8 Oscar Wilde, Duchess of Padua manuscript, 1883

Oscar Wilde is celebrated for his sparkling social comedies of the 1890s, but his writing for the stage began over a decade earlier with a pair of failures.

In 1880, aged 26, he wrote Vera, or The Nihilists, a melodramatic tragedy set in contemporary Siberia. It was not a success. Undeterred, in 1882 he began The Duchess of Padua, his second play, modelled on Elizabethan and Jacobean revenge tragedy. On completing it, he declared "I have no hesitation in saying that it is the masterpiece of all my literary work, the chef-d'oeuvre of my youth." It was eventually produced in New York in 1891, but did not transfer to the London stage. By 1898 Wilde had conceded "The Duchess is unfit for publication".

The autograph manuscript consists of 228 pages and Wilde's changes and corrections show the play developing.