Willie Wilde

William Charles Kingsbury Wilde (26 September 1852 – 13 March 1899) was an Irish journalist and poet of the Victorian era and the older brother of Oscar Wilde.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willie_Wilde

– Max and Will, Max Beerbohm and William Rothenstein, Their Friendship and Letters 1893-1945.  Edited, with Introductions and Notes by Mary M. Lago and Karl Beckson.  London: 1975 p.21.

One wonders why, such being Max’s opinion, he ‘saw a good deal’ of Willie. But many years later, even a more kindly memory of Willie makes him a figure of fun.  My sister Constance came home one day and summoned my mother and me; she was quivering to tell us what had happened.  She knew in advance it was the sort of thing my mother would adore.  Well, Constance had been walking along the street and met Willie Wilde – Oscar’s brother. In one  hand, he was carrying a huge leg of mutton by the narrow part; with his free hand he swept off his  hat and bent over double in a grand, ceremonial bow.  There was something so grotesquely funny in the way she did it, conveying both the mutton and the bow.  We decided it was a first class thing.’

– Max Beerbohm, quoted in S.N. Behrman: Conversations with Max.  London: Hamish Hamilton 1960 p.38.

Links

• A BROTHER OF ANY SORT: WILLIAM CHARLES KINGSBURY WILDE
• William 'Willie' Charles Kingsbury Wilde
• Wilde, William Charles Kingsbury (1852-1899)