But there was always about him the magic of a rich and _puissant_ personality; like some great actor he could take a poor part and fill it with the passion and vivacity of his own nature, till it became a living and memorable creation.
He gave the impression of wide intellectual range, yet in reality he was not broad; life was not his study nor the world-drama his field.

His talk was all of literature and art and the vanities; the light drawing-room comedy on the edge of farce was his kingdom; there he ruled as a sovereign.
Anyone who has read Oscar Wilde's plays at all carefully, especially "The Importance of Being Earnest," must, I think, see that in kindly, happy humour he is without a peer in literature.

Who can ever forget the scene between the town and country girl in that delightful farce-comedy.
As soon as the London girl realises that the country girl has hardly any opportunity of making new friends or meeting new men, she exclaims: "Ah! now I know what they mean when they talk of agricultural depression." This sunny humour is Wilde's especial contribution to literature: he calls forth a smile whereas others try to provoke laughter.

Yet he was as witty as anyone of whom we have record, and some of the best epigrams in English are his.

"The cynic knows the price of everything and the value of nothing" is better than the best of La Rochefoucauld, as good as the best of Vauvenargues or Joubert.