Public-domain ebook
by Oscar Wilde
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In: Plays/Films/Dramas·Classics of Literature·British Literature
Public-domain ebook sourced from Project Gutenberg #42704.
Oscar Wilde’s one‑act tragedy Salomé presents the biblical temptress in a stylised, almost ceremonial setting. The play opens with a vivid description of the palace terrace, moonlight, and an eclectic cast of soldiers, a Syrian captain, and courtiers, all of whom comment on the princess’s unsettling beauty. Their dialogue, punctuated by lyrical observations and a chorus of murmurs, establishes a mood of eerie fascination that foreshadows the drama’s fatal allure. The opening also weaves in a meta‑narrative about the work’s controversial history, its French origins, censorship, and the flamboyant productions that followed, providing readers with a glimpse of the cultural storm surrounding Wilde’s creation before the action even begins.
Written in the late‑Victorian era, the text blends decadent symbolism with a crisp, theatrical cadence that mirrors the poetry of the Decadent movement. Wilde’s language is richly ornamental yet sharply ironic, reflecting his wit and his preoccupation with artifice. Readers who appreciate lush, poetic drama, the interplay of aesthetic theory and performance, or the historical intrigue of a work that sparked scandal across Europe will find Salomé a compelling, if unsettling, experience.
The opening · free to read
THE PERSONS OF THE PLAY.
HEROD ANTIPAS, TETRARCH OF JUDÆA. JOKANAAN, THE PROPHET. THE YOUNG SYRIAN, CAPTAIN of the GUARD. TIGELLINUS, A YOUNG ROMAN. A CAPPADOCIAN. A NUBIAN. FIRST SOLDIER. SECOND SOLDIER. THE PAGE OF HERODIAS. JEWS, NAZARENES, ETC. A SLAVE. NAAMAN, THE EXECUTIONER. HERODIAS, WIFE OF THE TETRARCH. SALOMÉ, DAUGHTER OF HERODIAS. THE SLAVES OF SALOMÉ.
A NOTE ON "SALOMÉ."
"SALOMÉ" has made the author's name a household word wherever the English language is not spoken. Few English plays have such a peculiar history. Written in French in 1892 it was in full rehearsal by Madame Bernhardt at the Palace Theatre when it was prohibited by the Censor. Oscar Wilde immediately announced his intention of changing his nationality, a characteristic jest, which was only taken seriously, oddly enough, in Ireland. The interference of the Censor has seldom been more popular or more heartily endorsed by English critics. On its publication in book form "Salomé" was greeted by a chorus of ridicule, and it may be noted in passing that at least two of the more violent reviews were from the pens of unsuccessful dramatists, while all those whose French never went beyond Ollendorff were glad to find in that venerable school classic an unsuspected asset in their education--a handy missile with which to pelt "Salomé" and its author. The correctness of the French was, of course, impugned, although the scrip had been passed by a distinguished French writer, to whom I have heard the whole work attributed. The Times, while depreciating the drama, gave its author credit for a tour de force, in being capable of writing a French play for Madame Bernhardt, and this drew from him the following letter:--
The Times, Thursday, March 2, 1893, p. 4.
MR. OSCAR WILDE ON "SALOMÉ."
To the Editor of The Times.
Sir, My attention has been drawn to a review of "Salomé" which was published in your columns last week. The opinions of English critics on a French work of mine have, of course, little, if any, interest for me. I write simply to ask you to allow me to correct a misstatement that appears in the review in question.
The fact that the greatest tragic actress of any stage now living saw in my play such beauty that she was anxious to produce it, to take herself the part of the heroine, to lend to the entire poem the glamour of her personality, and to my prose the music of her flute-like voice--this was naturally, and always will be, a source of pride and pleasure to me, and I look forward with delight to seeing Mme. Bernhardt present my play in Paris, that vivid centre of art, where religious dramas are often performed. But my play was in no sense of the words written for this great actress. I have never written a play for any actor or actress, nor shall I ever do so. Such work is for the artisan in literature--not for the artist.
When "Salomé" was translated into English by Lord Alfred Douglas, the illustrator, Aubrey Beardsley, shared some of the obloquy heaped on Wilde. It is interesting that he should have found inspiration for his finest work in a play he never admired and by a writer he cordially disliked. The motives are, of course, made to his hand, and never was there a more suitable material for that odd tangent art in which there are no tactile values. The amusing caricatures of Wilde which appear in the Frontispiece, "Enter Herodias" and "The Eyes of Herod," are the only pieces of vraisemblance in these exquisite designs. The colophon is a real masterpiece and a witty criticism of the play as well.
On the production of "Salomé" by the New Stage Club in May, 1905,[1] the dramatic critics again expressed themselves vehemently, vociferating their regrets that the play had been dragged from its obscurity. The obscure drama, however, had become for five years past part of the literature of Europe. It is performed regularly or intermittently in Holland, Sweden, Italy, France, and Russia, and it has been translated into every European language, including the Czech. It forms part of the repertoire of the German stage, where it is performed more often than any play by any English writer except Shakespeare. Owing, perhaps, to what I must call its obscure popularity in the continental theatres, Dr. Strauss was preparing his remarkable opera at the very moment when there appeared the criticisms to which I refer, and since the production of the opera in Dresden in December, 1905, English musical journalists and correspondents always refer to the work as founded on Wilde's drama. That is the only way in which they can evade an awkward truth--a palpable contravention to their own wishes and theories. The music, however, has been set to the actual words of "Salomé" in Madame Hedwig Lachmann's admirable translation. The words have not been transfigured into ordinary operatic nonsense to suit the score, or the susceptibilities of the English people. I observe that admirers of Dr. Strauss are a little mortified that the great master should have found an occasion for composition in a play which they long ago consigned to oblivion and the shambles of Aubrey Beardsley. Wilde himself, in a rhetorical period, seems to have contemplated the possibility of his prose drama for a musical theme. In "De Profundis" he says: "The refrains, whose recurring motifs make 'Salomé' so like a piece of music, and bind it together as a ballad."
He was still incarcerated in 1896, when Mons. Luigne Poë produced the play for the first time at the Théâtre Libre in Paris, with Lina Muntz in the title role. A rather pathetic reference to this occasion occurs in a letter Wilde wrote to me from Reading:--
"Please say how gratified I was at the performance of my play, and have my thanks conveyed to Luigne Poë. It is something that at a time of disgrace and shame I should still be regarded as an artist. I wish I could feel more pleasure, but I seem dead to all emotions except those of anguish and despair. However, please let Luigne Poë know that I am sensible of the honour he has done me. He is a poet himself. Write to me in answer to this, and try and see what Lemaitre, Bauer, and Sarcey said of 'Salomé.'"
The bias of personal friendship precludes me from praising or defending "Salomé," even if it were necessary to do so. Nothing I might say would add to the reputation of its detractors. Its sources are obvious; particularly Flaubert and Maeterlinck, in whose peculiar and original style it is an essay. A critic, for whom I have a greater regard than many of his contemporaries, says that "Salomé" is only a catalogue; but a catalogue can be intensely dramatic, as we know when the performance takes place at Christie's; few plays are more exciting than an auction in King Street when the stars are fighting for Sisera.
It has been remarked that Wilde confuses Herod the Great (Mat. xi. 1), Herod Antipas (Mat. xiv. 3), and Herod Agrippa (Acts xiii), but the confusion is intentional, as in mediæval mystery plays Herod is taken for a type, not an historical character, and the criticism is about as valuable as that of people who laboriously point out the anachronisms in Beardsley's designs. With reference to the charge of plagiarism brought against "Salomé" and its author, I venture to mention a personal recollection.
Wilde complained to me one day that someone in a well-known novel had stolen an idea of his. I pleaded in defence of the culprit that Wilde himself was a fearless literary thief. "My dear fellow," he said, with his usual drawling emphasis, "when I see a monstrous tulip with four wonderful petals in someone else's garden, I am impelled to grow a monstrous tulip with five wonderful petals, but that is no reason why someone should grow a tulip with only three petals." THAT WAS OSCAR WILDE.
ROBERT ROSS.
[1] A more recent performance of "Salomé" (1906), by the Literary Theatre Club, has again produced an ebullition of rancour and deliberate misrepresentation on the part of the dramatic critics, the majority of whom are anxious to parade their ignorance of the continental stage. The production was remarkable on account of the beautiful dresses and mounting, for which Mr. Charles Ricketts was responsible, and the marvellous impersonation of Herod by Mr. Robert Farquharson. Wilde used to say that "Salomé" was a mirror in which everyone could see himself. The artist, art; the dull, dulness; the vulgar, vulgarity.
LIST OF THE PICTURES BY AUBREY BEARDSLEY.
1. THE WOMAN IN THE MOON. 2. TITLE PAGE. 3. COVER DESIGN. 4. LIST OF THE PICTURES. 5. THE PEACOCK SKIRT. 6. THE BLACK CAPE. 7. A PLATONIC LAMENT. 8. JOHN AND SALOMÉ. 9. ENTER HERODIAS. 10. THE EYES OF HEROD. 11. THE STOMACH DANCE. 12. THE TOILETTE OF SALOMÉ--I. 13. THE TOILETTE OF SALOMÉ--II. 14. THE DANCER'S REWARD. 15. THE CLIMAX. 16. CUL DE LAMPE.
A YOUNG SYRIAN CAPTAIN -- MR. HERBERT ALEXANDER. PAGE OF HERODIAS -- MRS. GWENDOLEN BISHOP. FIRST SOLDIER -- MR. CHARLES GEE. SECOND SOLDIER -- MR. RALPH DE ROHAN. CAPPADOCIAN -- MR. CHARLES DALMON. JOKANAAN -- MR. VINCENT NELLO. NAAMAN, THE EXECUTIONER-- MR. W. EVELYN OSBORN. SALOMÉ -- Miss MILLICENT MURBY. SLAVE -- Miss CARRIE KEITH. HEROD -- MR. ROBERT FARQUHARSON. HERODIAS -- Miss LOUISE SALOM. TIGELLINUS -- MR. C.L. DELPH. SLAVE -- Miss STANSFELD. FIRST JEW -- MR. F. STANLEY SMITH. SECOND JEW -- MR. BERNHARD SMITH. THIRD JEW -- MR. JOHN BATE. FOURTH JEW -- STEPHEN BAGEHOT FIFTH JEW -- FREDERICK LAWRENCE.
Scene--THE GREAT TERRACE OUTSIDE THE PALACE.
Look at the moon! How strange the moon seems! She is like a woman rising from a tomb. She is like a dead woman. You would fancy she was looking for dead things.
She has a strange look. She is like a little princess who wears a yellow veil, and whose feet are of silver. She is like a princess who has little white doves for feet. You would fancy she was dancing.
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