This volume of theComplete Works of Oscar Wildeis the first volume of plays. It contains full-dress critical editions, at the high editorial standard of the familiar Oxford English Texts series, encompassing all surviving manuscript material and all other relevant documents, of three of Wilde's plays:The Duchess of Padua, the original FrenchSalome, and the first English translation, by Lord Alfred Douglas. The edition contains comprehensive introductions and editorial introductions, as well as extensive annotations.The Duchess of Paduais one of two early plays by Wilde (the other beingVera; or,The Nihilists) that signify his youthful interest in making his mark on the contemporary theatre. They are imperfect works, but they show the real talent and definite promise that would be fulfilled, in the early 1890s, first withLady Windermere's Fan(completed 1891, produced 1892) and then, almost simultaneously, with the next play in this volume, Wilde's FrenchSalome, written also in 1891, completed in 1892, but not published until 1893: his only work written in French. Douglas's translation, which left the author of the French work disappointed by its 'schoolboy' quality, is also included here since it was issued over Wilde's name (and dedicated to Douglas, 'the translator of my play') and is indisputably part of Wilde's oeuvre.