DEATH OF OSCAR WILDE. Mr. Oscar Wilde, the well-known playwright, died on Friday at three o'clock in the Latin Quarter of Paris. The cause of death was meningitis, which he had been suffering from for some time. Six weeks ago he underwent an operation, which appeared to be successful at the time, but a complication which followed proved fatal. Mr. Oscar Wilde was recently received into the Roman Catholic Church.

Mr. Wilde was born in Dublin in 1856, and was the son of Sir William R. Wills Wilde, M.D., Surgeon-Oculist to Her Majesty, antiquarian, statistician, and man of letters; and of Jane Francesca, Lady Wilde, known as a poetess and woman of letters. Oscar was educated at Portora Royal School, Enniskillen; proceeded to Trinity College, Dublin, of which he became scholar; and, having obtained the Berkeley Gold Medal for Greek, went to Oxford in 1874. He went to London, 1879, and was the originator of the Æsthetic movement. He published a volume of poems in 1880; proceeded to America in 1881, where he delivered over 200 lectures on art. He subsequently lectured on art in England and in Paris. His drama of 'Vera' was produced in New York in 1882; 'The Happy Prince and other Fairy [sic] Tales' was published in 1888. He was also the author of 'Dorian Grey,' a novel of modern life; 'The Portrait of Mr. W. H.,'; a new theory about 'Shakespeare's Sonnets'; 'Intentions,' a volume of essays and dialogues on art, containing the developed principles of his æstheticism; 'The [sic] House of Pomegranates,' a collection of 'coloured poems in prose,' as Mr. Wilde himself described it; 'The Sphinx,' a long rhymed poem; and 'Lord Arthur Savile's Crime,' a volume of short stories. His blank verse tragedy, 'The Duchess of Padua,' was produced in New York in 1891; and in 1892 he made his debut in London as a dramatist with a brilliant comedy entitled 'Lady Windermere's Fan.' This was followed in 1893 by a comedy entitled 'A Woman of No Importance,' which also achieved success. His one-act tragedy, written in French, entitled 'Salome,' was prohibited by the Lord Chamberlain in London on account of the Biblical character of the subject. On account of this prohibition Mr. Wilde announced his intention of becoming a French citizen. His last dramatic successes were 'An Ideal Husband,' and 'The Importance of Being Earnest.' He married, in 1884, Constance, daughter of Mr. Horace Lloyd, Q.C.

The circumstances of the scandal, which consigned him to a gaol and to oblivion, are too recent and too horrible to need recapitulation.