Oscar Wilde, a study

[The little poem on the opposite page first saw the light in the pages of the Dublin University Magazine for September, 1876. It has not been reprinted since. The Greek quotation is taken from the Agamemnon of Æschylos, l. 120. ]

Αἴλινον, αἴινον εἰπὲ,

Τὸ δ᾽ ευ̉ νικάτω

O well for him who lives at ease With garnered gold in wide domain, Nor heeds the plashing of the rain, The crashing down of forest trees.

O well for him who ne'er hath known The travail of the hungry years, A father grey with grief and tears, A mother weeping all alone.

But well for him whose feet hath trod The weary road of toil and strife, Yet from the sorrows of his life Builds ladders to be nearer God.

Oscar F. O'F. Wills Wilde.

S. M. Magdalen College,

Oxford.

NOTE.

M. Gide's Study of Mr. Oscar Wilde (perhaps the best account yet written of the poet's latter days) appeared first in L'Ermitage, a monthly literary review, in June, 1902. It was afterwards reprinted with some few slight alterations in a volume of critical essays, entitled Prétextes, by M. Gide. It is now published in English for the first time, by special arrangement with the author.

S. M.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

Poem by Oscar Wilde .................................... xi

Introductory ........................................... 1

Inscription on Oscar Wilde's Tombstone ................. 11

Letters from M. André Gide ............................. 12

Oscar Wilde: from the French of André Gide ............. 15

Sonnet 'To Oscar Wilde,' by Augustus M. Moore .......... 89

List of Published Writings of Oscar Wilde .............. 93

Bibliographical Notes on The English Editions .......... 107

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE

Cartoon: 'How Utter' .......................... Frontispiece (From a Cartoon published by Messrs. Shrimpton at Oxford about 1880. By permission of Mr. Hubert Giles, 23 Broad St., Oxford).

Oscar Wilde at Oxford, 1878 ............................ 16 (By permission of Mr. Hubert Giles).

Oscar Wilde in 1893 .................................... 48 (From a Photograph by Messrs. Gillman & Co., Oxford).

The Grave at Bagneux ................................... 80 (By permission of the Proprietors of The Sphere and The Tatler).

Reduced Facsimile of the Cover of 'The Woman's World' 96

* * * * *

Oscar Wilde

Introductory.

Oscar Fingall O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was born at 1 Merrion Square, North, Dublin, on October 16th, 1854. He was the second son of Sir William Robert Wilde, Knight, a celebrated surgeon who was President of the Irish Academy and Chairman of the Census Committee. Sir William Wilde was born in 1799, and died at the age of seventy-seven years.

Oscar Wilde's mother was Jane Francesca, daughter of Archdeacon Elgee. She was born in 1826, and married in 1851. She became famous in literary circles under the pen-names of 'Speranza' and 'John Fenshawe Ellis,' among her published writings being Driftwood from Scandinavia (1884), Legends of Ireland (1886), and Social Studies (1893). Lady Wilde died at her residence in Chelsea on February 3rd, 1896[1].