Wilde Oscar

1927 · ref. 12415 — Paris: Les Éditions G. Crès 1927. Hardcover. vg. Alastair. Small quarto 19 by 14 cm. vii 1 blank 89 5 table pp. Half title; main title in red and black; 9 duotone plates by Alastair. Text in original French. Half calf over mottled brown boards; spine lettered in gilt; marbled endleaves. Illustrated front wrapper lightly soiled retained. Clean text throughout mild rubbing/wear at extremities of covers else a very good copy. Later illustrated edition of this one-act play which tells the biblical story of Salome stepdaughter of the tetrach Herod Antipas who to her stepfather's dismay but to the delight of her mother Herodias requests the head of Jokanaan John the Baptist on a silver platter as a reward for dancing the dance of the seven veils. While the intended premier of the play was being rehearsed for production in June of 1892 at the Palace Theatre in London with Sarah Bernhardt in the leading role and Albert Darmont as Herod the lord chamberlain withheld his license invoking legislation from the protestant Reformation era which prohibited medieval miracle or otherwise religious plays. Wilde responed in print: "Personally to have my première in Paris instead of in London is a great honour and one that I appreciate sincerly. The pleasure and pride that I have experienced in the whole affair has been that Madame Sarah Bernhardt who is undoubtedly the greatest artist on any stage should have been charmed and fascinated by my play and should have wished to act in it. Every rehearsal has been a source of pleasure to me. The hear my own words spoken by the most beautiful voice in the world has been the greatest artistic jouy that it is possible to experience. So that you see as far as I am concerned I care very little about the refusal of the Lord Chamberlain to allow my play to be produced" quoted in Mason. With a seven-page bibliography of French editions and translations into fourteen languages including Yiddish. For a concise but well-documented treatment of Wilde's response to the suppression of the play in England along with a brief discussion of the early productions and a list of later productions prior to the First World War see S. Mason Bibliography of Oscar Wilde vol. 2 pp. 370-378. Les Éditions G. Crès hardcover