Some years after Wilde’s death I was looking over the papers and letters rescued from Tite Street when I came across loose sheets of manuscript and typewriting, which I imagined were fragments of _The Duchess of Padua_; on putting them together in a coherent form I recognised that they belonged to the lost _Florentine Tragedy_. I assumed that the opening scene, though once extant, had disappeared. One day, however, Mr. Willard wrote that he possessed a typewritten fragment of a play which Wilde had submitted to him, and this he kindly forwarded for my inspection. It agreed in nearly every particular with what I had taken so much trouble to put together. This suggests that the opening scene had never been written, as Mr. Willard’s version began where mine did. It was characteristic of the author to finish what he never began. When the Literary Theatre Society produced _Salomé_ in 1906 they asked me for some other short drama by Wilde to present at the same time, as _Salomé_ does not take very long to play. I offered them the fragment of _A Florentine Tragedy_. By a fortunate coincidence the poet and dramatist, Mr. Thomas Sturge Moore, happened to be on the committee of this Society, and to him was entrusted the task of writing an opening scene to make the play complete. It is not for me to criticise his work, but there is justification for saying that Wilde himself would have envied, with an artist’s envy, such lines as— We will sup with the moon, Like Persian princes that in Babylon Sup in the hanging gardens of the King. In a stylistic sense Mr. Sturge Moore has accomplished a feat in reconstruction, whatever opinions may be held of _A Florentine Tragedy_ by Wilde’s admirers or detractors. The achievement is particularly remarkable because Mr. Sturge Moore has nothing in common with Wilde other than what is shared by all real poets and dramatists: He is a landed proprietor on Parnassus, not a trespasser. In England we are more familiar with the poachers. Time and Death are of course necessary before there can come any adequate recognition of one of our most original and gifted singers. Among his works are _The Vinedresser and other Poems_ (1899), _Absalom_, _A Chronicle Play_ (1903), and _The Centaur’s Booty_ (1903). Mr. Sturge Moore is also an art critic of distinction, and his learned works on Dürer (1905) and Correggio (1906) are more widely known (I am sorry to say) than his powerful and enthralling poems. Once again I must express my obligations to Mr. Stuart Mason for revising and correcting the proofs of this new edition. ROBERT ROSS LA SAINTE COURTISANE A FRAGMENT