# The Importance of Being Earnest premieres a comedy of false names and double lives

Date: 1895

## The fact

On 14 February 1895 The Importance of Being Earnest opened, a public comedy whose engine is false identity (Bunburying).

It is one event.

## Context

The same play is a theatre-access gain. Medium confidence. Split the later trials as the state’s identity-police.

[Oscar Wilde](/people/oscar-wilde)’s documented role is bounded by other offices and collaborators named in the sources below. Sharing a field with them is not a reason to drop a documented act, and it is not a reason to assign later consequences done in the name after death.

Named person as heading of the dated public instrument. Later editors, museums, printers, or offices share publication. Complex where later carriers date the row.

## Evidence and sources

Gutenberg’s Earnest and Britannica independently date the 14 February 1895 St James’s premiere.

Official or archival record: The Importance of Being Earnest — public-domain English (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/844; Project Gutenberg).

## Significance

A hit comedy of false civil names is an identity-file teaching path of medium confidence.

Earnest is not the 18 March libel writ.

A hit comedy of false civil names is an identity-file teaching path of medium confidence.

## What is established and what is not

Established: 14 February 1895 premiere. Not established: a unique fraud-rate series.

What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date or name, or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of later institutions.

The date is the date of this instrument, not a licence to back-date every later harm or benefit.

Established here: a sourced, dated public instrument with a named contribution by Oscar Wilde.

What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date, signatory, or non-occurrence; a demonstrated forgery; or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of other causes.

Contribution type is direct. They are not a public rating.

## People

- Oscar Wilde: https://factrail.ai/people/oscar-wilde

## Drivers

- Personal-Data Protection: https://factrail.ai/drivers/personal-data-protection

## Sources

- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Oscar-Wilde
- https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/844

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/wil-earnest-bunbury-1895