n ill-informed and worse-minded persons
went about saying that the eponymous hero of the book was John Gray,
though "Dorian Gray" was written before Oscar had met or heard of John
Gray. One cannot help admitting that this was partly Oscar's own
fault. In talk he often alluded laughingly to John Gray as his hero,
"Dorian." It is just an instance of the challenging contempt which he
began to use about this time in answer to the inventions of hatred.

Late in this year, 1891, he published four stories completely void of
offence, calling the collection "A House of Pomegranates." He
dedicated each of the tales to a lady of distinction and the book made
many friends; but it was handled contemptuously in the press and had
no sale.

By this time people expected a certain sort of book from Oscar Wilde
and wanted nothing else. They hadn't to wait long. Early in 1892 we
heard that Oscar had written a drama in French called _Salome_, and at
once it was put about that Sarah Bernhardt was going to produce it in
London. Then came dramatic surprise on surprise: while it was being
rehearsed, the Lord Chamberlain refused to license it on the ground
that it introduced Biblical characters. Oscar protested in a brilliant
interview against the action of the Censor as "odious and ridiculous."
He pointed out that all the greatest artists--painters and sculptors,
musicians and writers--had taken many of their best subjects from the
Bible, and wanted to know why the dramatist should be prevented from
treating the great soul-tragedies most proper to his art. When
informed that the interdict was to stand, he declared in a pet that he
would settle in France and take out letters of naturalisation:

"I am not English. I am Irish--which is quite another thing." Of
course the press made all the fun it could of his show of temper.

Mr. Robert Ross considers "Salome" "the most powerful and perfect of
all Oscar's dramas." I find it almost impossible to explain, much less
justify, its astonishing popularity. When it appeared, the press, both
in France and in England, was critical and contemptuous; but by this
time Oscar had so captured the public that he could afford to disdain
critics and calumny. The play was praised by his admirers as if it had
been a masterpiece, and London discussed it the more because it was in
French and not clapper-clawed by the vulgar.

The indescribable cold lewdness and cruelty of "Salome" quickened the
prejudice and streng