The newspapers covering the trial in 1895 found it difficult to put the hideous words into print. Most hoped that those who needed to know would know enough already. Others assumed that a lacuna would be explicit of indecency: '"Oscar Wilde posing as --"' was how the Marquess's offending calling-card appeared in the Evening Standard. Lord Queensberry's 'Somdomite' was displaying his characteristic ineffability by causing the tongue to stumble and producing gaps in public discourse.

LRB 24 November 1994 | PDF Download