By 1894 Oscar Wilde was flourishing - acknowledged as the greatest wit and one of the finest playwrights in Britain. His close friendship with Bosie Douglas , however, had provoked a quarrel with Bosie's father, Lord Queensberry, which in the following spring came to a head when Oscar charged Queensberry with criminal libel.

Following the sensational trials, and to the delight of the public and press, Oscar Wilde , found guilty of acts of gross indecency with various male persons, was incarcerated in Pentonville Prison in May 1895 to serve a sentence of two years' hard labour -an experience which would later produce one of his best known works, The Ballad of Reading Gaol.