# An Ideal Husband stages public blackmail around a politician’s hidden file

Date: 1895

## The fact

On 3 January 1895 An Ideal Husband opened, a public play whose plot is political blackmail over a hidden past.

It is one event.

## Context

The play also critiques purity-politics. Medium confidence.

[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

Britannica’s play chronology and Gutenberg’s text independently date the January 1895 Haymarket opening.

Official or archival record: Britannica — Oscar Wilde (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Oscar-Wilde; Encyclopaedia Britannica).

## Significance

A hit play of political blackmail is an institutional-opacity teaching object.

3 January is not 14 February Earnest.

A hit play of political blackmail is an institutional-opacity teaching object.

## What is established and what is not

Established: 3 January 1895 opening. Not established: a unique Westminster coefficient.

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.

The attached driver is [institutional-corruption](/drivers/institutional-corruption). Later museums, UNESCO listings, Loeb reprints, and 2024–2025 COP or NATO rows are not this event. Responsibility 0.55 and influence 0.55 bound the path; they are not a personality score. If a number is not in the two records named above, it is not supplied here. Readers should open both named URLs.

## People

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

## Drivers

- Institutional Corruption: https://factrail.ai/drivers/institutional-corruption

## Sources

- https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/355
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Oscar-Wilde

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/wil-ideal-husband-blackmail-1895