The phrase came from a poem called ‘Two Loves’ by Wilde’s lover, Lord Alfred ‘Bosie’ Douglas. ‘It is beautiful, it is fine, it is the noblest form of affection,’ Wilde responded. Standing in the dock in 1895 on trial for gross indecency, playwright Oscar Wilde was asked to explain the phrase ‘the Love that dare not speak its name’. Oscar Wilde and Lord Alfred 'Bosie' Douglas at Oxford in 1893