Transcribed from the 1913 Methuen and Co edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org ESSAYS AND LECTURES BY OSCAR WILDE * * * * * METHUEN & CO. LTD. 36 ESSEX STREET W.C. LONDON _Fourth Edition_ * * * * * _First Published in Book Form_ (_Limited Edition on _1908_ Handmade Paper and Japanese Vellum_) _Second Edition_ (_F’cap._ 8_vo_) _1909_ _Third Edition_ ( ,, ,, ) _1911_ _Fourth Edition_ ( ,, ,, ) _1913_ DEDICATED TO WALTER LEDGER BY THE AUTHOR’S LITERARY EXECUTOR CONTENTS PAGE THE RISE OF HISTORICAL CRITICISM 1 THE ENGLISH RENAISSANCE OF ART 109 HOUSE DECORATION 157 ART AND THE HANDICRAFTMAN 173 LECTURE TO ART STUDENTS 197 LONDON MODELS 213 POEMS IN PROSE 227 PREFACE WITH the exception of the _Poems in Prose_ this volume does not contain anything which the author ever contemplated reprinting. _The Rise of Historical Criticism_ is interesting to admirers of his work, however, because it shows the development of his style and the wide intellectual range distinguishing the least _borné_ of all the late Victorian writers, with the possible exception of Ruskin. It belongs to Wilde’s Oxford days when he was the unsuccessful competitor for the Chancellor’s English Essay Prize. Perhaps Magdalen, which has never forgiven herself for nurturing the author of _Ravenna_, may be felicitated on having escaped the further intolerable honour that she might have suffered by seeing crowned again with paltry academic parsley the most highly gifted of all her children in the last century.