【英文原著类】a florentine tragedy(佛罗伦萨悲剧).pdf

Miscellaneous
A Florentine Tragedy
Oscar Wilde
1
Miscellaneous
PREFACE BY ROBERT ROSS
'As to my personal attitude towards criticism, I confess in brief the
following:- "If my works are good and of any importance whatever for the
further development of art, they will maintain their place in spite of all
adverse criticism and in spite of all hateful suspicions attached to my
artistic intentions. If my works are of no account, the most gratifying
ess of the moment and the most enthusiastic approval of as augurs
cannot make them endure. The waste-paper press can devour them as it
has devoured many others, and I will not shed a tear . . . and the world will
move on just the same."'--RICHARD STRAUSS.
The contents of this volume require some explanation of an historical
nature. It is scarcely realised by the present generation that Wilde's works
on their first appearance, with the exception of De Profundis, were met
with almost general condemnation and ridicule. The plays on their first
production were grudgingly praised because their obvious ess could
not be ignored; but on their subsequent publication in book form they were
violently assailed. That nearly all of them have held the stage is still a
source of irritation among certain journalists. Salome however enjoys a
singular career. As every one knows, it was prohibited by the Censor when
in rehearsal by Madame Bernhardt at the Palace Theatre in 1892. On its
publication in 1893 it was greeted with greater abuse than any other of
Wilde's works, and was consigned to the usual irrevocable oblivion. The
accuracy of the French was freely canvassed, and of course it is obvious
that the French is not that of a Frenchman. The play was passed for press,
however, by no less a writer than Marcel Schwob whose letter to the Paris
publisher, returning the proofs and mentioning two or three slight
alterations, is still in my possession. Marcel Schwob told me some years
afterwards that he thought i