Published by John Lane, The Bodley Head, London, 1906

Small 8vo, pp. 66. Cover by Aubrey Beardsley. Ivory paper over boards, stamped in green. Interior foxed. 

This is a scare and collectable edition of Oscar Wilde’s Salome A Tragedy In One Act. 

First penned in 1891 in French by Oscar Wilde, Salomé is a one-act play that has entered the canon of Decadent literature, as well as that of Decadent art, accompanied by the dark, sexually-charged illustrations of Aubrey Beardsley and translated into English by Wilde’s lover, Lord Alfred “Bosie” Douglas. However, the play is suffused with transgressive sexuality from every angle. The writer, artist, content and the proposed cast of the play are all queer, in one sense of the word or another. One can see how the exaggerated, stylised language and art of the piece, as well as their esotericism, fit so neatly within Susan Sontag’s “Canon of Camp”.

Both Wilde and Beardsley were key figures identified with a queer sensibility in art and literature that has persisted to the present, because of the nature of their respective oeuvres as well as their personal lives. Oscar Wilde was famously arrested for “gross indecency” in 1895, and Beardsley’s reputation was tarnished by association. In some quarters his friendship with Wilde was seen as closer than was entirely appropriate. It should be noted, however, that despite the associations of Beardsley and his work with queer figures or subtext, there is no definitive proof that he was anything other than asexual (posthumous rumours of incest with his sister notwithstanding). The inclusion of Beardsley’s illustrations to accompany the text of Salomé added a layer of frisson to Wilde’s work, after the former’s work with The Yellow Book, followed by his work with Leonard Smithers. Smithers was another friend and colleague of Wilde’s who dealt in erotic and pornographic literature, and who published the queer pornographic novel Teleny. The novel was composed anonymously but is sometimes attributed to Wilde, who was certainly involved, though to what extent is unclear.

When Salomé was composed, Sarah Bernhardt was keen to both produce and star in the play, though despite rehearsing the role, she did not follow through with her appearance when it was mounted in France. Bernhardt, the daughter of a courtesan, was also famously transgressive, and known for her independence and tireless self-promotion as much as for her electric stage presence. She also performed numerous travesti roles onstage, including Hamlet. The “Divine” Sarah Bernhardt was also followed in the press for her relationships (intimate or platonic) with men ranging from Edward VII to Gabriele D’Annunzio. At the time that she was announced as the star of Salomé, she was in her forties, and had recently starred as the nineteen year old Jeanne d’Arc, followed by an engagement playing Cleopatra – fusing the images of the exotic Other, the femme fatale and the younger woman in her casting as Salomé.

The play contains several layers of transgressive sexuality, interweaving the relationships between the characters. Salomé becomes as infatuated with Iokanaan the prophet as Narraboth the Syrian is enamoured of her, and he kills himself for love of her. It is implied that the Syrian, in turn, is the object of unrequited desire: that of Herodias’s Page. Salomé’s feelings for Iokanaan culminate in her kissing of his severed head, and she engineers Iokanaan’s execution by playing on her stepfather Herod’s lust for her. Moreover, her mother Herodias’ marriage to Herod (who slew his brother, Herodias’ first husband and Salomé’s father) is decried by Iokanaan as incestuous.

(Taken from “The Queerness of Salomé - Putting the spotlight on Oscar Wilde's controversial one-act play” Written by Dr Will Visconti.)