WILDE, OSCAR O'FLAHERTIE WILLS (1856–1900), wit and dramatist, born in Dublin on 15 Oct. 1856, was the younger son of Sir William Robert Wills Wilde [q. v.], who married, in 1851, Jane Francisca Elgee (d. 1896), a granddaughter of Archdeacon Elgee of Wexford [see under Wilde, Sir W. R. W.] Oscar Wilde's elder brother, William Charles Kingsbury Wilde (1853–1899), a journalist, who wrote much for the 'World' and the 'Daily Telegraph,' died in London in March 1899. His mother, who wrote under the signature 'Speranza,' had a literary salon at Dublin, where much clever talk was listened to by the children.
After education at Portora royal school, Enniskillen, Oscar Wilde studied during 1873–4 at Trinity College, Dublin, where he won the Berkeley gold medal with an essay on the Greek comic poets. He matriculated from Magdalen College, Oxford, 17 Oct. 1874, holding a demyship at Magdalen from 1874 to 1879, and graduating B.A. in 1878. In 1877, during a vacation ramble, he visited Ravenna and Greece, in company with Professor Mahaffy, and in June 1878 he won the Newdigate prize with a poem on 'Ravenna.' He was greatly impressed by Florence and by the lectures of Ruskin, spending several whole days in breaking stones upon the road which the professor projected near Oxford. He had from his youth a strong antipathy to games, though he was fond of riding. His precocity, both physical and mental, was exceptional, and while still at Magdalen he excogitated his aesthetic philosophy of 'Art for Art's sake,' of which he was recognised at once as the apostle, and enunciated the aspiration that he might be able to live up to his blue china. His rooms, overlooking the Cherwell, were notorious for their exotic splendour, and Wilde's bric-a-brac was the object of several philistine outrages. The abuse of foes and the absurdities of friends alike furnished material for persiflage. His wit was undoubted, and be successfully cultivated the notation (not wholly deserved) of being a complete idler. Me had a natural aptitude for classical studies, and he obtained with ease a first-class both in classical moderations (1876) and in literæ humaniores (1878). He had already written poems, marked by strange affectations, but with a classical finish and an occasional felicity of detail. These had appeared in the 'Month,' the 'Catholic Mirror,' the 'Irish Monthly,' 'Kottabos,' and in the first number of Edmund Yates's periodical called 'Time.' A selection of these juvenile pieces was printed in 1881 as 'Poems by Oscar Wilde' (reprinted in New York, 1882). On leaving Oxford Wilde was already a well-known figure and a favourite subject for caricature (notably in 'Punch,' and later as Bunthorne in Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera, 'Patience'). He was recognised as the founder of the æsthetic cult, the symbols of which were peacocks' feathers, sunflowers, dados, and blue china, long hair, and velveteen breeches. His sayings were pi mod from mouth to mouth as those of one of the professed wits of the age. His fame crosstid the Atlantic, and in 1882 he made a tour through the United States, lecturing two hundred times in such cities as New York, Boston, and Chicago, upon 'Esthetic Philosophy,' and meeting with great, though not unvaried, success. The paradoxical nature of his utterances at times excited disgust. A cablegram to England expressed his disappointment 'with the Atlantic, and he finally came to the conclusion that the English 'have really everything in common with the Americans except, of course, language.' A drama by him, called 'Vera,' was produced in New York during his stay then in 1882.
For five or six years after his return from America Wilde resided chiefly in London in comparative privacy, but paid frequent visits to Paris and travelled on the continent. In 1884 he married Constance, daughter of Horace Lloyd, Q.C., and in 1HHS he commenced a period of literary activity, which was progressive until the collapse of his career in 1895. This period opened with 'The Happy Prince and other Tales' (1888, illustrated by Walter Crane and Jacomb Hood), a volume of charming fairy tales with a piquant touch of contemporary satire. In 1891 appeared 'Lord Arthur Savile's Crime, and other Stories' and 'The Picture of Dorian Gray.' The novel last mentioned,
