The Decadent movement (from the French décadence , lit. ' decay ' ) was a late 19th-century artistic and literary movement, centered in Western Europe , that followed an aesthetic ideology of excess and artificiality.
101-592: Ernest Christopher Dowson (2 August 1867 – 23 February 1900) was an English poet, novelist, and short-story writer who is often associated with the Decadent movement . Ernest Dowson was born in Lee , then in Kent, in 1867. His great-uncle was Alfred Domett , a Prime Minister of New Zealand . Dowson attended The Queen's College, Oxford , but left in March 1888 without obtaining
202-584: A degree . In November 1888 Dowson started work at Dowson & Son, his father's dry-docking business in Limehouse , East London. He led an active social life , carousing with medical students and law pupils, visiting music halls , and taking the performers to dinner. Dowson was a member of the Rhymers' Club , and a contributor to literary magazines such as The Yellow Book and The Savoy . He collaborated with Arthur Moore on two unsuccessful novels, worked on
303-832: A "brief run", according to the Encyclopedia of the Musical Theatre . The Royal Shakespeare Company staged a production which opened at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre , Stratford-upon-Avon , on February 10, 1987, toured the UK from March to May, and then played at London's Old Vic Theatre from May 19, 1987. Directed by Adrian Noble and staged by Ron Field , the production starred Nichola McAuliffe and Paul Jones as Lilli/Kate and Fred/Petruchio, with Tim Flavin and Fiona Hendley as Bill/Lucentio and Lois/Bianca. The gangsters were played by Emil Wolk and John Bardon , who shared
404-770: A 3½-week pre- Broadway tryout at the Shubert Theatre in Philadelphia starting December 2, 1948, the original Broadway production opened on December 30, 1948, at the New Century Theatre , where it ran for nineteen months before transferring to the Shubert , for a total run of 1,077 performances. Directed by John C. Wilson with choreography by Hanya Holm , the original cast included Alfred Drake , Patricia Morison , Lisa Kirk , Harold Lang , Charles Wood and Harry Clark . Brooks Atkinson of The New York Times praised
505-629: A Russian decadence that included the idealism that eventually inspired the French symbolists to disassociate from the more purely materialistic Decadent movement. The first Russian writers to achieve success as followers of this Decadent movement included Konstanin Balmont, Fyodor Sologub , Valery Bryusov , and Zinaida Gippius . As they refined their craft beyond imitation of Baudelaire and Verlaine, most of these authors became much more clearly aligned with symbolism than with decadence. Some visual artists adhered to
606-593: A book by Bella and Samuel Spewack . The story involves the production of a musical version of William Shakespeare 's The Taming of the Shrew and the conflict on and off-stage between Fred Graham, the show's director, producer, and star, and his leading lady, his ex-wife Lilli Vanessi. A secondary romance concerns Lois Lane, the actress playing Bianca , and her gambler boyfriend, Bill, who runs afoul of some gangsters. The original production starred Alfred Drake , Patricia Morison , Lisa Kirk and Harold Lang . Kiss Me, Kate
707-522: A conclusion quite in contrast to Moréas' search for shadow truth: "Lying, the telling of beautiful untrue things, is the proper aim of Art." In France, the Decadent movement could not withstand the loss of its leading figures. Many of those associated with the Decadent movement became symbolists after initially associating freely with decadents. Paul Verlaine and Stéphane Mallarmé were among those, though both had been associated with Baju's Le Décadent for
808-598: A cry of denouncement against injustice and oppression. However, Ramón Casas and José María López Mezquita can be considered the model artists of this period. Their paintings are an image of the social conflicts and police repression that was happening in Spain at the time. Spanish writers also wanted to be part of this movement, such as Emilia Pardo Bazán , with works like Los pazos de Ulloa , where terror and Decadent topics appear. El monstruo ("The Monster"), written by Antonio de Hoyos y Vinent [ es ] , belongs to
909-462: A decadent and heralded their work, his own work was more frustrated, hopeless, and empty of the pleasure that had attracted him to the movement in the first place. Largely, he focused on cynically describing the impossibility of a true American decadence. German doctor and social critic Max Nordau wrote a lengthy book titled Degeneration (1892). It was an examination of decadence as a trend, and specifically attacked several people associated with
1010-422: A disregard for visual logic of the natural world. It has been suggested that a dream vision that Des Esseintes describes is based on the series of satanic encounters painted by Félicien Rops. Capitalizing on the momentum of Huysmans' work, Anatole Baju founded the magazine Le Décadent in 1886, an effort to define and organize the Decadent movement in a formal way. This group of writers did not only look to escape
1111-454: A lack of adherence to the conventional rules of literature and art, and a love for extravagant language, were the seeds of the Decadent movement. The first major development in French decadence appeared when writers Théophile Gautier and Charles Baudelaire used the word proudly to represent a rejection of what they considered banal "progress". Baudelaire referred to himself as decadent in his 1857 edition of Les Fleurs du mal and exalted
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#17328526274771212-545: A literature, but it also created an influential perspective on visual art. The character of Des Esseintes explicitly heralded the paintings of Gustave Moreau , the 17th-century Dutch engraver Jan Luyken 's illustrations to the Martyrs Mirror and the lithographs of Rodolphe Bresdin and Odilon Redon . The choice of these works established a decadent perspective on art which favored madness and irrationality, graphic violence, frank pessimism about cultural institutions, and
1313-433: A love triangle involving a codependent man, a married woman and an ugly, sick and vampire-like figure, the femme fatale Fosca. In a similar way, Camillo Boito 's Senso and his short stories venture into tales of sexual decadence and disturbing obsessions, such as incest and necrophilia. Other Scapigliati were the novelists Carlo Dossi and Giuseppe Rovani , the poet Emilio Praga , the poet and composer Arrigo Boito and
1414-624: A means of clairvoyance to regain the purity of things. Finally, the third period, which can be seen as a postlude to Decadentism, is marked by the voices of Italo Svevo , Luigi Pirandello and the Crepusculars . Svevo, with his novel Zeno's Conscience , took the idea of sickness to its logical conclusion, while Pirandello proceeded to the extreme disintegration of the self with works such as The Late Mattia Pascal , Six Characters in Search of an Author and One, No One, and One Hundred Thousand . On
1515-536: A novel of his own, Madame de Viole , and wrote reviews for The Critic . Later in his career Dowson became a translator of French fiction, including novels by Balzac and the Goncourt brothers , and Les Liaisons dangereuses by Choderlos de Laclos. In 1889 Dowson became infatuated with an 11-year-old girl, Adelaide "Missie" Foltinowicz, the daughter of a Polish restaurant-owner. In 1892 Dowson converted to Roman Catholicism and in 1893 he proposed to Foltinowicz, who
1616-435: A preference for what is beautiful and what is exotic, an ease with surrendering to fantasy, and a maturity of skill with manipulating language. The Belgian Félicien Rops was instrumental in the development of this early stage of the Decadent movement. A friend of Baudelaire, he was a frequent illustrator of Baudelaire's writing, at the request of the author himself. Rops delighted in breaking artistic convention and shocking
1717-546: A return visit to Leeds Grand Theatre in May 2018. The Roundabout Theatre Company presented a revised third Broadway revival of Kiss Me, Kate with Kelli O'Hara as Lilli Vanessi/Kate, Will Chase as Fred Graham/Petruchio, Stephanie Styles as Lois Lane/Bianca, and Corbin Bleu as Bill Calhoun/Lucentio. The production is directed by Scott Ellis and choreographed by Warren Carlyle , with minor "feminist" updates by Amanda Green to make
1818-429: A spiritual and moral perversity". He referred to all such literature as "a new and beautiful and interesting disease". Later, however, he described the Decadent movement as an "interlude, half a mock interlude" that distracted critics from seeing and appreciating the larger and more important trend, which was the development of Symbolism. It is true that the two groups share an ideological descent from Baudelaire and for
1919-400: A television play Days of Wine and Roses (1958) and the film of the same title was based on the play. The phrase also inspired the song " Days of Wine and Roses ". They are not long, the days of wine and roses: Out of a misty dream Our path emerges for a while, then closes Within a dream. – Ernest Dowson, from "Vitae Summa Brevis" (1896). I have forgot much, Cynara! gone with
2020-415: A time they both considered themselves as part of one sphere of new, anti-establishment literature. They worked together and met together for quite a while, as if they were part of the same movement. Maurice Barrès referred to this group as decadents, but he also referred to one of them ( Stéphane Mallarmé ) as a symbolist. Even Jean Moréas used both terms for his own group of writers as late as 1885. Only
2121-612: A time, his work exemplified both the ideals and style of the movement, but a significant portion of his career was in traditional journalism and fiction that praised virtue. At the time when he was flourishing, however, multiple contemporary critics, as well as other decadent writers, explicitly considered him one of them. Writer James Huneker was exposed to the Decadent movement in France and tried to bring it with him to New York. He has been lauded to his dedication to this cause throughout his career, but it has been suggested that, while he lived as
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#17328526274772222-467: A time. Others kept a foot in each camp. Albert Aurier wrote decadent pieces for Le Décadent and also wrote symbolist poetry and art criticism. Decadent writer Rachilde was staunchly opposed to a symbolist take over of Le Décadent even though her own one-act drama The Crystal Spider is almost certainly a symbolist work. Others, once strong voices for decadence, abandoned the movement altogether. Joris-Karl Huysmans grew to consider Against Nature as
2323-434: A transcendent moment in "Flowers". Decadence, in contrast, actually belittles nature in the name of artistry. In Huysmans' Against Nature , for instance, the main character Des Esseintes says of nature: "There is not one of her inventions, no matter how subtle or imposing it may be, which human genius cannot create ... There can be no doubt about it: this eternal, driveling, old woman is no longer admired by true artists, and
2424-441: A tribute to Shakespeare in which they explain that knowing Shakespeare is the key to romance ("Brush Up Your Shakespeare"). The company prepares for the conclusion of the play, the wedding of Bianca and Lucentio, even though they are now missing one of the main characters. However, just in time for Katherine's final speech, Lilli arrives onstage ("I Am Ashamed That Women Are So Simple"). Fred and Lilli wordlessly reconcile on stage, and
2525-788: A year later, however, Jean Moréas wrote his Symbolist Manifesto to assert a difference between the symbolists with whom he allied himself and this the new group of decadents associated with Anatole Baju and Le Décadent . Even after this, there was sufficient common ground of interest, method, and language to blur the lines more than the manifesto might have suggested. In the world of visual arts, it can be even more difficult to distinguish decadence from symbolism. In fact, Stephen Romer has referred to Félicien Rops , Gustave Moreau , and Fernand Khnopff as "Symbolist-Decadent painters and engravers". Nevertheless, there are clear ideological differences between those who continued on as symbolists and those who have been called "dissidents" for remaining in
2626-618: Is being forced to stay at the theatre by the gangsters, but Howell doesn't believe her and wants to discuss wedding plans. Fred insidiously points out how boring Lilli's life with Howell will be compared with the theatre. Bill sings a love song he has written for Lois ("Bianca"). The gangsters discover that their boss has been killed, so the IOU is no longer valid. Lilli leaves—without Howell—as Fred unsuccessfully tries to persuade her to stay ("So in Love" (Reprise)). The gangsters get caught on stage and improvise
2727-440: Is leaving the show. However, the gangsters have reappeared, and Fred tells them that if Lilli quits, he'll have to close the show and won't be able to pay them the $ 10,000. The gangsters force her to stay at gunpoint. Back onstage, Bianca and Lucentio dance while the chorus performs "We Sing of Love", covering a scene change. The curtain opens, revealing the exterior of a church; Petruchio and Kate have just been married, and they exit
2828-456: Is married. However, she is shrewish and ill-tempered, and no man desires to marry her. Three suitors – Lucentio, Hortensio, and Gremio – try to woo Bianca, and she says that she would marry any of them (" Tom, Dick, or Harry "). Petruchio, a friend of Lucentio, expresses a desire to marry into wealth ("I've Come to Wive it Wealthily in Padua"). The suitors hatch a plan for him to marry Kate, as Baptista
2929-624: Is no oblique approach to ultimate truth because there is no secret, mystical truth. They despise the very idea of searching for such a thing. If there is truth of value, it is purely in the sensual experience of the moment. The heroes of Decadent novels, for instance, have the unquenchable accumulation of luxuries and pleasure, often exotic, as their goal, even the gory and the shocking. In The Temptation of Saint Anthony , decadent Gustave Flaubert describes Saint Anthony's pleasure from watching disturbing scenes of horror. Later Czech decadent Arthur Breisky has been quoted by scholars as speaking to both
3030-471: Is playing Katherine . The two seem to be constantly arguing, and Lilli is particularly angry that Fred is pursuing the sexy young actress Lois Lane, who is playing Bianca . After the rehearsal, Lois's boyfriend Bill appears; he is playing Lucentio, but he missed the rehearsal because he was gambling. He tells her that he signed a $ 10,000 IOU in Fred's name, and Lois reprimands him (" Why Can't You Behave? "). Before
3131-462: Is rich. Kate, however, has no intentions of getting married ("I Hate Men"). Petruchio attempts to woo her ("Were Thine That Special Face"). Offstage, Lilli has an opportunity to read the card. She walks on stage off-cue and begins hitting Fred, who, along with the other actors, tries to remain in character as Baptista gives Petruchio permission to marry Kate. Lilli continues to strike Fred, and he ends up spanking her. Offstage, Lilli furiously declares she
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3232-456: Is still "So In Love" with him. Fred tries to keep Lilli from reading the card that came with the flowers, which reveals that he really intended them for Lois. However, Lilli takes the card with her onstage, saying she will read it later. The show begins ("We Open in Venice"). Baptista, Katherine and Bianca's father, will not allow his younger daughter Bianca to marry until his older daughter Katherine
3333-624: The Enlightenment philosopher who suggested that the decline ( décadence ) of the Roman Empire was in large part due to its moral decay and loss of cultural standards. When Latin scholar Désiré Nisard turned toward French literature, he compared Victor Hugo and Romanticism in general to the Roman decadence, men sacrificing their craft and their cultural values for the sake of pleasure. The trends that he identified, such as an interest in description,
3434-717: The Italian Renaissance , Verdi's operas, blues, the Viennese waltz , and, in "Brush Up Your Shakespeare", the 1897 hybrid "Bowery waltz". In writing the lyrics for Kiss Me, Kate , Porter drew from Shakespearean themes and language, without creating something esoteric, and the song " Always True to You in My Fashion " was inspired by the Ernest Dowson poem " Non Sum Qualis Eram Bonae Sub Regno Cynarae ”, with its refrain "I have been faithful to thee, Cynara, in my fashion". After
3535-533: The Martin Beck Theatre on November 18, 1999, and closed on December 30, 2001, after 881 performances and 28 previews. Directed by Michael Blakemore , Produced by Richard Godwin , and choreographed by Kathleen Marshall and Rob Ashford , the opening night cast included Marin Mazzie , Brian Stokes Mitchell , Amy Spanger , Michael Berresse , Ron Holgate , Lee Wilkof and Michael Mulheren . This production won
3636-527: The Tony Awards for Best Revival of a Musical and Best Actor in a Musical for Mitchell; Marin Mazzie received a Tony nomination for Best Actress in a Musical, and Michael Berresse , Lee Wilkof and Michael Mulheren received Tony nominations for Best Featured Actor in a Musical. A West End revival opened at the Victoria Palace Theatre on October 30, 2001, and closed on August 24, 2002. As with
3737-709: The short stories collected as Dilemmas (1895), and the two novels A Comedy of Masks (1893) and Adrian Rome (each co-written with Arthur Moore). "Non sum qualis eram bonae sub regno Cynarae" was first published in The Second Book of the Rhymer's Club in 1894, and was noticed by Richard Le Gallienne in his "Wanderings in Bookland" column in The Idler , Volume 9. Citations Sources Primary works (modern scholarly editions) Biographies Critical Studies on Dowson and
3838-503: The "authentic book which is funny without the interpolation of gags. Cole Porter has written his best score in years, together with witty lyrics. Under Hanya Holm's direction, the dancing is joyous. And Lemuel Ayers has provided carnival costumes and some interesting scenery." The production won 5 Tony awards including Best Musical. The 1949 original cast recording has been inducted into the Library of Congress 's National Recording Registry for
3939-399: The 1880s and 1890s, the time of fin de siècle , or end-of-the-century gloom. As part of that overall transition, many scholars of Decadence, such as David Weir , regard Decadence as a dynamic transition between Romanticism and Modernism , especially considering the Decadent tendency to dehumanize and distort in the name of pleasure and fantasy. Symbolism has often been confused with
4040-463: The 1890s Decadent movement The Decadent movement first flourished in France and then spread throughout Europe and to the United States. The movement was characterized by a belief in the superiority of human fantasy and aesthetic hedonism over logic and the natural world . The concept of decadence dates to the 18th century, especially from the writings of Montesquieu ,
4141-449: The 18th and 19th centuries. The danger of such literature, he believed, is that it unnaturally elevated the instinctive bond between pain and pleasure and that, no matter the artists' intention, the essential role of art is to educate and teach culture. French Austrian Russian British Irish Italian Polish Belgian Kiss Me, Kate Kiss Me, Kate is a musical with music and lyrics by Cole Porter and
Ernest Dowson - Misplaced Pages Continue
4242-774: The 1987 Olivier Award for Outstanding Performance of the Year by an Actor in a Musical, while McAuliffe won the Olivier for Outstanding Performance of the Year by an Actress in a Musical. The production moved to the Savoy Theatre on January 15, 1988, with a new cast. A short-lived Broadway revival ran at the Broadway Theatre in January 1952. It was directed by John C. Wilson and choreographed by Hanya Holm . Holly Harris and Robert Wright starred as Lilli and Fred. A Broadway revival opened at
4343-575: The 1999 Broadway revival, Michael Blakemore was the director with choreography by Kathleen Marshall. Brent Barrett and Marin Mazzie co-starred. Chichester Festival Theatre 's 2012 revival of the show transferred to the Old Vic Theatre on London's South Bank in November 2012, with an official opening in December. It starred Hannah Waddingham as Lili/Kate and Alex Bourne as Fred Graham. The production
4444-586: The Baju-esque late Decadent movement approach to sexuality as purely an act of pleasure, often ensconced in a context of material luxury. They also shared the same emphasis on shocking society, purely for the scandal. Among them were Konstantin Somov , Nikolai Kalmakov [ ru ] , and Nikolay Feofilaktov. Some art historians consider Francisco de Goya one of the roots of the Decadent movement in Spain, almost 100 years before its start in France. His works were
4545-454: The Decadent movement who were in the public eye. In 1930, Italian art and literature critic Mario Praz completed a broad study of morbid and erotic literature, translated and published in English as The Romantic Agony (1933). The study included decadent writing (such as Baudelaire and Swinburne), but also anything else that he considered dark, grim, or sexual in some way. His study centered on
4646-481: The Decadent movement, as well as other figures throughout the world who deviated from cultural, moral, or political norms. His language was colorful and vitriolic, often invoking the worship of Satan. What made the book a success was its suggestion of a medical diagnosis of "degeneration", a neuro-pathology that resulted in these behaviors. It also helped that the book named such figures as Oscar Wilde, Algernon Charles Swinburne, Paul Verlaine, and Maurice Barrès, members of
4747-449: The Decadent movement, despite their shared heritage. Moréas and Gustave Kahn , among others, formed rival publications to reinforce the distinction. Paul Verlaine embraced the label at first, applauding it as a brilliant marketing choice by Baju. After seeing his own words exploited and tiring of Le Décadent publishing works falsely attributed to Arthur Rimbaud , however, Verlaine came to sour on Baju personally, and he eventually rejected
4848-431: The Decadent movement, which he seemed to view Baudelaire as sitting above Paul Verlaine , Tristan Corbière , Theodore Hannon and Stéphane Mallarmé . His character Des Esseintes hailed these writers for their creativity and their craftsmanship, suggesting that they filled him with "insidious delight" as they used a "secret language" to explore "twisted and precious ideas". Not only did À rebours define an ideology and
4949-415: The Decadent movement. Arthur Symons , a British poet and literary critic contemporary with the movement, at one time considered Decadence in literature to be a parent category that included both Symbolism and Impressionism , as rebellions against realism. He defined this common, decadent thread as "an intense self-consciousness, a restless curiosity in research, an over-subtilizing refinement upon refinement,
5050-501: The Decadent movement. Often, there was little doubt that Baju and his group were producing work that was decadent, but there is frequently more question about the work of the symbolists. Both groups reject the primacy of nature, but what that means for them is very different. Symbolism uses extensive natural imagery as a means to elevate the viewer to a plane higher than the banal reality of nature itself, as when Stéphane Mallarmé mixes descriptions of flowers and heavenly imagery to create
5151-650: The Decadent movement. But the Decadent movement is overlapped by the Fin de Siglo Movement , with the authors of the Generación del 98 being part-Decadent: Ramón María del Valle-Inclán , Unamuno and Pío Baroja are the most essential figures of this period. Few prominent writers or artists in the United States were connected with the Decadent movement. Those who were connected struggled to find an audience, for Americans were reluctant to see value for them in what they considered
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#17328526274775252-401: The Decadent tradition, such as Octave Mirbeau , but Decadence was no longer a recognized movement, let alone a force in literature or art. Beginning with the association of decadence with cultural decline, it is not uncommon to associate decadence in general with transitional times and their associated moods of pessimism and uncertainty. In France, the heart of the Decadent movement was during
5353-683: The Foltinowicz family. In 1899 Robert Sherard found Dowson almost penniless in a wine bar. Sherard took him to his cottage in Catford , where Dowson spent his last six weeks. On 23 February 1900 Dowson died in Catford at the age of 32. He was interred in the Roman Catholic section of Brockley and Ladywell Cemeteries in London. Dowson is best remembered for three phrases from his poems: J. P. Miller called
5454-460: The Life That Late I Led?"). Off-stage, Lilli's fiancé Harrison Howell is looking for Lilli. He runs into Lois, and she recognizes him as a former lover but promises not to tell Lilli. Bill is shocked to overhear this, but Lois tells him that even if she is involved with other men, she is faithful to him in her own way (" Always True to You in My Fashion "). Lilli tries to explain to Howell that she
5555-519: The London Coliseum, in a production by the Sadler's Wells Opera . The cast featured Emile Belcourt (Petruchio), Judith Bruce, Eric Shilling , Ann Howard (Kate), Francis Egerton and Robert Lloyd, with direction by Peter Coe and choreography by Sheila O'Neill. Coe did a translation for British audiences, including having "a tea wagon", and included "traditional English music hall jokes". This revival had
5656-453: The Roman decline as a model for modern poets to express their passion. He later used the term decadence to include the subversion of traditional categories in pursuit of full, sensual expression. In his lengthy introduction to Baudelaire in the front of the 1868 Les Fleurs du mal , Gautier at first rejects the application of the term decadent, as meant by the critic, but then works his way to an admission of decadence on Baudelaire's own terms:
5757-798: The album's "cultural, artistic and/or historical significance to American society and the nation's audio legacy". The original West End production opened on March 8, 1951, at the Coliseum Theatre , and ran for 400 performances. Directed by Sam Spewack with choreography again by Holm, this production starred Patricia Morison, Bill Johnson , Adelaide Hall and Julie Wilson . The original Australian production played from February 1952 at His Majesty's Theatre , Melbourne, before seasons in Sydney, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide until 1954. The production featured Hayes Gordon and Joy Turpin (later replaced by Evie Hayes ). A London revival opened in December 1970 at
5858-464: The art forms of fin de siècle France. An exception to this is the decadent poet George Sylvester Viereck , who wrote (1907) "Nineveh and Other Poems". Viereck states in his "The Candle and the Flame" (1912): I have no reason to be ungrateful to America. Few poets have met with more instant recognition... My work almost from the beginning was discussed simultaneously in the most conservative periodicals and
5959-712: The basic idea of a dandy , and his work is almost entirely focused on developing a philosophy in which the Dandy is the consummate human, surrounded by riches and elegance, theoretically above society, just as doomed to death and despair as they. Influenced through general exposure but also direct contact, the leading decadent figures in Britain associated with decadence were Irish writer Oscar Wilde , poet Algernon Charles Swinburne , and illustrator Aubrey Beardsley , as well as other artists and writers associated with The Yellow Book . Others, such as Walter Pater , resisted association with
6060-413: The boredom of the banal, but they sought to shock, scandalize, and subvert the expectations and values of society, believing that such freedom and creative experimentation would improve humanity. Not everyone was comfortable with Baju and Le Décadent , even including some who had been published in its pages. Rival writer Jean Moréas published his Symbolist Manifesto , largely to escape association with
6161-666: The church; the gangsters, dressed in Shakespearean costume, are onstage to make sure that Lilli stays. Petruchio implores for Kate to kiss him, and she refuses. He lifts her over his shoulder and carries her offstage while she pummels his shoulder with her fists ("Kiss Me Kate"). Act II During the show's intermission, the cast and crew relax in the alley behind the theater. Paul (Fred's assistant) and other crew members lament that it's " Too Darn Hot " to meet their lovers that night. The play continues, and Petruchio tries to 'tame' Katherine and mourns for his now-lost bachelor life ("Where Is
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#17328526274776262-461: The composer Franco Faccio . As for the visual arts, Medardo Rosso stands out as one of the most influential European sculptors of that time. Most of the Scapigliati died of illness, alcoholism or suicide. The second period of Italian Decadentism is dominated by Gabriele D'Annunzio , Antonio Fogazzaro and Giovanni Pascoli . D'Annunzio, who was in contact with many French intellectuals and had read
6363-404: The decadent movement on a larger scale, proposing that its main features could be used to define a full historical period, running from the 1860s to the 1920s. For this reason, the term Decadentism , modeled on "Romanticism" or "Expressionism", became more substantial and widespread than elsewhere. However, most critics today prefer to distinguish between three periods. The first period is marked by
6464-543: The experience of Scapigliatura , a sort of proto-decadent movement. The Scapigliati (literally meaning "unkempt" or "dishevelled") were a group of writers and poets who shared a sentiment of intolerance for the suffocating intellectual atmosphere between the late Risorgimento (1860s) and the early years of unified Italy (1870s). They contributed to rejuvenate Italian culture through foreign influences and introduced decadent themes like illness and fascination with death. The novel Fosca (1869) by Igino Ugo Tarchetti tells of
6565-467: The first line of the third stanza of "Non sum qualis eram bonae sub regno Cynarae", chose the line as the title of her novel Gone with the Wind . "Non sum qualis eram bonae sub regno Cynarae" is also the source of the phrase "I have been faithful ... in my fashion", as in the title of the film Faithful in My Fashion (1946). Cole Porter paraphrased Dowson in the song " Always True to You in My Fashion " in
6666-420: The fusion of man with nature, the exalted vitality coexisting with the triumph of death. His novel The Pleasure , published one year before The Picture of Dorian Gray , is considered one of the three genre-defining books of the Decadent movement, along with Wilde's novel and Huysmans's Against Nature . Less flashy and more isolated than D'Annunzio, and close to the French symbolists, Pascoli redefined poetry as
6767-437: The gangsters. The production was filmed on stage for a November 17, 2024 release in UK cinemas and internationally. Act I The cast of a musical version of William Shakespeare 's The Taming of the Shrew is rehearsing for the opening of the show that evening (" Another Op'nin', Another Show "). Egotistical Fred Graham is the director and producer and is starring as Petruchio , and his movie-star ex-wife, Lilli Vanessi,
6868-447: The hallucination and succeed in substituting the dream reality for the reality itself." Both groups are disillusioned with the meaning and truth offered by the natural world, rational thought, and ordinary society. Symbolism turns its eyes toward Greater Purpose or on the Ideal, using dreams and symbols to approach these esoteric primal truths. In Mallarmé's poem "Apparition", for instance,
6969-472: The idea for Kiss Me, Kate after witnessing the on-stage/off-stage battling of husband-and-wife actors Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne during their 1935 production of The Taming of the Shrew . In 1947, he asked the Spewacks (undergoing their own marital woes at the time) to write the script; Bella Spewack in turn enlisted Cole Porter to write the music and lyrics. Porter's score drew from musical styles of
7070-403: The impact was felt more broadly. Typically, the influence was felt as an interest in pleasure, an interest in experimental sexuality, and a fascination with the bizarre, all packaged with a somewhat trangressive spirit and an aesthetic that values material excess. Many were also influenced by the Decadent movement's aesthetic emphasis on art for its own sake. Czech writers who were exposed to
7171-423: The importance of illusion and of beauty: "But isn't it necessary to believe a beautiful mask more than reality?" Ultimately, the distinction may best be seen in their approach to art. Symbolism is an accumulation of "symbols" that are there not to present their content but to evoke greater ideas that their symbolism cannot expressly utter. According to Moréas, it is an attempt to connect the objects and phenomena of
7272-405: The label, as well. Decadence continued on in France, but it was limited largely to Anatole Baju and his followers, who refined their focus even further on perverse sexuality, material extravagance, and up-ending social expectations. Far-fetched plots were acceptable if they helped generate the desired moments of salacious experience or glorification of the morbid and grotesque. Writers who embraced
7373-459: The miraculous stamp of Truth Herself Incarnate...how impossible it is for language to express things...in the Poet's hands...by the consistent virtue and necessity of an art which lives on fiction, it achieves its full efficacy. Moréas asserted in his manifesto on symbolism that words and images serve to dress the incomprehensible in such a way that it can be approached, if not understood. Decadence, on
7474-405: The moment has come to replace her by artifice." Symbolism treats language and imagery as devices that can only approximate meaning and merely evoke complex emotions and call the mind toward ideas it might not be able to comprehend. In the words of symbolist poet Stéphane Mallarmé : Languages are imperfect because multiple; the supreme language is missing...no one can utter words which would bear
7575-416: The most ultra-saffron complexioned journals I have given a new lyric impetus to my country I have loosened the tongue of young American poets. I have been told by many of our young singers that my success of Nineveh [1907] encouraged them to break the harassing chains of Puritan tradition [Introduction p.xv] Poet Francis Saltus Saltus was inspired by Charles Baudelaire, and his unpracticed style occasionally
7676-558: The movement, even though their works seemed to reflect similar ideals. While most of the influence was from figures such as Baudelaire and Verlaine, there was also very strong influence at times from more purely decadent members of the French movement, such as the influence that Huysmans and Rachilde had on Wilde, as seen explicitly in The Picture of Dorian Gray . British decadents embraced the idea of creating art for its own sake, pursuing all possible desires, and seeking material excess. At
7777-491: The musical Kiss Me, Kate . Morrissey uses the lines, "In my own strange way, / I've always been true to you. / In my own sick way, / I'll always stay true to you" in the song "Speedway" on the album Vauxhall & I . According to the Oxford English Dictionary , Dowson provides the earliest recorded use of the word " soccer " in written language, although he spelled it "socca". Dowson's prose works include
7878-806: The musical "more accessible for today’s audiences". Roundabout produced a benefit concert of the show with O'Hara, Ellis, and Carlyle in 2016. The revival had a limited run at Studio 54 . Previews began on February 14, 2019, with the opening on March 14. The production closed on June 30, 2019. A revival directed by Bartlett Sher and choreographed by Anthony Van Laast ran at the Barbican Theatre in London from June 4 to September 14, 2024, with an official opening on June 18. The production starred Adrian Dunbar as Fred / Petruchio and Stephanie J. Block as Lilli / Katharine. Other cast members included Charlie Stemp as Bill / Lucentio, Georgina Onuorah as Lois / Bianca, and Nigel Lindsay and Hammed Animashaun as
7979-594: The opening, Fred and Lilli meet backstage, and Lilli shows off her engagement ring from Washington insider Harrison Howell, reminding Fred that it's the anniversary of their divorce. They recall the operetta in which they met, which included "Wunderbar", a Viennese waltz; they end up fondly reminiscing and singing and dancing. Two gangsters show up to collect the $ 10,000 IOU, and Fred replies that he never signed it. The gangsters obligingly say they will give him time to remember it and will return later. In her dressing room, Lilli receives flowers from Fred, and she declares that she
8080-462: The other hand, sees no path to higher truth in words and images. Instead, books, poetry, and art itself are seen as the creators of valid new worlds, thus the allegory of decadent Wilde's Dorian Gray being poisoned by a book like a drug. Words and artifice are the vehicles for human creativity, and Huysmans suggests that the illusions of fantasy have their own reality: "The secret lies in knowing how to proceed, how to concentrate deeply enough to produce
8181-676: The other side, the Crepuscular poets (literally "twilight poets") turned Pascoli's innovations into a mood-conveying poetry, which describes the melancholy of everyday life in shady and monotonous interiors of provincial towns. These atmospheres were explored by the painters Mario Sironi , Giorgio de Chirico and Giorgio Morandi . Guido Gozzano was the most brilliant and ironic of the Crepusculars, but we can also remember Sergio Corazzini , Marino Moretti and Aldo Palazzeschi . The Decadent movement reached into Russia primarily through exposure to
8282-406: The play ends ("Kiss Me Kate" (Finale)) with them, as well as Bill and Lois, kissing passionately. Act I Act II Notes A film version of the same name was released in 1953. There have been at least four television productions, the first on Hallmark Hall of Fame in 1958, with Drake and Morison reprising their Broadway roles, the second recorded for the launch of BBC Two in
8383-496: The present condition of things, presses so hardly upon almost everybody." Swinburne explicitly addressed Irish-English politics in poetry when he wrote "Thieves and murderers, hands yet red with blood and tongues yet black with lies | Clap and clamour – 'Parnell spurs his Gladstone well! ' " In many of their personal lives, they also pursued decadent ideals. Wilde had a secret homosexual life. Swinburne had an obsession with flagellation. Italian literary criticism has often looked at
8484-464: The public with gruesome, fantastical horror. He was explicitly interested in the Satanic, and he frequently sought to portray the double-threat of Satan and Woman. At times, his only goal was the portrayal of a woman he'd observed debasing herself in the pursuit of her own pleasure. It has been suggested that, no matter how horrific and perverse his images could be, Rops' invocation of supernatural elements
8585-410: The same time, they were not shy about using the tools of decadence for social and political purpose. Beardsley had an explicit interest in the improvement of the social order and the role of art-as-experience in inspiring that transformation. Oscar Wilde published an entire work exploring socialism as a liberating force: "Socialism would relieve us from that sordid necessity of living for others which, in
8686-708: The sort of decadence featured in Le Décadent include Albert Aurier , Rachilde , Pierre Vareilles, Miguel Hernández , Jean Lorrain and Laurent Tailhade . Many of these authors did also publish symbolist works, however, and it unclear how strongly they would have identified with Baju as Decadents. In France, the Decadent movement is often said to have begun with either Joris-Karl Huysmans ' Against Nature (1884) or Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du mal . This movement essentially gave way to Symbolism when Le Décadent closed down in 1889 and Anatole Baju turned toward politics and became associated with anarchy. A few writers continued
8787-413: The starting point on his journey into Roman Catholic symbolist work and the acceptance of hope. Anatole Baju, once the self-appointed school-master of French decadence, came to think of the movement as naive and half-hearted, willing to tinker and play with social realities, but not to utterly destroy them. He left decadence for anarchy. While the Decadent movement, per se, was mostly a French phenomenon,
8888-439: The wind, Flung roses, roses riotously with the throng, Dancing, to put thy pale, lost lilies out of mind; But I was desolate and sick of an old passion, Yea, all the time, because the dance was long: I have been faithful to thee, Cynara! in my fashion. – Ernest Dowson, from "Non sum qualis eram bonae sub regno Cynarae", third stanza (1894). Margaret Mitchell , touched by the "far away, faintly sad sound I wanted" in
8989-537: The word "dreaming" appears twice, followed by "Dream" itself with a capital D. In "The Windows", he speaks of this decadent disgust of contentment with comfort and an endless desire for the exotic. He writes: "So filled with disgust for the man whose soul is callous, sprawled in comforts where his hungering is fed." In this continuing search for the spiritual, therefore, Symbolism has been predisposed to concern itself with purity and beauty and such mysterious imagery as those of fairies . In contrast, Decadence states there
9090-404: The work of the Decadent movement saw in it the promise of a life they could never know. These Bohemian decadent writers included Karel Hlaváček , Arnošt Procházka, Jiří Karásek ze Lvovic , and Louisa Zikova. One Czech writer, Arthur Breisky , embraced the full spirit of Le Décadent with its exultation in material excess and a life of refinement and pleasure. From the Decadent movement he learned
9191-417: The works of Nietzsche in the French translation, imported the concepts of Übermensch and will to power into Italy, although in his own particular version. The poet's aim had to be an extreme aestheticization of life, and life the ultimate work of art. Recurrent themes in his literary works include the supremacy of the individual, the cult of beauty, exaggerated sophistication, the glorification of machines,
9292-471: The world to "esoteric primordial truths" that cannot ever be directly approached. Decadence, on the other hand, is an accumulation of signs or descriptions acting as detailed catalogs of human material riches as well as artifice. It was Oscar Wilde who perhaps laid this out most clearly in The Decay of Lying with the suggestion of three doctrines on art, here excerpted into a list: After which, he suggested
9393-414: The writings of Charles Baudelaire and Paul Verlaine. The earliest Russian adherents lacked idealism and focused on such decadent themes as subversion of morality, disregard for personal health, and living in blasphemy and sensual pleasure. Russian writers were especially drawn to the morbid aspects of decadence and in the fascination with death. Dmitry Merezhkovsky is thought to be the first to clearly promote
9494-449: Was "a desperate endeavor to give sensation, to flash the impression of the moment, to preserve the very heat and motion of life", and their achievement, as he saw it, was "to be a disembodied voice, and yet the voice of a human soul". In his 1884 Decadent novel À rebours (English: Against Nature or Against the Grain ), Joris-Karl Huysmans identified likely candidates for the core of
9595-421: Was Porter's response to Rodgers and Hammerstein 's Oklahoma! and other integrated musicals ; it was the first show he wrote in which the music and lyrics were firmly connected to the script. The musical premiered in 1948 and proved to be Porter's only show to run for more than 1,000 performances on Broadway . In 1949, it won the first Tony Award for Best Musical . Producer Arnold Saint-Subber conceived
9696-613: Was co-produced with Welsh National Opera who continued to tour it in 2016, first as part of the Shakespeare400 season at the Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff , and then to Liverpool Empire Theatre , Bristol Hippodrome , New Theatre Oxford , Mayflower Theatre Southampton , Birmingham Hippodrome , and Venue Cymru Llandudno , before returning to Cardiff. The production was revived at London Coliseum briefly in June 2018, following
9797-536: Was compared to the French poet's more refined experimentation. He embraced the most debauched lifestyle of the French decadents and celebrated that life in his own poetry. At the time, mostly before Baju's Le Décadent , this frivolous poetry on themes of alcohol and depravity found little success and no known support from those who were part of the Decadent movement. The younger brother of Francis, writer Edgar Saltus had more success. He had some interaction with Oscar Wilde, and he valued decadence in his personal life. For
9898-573: Was directed by Trevor Nunn . The show received positive reviews from critics and audiences. Hannah Waddingham and Alex Bourne were both nominated for the 2013 Olivier Awards as Best Actress/Actor in a Musical for their performances. In September 2015 Opera North presented a revival directed by Jo Davies, choreographed by Will Tuckett . The production opened at the Leeds Grand Theatre before touring to Theatre Royal Newcastle , The Lowry Salford , and Theatre Royal Nottingham . The production
9999-407: Was not until 1884 that Maurice Barrès referred to a particular group of writers as Decadents . He defined this group as those who had been influenced heavily by Baudelaire, though they were also influenced by Gothic novels and the poetry and fiction of Edgar Allan Poe . Many were associated with Symbolism , others with Aestheticism . The pursuit of these authors, according to Arthur Symons ,
10100-502: Was sufficient to keep Baudelaire situated in a spiritually aware universe that maintained a cynical kind of hope, even if the poetry "requires a strong stomach". Their work was the worship of beauty disguised as the worship of evil. For both of them, mortality and all manner of corruptions were always on their mind. The ability of Rops to see and portray the same world as they did made him a popular illustrator for other Decadent authors. The concept of decadence lingered after that, but it
10201-464: Was then aged 15. She rejected his proposal and later married a tailor. In August 1894 Dowson's father, suffering from tuberculosis , died of an overdose of chloral hydrate . In February 1895 his mother, who also had tuberculosis, hanged herself . Soon after her death Dowson's health began to decline rapidly. Leonard Smithers gave Dowson an allowance to live in France and make translations for him. However, in 1897 Dowson returned to London to live with
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