The Whim

The Whim is a play written by Eglantine Wallace in 1795. The play was banned under the Licensing Act 1737 and never performed. It was published that same year with an indignant subtitle and went into a second edition: With an address to the public, upon the arbitrary and unjust aspersion of the licenser against its political sentiments. Offered to be acted for the benefit of the Hospital and Poor of the Isle of Thanet, but refused The Royal Licence. Overview The Whim is set in 18th-century English society on the estate of Lord Crotchett--a wealthy noble who decides on a whim to host an ancient Roman event known as the Feast of Saturnalia. The Feast challenges existing social structures by inverting the roles of nobility and the servant class. Wallace's upturning of the social hierarchy may have prompted the ban, given political sensitivities during the period that saw both the American and the French revolutions. Plot