ࡱ> .0-] bjbjzpzp . b b $$ n$,,AjW0@3^LA,, $B f: Name: Dr. Christina Hunt Mahony Affiliation: Trinity College Dublin Paper Title: The Fall of Wilde and Aesthetic Retrenchment in the London Theatre from 1893 to 1895 On May 25, 1895, Oscar Wilde was convicted under the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1885 and sentenced to two years hard labour. In all, there had been three trials, notorious at the time. They have been minutely documented and their consequences well known even outside literary and activist circles. Both the acts passage a decade earlier and Wildes conviction under its terms were barometric events, signalling a late Victorian swing against decades of gradual but consistent liberalisation of English mores. The post-Romantic spiral of cultural ennui called The Decadence, which at first affected only an elite, had begun to impact on the populace at large. This cultural evolutionary process was one with which much of society was initially uncomfortable and for which it was, to a degree, unprepared. This paper will focus on the effect of one Irish playwrights downfall on the whole of London theatre of the period, as irrefutably demonstrated by its impact on yet another Irishman whose theatrical career was co-terminus with Wildes for very different, but inextricably related, reasons. The arc of the successful playwrighting career of John Todhunter, a recent arrival in London from Dublin, was far more noteworthy in the late 1880s and early 1890s than his fellow countrymen Yeats and Shaw, with whom his plays shared a stage and promoters at times. Todhunters popular and artistic successes rivalled Wildes initially, and were promoted with the fashionable artwork of Decadent favourite Aubrey Beardsley. His Helena in Troas was one of the society entertainments of its season, and made Todhunter the darling of the illustrated weeklies. His new Ibsenite dramas were groundbreaking on the English stage. He survived the crossover in fashion from verse to prose, a transition which confounded many playwrights of the era. But after Oscar Wilde was arrested and later convicted and imprisoned the bewildered Todhunter saw his prestige and popularity wither on the strength of a single character in his daring The Black Cat. Representations that theatre professionals and the public at large had admired and applauded became pariahs. Todhunter was one of many victims in the 1895 season which will be contrasted with the stellar season served up to London theatregoers in 1893.  -CQgq l p ! * 8 F H f   ³³³¨™Š³³³™³³{k{\h5h^2OJQJmH sH h5ho6OJQJmH sH h5hoOJQJmH sH h5hOJQJmH sH h5h`mbOJQJmH sH h5hiOJQJh5hN]OJQJmH sH h5hiOJQJmH sH h5h_OJQJh5h8OJQJh5h85OJQJh5h_5OJQJ$ D gd_ "#$ 6Weh5hiOJQJmH sH h5ho6OJQJmH sH h5hOJQJmH sH %h5hoB*OJQJmH phsH h5h^2OJQJmH sH h5hoOJQJmH sH ,1h/ =!"#$% s2&6FVfv2(&6FVfv&6FVfv&6FVfv&6FVfv&6FVfv&6FVfv8XV~ 0@ 0@ 0@ 0@ 0@ 0@ 0@ 0@ 0@ 0@ 0@ 0@ 0@ 0@PJ_HmH nH sH tH D`D NormalCJ_HaJmH nHsH tHDA D Default Paragraph FontRiR  Table Normal4 l4a (k (No List PK![Content_Types].xmlN0EH-J@%ǎǢ|ș$زULTB l,3;rØJB+$G]7O٭Vc:E3v@P~Ds |w<    8@0(  B S  ? sDmtDmuDmvDmwDmxDmyDmzDm{Dm-5==LXX 4<CCR^^ 9*urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttagsplace8*urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttagsCity= *urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags PlaceName=*urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags PlaceType  -6 ,41:   Q    o^2N]`mb|g_5i8 @ @UnknownG*Ax Times New Roman5Symbol3. *Cx Arial9Garamond;(SimSun[SOACambria Math"qhKg'Kg'p2p2 hh24 3qHP)?i0!xx TThe Fall of Wilde and Aesthetic Retrenchment in the London Theatre from 1893 to 1895CHM Linda.MoloneyOh+'0(8 P\ |  XThe Fall of Wilde and Aesthetic Retrenchment in the London Theatre from 1893 to 1895CHMNormalLinda.Moloney2Microsoft Office Word@@@p2՜.+,0< hp|  n/a  UThe Fall of Wilde and Aesthetic Retrenchment in the London Theatre from 1893 to 1895 Title  !"#$&'()*+,/Root Entry FЄ11Table WordDocument.SummaryInformation(DocumentSummaryInformation8%CompObjr  F Microsoft Word 97-2003 Document MSWordDocWord.Document.89q