Editing Oscar Wilde (section)

== Early life ==
[[File:Wilde Family home on Merrion Square.jpg|thumb|The Wilde family home on Merrion Square|left]]
Oscar Wilde was born<ref>{{cite web |title=Baptismal registration as Oscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wilde |url=https://churchrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/display-pdf.jsp?pdfName=d-30-2-1-285 |website=Irish Genealogy |access-date=21 September 2024}}</ref> at 21 [[Westland Row]], Dublin (now home of the [[Oscar Wilde Centre]], Trinity College), the second of three children born to an Anglo-Irish couple: [[Jane Wilde|Jane, née Elgee]], and [[Sir William Wilde]]. Oscar was two years younger than his brother, [[Willie Wilde|William (Willie) Wilde]].

Jane Wilde was a niece (by marriage) of the novelist, playwright and clergyman [[Charles Maturin]], who may have influenced her own literary career. She believed, mistakenly, that she was of Italian ancestry,<ref>{{cite book |last=Sturgis |first=Matthew |author-link=Matthew Sturgis |year=2019 |orig-year=2018 |title=Oscar: A Life |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2FNNDwAAQBAJ&pg=PP26 |location=London |publisher=Head of Zeus |page=9 |isbn=9781788545983 |quote=Jane had also convinced herself that the Elgee name derived from the Italian 'Algiati' – and from this (imaginary) connection she was happy to make the short leap to claiming kinship with [[Dante]] Alighieri (in fact the Elgees descended from a long line of Durham labourers). |access-date=28 June 2022}}</ref> and under the pseudonym ''"Speranza"'' (the Italian word for 'hope'), she wrote poetry for the revolutionary [[Young Irelanders]] in 1848; she was a lifelong [[Irish nationalism|Irish nationalist]].<ref name="Parents">{{cite web |date=25 January 2001 |title= Oscar Wilde |url=http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=4718 |access-date=3 April 2009 |publisher=Literary Encyclopedia |url-access=subscription |last1=Anne |first1= Varty |archive-date=3 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190403104444/https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=4718 |url-status=live}}</ref> Jane Wilde read the Young Irelanders' poetry to Willie and Oscar, inculcating a love of these poets in her sons.{{sfn|Sandulescu|1994|p=53}} Her interest in the neo-classical revival showed in the paintings and busts of ancient Greece and Rome in her home.{{sfn|Sandulescu|1994|p=53}}

Sir William Wilde was Ireland's leading [[otology|oto]]-[[ophthalmology|ophthalmologic]] (ear and eye) surgeon and was knighted in 1864 for his services as medical adviser and assistant commissioner to the censuses of Ireland.<ref name="odnbwilliam">{{cite book |last=McGeachie |first=James |title=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |title-link=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2004 |location=Oxford |chapter=Wilde, Sir William Robert Wills (1815–1876)}}</ref> He also wrote books about Irish archaeology and peasant folklore. A renowned philanthropist, his dispensary for the care of the city's poor at the rear of [[Trinity College Dublin]] (TCD), was the forerunner of the [[Dublin Eye and Ear Hospital]], now located at Adelaide Road.<ref name="odnbwilliam" /> On his father's side Wilde was descended from a Dutch soldier, Colonel de Wilde, who came to Ireland with [[William III of England|King William of Orange]]'s invading army in 1690, and numerous Anglo-Irish ancestors. On his mother's side, Wilde's ancestors included a bricklayer from [[County Durham]], who emigrated to Ireland sometime in the 1770s.<ref>{{cite book |last=Pearce |first=Joseph |title=The Unmasking of Oscar Wilde |publisher=Ignatius Press |year=2004 |isbn=978-1-58617-026-4 |location=San Francisco, CA |page=24 |chapter=Mask of Mysteries}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v53UPwpmLhQC&q=Thomas+Wills+Wilde&pg=PA24 |title=Google Books link to Pearce, Joseph 'The Unmasking of Oscar Wilde' |isbn=9781586170264 |access-date=17 October 2015 |archive-date=14 May 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160514164602/https://books.google.com/books?id=v53UPwpmLhQC&pg=PA24&lpg=PA24&dq=Thomas+Wills+Wilde&source=bl&ots=5GU7i_Dd9I&sig=qPpDBYr6f_ri3UBMSLjYRpibga0&hl=en&sa=X&ei=H8xCVOr8Jare7AbX9IHQDg&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Thomas%20Wills%20Wilde&f=false |url-status=live |last=Pearce |first=Joseph |year=2004|publisher=Ignatius Press }}</ref>

Wilde was baptised as an infant in [[St. Mark's Church, Dublin]], the local [[Church of Ireland]] ([[Anglican]]) church. When the church was closed, the records were moved to the nearby [[St. Ann's Church, Dawson Street]].<ref>{{cite web |title=St. Ann's Church website |url=http://stann.dublin.anglican.org/history/index.php |access-date=15 May 2014 |publisher=Stann.dublin.anglican.org |archive-date=25 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171025184141/http://stann.dublin.anglican.org/history/index.php |url-status=live}}</ref> A Catholic priest in Glencree, County Wicklow, also claimed to have baptised Wilde and his brother Willie.<ref>{{harvnb|Coakley|1994|pp=112–114}}: "I am not sure if she ever became a Catholic herself but it was not long before she asked me to instruct two of her children, one of them being the future erratic genius, Oscar Wilde. After a few weeks I baptized these two children, Lady Wilde herself being present on the occasion."</ref>

In addition to his two full siblings, Wilde had three paternal half-siblings, who were born out of wedlock before the marriage of his father: Henry Wilson, born in 1838 to one woman, and Emily and Mary Wilde, born in 1847 and 1849, respectively, to a second woman. Sir William acknowledged paternity of his children and provided for their education, arranging for them to be raised by his relatives.{{sfn|Ellmann|1988|p=13}}

The family moved to No 1 [[Merrion Square]] in 1855. With both Sir William and Lady Wilde's success and delight in social life, the home soon became the site of a "unique medical and cultural milieu". Guests at their [[Salon (gathering)|salon]] included [[Sheridan Le Fanu]], [[Charles Lever]], [[George Petrie (antiquarian)|George Petrie]], [[Isaac Butt]], [[William Rowan Hamilton]] and [[Samuel Ferguson]].{{sfn|Sandulescu|1994|p=53}}

Wilde's sister, Isola Francesca Emily Wilde, was born on 2 April 1857. She was named in tribute to [[Iseult of Ireland]], wife of [[Mark of Cornwall]] and lover of the Cornish knight, [[Sir Tristan]]. She shared the name Francesca with her mother, while Emily was the name of her maternal aunt. Oscar would later describe how his sister was like "a golden ray of sunshine dancing about our home"<ref name="isola">{{cite web |date=n.d. |title=Isola Wilde |url=https://womensmuseumofireland.ie/articles/isola-wilde--2 |access-date=16 January 2022 |website=Women's Museum of Ireland |archive-date=18 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220118182623/https://womensmuseumofireland.ie/articles/isola-wilde--2 |url-status=dead }}</ref> and he was grief stricken when she died at the age of nine of a febrile illness.<ref name="it">{{cite news |last=Kingston |first=Angela |date=15 February 2017 |title=Oscar Wilde and the sister's death that haunted his life and work |newspaper=[[The Irish Times]] |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/oscar-wilde-and-the-sister-s-death-that-haunted-his-life-and-work-1.2976363 |access-date=16 January 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Aquien |first=Pascal |date=2006 |title=Oscar Wilde: Les mots et les songes: Biographie |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WHMfAQAAIAAJ&q=%22isola%22+%22wilde%22+iseult |location=Croissy-Beaubourg |publisher=Aden |page=30 |language=fr |isbn=9782848400808 |access-date=26 June 2022}}</ref> His poem "[[s:Requiescat (Wilde)|Requiescat]]" was written in her memory; the first stanza reads:<ref>''Poems'': Oscar Wilde. (1881) p.&nbsp;37.</ref>

<Blockquote><poem>
Tread lightly, she is near
Under the snow
Speak gently, she can hear
The daisies grow.</poem></Blockquote>

Until he was nine Wilde was educated at home, where a French [[nursemaid]] and a German [[governess]] taught him their languages.{{sfn|Ellmann|1988|p=18}} He joined his brother Willie at [[Portora Royal School]] in [[Enniskillen]], County Fermanagh, which he attended from 1864 to 1871.{{sfn|Ellmann|1988|p=20}} At Portora, although he was not as popular as his older brother, Wilde impressed his peers with the humorous and inventive school stories he told. Later in life, he claimed that his fellow students had regarded him as a prodigy for his ability to [[speed reading|speed read]], claiming that he could read two facing pages simultaneously and consume a three-volume book in half an hour, retaining enough information to give a basic account of the plot.{{sfn|Ellmann|1988|p=22}} He excelled academically, particularly in the subject of [[classics]], in which he ranked fourth in the school in 1869. His aptitude for giving oral translations of Greek and Latin texts won him multiple prizes, including the Carpenter Prize for Greek Testament.{{sfn|Ellmann|1988|pp=22–23}} He was one of only three students at Portora to win a Royal School scholarship to Trinity in 1871.{{sfn|Ellmann|1988|p=26}}

In 1871, when Wilde was seventeen, his elder half-sisters Mary and Emily died aged 22 and 24, fatally burned at a dance at Drumacon, [[County Monaghan|Co Monaghan]].<ref name="Clogher Record"/> One of the sisters had brushed against the flames of a fire or a candelabra and her dress caught fire; in various versions, the man she was dancing with carried her and her sister down to douse the flames in the snow, or her sister ran her down the stairs and rolled her in the snow, causing her own muslin dress to catch fire too.<ref name="Clogher Record">{{cite journal |title=The Tragic Deaths in 1871 in County Monaghan of Emily and Mary Wilde-Half-Sisters of Oscar Wilde |journal=Clogher Record |date=2003 |volume=18 |issue=1 |pages=129, 130 |doi=10.2307/27699497 |jstor=27699497 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/27699497 |access-date=21 December 2024}}</ref>

Until his early twenties, Wilde summered at Moytura House, a villa his father had built in [[Cong, County Mayo]].{{sfn|Sandulescu|1994|pp=55–56}} There the young Wilde and his brother Willie played with [[George Moore (novelist)|George Moore]].<ref>Schwab, Arnold T.: Review of "George Moore: A Reconsideration", by Brown, Malcolm. ''Nineteenth-Century Fiction'', Vol. 10, No. 4, March 1956. pp. 310–314.</ref>