Christa Giles

modes of triviality and indifference and lack
of care is the robe of the wise man. In so
vulgar an age as this we all need masks. 146
In addition, however, the mask also allows for the
multiplication and intensification of personalities. And if to
˝reveal art and conceal the artist is art’s aim,˝ 147 then the
mask becomes a means of multiplying the artist/dandy’s
artistic voices. ˝Man is least himself when he talks in his
own person,˝ Wilde tells us, ˝Give him a mask, and he will
tell you the truth.˝ 148 Thus the mask not only allows the
dandy to create himself, it also gives him the freedom to
speak truth through a mask of frivolity. The mask suggests
the delicate balance between life and art. Further, ˝au bout
d’un certain temps, le masque qu’on porte adhére au visage
et ne peut plus se lever,˝ 149 and art becomes life. The dandy
Beerbohm (whose obsession with masks can be seen in his
caricatures) takes Wilde’s idea in The Picture of Dorian Gray
and inverts it in ˝The Happy Hypocrite.˝ ˝The Happy
Hypocrite˝ is the story of Lord George Hell. He falls in love
with Jenny, who rejects his suit. Lord Hell then obtains the
mask of a saint, and by the end of the story the mask has
become his face. Wilde at one point asked Ada Leverson
(parodying Beerbohm’s parody) if, when she was alone
with Beerbohm, the latter ever took ˝off his face . . . [to]
reveal his mask.˝ 150
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