Salome (French: Salomé, ) is a one-act tragedy by Oscar Wilde. The original version of the play was first published in French in 1893; an English translation was published a year later. The play depicts the attempted seduction of Jokanaan (John the Baptist) by Salome, stepdaughter of Herod Antipas; her dance of the seven veils; the execution of Jokanaan at Salome's instigation; and her death on Herod's orders.
The first production was in Paris in 1896. Because the play depicted biblical characters it was banned in Britain and was not performed publicly there until 1931. The play became popular in Germany, and Wilde's text was taken by the composer Richard Strauss as the basis of his 1905 opera Salome, the international success of which has overshadowed the play itself. Film and other adaptations have also been made of the play.
Background and first production When Wilde began writing Salome in late 1891 he was known as an author and critic, but was not yet established as a playwright. Lady Windermere's Fan was completed but not yet staged, and his other West End successes, A Woman of No Importance, An Ideal Husband and The Importance of Being Earnest, were yet to come.Edwards, Owen Dudley. "Wilde, Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills (1854–1900), writer", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2004. Retrieved 6 April 2021 Two earlier plays, Vera, Or The Nihilists and The Duchess of Padua, had been staged, but had been critical and commercial failures.Raby, p. vii Wilde had been considering the subject of Salome since his undergraduate days at Oxford when Walter Pater introduced him to Flaubert's story Hérodias in 1877. The biographer Peter Raby comments that Wilde's interest had been further stimulated by descriptions of Gustave Moreau's paintings of Salome in Joris-Karl Huysmans's À rebours and by Heinrich Heine's Atta Troll, Jules Laforgue's "Salomé" in Moralités Légendaires and Stéphane Mallarmé's Hérodiade.Raby, p. xi
Wilde wrote the play while staying in Paris and explained to an interviewer the following year why he had written it in French:
He submitted the play to the leading French actress Sarah Bernhardt, who accepted it for production in her 1892 season at the Royal English Opera House, in London.Ross, p. vii The play went into rehearsals in June, but at that time all plays presented in Britain had to be approved by the official censor, the Lord Chamberlain. Approval was withheld because of a rule prohibiting the depiction of biblical characters on stage. Wilde expressed outrage and said he would leave England and take French citizenship. Bernhardt too condemned the ban and said she would present the play in Paris at some time, although she could not say when."The Censorship and 'Salome'", The Pall Mall Gazette, 6 July 1892, p. 1
The play was published in French in 1893 in Paris by the Librairie de l'Art Independent and in London by Elkin Mathews and John Lane. It is dedicated "À mon ami Pierre Louÿs".Wilde (1908), pp. 2–3 The author was pleased by the favourable reception given to the published play by leading Francophone writers, in particular Pierre Loti, Maurice Maeterlinck and Mallarmé.Raby, p. xiii
Wilde never saw the play produced. The only performances given in his lifetime were in 1896, by which time he was serving a prison sentence for illegal homosexual activity. The play was first given, in the original French, in a one-off performanceDonohue, p. 119 on 11 February 1896 by the Théâtre de l'Œuvre company at the Théâtre de la Comédie-Parisienne, as the second part of a double bill with Romain Coolus's comedy Raphaël."Les Théâtres", Le Figaro, 12 February 1896, p. 3 The main roles were played as follows: Iokanaan – Max Barbier Hérode – Lugné-Poe Young Syrian – M. Nerey A Jew – M. Labruyère First Soldier – M. Lévêque Salomé – Lina Munte Hérodias – Mlle Barbieri Page to Hérodias – Suzanne Auclaire The play was given again in October 1896 in a Wilde double bill at the Nouveau-Théâtre, with a French adaptation of Lady Windermere's Fan. Charles Daumerie played Herod and Munte again played Salome.
English and other translations
A biographer of Wilde, Owen Dudley Edwards, comments that the play "is apparently untranslatable into English", citing attempts made by Lord Alfred Douglas, Aubrey Beardsley, Wilde himself revising Douglas's botched effort, Wilde's son Vyvyan Holland, Jon Pope, Steven Berkoff and others, and concluding "it demands reading and performance in French to make its impact". The most familiar English version is by Douglas, extensively revised by Wilde, originally published in 1894. Wilde dedicated the first edition "To my friend Lord Alfred Douglas, the translator of my play".Wilde (1918), p. 97 It was lavishly produced, with illustrations by Beardsley that Wilde thought over-sophisticated.Ellmann, p. 376 An American edition, with the Beardsley illustrations, was published in San Francisco in 1896.Wilde (1918), p. 98 In the 1890s and 1900s translations were published in at least eleven other languages, from Dutch in 1893 to Yiddish in 1909.
Plot
Characters
Herod Antipas, Tetrarch of Judea 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 Salome, daughter of Herodias The slaves of Salomé
Synopsis Jokanaan (John the Baptist, Iokanaan in the original French text) has been imprisoned by Herod Antipas in a cistern below the terrace of Herod's palace, for his hostile comments about Herodias, Herod's second wife. A young captain of the guard admires the beautiful princess Salome, Herod's stepdaughter. A page warns the captain that something terrible may happen if he continues to stare at the princess. Salome is fascinated by Jokanaan's voice. She persuades the captain to open the cistern so that the prophet can emerge, and she can see him and touch him.Wilde (1950), pp. 1–17 Jokanaan appears, denouncing Herodias and her husband. At first frightened by the sight of the holy man, Salome becomes fascinated by him, begging him to let her touch his hair, his skin and kiss his mouth. When she tells him she is Herodias's daughter, he calls her a "daughter of Sodom" and bids her keep away from him. All Salome's attempts to attract him fail, and he swears she will never kiss his mouth, cursing her as the daughter of an adulteress and advising her to seek the Lord. He returns to his underground confinement. The young captain of the guard, unable to bear Salome's desire for another man, fatally stabs himself.Wilde (1950), pp. 17–22
Herod appears from the palace, looking for the princess and commenting on the strange look of the moon. When he slips in the captain's blood, he suddenly panics. Herodias dismisses his fears and asks him to go back inside with her, but Herod's attention has turned libidinously towards Salome, who rejects his advances. From the cistern, Jokanaan resumes his denunciation of Herodias; she demands that Herod hand the prophet over to the Jews. Herod refuses, maintaining that Jokanaan is a holy man and has seen God. His words spark an argument among the Jews concerning the true nature of God, and two Nazarenes talk about the miracles of Jesus. As Jokanaan continues to accuse her, Herodias demands that he is silenced.Wilde (1950), pp. 23–32
Herod asks Salome to dance for him. She refuses, but when he promises to give her anything she wants, she agrees. Ignoring her mother's pleas – "Ne dansez pas, ma fille" – "Do not dance, my daughter" – Salome performs the dance of the seven veils. Delighted, Herod asks what reward she would like, and she asks for the head of Jokanaan on a silver platter. Horrified, Herod refuses, while Herodias rejoices at Salome's choice. Herod offers other rewards, but Salome insists and reminds Herod of his promise. He finally yields. The executioner descends into the cistern, and Salome impatiently awaits her reward. When the prophet's head is brought to her, she passionately addresses Jokanaan as if he were still alive and finally kisses his lips: Ah! j'ai baisé ta bouche, Iokanaan, j'ai baisé ta bouche. Il y avait une âcre saveur sur tes lèvres. Était-ce la saveur du sang? ... Mais, peut-être est-ce la saveur de l'amour. On dit que l'amour a une âcre saveur ... Mais, qu'importe? Qu'importe? J'ai baisé ta bouche, Iokanaan, j'ai baisé ta bouche. Ah! I have kissed thy mouth, Jokanaan, I have kissed thy mouth. There was a bitter taste on thy lips. Was it the taste of blood? ... But perchance it is the taste of love. ... They say that love hath a bitter taste. ... But what of that? what of that? I have kissed thy mouth, Jokanaan. Herod, frightened and appalled at Salome's behaviour, orders the soldiers, "Tuez cette femme!" – "Kill that woman!", and they crush her to death under their shields.Wilde (1950), pp. 33–47
Revivals International In 1901, within a year of Wilde's death, Salome was produced in Berlin by Max Reinhardt in Hedwig Lachmann's German translation, and ran, according to Robbie Ross, for "a longer consecutive period in Germany than any play by any Englishman, not excepting Shakespeare".Wilde (1918), p. x The play was not revived in Paris until 1973 (although Richard Strauss's operatic version was frequently seen there from 1910 onwards)."Salomé d'Oscar Wilde", Les Archives du spectacle. Retrieved 7 April 2021 Les Archives du spectacle record 13 productions of Wilde's play in France between 1973 and 2020.
The American premiere was given in New York in 1905 by the Progressive Stage Society, an amateur group. A professional production was presented at the Astor Theatre the following year, with Mercedes Leigh in the title role. The Internet Broadway Database records five New York productions between 1918 and 2003."Salome", Internet Broadway Database. Retrieved 7 April 2021 The Salomes included Madame Yorska (1918), Evelyn Preer (1923), Sheryl Lee (1992) and Marisa Tomei (2003), and among the actors playing Herod was Al Pacino in 1992 and 2003. The 1923 Broadway production with Preer was unusual in that it used an entirely black cast which included Sydney Kirkpatrick as Herod Antipas and Kirkpatrick's wife, Laura Bowman, as Herodias.
The play was given in Czech in Brno in 1924, and in English at the Gate Theatre in Dublin in 1928 (directed by Hilton Edwards, with Micheál Mac Liammóir as Jokanaan).Barnaby, pp. lxxxix and xc In Tokyo in 1960 Yukio Mishima directed a Japanese version in a translation by Kōnosuke Hinatsu which, The Times reported, "rendered Wilde's rhetoric into the measured cadences of fifteenth-century Japanese"."Wilde's Salome on the Japanese Stage", The Times, 21 April 1960, p. 16 A later Japanese production was seen in Tokyo and subsequently in France in 1996."Salomé","Salomé d'Oscar Wilde", Les Archives du spectacle. Retrieved 7 April 2021
Britain In Britain, the Lord Chamberlain's consent to public performance still being withheld, the first production there was a private one, given in May 1905 in London by the New Stage Club. The performance of Robert Farquharson as Herod was reportedly of remarkable power.Wilde (1918), p. xI Millicent Murby played Salome, and Florence Farr directed. A second private performance followed in 1906 by the Literary Theatre Society, with Farquharson again as Herod.MacCarthy, Desmond, "Oscar Wilde and The Literary Theatre Club", The Speaker: The Liberal Review, 7 July 1906, pp. 315–316 The costumes and scenery by Charles Ricketts were much admired, but the rest of the cast and the direction were poor, according to Ross.Wilde (1918), p. xiii A 1911 production at the Court Theatre by Harcourt Williams, with Adeline Bourne as Salome, received disparaging notices.Tanitch, p. 149