SOURCE: "Sexual and sporting feats: Messaline and Le Surmâle," in Alfred Jarry: A Critical and Biographical Study, St. Martin's Press, 1984, pp. 227-61.

In the following excerpt, Beaumont studies themes in Messaline, especially that of sexuality.

Messaline appeared in six successive issues of La Revue Blanche from 1 July to 15 September 1900, triumphantly marking the beginning of Jarry's regular contribution to that review, and was published in volume form by the Éditions de la Revue Blanche in July 1901. Jarry's main source for the events of the novel is Book XI of Tacitus' Annals, supplemented by details from Juvenal, Suetonius and other classical authors. These sources recount in censorious tones the scandalous promiscuity of the Empress Messalina, wife of Claudius, her debauchery and corruption of the whole imperial court, her deplorable influence on the Roman populace, and her eventual death on the orders of Claudius, whose eyes were finally opened.

Jarry...