He laid stress on the fact that Mr.Wilde had himself brought the charge against Lord Queensberry which had provoked the whole investigation: "on March 30th, Mr.Wilde," he said, "knew the catalogue of accusations"; and he asked: did the jury believe that, if he had been guilty, he would have stayed in England and brought about the first trial?
Insane would hardly be the word for such conduct, if Mr.Wilde really had been guilty.

Moreover, before even hearing the specific accusations, Mr.Wilde had gone into the witness box to deny them.
Clarke's speech was a good one, but nothing out of the common: no new arguments were used in it; not one striking illustration.

Needless to say the higher advocacy of sympathy was conspicuous by its absence.
Again, the interesting part of the trial was the cross-examination of Oscar Wilde.
Mr.Gill examined him at length on the two poems which Lord Alfred Douglas had contributed to _The Chameleon_, which Mr.Wilde had called "beautiful." The first was in "Praise of Shame," the second was one called "Two Loves." Sir Edward Clarke, interposing, said: "That's not Mr.Wilde's, Mr.Gill." Mr.Gill: "I am not aware that I said it was." Sir Edward Clarke: "I thought you would be glad to say it was not." Mr.Gill insisted that Mr.Wilde should explain the poem in "Praise of Shame." Mr.Wilde said that the first poem seemed obscure, but, when pressed as to the "love" described in the second poem, he let himself go for the first time and perhaps the only time during the trial; he said: "The 'love' that dare not speak its name in this century is such a great affection of an older for a younger man as there was between David and Jonathan, such as Plato made the very base of his philosophy and such as you find in the sonnets of Michaelangelo and Shakespeare--a deep spiritual affection that is as pure as it is perfect, and dictates great works of art like those of Shakespeare and Michaelangelo and those two letters of mine, such as they are, and which is in this century misunderstood--so misunderstood that, on account of it, I am placed where I am now.

It is beautiful; it is fine; it is the noblest form of affection.

It is intellectual, and it repeatedly exists between an elder and younger man, when the elder man has intellect, and the younger man has all the joy, hope and glamour of life.