DOCSLIB.ORG

353934.A6.Pdf

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
353934.A6.Pdf Katie Hickman Courtesans Аннотация This edition does not include illustrations.‘Irresistible…history at its most human. Elegant and addictively readable.’ William DalrympleDuring the course of the 18th- and 19th-century a small group of women rose from impoverished obscurity to positions of great power, independence and wealth. In doing so they took control of their lives – and those of other people – and made the world do their will.Men ruined themselves in desperate attempts to gain and retain a courtesan's favours, but she was always courted for far more than sex. In an age in which women were generally not well educated she was often unusually literate and literary, courted for her conversation as well as her physical company. Courtesans were extremely accomplished, and exerted a powerful influence as leaders of fashion and society. They were not received at Court, but inhabited their own parallel world – the demi-monde – complete with its own hierarchies, etiquette and protocol. They were queens of fashion, linguists, musicians, accomplished at political intrigue and, of course, possessors of great erotic gifts. Even to be seen in public with one of the great courtesans was a much-envied achievement.In ‘Courtesans’ Katie Hickman, author of the bestselling ‘Daughters of Britannia’, focuses on the exceptional stories of five outstanding women. Sophia Baddeley, Elizabeth Armistead, Harriette Wilson, Cora Pearl and Catherine Walters may have had very different personalities and talents, but their lives exemplify the dazzling existence of the courtesan. Содержание Katie Hickman 6 DEDICATION 7 EPIGRAPH 8 CONTENTS 9 PROLOGUE 11 INTRODUCTION 16 1 SOPHIA BADDELEY 1745â1786 The 58 Actress Courtesan 2 ELIZABETH ARMISTEAD 1750â1842 The 139 Woman of Pleasure Конец ознакомительного фрагмента. 145 Katie Hickman COURTESANS DEDICATION This book is for A.C. Grayling EPIGRAPH âAsk not how many young men their fortunes let slip, and careers, Chancing one night on her couch (and it was worth it, they said); Neo-Platonic sages failed to show up at their lectures â Dream of the touch of her lips, metaphysics go hang!â From âEpitaph for Thaïsâ, by John Heath-Stubbs. From John Heath-Stubbs, Collected Poems 1943â1987. Carcanet, 1988 CONTENTS COVER TITLE PAGE DEDICATION EPIGRAPH PROLOGUE INTRODUCTION 1. SOPHIA BADDELEY 1745â1786 The Actress Courtesan 2. ELIZABETH ARMISTEAD 1750â1842 The Woman of Pleasure 3. HARRIETTE WILSON 1786â1845 The Demi-Rep 4. CORA PEARL 1835â1886 The Parisian Courtesan 5. CATHERINE WALTERS 1839â1920 The Courtesanâs Courtesan CONCLUSION KEEP READING SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX P.S. IDEAS, INTERVIEWS & FEATURES ⦠ABOUT THE AUTHOR PORTRAIT SNAPSHOT TOP TEN FAVOURITE READS ABOUT THE BOOK A CRITICAL EYE THE BIGGER PICTURE COVER STORY READ ON HAVE YOU READ? IF YOU LOVED THIS, YOUâLL LIKE⦠FIND OUT MORE ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS AUTHORâS NOTE NOTES PRAISE COPYRIGHT ABOUT THE PUBLISHER PROLOGUE ON THE SULTRY EVENING of 26 June 1771 a new play by the comic actor-playwright Samuel Foote opened at the Little Theatre* in the Haymarket. The Maid of Bath was a satirical comedy inspired by the true-life story of a young actress, Elizabeth Linley, whose parents had forced her into a marriage contract with the elderly Sir William Long, a man old enough to be her grandfather. On the opening night the house was packed, not only by crowds of regular theatre-goers, but by friends and colleagues of the playwright, amongst them as many London luminaries as he had been able to muster. As well as being a clever comedian, Foote was a brilliant showman. In the audience that night sat Dr Johnson, Oliver Goldsmith, Sir Joshua Reynolds and David Garrick (who had written the prologue for Footeâs play himself). Chief among them, however, carefully positioned by Foote in the most ostentatiously public of the theatreâs boxes, was Sophia Baddeley, the most fashionable and beautiful actress and courtesan of the day. Despite the improvements in theatre design innovated by David Garrick the previous decade, in the 1770s a London theatre was still an exceptionally rowdy place. The areas around the two principal theatres, Covent Garden and Drury Lane, were dangerous stews infested with brothels, bagniosâ and accommodation houses.â¡ Despite this, all classes avidly attended the theatre, even the King and Queen. The most fashionable aristocrats and their ladies, primped, pomaded and patched, filled the expensive private boxes, while their servants and the ordinary London folk, from the orange-sellers to the painted pimps and ladies of the town, squeezed into the pit or the upper galleries, where they sang, jeered, ate, spat, threw fruit at one another, and chatted the whole night long. The English theatre-going public was an opinionated, argumentative, and occasionally violent mob, passionate in its enthusiasms, devilish when riled. Its uninhibited interaction with the players on the stage was a peculiarly English habit which often shocked foreign visitors to London. But Mrs Baddeley, surveying this seething, smelly, rowdy scene from her private box that midsummer night, was as cool and resplendent as a duchess. At twenty-six years old, Sophia Baddeley was at the very height of her demi-mondaine glory. Made famous first by her exquisite beauty, and then by the scandalousness of her many amours, she was a notorious figure. And, as was only to be expected, when she went to the theatre she went not just to see, but to be seen. âThe box reserved for us was next to the stage box,â remembered Mrs Eliza Steele, Sophiaâs constant companion in those days, âthat commanded a sight of the whole house.â And what a sight she was. Her dress and jewels, and the good taste which she displayed in wearing them, made her appearance âequal to a woman of the first rankâ. Her brilliants alone were worth a small fortune. She always wore two watches, âan expensive oneâ and âa little beautiful French watch, that hung by way of a trinket to a chain, set with diamonds, the value of which could not be less than two hundred poundsâ. In addition, she had âfour brilliant diamond necklaces, the least of which cost three hundred pounds; two were of near double the value each, and the fourth was the one Lord Melbourne paid Mr Tomkins four hundred and fifty pounds for. She had a pair of beautiful enamelled bracelets, as large as a half-crown piece, set round with brilliants, which cost a hundred and fifty pounds, and rings out of number.â* But Sophia Baddeleyâs dress and jewels were as nothing to the incomparable allure of her face. She was âabsolutely one of the wonders of the ageâ, the Duke of Ancaster once told her; âno man can gaze on you unwounded. You are in this respect like the Basilisk, whose eyes kill those whom they fix on.â It was not only men who were so beguiled. The ladies of the nobility, too, âspoke of her with rapture: âThereâs that divine face! That beautiful creature!â Others would cry out âHere is Mrs Baddeley â what a sweet woman!ââ âHalf the world is in love with you,â her admirer Lord Falmouth told her. And he was hardly exaggerating. The play began at last, with Samuel Foote himself performing. It went off with immediate éclat. Encouraged by his success, Foote began to improvise: âAbout the middle of the piece,â recalled Mrs Steele, âwhere Mr. Foote enlarged much on the beauty of the Maid of Bath, he added, âNot even the beauty of the nine Muses, nor even that of the divine Baddeley herself, who there sits (pointing to the box where we sat,) could exceed that of the Maid of Bath.ââ At his words a âthunder of applauseâ burst from all parts of the house. Such was the delight of the audience that Foote was encored not once, not twice, but three times. Thrice he repeated the words, to the same ecstatic applause. âEvery eye was on Mrs Baddeley,â wrote Mrs Steele, âand I do not recollect ever seeing her so confused before.â Blushing at this âtrick of Mr. Footeâsâ, Sophia rose to her feet and curtsied to the audience, âand it was near quarter of an hour before she could discontinue her obedience, the plaudits lasting so longâ.1 By 1785 â just fifteen years later â the notorious courtesan was dead: a pauper and a hopeless laudanum addict, the fabulous riches bestowed upon her by her many lovers blown, the jewels, the diamonds, the silks, the carriages, squandered or sold. But all that was in the future. In 1771, on Samuel Footeâs opening night, Sophiaâs candle burned steadily and bright. * Foote had been granted the patent to stage dramas at the Little Theatre in 1766. Before then the only two theatres in London licensed to stage plays were Covent Garden and Drury Lane. Foote was granted this privilege by special request of the Duke of York and some of his friends, whose rowdy behaviour had caused a riding accident in which Foote had lost a leg. He was only allowed to use the theatre in the summer, however, when Covent Garden and Drury Lane were not in use. â A bagnio was a Turkish bath, first popularised in London in the early eighteenth century. When private âretiring roomsâ were introduced they soon became used for other purposes, and by the late eighteenth century the term was synonymous with brothel. â¡ A type of brothel in which rooms were available for hire by the hour. * This amounts to more than £2500 â the equivalent of £1.5 million today. INTRODUCTION IN HIS ESSAY La Vie Parisienne Sacheverell Sitwell tells a story of two small boys who were taken for a walk by Prince Paul Murat one Sunday morning in Paris in the 1860s.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Old Drury Lane
    :CNJ ! VMBBJ ICD ' : '- - --" ; . , ",.' 1 \. ffi . I | m 1 1 ! |g ' 1 -' - . '. _ : I ' - - - ' ' : '_ i p I /,'.'/v;^' v | j ' ' - , '-', , nHI pn ; H ^ B 1 ' .'"' ''-'"' : K ' ' a mm i OLD DRURY LANE. A OLD DRURY LANE FIFTY YESES' RECOLLECTIONS OF AUTHOR, ACTOR, AND MANAGER BY EDWARD STIRLING IN TWO VOLUMES VOL. II. lontton CHATTO AND WINDUS, PICCADILLY 1881 [All Rights Reserved] CONTENTS OF VOL. II. BOOK III. PAGE ACTORS AND ACTRESSES WHO HAVE APPEARED AT DRURY LANE THEATRE FROM ITS EARLIEST ANNALS TO THE PRESENT TIME, SKETCHES OF THEIR CAREER, AND ANEC- DOTES CONNECTED WITH THEM ... I BOOK IV. DRAMATIC ANA AND THEATRICAL VARIETIES, WITH AN ACCOUNT OF CURIOUS OLD PLAYS, ETC. 267 OLD DRURY LANE. BOOK III. ACTORS AND ACTRESSES WHO HAVE APPEARED AT DRURY LANE THEATRE FROM ITS EARLIEST ANNALS TO THE PRESENT TIME, SKETCHES OF THEIR CAREER, AND ANECDOTES CONNECTED WITH THEM. ' Players are the abstracts and brief chronicles of the Time : after your death, you were better have a bad epitaph than their ill report.' VOL. II. EDWARD KYNASTON, 16191687. IN the Restoration days (Charles II.), it was a frequent custom of the ladies of quality to carry Kynaston, the actor of Drury Lane and Lincoln's Inn Fields, in his female dress, after the performances, in their coaches to Hyde Park. JOHN LACEY, 16221681. JOHN LACEY, a Yorkshireman and King's servant at Drury Lane, greatly relished by Charles II., who frequently commanded his performances. CLUN (DIED 1664). TRAGIC NEWS, 1664. 'Clun, one of the best tragic actors at the King's House, 242 Old Drury Lane.
    [Show full text]
  • Annals of the Liverpool Stage, from the Earliest Period to the Present Time
    ajorttcU Hmoeraitg ffithrarg FROM THE BENNO LOEWY LIBRARY COLLECTED BY BENNO LOEWY 1854-1919 BEQUEATHED TO CORNELL UNIVERSITY Cornell University Library PN 2596.L5B86 Annals of the Liverpool stage. 3 1924 026 123 822 Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924026123822 ANNALS OF THE LIVERPOOL STAGE ?'f .^i^ , . I . ,'/. ''f ,-V. , M. , , , i THE THEATRE ROYAL. Reduced fac-sitnile of the original front elevaiion. from a drawing by Robert Chaffers, May iz, 1773. By kind permission of Mrs. L. E. Thompson, Union Hotel, Liverpool. ANNALS OF THE LIVERPOOL STAGE FROM THE EARLIEST PERIOD TO THE PRESENT TIME TOGETHER WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF THE THEATRES AND MUSIC HALLS IN BOOTLE AND BIRKENHEAD R. J. BROADBENT AUTHOR OF 'STAGE WHISPERS' 'A HISTORY OF PANTOMIME' ETC. WITH ILLUSTR^TIOD^S LIVERPOOL EDWARD HOWELL ,^o8 PREFACE It is not a whit surprising that although the annals of most of the other provincial theatres of importance have long been published, no one hitherto has written any record of the Liverpool stage. The difficulties of the task lie in the fact that data are at once too sparse and too abundant. Owing to the incompleteness of the collection of playbills in the I,iver- pool Free Library, there are many gaps in the story of the I/iverpool Theatres which it is weU-nigh impossible to fill- This is all the more regrettable as the remoter period in the annals of our local drama is much more individual and char- acteristic than the record of the last half century.
    [Show full text]
  • John Larpent Plays
    http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf1h4n985c No online items John Larpent Plays Processed by Dougald MacMillan in 1939; supplementary encoding and revision by Diann Benti in January 2018. The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens Manuscripts Department 1151 Oxford Road San Marino, California 91108 Phone: (626) 405-2191 Email: [email protected] URL: http://www.huntington.org © 2000 The Huntington Library. All rights reserved. John Larpent Plays mssLA 1-2503 1 Overview of the Collection Title: John Larpent Plays Dates (inclusive): 1737-1824 Collection Number: mssLA 1-2503 Creator: Larpent, John, 1741-1824. Extent: 2,503 pieces. Repository: The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens. Manuscripts Department 1151 Oxford Road San Marino, California 91108 Phone: (626) 405-2191 Email: [email protected] URL: http://www.huntington.org Abstract: This collection consists of official manuscript copies of plays submitted for licensing in Great Britain between 1737 and 1824 that were in the possession of John Larpent (1741-1824), the examiner of plays, at the time of his death in 1824. The collection includes 2,399 identified plays as well as an additional 104 unidentified pieces including addresses, prologues, epilogues, etc. Language: English. Access Open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information, contact Reader Services. Publication Rights The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from or publish images of this material, nor does it charge fees for such activities. The responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and obtaining necessary permissions rests with the researcher.
    [Show full text]
  • Proquest Dissertations
    THE FORTUNES OF KING LEAR IN LONDON BETWEEN 1681 AND 1838: â chronological account of its adaptors, actors and editors, and of the links between them. Penelope Hicks University College London Ph.D ProQuest Number: U642864 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest. ProQuest U642864 Published by ProQuest LLC(2016). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Abstract This thesis examines three interwoven strands in the dramatic and editorial history of King Lear between 1681 and 1838. One strand is the history of the adaptations which held the London stage during these years; the second is the changing styles of acting over the same period; the third is the work of the editors as they attempted to establish the Shakespearean text. This triple focus enables me to explore the paradoxical dominance of the adaptations at a time which saw both the text being edited for the first time and the rise of bardolatry. The three aspects of the fortunes ofKing Lear are linked in a number of ways, and I trace these connections as the editors, adaptors and actors concentrated on their own separate concerns.
    [Show full text]