A Woman of No Importance. Oscar Wilde

      A WOMAN OF

      NO IMPORTANCE

      A PLAY

      By

      OSCAR WILDE

      First published in 1893

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To Gladys Countess De Grey (Marchioness of Ripon)

      Contents

       Oscar Wilde

       THE PERSONS OF THE PLAY

       THE SCENES OF THE PLAY

       LONDON: HAYMARKET THEATRE

       FIRST ACT

       SECOND ACT

       THIRD ACT

       FOURTH ACT

      Oscar Wilde

      Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was born in Dublin in 1854. His parents were successful Dublin intellectuals, and Wilde became fluent in French and German early in life. He studied at Trinity College, Dublin, and subsequently won a scholarship to Magdalen College, Oxford, where he was heavily influenced by John Ruskin and Walter Pate. Wilde proved himself to be an outstanding classicist. After university, he moved to London and became involved with the fashionable cultural and social circles of the day. At the age of just 25 he was well-known as a wit and a dandy, and as a spokesman for aestheticism—an artistic movement that emphasized aesthetic values ahead of socio-political themes—he undertook a lecture tour to the United States in 1882, before eventually returning to London to try his hand at journalism. It was also around this time that he produced most of his well-known short fiction.

      In 1891, Wilde published The Picture of Dorian Gray, his only novel. Reviewers criticised the novel's decadence and homosexual allusions, although it was popular nonetheless. From 1892, Wilde focussed on playwriting. In that year, he gained commercial and critical success with Lady Windermere's Fan, and followed it with the comedy A Woman of No Importance (1893) and An Ideal Husband (1895). Then came Wilde's most famous play, The Importance of Being Earnest – a farcical comedy which cemented his artistic reputation and is now seen as his masterpiece.

      In 1895, the Marquess of Queensbury, who objected to his son spending so much time with Wilde because of Wilde's flamboyant behaviour and reputation, publicly insulted him. In response, Wilde brought an unsuccessful slander suit against him. The result of this inability to prove slander was his own trial on charges of sodomy, and the revealing to the transfixed Victorian public of salacious details of Wilde's private life followed. Wilde was found guilty and sentenced to two years of hard labour.

      Wilde was released from prison in 1897, having suffered from a number of ailments and injuries. He left England the next day for the continent, to spend his last three years in penniless exile. He settled in Paris, and didn't write anymore, declaring “I can write, but have lost the joy of writing.” Wilde died of cerebral meningitis on in November of 1900, converting to Catholicism on his deathbed.

      THE PERSONS

      OF THE PLAY

      LORD ILLINGWORTH

      SIR JOHN PONTEFRACT

      LORD ALFRED RUFFORD

      MR. KELVIL, M.P.

      THE VEN. ARCHDEACON DAUBENY, D.D.

      GERALD ARBUTHNOT

      FARQUHAR, BUTLER

      FRANCIS, FOOTMAN

      LADY HUNSTANTON

      LADY CAROLINE PONTEFRACT

      LADY STUTFIELD

      MRS. ALLONBY

      MISS HESTER WORSLEY

      ALICE, MAID

      MRS. ARBUTHNOT

      THE SCENES

      OF THE PLAY

      ACT I. The Terrace at Hunstanton Chase.

      ACT II. The Drawing-room at Hunstanton Chase.

      ACT III. The Hall at Hunstanton Chase.

      ACT IV. Sitting-room in Mrs. Arbuthnot’s House at Wrockley.

      TIME: The Present.

      PLACE: The Shires.

      The action of the play takes place within twenty-four hours.

      LONDON:

      HAYMARKET THEATRE

      LESSEE AND MANAGER: Mr. H Beerbohm Tree

      April 19th, 1893

      LORD ILLINGWORTH, Mr. Tree.

      SIR JOHN PONTEFRACT, Mr. E. Holman Clark.

      LORD ALFRED RUFFORD, Mr. Ernest Lawford.

      MR. KELVIL, M.P., Mr. Charles Allan.

      THE VEN. ARCHDEACON DAUBENY, D.D., Mr. Kemble.

      GERALD ARBUTHNOT, Mr. Terry.

      FARQUHAR (Butler), Mr. Hay.

      FRANCIS (FOOTMAN), Mr. Montague.

      LADY HUNSTANTON, Miss Rose Leclercq.

      LADY CAROLINE PONTEFRACT, Miss Le Thière.

      LADY STUTFIELD, Miss Blanche Horlock.

      MRS. ALLONBY, Mrs. Tree.

      MISS HESTER WORSLEY, Miss Julia Neilson.

      ALICE (Maid), Miss Kelly.

      MRS. ARBUTHNOT, Mrs. Bernard-Beere.

      A WOMAN OF

      NO IMPORTANCE

      A PLAY