Sometimes Taking Legal Action is Dangerous

A very famous and popular personality was Oscar Wilde.   A this time,  the 1800s, he was a play write, a witty brilliant man, who happened to be a homosexual.

He was having an affair with the son of the Marquis of Queensbury.  The Marquis was enraged by the relationship between Wilde and his son, for this Marquis was the man who invented the rules of boxing.

The Marquis went to Oscar Wilde’s club, and left his calling card with a message;
“For Oscar Wilde, posing somdomite”

When Oscar saw it he was going to flip it into the trash but  his lover, Douglas, (Queensbury’s son), told him no, he should bring the matter to Court.

Everyone else told Oscar to forget it, but listening to Douglas,  he decided to commence a private prosecution against the Marquis.    Wilde had the Marquis arrested on a charge of criminal libel.

In  those days sodomy was a crime.   The note the Marquis had left on the back of his card had accused Wilde of committing a felony.

The accusation was  quite serious and came with a prison sentence.

The problem in the matter was truth.

Oscar Wilde was a homosexual.  He was guilty of sodomy.  The Marquis had simply uttered the truth.

The case commence, and  evidence that Oscar Wilde was a homosexual who was having an affair with the son of the Marquis started to pour in.

Things became so obverse that Wilde  had to remind the Court that;
“I am the prosecutor in this case”    for he, the plaintiff was soon on trial.

Not only did Oscar Wilde lose the case and had to pay Court costs, he was arrested for sodomy and gross indecency and convicted.

He went to prison for two years, and when he was released he was scorned by society.   He had to leave England and died penniless in Paris, only three years later.

Had he never launched the law suit, he might have lived a much happier life.

Sometimes, suing someone opens a can of worms which damage the Plaintiff more than the Defendant.