FIRST ACT SCENE Morning-room of Lord Windermere's house in Carlton House Terrace. Doors C. and R. Bureau with books and papers R. Sofa with small tea-table L. Window opening on to terrace L. Table R. Lady Windermere is at table R., arranging roses in a blue bowl.] Enter Parker.] Parker. Is your ladyship at home this afternoon? Lady Windermere. Yes-who has called? Parker. Lord Darlington, my lady. Lady Windermere. Hesitates for a moment.] Show him up-and I'm at home to any one who calls. Parker. Yes, my lady. Exit C.] Lady Windermere. It's best for me to see him before to-night. I'm glad he's come. Enter Parker C.] Parker. Lord Darlington, Enter Lord Darlington C.] Exit Parker.] Lord Darlington. How do you do, Lady Windermere? Lady Windermere. How do you do, Lord Darlington? No, I can't shake hands with you. My hands are all wet with these roses. Aren't they lovely? They came up from Selby this morning. Lord Darlington. They are quite perfect. Sees a fan lying on the table.] And what a wonderful fan May I look at it?.......... Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 1854- 30 November 1900) was an Irish playwright, novelist, essayist, and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s. He is remembered for his epigrams, his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, his plays, as well as the circumstances of his imprisonment and early death. Wilde's parents were successful Anglo-Irish Dublin intellectuals. Their son became fluent in French and German early in life. At university, Wilde read Greats; he proved himself to be an outstanding classicist, first at Dublin, then at Oxford. He became known for his involvement in the rising philosophy of aestheticism, led by two of his tutors, Walter Pater and John Ruskin. After university, Wilde moved to London into fashionable cultural and social circles.