Solomon the Wise (original Yiddish title Shloime Chuchem) is a 1906 play by Jacob Gordin, based on French sources, and loosely based on actual events in 17th century France, during the reign of Louis XIII and the ascendancy of Cardinal Richelieu.
Solomon Kaus, the title character, was an actual Jew who lived in Paris at that time, and believed he could build a machine that could run on water power; it is unclear whether he may have had an early idea along the lines of a steam engine or if he was simply pursuing an impossibility.
A contemporary critic in the New York Dramatic Mirror wrote of himself in the third person that "in all his years as a theatregoer he has seldom seen a histrionic exhibition equal to the performance of Jacob Adler as Solomon Kaus.
Until confined to the lunatic asylum Adler played the part as an intellectual dreamer... his dignity heightened by his emotional restraint...
The culmination of the third act was infinitely more stupendous after this quiet, normal beginning... [O]ne could see the light of understanding fade from his eyes.