Word: gentlefolk
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Starved for Sport. In 1844, Bethlehem was bedlam indeed. Gentlefolk considered it a sport to come out to watch the inmates. Obstreperous patients were judiciously starved or given violent purgatives to keep them submissive. Deaths from overdoses of opiates were common. Dadd survived this hell for six years. In 1852, Dr. William Hood, a pioneer in England of modern mental therapy, was assigned to Bethlehem. Hood encouraged Dadd to take up brush and pencil once again. Hood's hospital steward, George Henry Haydon, was an amateur artist and encouraged Dadd further. Dadd dedicated The Fairy Feller's Masterstroke...
...society, under the leadership of the dissolute regent, the Due d'Orleans, gave itself over to a rabid pursuit of pleasure, rivaling that of Imperial Rome. Hairdos, fashions and morals reached undreamed-of heights, lengths and depths. Theaters, operas and court ballets were packed the year round, while gentlefolk staged amateur theatricals by the score in their chateaux and country houses. Costume balls, hunts, public spectacles and private liaisons dangereuses were the order of the day-and night...