Editing Oscar Wilde (section)

=== ''Salomé'' ===
{{main|Salome (play)|l1=''Salome'' (play)}}
[[File:John+Salome.jpg|thumb|upright|A stylistically androgynous Jokanaan, with Salome. Illustration by [[Aubrey Beardsley]] for the 1894 English edition of ''Salome'']]
The [[1891 United Kingdom census|1891 census]] records the Wildes' residence at 16 [[Tite Street]],<ref>{{cite web |title=Registrar General Records |url=http://yourarchives.nationalarchives.gov.uk/index.php?title=Wilde%2C_Oscar_O%27Flahertie_Wills_%281856-1900%29%2C_author |access-date=12 March 2010 |website=Wilde, Oscar O'Flahertie Wills (1856–1900), author |publisher=[[The National Archives (United Kingdom)|National Archives]] |archive-date=2 October 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091002221346/http://yourarchives.nationalarchives.gov.uk/index.php?title=Wilde%2C_Oscar_O%27Flahertie_Wills_%281856-1900%29%2C_author |url-status=live}}</ref> where Oscar lived with his wife Constance and two sons. Not content with being better known than ever in London, though, he returned to Paris in October 1891, this time as a respected writer. He was received at the ''[[salon (gathering)|salons]] littéraires'', including the famous ''mardis'' of [[Stéphane Mallarmé]], a renowned [[symbolism (arts)|symbolist]] poet of the time.{{sfn|Ellmann|1988|p=316}} Wilde's two plays during the 1880s, ''[[Vera; or, The Nihilists]]'' and ''[[The Duchess of Padua]]'', had not met with much success. He had continued his interest in the theatre and now, after finding his voice in prose, his thoughts turned again to the dramatic form as the biblical iconography of [[Salome]] filled his mind.{{sfn|Ellmann|1988|p=322}} One evening, after discussing depictions of Salome throughout history, he returned to his hotel and noticed a blank copybook lying on the desk, and it occurred to him to write in it what he had been saying. The result was a new play, ''[[Salome (play)|Salomé]]'', written rapidly and in French.{{sfn|Ellmann|1988|p=323}}

A tragedy, it tells the story of Salome, the stepdaughter of the [[Tetrarchy (Judea)|tetrarch]] [[Herod Antipas]], who, to her stepfather's dismay but [[Herodias|mother]]'s delight, requests the head of Jokanaan ([[John the Baptist]]) on a silver platter as a reward for dancing the Dance of the Seven Veils. When Wilde returned to London just before Christmas the ''Paris Echo'' referred to him as ''"le great event"'' of the season.{{sfn|Ellmann|1988|p=326}} Rehearsals of the play, starring [[Sarah Bernhardt]], began but the play was refused a licence by the Lord Chamberlain since it depicted biblical characters.{{sfn|Mason|1972|p=371}} ''Salome'' was published jointly in Paris and London in 1893 in the original French, and in London a year later in Lord Alfred Douglas's English translation with illustrations by [[Aubrey Beardsley]], though it was not performed until 1896 in Paris, during Wilde's incarceration.{{sfn|Mason|1972|pp=370, 379}}