 The successful opening night marked the climax of Wilde 's career but also heralded his downfall . The Marquess of Queensberry , whose son Lord Alfred Douglas was Wilde 's lover , planned to present the writer with a bouquet of rotten vegetables and disrupt the show . Wilde was tipped off and Queensberry was refused admission . Soon afterwards their feud came to a climax in court , where Wilde 's homosexual double life was revealed to the Victorian public and he was eventually sentenced to imprisonment . His notoriety caused the play , despite its early success , to be closed after 86 performances . After his release , he published the play from exile in Paris , but he wrote no further comic or dramatic work . 
