Lady Wilde

Jane Francesca Elgee, Lady Wilde (1821–1896), was an Irish poet and folklorist who wrote under the name Speranza. In the 1840s she contributed fiery nationalist verse and prose to The Nation, the paper of the Young Ireland movement. She married the surgeon and antiquarian Sir William Wilde, and their sons included Oscar Wilde. Her Dublin home was a celebrated literary salon. After her husband's death she moved to London, where she continued to write and published Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms and Superstitions of Ireland, drawing on folklore he had collected in the west of Ireland.