Watson. He was educated at University College, London, and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. He was calle ...

, an

Anglo-Irish Anglo-Irish people () denotes an ethnic, social and religious grouping who are mostly the descendants and successors of the English Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland. They mostly belong to the Anglican Church of Ireland, which was the establis ...

barrister, and Adelaide Barbara Atkinson, who had married in 1855 in Dublin, Constance Lloyd was born at her parents' home in Harewood Square, Marylebone, London. Registration of births did not become compulsory until 1875 and her parents omitted to do this. She married Wilde at St James's Church, Paddington on 29 May 1884. Their two sons Cyril and Vyvyan were born in the next two years. In 1888 Constance Wilde published a book based on children's stories she had heard from her grandmother, called ''There Was Once''. She and her husband were involved in the dress reform movement. It is unknown at what point Constance became aware of her husband's homosexual relationships. In 1891 she met his lover

Lord Alfred Douglas Lord Alfred Bruce Douglas (22 October 1870 – 20 March 1945), also known as Bosie Douglas, was an English poet and journalist, and a lover of Oscar Wilde. At Oxford he edited an undergraduate journal, ''The Spirit Lamp'', that carried a homoer ...

when Wilde brought him to their home for a visit. Around this time Wilde was living more in hotels, such as the Avondale Hotel, than at their home in

Tite Street Tite Street is a street in Chelsea, London, England, within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, just north of the River Thames. It was laid out from 1877 by the Metropolitan Board of Works, giving access to the Chelsea Embankment. Hist ...

. Since the birth of their second son, they had become sexually estranged. In 1894, Constance was staying in Worthing with Oscar Wilde and started assembling a collection of epigrams ("Oscariana") from Wilde's works. The intention was that it be published by Arthur Humphreys, with whom she briefly fell in love that summer. In the event the book was published privately the following year. According to son Vyvyan's 1954 autobiography, the boys had a relatively happy childhood and their father was a loving parent.

Richard Ellman Richard David Ellmann, FBA (March 15, 1918 – May 13, 1987) was an American literary critic and biographer of the Irish writers James Joyce, Oscar Wilde, and William Butler Yeats. He won the U.S. National Book Award for Nonfiction for ''James ...

's biography of Wilde recounted an occasion when he warned his sons about naughty boys who made their mamas cry; they asked him what happened to absent papas who made mamas cry. Nevertheless, by all accounts, she and Wilde remained on good terms.''Oscar Wilde'' (1987) by Richard Ellman After Wilde's conviction and imprisonment, Constance changed her and her sons' last name to Holland to dissociate them from his scandal. The couple never divorced, but Constance forced Wilde to give up his parental rights. She moved with her sons to Switzerland and enrolled them in an English-language boarding school in Germany. They never saw their father again. Constance visited Oscar in prison so she could tell him the news of his mother's death. After he had been released from prison, she refused to send him any money unless he no longer associated with Douglas.

Illness and death

Constance died on 7 April 1898, five days after a surgery conducted by Luigi Maria Bossi. According to ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', "theories bout her deathhave ranged from spinal damage following a fall down stairs to

syphilis Syphilis () is a sexually transmitted infection caused by the bacterium ''Treponema pallidum'' subspecies ''pallidum''. The signs and symptoms of syphilis vary depending in which of the four stages it presents (primary, secondary, latent, an ...

caught from her husband." Also according to ''The Guardian'',

Merlin Holland Christopher Merlin Vyvyan Holland (born December 1945) is a British biographer and editor. He is the only grandchild of Oscar Wilde, whose life he has researched and written about extensively. Biography Born in London in December 1945, Christop ...

, grandson of Oscar Wilde, "unearthed medical evidence within private family letters, which has enabled a doctor to determine the likely cause of Constance's demise. The letters reveal symptoms nowadays associated with

multiple sclerosis Multiple (cerebral) sclerosis (MS), also known as encephalomyelitis disseminata or disseminated sclerosis, is the most common demyelinating disease, in which the insulating covers of nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord are damaged. This d ...

but apparently wrongly diagnosed by her two doctors". Multiple sclerosis was then a little-known condition. Constance sought help from two doctors. One of them was a "nerve doctor" from

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...

, Germany, who resorted to dubious remedies. The second doctor—

Luigi Maria Bossi Luigi Maria Bossi (Malnate, 30 December 1859 – Milan, 1 February 1919) was a gynecologist and Italian politician. He was director of the Institute of Obstetrics in Novara and of a Genoese clinic. In 1898, in Genoa, he operated on Constance Lloyd, ...

—conducted two operations (for uterine fibroid) in 1895 and 1898, the latter of which ultimately led to her death. According to ''

The Lancet ''The Lancet'' is a weekly peer-reviewed general medical journal and one of the oldest of its kind. It is also the world's highest-impact academic journal. It was founded in England in 1823. The journal publishes original research articles, ...

'', "the surgery Bossi performed in December 1895 was probably an anterior vaginal wall repair to correct urinary difficulties from a presumed bladder prolapse. In retrospect, the actual problem was probably neurogenic and not structural in origin". During the second surgery in April 1898, Bossi probably "did not attempt a

hysterectomy Hysterectomy is the surgical removal of the uterus. It may also involve removal of the cervix, ovaries (oophorectomy), Fallopian tubes (salpingectomy), and other surrounding structures. Usually performed by a gynecologist, a hysterectomy may b ...

but merely excised the tumour in a myomectomy". Shortly after the surgery Constance developed uncontrollable vomiting which led to dehydration and death. The immediate cause of death is thought to have been severe

paralytic ileus Ileus is a disruption of the normal propulsive ability of the intestine. It can be caused by lack of peristalsis or by mechanical obstruction. The word 'ileus' is from Ancient Greek ''eileós'' (, "intestinal obstruction"). The term 'subileus' re ...

, which developed either as a result of the surgery itself or of intra-abdominal sepsis. Constance is buried in

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...

(Italy), in the

Monumental Cemetery of Staglieno The Cimitero monumentale di Staglieno is an extensive monumental cemetery located on a hillside in the district of Staglieno of Genoa, Italy, famous for its monumental sculpture. Covering an area of more than a square kilometre, it is one of the ...

.Oscar Wilde Biography—Poems
/ref> A memorial statue depicting a nude pregnant Constance is included in the

Oscar Wilde Memorial Sculpture The ''Oscar Wilde Memorial Sculpture'' is a collection of three statues in Merrion Square in Dublin, Ireland, commemorating Irish poet and playwright Oscar Wilde. The sculptures were unveiled in 1997 and were designed and made by Danny Osborne ...

Merrion Square Merrion Square () is a Georgian garden square on the southside of Dublin city centre. History The square was laid out in 1752 by the estate of Viscount FitzWilliam and was largely complete by the beginning of the 19th century. The demand for ...

in Dublin.

Gallery

Constance Lloyd 1882.jpg, Constance Lloyd 1882 Mrs. Oscar Wilde.jpg, The freshly married Mrs. Wilde manning a charity flower stall at the ''Healtheries'' in 1884 Constance Wilde c. 1887.jpg, Mrs Wilde, c. 1887 Oscar, Constance and Cyril Wilde 1892.jpg, Oscar, Constance and Cyril Wilde 1892 Constance Wilde 1896.jpg, Constance 1896 in

Constance Mary Lloyd tomb.jpg, Funerary monument,

File:Constance Lloyd - Oscar Wilde companion piece.jpg, Statue of a nude pregnant Constance; a companion piece to Oscar Wilde statue in

Park,

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lloyd, Constance 1858 births 1898 deaths British children's writers Irish children's writers Oscar Wilde Neurological disease deaths in Liguria Deaths from multiple sclerosis Irish people of English descent

Early life and marriage

Illness and death

Gallery

References

Further reading

External links