Category Archives: Entertainment

1661: London prostitute gets rich from novelty coin act

The site of Priss’ “Chuck Shop” even has its own blue plaque.

Priscilla ‘Priss’ Fotheringham was one of 17th century London’s more colourful prostitutes and brothel madams. Born in Scotland around 1615, the young Priss was reportedly a “cat-eyed gypsy, pleasing to the eye”. By her early 30s, however, Priss’ looks had faded, thanks to a bout of smallpox and years of swilling gin.

In 1652, Priss made the first of several court appearances when she was charged with running a house of ill repute, after being discovered:

“…sitting between two Dutchmen with her breasts naked to the waist and without stockings, drinking and singing in a very uncivil manner.”

She did a stint in Newgate for this and other offences but was back on the streets before 1656. Sometime around then she met her future husband, Edmund Fotheringham, himself the son of a bawd (his mother Anne ran a busy but seedy brothel on Cow Lane, Finsbury).

In the late 1650s, Priss took up residence in a tavern on the corner of Whitecross and Old Street. Now in her 40s, her youthful looks all but gone, Priss searched for another method of luring customers.

Her solution was a long-forgotten novelty act known as “chucking”. Supported by two male volunteers, Priss would balance on her head, stark naked with her legs akimbo, while patrons took turns inserting half-crown coins into her “commodity”. The act was described in The Wand’ring Whore, a 1661 guide to London’s prostitutes:

“Whereupon the sight thereof [of] French dollars, Spanish pistols, English half-crowns are plentifully poured in… as she was showing tricks upon her head with naked buttocks and spread legs in a round ring, like those at wrestling…”

According to legend, Priss Fotheringham’s “commodity” could fit 16 half-crowns, the princely sum of 40 shillings. Reports suggest that she performed this act several times daily, making it quite an earner. “Priss Fotheringham’s Chuck Shop” became one of the most popular haunts in London, making Priss enough cash to set up and staff her own brothel.

Fotheringham’s husband died in 1663 and Priss followed him five years later, both most likely from advanced syphilis.

Source: John Garfield (attrib.), The Wand’ring Whore, London, 1661. Content on this page is © Alpha History 2019-23. Content may not be republished without our express permission. For more information please refer to our Terms of Use or contact Alpha History.

1744: Long Island septuagenarian jumps “upon his bum”

Alexander Hamilton was a colonial American doctor, traveler and writer, and no relation to the American revolutionary and featured character of modern musicals.

Born in Scotland in 1712, Hamilton was educated at the University of Edinburgh where his father, Reverend William Hamilton, was an influential academic. In 1739, Hamilton emigrated to Maryland and started his own practice in Annapolis.

In 1744, after a period of ill health, Hamilton embarked on a tour of New England, riding on horseback to Maine and back. During this four-month sojourn he recorded his experiences of the colonial towns and people he encountered. During one overnight stay at Brookhaven, a hamlet on Long Island, Hamilton met a septuagenarian named Smith who claimed to be looking for work as captain of a pirate ship, despite having no previous experience. According to Hamilton:

“He showed us several antic tricks, such as jumping half a foot high upon his bum, without touching the floor with any other part of his body. Then he turned and did the same upon his belly. Then he stood upright upon his head. He told us he was 75 years of age and swore damn-his-old-shoes if any man in America could do the like.”

Hamilton later returned to his practice in Annapolis and married into the powerful Dulany family. He became a respected physician, popular for his forthright but easy nature and his dry wit. After serving briefly in the Maryland assembly, Alexander Hamilton died in 1756.

Source: Dr Alexander Hamilton, Itinerarium, 1744. Content on this page is © Alpha History 2019-23. Content may not be republished without our express permission. For more information please refer to our Terms of Use or contact Alpha History.

1633: Women actors are “notorious whores”, writes Prynne

A contemporary drawing of William Prynne, right, apparently being reacquainted with his severed ears

William Prynne (1600-1669) was an English lawyer and writer, famous for his provocative and controversial essays. One of the most Puritan of the Puritans, Prynne was not afraid to take aim at popular figures, culture or conventions.

One of Prynne’s earliest and best known works was Histriomastix, a 1633 attack on just about anything considered fun. Historiomastix strongly criticised parties, masquerade balls, country fairs, mixed dancing, feast days, wakes, sports, even hairstyles and colourful stained-glass windows.

Much of this particular text, however, is a condemnation of theatrical performances and those responsible for them. Plays, Prynne claims are “the chief delight of the Devil”, wanton and immoral displays of debauchery filled with:

“…amorous smiles and wanton gestures, those lascivious complements, those lewd adulterous kisses and embracements, those lustful dalliances, those impudent, immodest painterly passages… they are the very schools of bawdery, real whoredoms, incests, adulteries, etc.”

As to those who regularly attend the theatre, they are:

“…adulterers, adulteresses, whoremasters, whores, bawds, panders, ruffians, roarers, drunkards, prodigals, cheaters, idle, infamous, base, profane, and godless persons.”

Histriomastix was especially severe on actors and actresses. The ranks of male actors, Prynne claimed, were filled with “Sodomites” who spent their time writing love letters and “chasing the tails” of “players boys”. As for actors of the opposite gender, Prynne offered a simple but biting four-word assessment:

“Women actors, notorious whores.”

This anti-thespian tirade soon got William Prynne into trouble. One woman who quite enjoyed masked balls, mixed dancing and the occasional acting role was Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles I.

The queen had appeared in a speaking role in a prominent play not long after the publication of Histriomastix, and she took Prynne’s slurs personally. In 1634, Prynne was hauled before the star chamber, charged with seditious libel against the queen and others, and found guilty. He was fined £5000, stripped of his academic degrees, given two days in the pillory and sentenced to have the tops of his ears clipped off with shears.

If that wasn’t enough, hundreds of copies of Histriomastix were rounded up and burned before Prynne’s eyes as he languished in the pillory.

Source: William Prynne, Histriomastix, London, 1633. Content on this page is © Alpha History 2019-23. Content may not be republished without our express permission. For more information please refer to our Terms of Use or contact Alpha History.

1529: Antonius de Arena’s rules for dancing

Antonius de Arena was born into a well-off family near Toulouse, France, sometime around 1500. He studied law at Avignon and later joined the French army, participating in the Italian War of 1521-26.

Arena, who was a romantic at heart and something of a ladies’ man, did not enjoy military life – he much preferred writing and teaching. Arena wrote several texts on matters of law, as well as manuals on conduct and etiquette.

In 1529, Arena penned The Rules of Dancing, a quite thorough account of of several examples of basse danse, the slow-moving court dances popular with the French nobility. He urged his readers, particularly young men, to take their dancing seriously, for “to dance badly is a great disgrace”. The young person who cannot dance well, he writes, is likely to fall victim to “proud ladies and damsels who gossip away like magpies”. In contrast, the man who can dance well will “kiss many charming ladies and a thousand girls”.

Arena goes on to offer advice on music, movement and choreography – as well as proper deportment while dancing:

“Wear the most elegant clothes when you are dancing and are all set for love… the slovenly dressed man will be ridiculed…”

“Do not have a dripping nose and do not dribble at the mouth. No woman desires a man with rabies…”

“Do not scratch your head in search of lice…”

“When you are dancing do not keep your mouth open, since the flies… could easily fly into your gaping mouth and choke you…”

“Do not eat either leeks or onions because they leave an unpleasant odour in the mouth…”

“Always maintain a smiling aspect when dancing and, I pray you, a pleasant friendly expression. Some people look as if they are weeping and as if they want to shit hard turds…”

Source: Antonius de Arena, The Rules of Dancing, 1529. Content on this page is © Alpha History 2019-23. Content may not be republished without our express permission. For more information please refer to our Terms of Use or contact Alpha History.

1816: Pious teen avoids rope swing – just like Jesus

James Walter Douglas was born in Virginia in November 1797. After completing his elementary education, Douglass moved to the village of Christiana, Delaware, where he obtained a position as a trainee clerk.

The teenaged Douglass also became a pious and active member of the local church. The extent of his faith is evident in Douglass’s personal diary. In its pages he explains his reasons for not using a rope swing, popular with numerous other young men in Christiana:

“A very high and quite expensive swing was put up in the village by the young men [and has become] a great resort for the young people of the town. I was very much in doubt whether I ought to attend it, and at length determined that I ought not, for these reasons:

1. It takes time and we must account for our time.

2. It is setting an example of levity.

3. The Lord Jesus would not attend such a place.

4. Nor [would] his apostles.

5. Nor [would] our minister Mr Latta…

6. Please when carried to excess is criminal. Is this not excess?

7. What good can I get [from the swing]. Will I be more virtuous? Wiser? Better tempered? More full of grace? No, no I will not…”

In October 1816, Douglass had another moral dilemma when he visited New York. Out walking, he found himself continually drawn towards the printed handbills of the theatre, which threatened to “inflame [his] imagination”. But Douglass triumphantly reported being able to return to his lodgings without succumbing to temptation, passing the theatre and looking inside.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Douglass later entered the church. By 1823, he was preaching in North Carolina and in 1833 he married a woman from Virginia. He died prematurely in August 1837, just weeks before his 40th birthday.

Source: Diary of James W. Douglass, July 1st 1816. Content on this page is © Alpha History 2019-23. Content may not be republished without our express permission. For more information please refer to our Terms of Use or contact Alpha History.

1650: “Play him out, Cat Keyboard”

A late 19th century artist’s impression of the cat piano.

Athanasius Kircher was one of the best known Jesuit scholars of the 17th century. Writing in 1650, Kircher described a grotesque musical instrument called the ‘cat piano’:

“To raise the spirits of an Italian prince burdened by the cares of his position, a musician created for him a cat piano. The musician selected cats whose natural voices were at different pitches and arranged them in cages side by side, so that when a key on the piano was pressed, a mechanism drove a sharp needle into the appropriate cat’s tail. The result was a melody of miaows… who could not help but laugh at such music? Thus was the prince raised from his melancholy.”

While there is no extant historical evidence that a cat piano was ever constructed, it remained a popular piece of whimsy during the 18th and 19th centuries.

A similar device was apparently constructed by the Abbot of Baigne around 1470 but it used pigs rather than cats. According to the chronicler Jean Bouchet, this ‘pig organ’ was built at the request of Louis XI, who asked the Abbott:

“…to get him a concert of swine’s voices, thinking it impossible. The abbot was not surprised but asked for money for the performance, which was immediately delivered… he wrought a thing as singular as ever was seen.”

Bouchet claims the abbot assembled “a great number of hogs of several ages” and above them erected a giant musical keyboard, with one key over each pig. Each key was laced with:

“..little spikes which pricked the hogs [and] made them cry in such order and consonance as highly delighted the king and all his company.”

Source: Athanasius Kircher, Musurgia Universalis, 1650; Jean Bouchet, Annales d’Aquitaine, f.164, c.1550. Content on this page is © Alpha History 2019-23. Content may not be republished without our express permission. For more information please refer to our Terms of Use or contact Alpha History.

1793: A guide to London’s prostitutes

Harris’s List of Covent Garden Ladies was a long-running guidebook to some of London’s more popular prostitutes. It first appeared in the mid-1750s and was published more or less annually until 1795.

The list offered summaries of each lady’s age, appearance and demeanour, as well as an assessment of their sexual services. Prices were also included: they ranged from sixpence to in excess of two pounds. The 1793 edition of Harris’s List’s included entries on Mrs Russell of Fludger Street, Westminster:

“…[who] is a fine plump girl, at the age of 28, rather dark hair and eyes… much in vogue with the bucks and bloods of the town who admired her more for her vulgarity than any thing else, she being extremely expert at uncommon oaths…”

Mrs Brooks, who lives next to the pawnbroker on Newman Street:

“A genteel lady, about 23… with well formed projecting bubbies that defy the result of any manual pressure, panting and glowing with unfeigned desire, and soon inviting the gratification of senses.”

Mrs Pierce, 19 St George’s Row, Apollo Gardens:

“She is still in her teens, with fine dark eyes and hair, her mouth opens to display a regular set of teeth… [with] pretty panting bubbies… in bed she will twine and twist, sigh and murmur, pant and glow with unfeigned emotions, and never be tired of love’s game, whilst the blind boy can find the way in…”

And Mrs Harvey of Upper Newman Street:

“…is a tall genteel lady, about 26… a brown beauty and very agreeable, has fine eyes, and a good set of teeth. She became a proselyte to the sport of Venus very young… She is very active and nimble and not a little clever in the performance of the art of friction [and] she understands the up-and-down art of her posteriors as well as any lady of her profession.”

Source: Harris’s List of Covent Garden Ladies, 1793 edition.

1894: Harry Styles fined for singing discordant songs

In December 1894, the Kidderminster Shuttle reported that Harry Styles of Chestnut Street, Worcester had been summoned to the city police court for “causing an annoyance” and “disorderly behaviour”.

The court heard that Styles had attended a butcher’s store in Mealcheapen Street, where he abused the owner and sang:

“…bawdy and discordant songs”.

So offensive was Styles’ noise-making that it drove customers away from the shop. Styles was found guilty and fined one shilling plus costs.

Source: The Shuttle, December 24th 1894. Content on this page is © Alpha History 2019-23. Content may not be republished without our express permission. For more information please refer to our Terms of Use or contact Alpha History.

1763: Coachman bares buttocks at disgusted theatre-goers

In January 1763 a French aristocrat, Christophe-Louis Pajot de Villers, hosted a private showing of a Rousseau opera in the ballroom of his Paris home. It was attended by more than 30 minor royals, aristocrats and wealthy members of the bourgeoisie. The performance concluded at around 10pm and guests prepared to leave. Behind the curtain, de Villers’ coachman, Nicolas Dandeli, mounted the stage, shouted “Tiens, la voila la comedie!” (Hey, here’s a funny show!) and offered a parting gesture:

“The coachman… decided to undo his trousers and turn his back to the curtain, with the intention of displaying his bare rump to those who were still in the room. At this point, Capolin, a negro aged thirteen years, raised the curtain so that those remaining in the hall saw the nude posterior of the coachman, who was bent over in such a way that his rear end stuck out towards the audience. He even slapped his backside loudly with his hands to call attention to himself. As a result, all of those still in the room saw, much to their astonishment, an act of tremendous impudence, which so greatly revolted them that they left the room immediately, complaining of the terrible scandal.”

The outraged de Villers immediately summoned the commissioners, who dragged Dandeli off to prison. He remained there for several days while the commissioners took a series of depositions. He was released after de Villers – apparently unable to tolerate not having a coachman – withdrew his complaint.

Source: Archives Nationales Y13772, January 22nd 1763, cited in Campardon, Les Spectacles de la Foire, 1877. Content on this page is © Alpha History 2019-23. Content may not be republished without our express permission. For more information please refer to our Terms of Use or contact Alpha History.

1582: Live cats feature in Bruges fireworks show

William, Prince of Orange and Francis, Duke of Anjou visited Bruges in July 1582. According to contemporary reports, cited in later texts, William and Francis were officially welcomed to the city with a “grand display” of banners, bunting and displays. The highlight of the royal reception was a giant structure in the city square, built in the form of a ship and packed with fireworks. And strapped to poles beneath or alongside these fireworks were more than three dozen cats:

“The screams of the hapless creatures on the ignition of each firework produced further cheers and merriment among the happy throng.”

When all the fireworks had been detonated, the entire ship – with the cats still inside – was set alight.

Source: Various inc. Gouw, De Volksvermaken, 1871. Content on this page is © Alpha History 2019-23. Content may not be republished without our express permission. For more information please refer to our Terms of Use or contact Alpha History.