Salomé, originally written in French in 1891 and translated into English, is a tragedy by the Irish-born playwright Oscar Wilde. The play tells in one act the Biblical story of Salomé, daughter of the tetrarch Herod, who on her mother Herodias's demand requests the head of Jokaanan (John the Baptist) on a silver platter as reward for dancing the Dance of the Seven Veils.

Rehearsals for the play's English debut were halted when the Lord Chamberlain's licensor of plays banned Salomé on the basis that it was illegal to depict Biblical characters on the stage. Wilde then gave the play to be produced in French, and it premiered in Paris in 1896. The Lord Chamberlain's ban was not lifted for almost forty years; the first production of Salomé in England was at the Savoy Theatre on October 5, 1931.

Wilde's version of the story has since spawned several other artistic works, the most famous of which is Richard Strauss's opera of the same name.

External links

• Full text of Salomé, drame en un acte (French) from the University of Virginia Library
• Full text of Salomé: A Tragedy in One Act (English) from the University of Virginia Library