[ilds] Oscar Wilde's Salome

[Bruce Redwine]

James,

Richard Ellmann in his Oscar Wilde (1988) agrees with you:  “The commission [Douglas’s translation] was a mistake.  Wilde had not reckoned with his beloved’s inadequate French.  When Douglas proudly brought the translation to him at the end of August, Wilde found it unacceptable” (p. 402).  And “Beardsley declared that it would be dishonest to put Douglas’s name on the title page when the translation had been so much altered by Wilde” (p. 404).

Does Durrell credit Wilde in the UNESCO lectures?  Wilde did not approve of plagiarism (unless he himself did it, naturally).

Bruce



> On Jun 3, 2015, at 8:52 AM, Odos <odos.fanourios at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Hi Bruce,
> 
> I'd need to go back to my notes for the reference, but I think the consensus now is that Wilde did the translation himself and simply had Bosie credited,
> 
> Durrell's UNESCO lectures on Shakespeare draw fairly heavily on Wilde's "The Portrait of Mr. W.H."
> 
> All best,
> James
> 
> Sent from my iPad
> 
> On Jun 3, 2015, at 8:30 AM, Bruce Redwine <bredwine1968 at earthlink.net <mailto:bredwine1968 at earthlink.net>> wrote:
> 
>> I stand corrected.  Wilde originally wrote Salome in French (1892).  The book, however, was a collaboration, as the title page indicates:  Salome:  A Tragedy in One Act:  Translated from the French of Oscar Wilde by Lord Alfred Douglas:  Pictured by Aubrey Beardsley (1894; New York:  Dover, 1967).  Douglas (“Bosie”) and Wilde were lovers.  According to the blurb, “Beardsley liked neither the play nor its author.”
>> 
>> Bruce
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>>> On Jun 3, 2015, at 12:39 AM, mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org <mailto:mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org> wrote:
>>> 
>>> I don'y think it's accurate to say that Wilde and Beardsley "collaborated" on the play Salome - B was certainly involved, as a potential translator from W's French original, but he didn't actually collaborate. The illustrations for the book edition are, of course, another matter.
>>> RP 
>> 
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