weeds.'

"When I tried to talk they broke into my thought with stupid gibes and
jokes. Their highest idea of humour was an obscene story. No, no,
Tyrrell and Mahaffy represent to me whatever was good in Trinity."

In 1874 Oscar Wilde won the gold medal for Greek. The subject of the
year was "The Fragments of the Greek Comic Poets, as edited by
Meineke." In this year, too, he won a classical scholarship--a
demyship of the annual value of L95, which was tenable for five years,
which enabled him to go to Oxford without throwing an undue strain on
his father's means.

He noticed with delight that his success was announced in the _Oxford
University Gazette_ of July 11th, 1874. He entered Magdalen College,
Oxford, on October 17th, a day after his twentieth birthday.

Just as he had been more successful at Trinity than at school, so he
was destined to be far more successful and win a far greater
reputation at Oxford than in Dublin.

He had the advantage of going to Oxford a little later than most men,
at twenty instead of eighteen, and thus was enabled to win high
honours with comparative ease, while leading a life of cultured
enjoyment.

He was placed in the first class in "Moderations" in 1876 and had even
then managed to make himself talked about in the life of the place.
The Trinity Don whom I have already quoted, after admitting that there
was not a breath against his character either at school or Trinity,
goes on to write that "at Trinity he did not strike us as a very
exceptional person," and yet there must have been some sharp eyes at
Trinity, for our Don adds with surprising divination:

"I fancy his rapid development took place after he went to Oxford,
where he was able to specialize more; in fact where he could study
what he most affected. It is, I feel sure, from his Oxford life more
than from his life in Ireland that one would be able to trace the good
and bad features by which he afterwards attracted the attention of the
world."

In 1878 Oscar won a First Class in "Greats." In this same Trinity
term, 1878, he further distinguished himself by gaining the Newdigate
prize for English verse with his poem "Ravenna," which he recited at
the annual Commemoration in the Sheldonian Theatre on June 26th. His
reciting of the poem was the literary event of the year in Oxford.

There had been great curiosity about him; he was said to be the best
talker of the day, and one of the ripest scholars. There were those in