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Lord Alfred Douglas
- The Marquess was the father of Wilde's lover, Lord Alfred Douglas.
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Salome. (play) Salome (French: Salomé, pronounced [salɔme]) 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 ...
- Oscar Wilde
- 11 February 1896
- 1894
- Tragedy
Jokanaan—Wilde's Saint John the Baptist—is the prophet imprisoned in a tomb-like cistern at the orders of the Tetrarch. He spends much of the play in his subterranean prison, figuring as a mad, booming voice that prophesies the ruin of the kingdom, curses the royal family, and proclaims the coming of Christ.
Suddenly the court enters, and Herod calls for Salomé while Herodias reproaching him for always staring at her. Herod muses on the "strange look" of the moon, comparing her to a drunken madwoman looking for lovers. Herodias replies that the "moon is like the moon, that is all" and bids him inside.
The story of Salome has been the subject of numerous works of art, literature, and music, including Oscar Wilde’s play Salome. The Symbolism of the Moon. The moon has long been a symbol of femininity, mystery, and the subconscious. In Oscar Wilde’s Salome, the moon plays a significant role in the story’s symbolism.
In 1905, Richard Strauss used Wilde’s play as the basis for his opera Salomé. The story is based upon the biblical account of John the Baptist’s death, in which the daughter of Queen Herodias supposedly demanded his head on a platter as payment for a dance.
Wilde also spent part of this period in France, befriending members of the symbolist and decadent movements and writing his French short drama, Salomé (1891). This period also marked the beginning of Wilde's ill-fated love affair with Lord Alfred Douglas, which would soon prove to be his downfall.
Wilde reviewed the piece in 1888 and seems to have drawn on it for some inspiration: Heywood's setting is full of erotic nuances and has a climactic scene of Herodias kissing John's head following his execution.
