Georgette Heyer's Regency World (34 page)

bracket-faced:
ugly, hard-featured

bran-faced:
freckled

a chawbacon:
a country bumpkin; a stupid man

a chit:
a young girl

a cicisbeo:
a married woman’s lover or escort

clunch:
a clownish person, awkward, foolish

complete to a shade:
superbly dressed, dressed in the height of fashion

a diamond of the first water:
a remarkably beautiful woman

a dowdy:
a plain, ill-dressed female

a downy one:
aware, a knowing intelligent person

a doxy:
a whore

a green girl:
a naive, inexperienced young woman

a hoyden:
an active, tomboyish romp of a girl

a hussy:
a forward, badly behaved female

a jade:
a disreputable woman

a jilt:
a woman who cries off from an engagement not long before the wedding

a Johnny raw:
a novice, an inexperienced or untried youth

a loose fish:
an unreliable person; a person of dissipated habits; a lecher or a drunk

a mort:
a woman or wench; but could sometimes mean a harlot

an out and outer:
one who is first-rate; a perfect person; excellent in every way

a prime article:
a handsome woman, a beautiful female

a romp:
a forward girl

a swell mort:
an upper-class woman

a tabby:
an old maid

a vixen:
a shrewish woman

a vulgar mushroom:
a pushing, pretentious member of the new rich—the reference being to mushrooms as a kind of fungus which comes up suddenly in the night

a wet goose:
a simple or stupid person

Sex and Society

an abbess:
a procuress of prostitutes, a female keeper of a brothel

barque of frailty:
a woman of easy virtue

base-born child:
an illegitimate child, a bastard

bird of paradise:
a showy prostitute

by-blow:
an illegitimate child, a bastard

carte-blanche:
monetary support and protection offered to a man’s mistress in place of marriage

chère-amie:
a mistress—literally ‘darling beloved’

crim. con.:
short for criminal conversations—a euphemism for adultery

a game-pullet:
a young prostitute or a girl likely to become a whore

Haymarket ware:
a prostitute

an impure:
a woman of easy virtue

incognitas:
a masked or disguised prostitute

lady-bird:
a lewd or light woman, a prostitute

light o’ love:
a mistress

lightskirt:
a prostitute

loose in the haft:
a man of easy virtue and few morals

on-dit:
gossip—literally ‘one says’

one of the muslin company:
a prostitute; a female ready to be set up as a mistress

Paphian:
a woman of easy virtue; relating to sexual love

a petticoat-pensioner:
one who lives off a woman’s ill-gotten earnings, a whoremonger

a rake:
a man of great sexual appetite and few morals

side-slips:
illegitimate children, bastards

a slip on the shoulder:
to seduce a woman, seduction

trollop:
a sluttish woman

Marriage

become a tenant for life:
get married off, get married

cry off:
to change one’s mind and call off the wedding

an eligible parti:
a suitable marriage partner

leg-shackled:
married

make an offer:
propose marriage

on the shelf:
unmarried and beyond the usual age of marrying

puff it off:
announce one’s engagement in the papers

riveted:
married

set your cap at a man:
to try to win a man’s favour and a proposal of marriage

smelling of April and May:
madly in love

Newspapers and Magazines

By the time of the Regency, newspapers and magazines had become an important part of daily life for many English people—particularly those of the middle and upper classes—although the reading habit was gradually spreading to the servant class and to some among the working class. Although there was no universal education system the efforts of religious groups such as the Methodists to teach the lower classes to read (in order that they might benefit from reading the Bible) helped to create a surprisingly literate population. A large number of newspapers were established in the eighteenth century and, although many did not survive, by the early nineteenth century there were several London dailies and over one hundred provincial newspapers in circulation which offered readers items of general interest, entertaining articles and stories, society news and fashion.

The Times:
The most famous of English newspapers,
The Times
was founded in 1785. It was originally called the
Daily Universal Register
but changed its name to
The Times
in 1788 and by the time of the Regency it had established itself as the major London daily newspaper.
The Times
was a broadsheet paper without pictures but with narrow parallel columns of printed articles and advertisements running lengthwise down the page. The front page was generally given over to a wide range of personal and commercial advertisements while the inside pages offered the reader both domestic and foreign news, reports from the war in Europe, obituaries, society news and information about the royal Court.

Morning Post:
In 1772 a group of twelve businessmen, including Richard Tattersall (founder of Tattersall’s) and James Christie (founder of Christie’s auction rooms), established a newspaper, the
Morning Post
, with a view to securing cheaper and more advantageous advertising for their businesses. The famous publisher John Bell was the paper’s first main proprietor and Henry Bute its first editor. The
Morning Post
gained early notoriety for its constant criticism of the Prince of Wales (later the Prince Regent) before he bought their support for £1,000 and a promise of £350 a year to refrain from mentioning Mrs Fitzherbert. In 1795 the paper was acquired by Daniel Stuart who radically changed it from a ‘ferocious political’ journal to a cheerful, entertaining newspaper with a range of literary articles and fashion notes designed to appeal to both men and women. During the Regency it was to the
Morning Post
that the upper class sent their betrothal and wedding announcements.

London Gazette:
The first English newspaper, the
London Gazette
was originally called the
Oxford Gazette
, and was published in 1665 during the Great Plague while the royal Court was living in Oxford. A paper rather than a newspaper, the
London Gazette
listed royal activities, official appointments, bankruptcies, military items such as commissions and promotions, and casualty lists in time of war. The
Gazette
continues to be published today.

Gentleman’s Magazine:
Founded in 1731, the
Gentleman’s Magazine
was originally a compilation of previously published articles, reviews, essays and news items. By mid-century, however, original material had become a regular feature as had reports of parliamentary debates. Samuel Johnson wrote for the magazine for some years and by the time of the Regency it was a well-established periodical which included, along with its more serious items, births, deaths and marriages, as well as songs, music, maps and articles of general interest. It survived for nearly two hundred years and finally closed in 1914.

La Belle Assemblée, or Bell’s Court & Fashionable Magazine, Addressed Particularly to the Ladies:
Established in 1806 by the renowned publisher, John Bell,
La Belle Assemblée
was an elegant monthly magazine with an unusually high standard of production. Larger in size than its competitors, it offered readers both French and English fashion news with two superbly engraved fashion plates with captions indicating the type or style of dress. As well as fashion news the magazine offered readers literary items, articles on science, history and the arts, news from the foreign courts, a gossip column—which was often accompanied by an engraved portrait of a member of the nobility—poetry, political reports, a song and accompanying music, reports on places to visit in London, fashion notes and an embroidery pattern. Each volume finished with a list of notable births, deaths and marriages.
La Belle Assemblée
was expensive, costing 3s. per edition (a general housemaid was earning approximately £8 a year) but it was popular and influential. It remained the leading fashion magazine of its day until its eventual closure in 1832.

Ackermann’s Repository of Arts, Literature, Commerce, Manufactures, Fashions and Politics:
Founded in 1809,
Ackermann’s Repository
was the brainchild of Rudolph Ackermann, a German immigrant from Saxony with a talent for lithography and a sense of the commercial viability of a magazine which offered its readers superb pictures of a wide range of Regency products and fashion. Intended as a kind of cultural guide aimed more at men than women—although it included items designed to appeal to women—the
Repository
was dedicated to the Prince of Wales (later the Prince Regent) and appeared monthly. Every edition carried superb hand-coloured plates depicting furniture, paintings, room interiors,
objets d’art
, silverware and two coloured aquatints showing examples of the latest women’s and men’s (until 1815) fashions. Intended as a guide to dressmakers and their fashionable clients, the fashion plates included detailed descriptions of the type of costume shown, its style, cut, trim, the fabrics used and their colour and also detailed the style and colour of accessories. Like its competitor,
La Belle Assemblée
,
Ackermann’s Repository
maintained a standard of excellence throughout its years of publication. It closed in 1830.

Lady’s Monthly Museum or Polite Repository of Amusement and Instruction Being an Assemblage of Whatever can tend to Please the Fancy, interest the Mind, or Exalt The Character of the British Fair:
The ‘British Fair’ was a popular phrase with magazine editors and publishers during the Regency and advertisements and articles frequently spoke of and to ‘the British Fair’, using the term as a reference to both the female readers and the (mostly mythical) virtuous, elegant and beautiful woman that the magazine assumed each reader aspired to be. It was common for magazines to extol the British Fair as the epitome of womanhood and to exhort readers to dress, think and act in her image. Purportedly published ‘by a Society of Ladies’, the
Lady’s Monthly Museum
was no exception to this rule and actively encouraged women to constantly better themselves. First published in 1798 the magazine was aimed directly at women and contained an appealing mix of articles on fashion (with coloured plates), items of general interest, short biographies of the famous or aristocratic (with accompanying engraved portraits), poetry, essays and a monthly moral tale. The
Lady’s Monthly Museum
was one of the first magazines to serialise novels before they appeared as books and maintained a literary section in which it regularly informed readers of forthcoming publications and detailed the latest gossip about people and events in the arts; it also ran one of the early ‘lonely hearts’ columns.

Lady’s Magazine or Entertaining Companion for the Fair Sex:
Known as the
Lady’s Magazine
, this monthly periodical was founded in 1770 by a Mr Coote and was designed especially to amuse, educate and ‘improve’ women. Costing only sixpence, it offered a wide range of articles, stories and fashion items and was the first magazine to publish extracts from forthcoming books to tantalise its readers. The
Lady’s Magazine
proved popular enough with readers that it continued until the mid-nineteenth century.

Books in Heyer

The publisher and founder of the Minerva Press, William Lane, is generally credited with having initiated the spread of lending, or circulating, libraries to most of the large towns (and many smaller ones) in England throughout the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Lane’s main library was located in Leadenhall Street, in the same building as his Minerva Press which had begun printing novels in about 1790. By setting up his own large lending establishment Lane was able to offer his novels to the borrowing and buying public along with a wide selection of other fiction and non-fiction texts. By the time of the Regency every seaside town and fashionable resort had at least one library—often housed in a shop, assembly room or other publicly accessible building—and London had a number of subscription libraries (over 100 by 1820) ranging from Hookham’s in Bond Street (where, in
Regency Buck
, Judith Taverner was able to borrow
Sense and Sensibility
) to Miss Flinders’s small shop cum library near Walpole Street. While novels were held by many among the upper classes to be most unsuitable reading matter for young women, they became increasingly popular during the period and the thrilling stories lying between the mottled signature covers of the Minerva Press were to be found in many households. In homes such as the Wraxtons’ in
The Grand Sophy
, however, disapproval of novels extended even to the famous works of Ann Radcliffe, Maria Edgeworth and Clara Reeve—and certainly to Lord Byron’s poems—whereas Walter Scott’s novels and romantic ballads and Jane Austen’s stories were considered quite acceptable.

Jane Austen,
Sense and Sensibility
(1811):
The story of two sisters, Elinor and Marianne Dashwood, who, in a reflection of the book’s title, react quite differently to the hopes and disappointments of their lives and their love affairs.

Mansfield Park
(1814):
A tale of class and misconception, it tells the story of Fanny Price, a poor cousin who is adopted by her richer relatives and generally treated with condescension. Fanny’s natural good sense, modesty and principles support her through various ordeals and she eventually comes to be valued by those she loves while other, less principled characters are eventually shown in their true light.

Lord Byron,
Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage
(1812–18):
A long poem written in stanzas after the style of Spenser. The first two cantos were published in 1812, followed by the third in 1816 and the fourth in 1818 and together they tell the story of the travels through foreign lands of a disillusioned pilgrim. In the third canto specific links with current events such as the Peninsular War, Waterloo and Napoleon are made and by the fourth canto the poet speaks for himself rather than through the pilgrim.

The Corsair
(1814):
A poem written in heroic couplets, it tells the story of the wicked yet chivalrous pirate chief known as Conrad, his intrigues and battles with Seyd, a Turkish Pasha, and his tragic love affairs with Medora and Gulnare.

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra,
Don Quixote de la Mancha
(1605 and 1615):
Originally published in two parts, the story of the crazy Spanish gentleman who believed himself to be a knight and engaged in acts of chivalry against windmills and sheep, was well known by the time of the Regency and widely read. Begun as a parody of the popular chivalric romance, the book developed a deeper meaning as Cervantes developed the character of the devoted idealist in Don Quixote and the practical realist in his squire, Sancho Panza.

Dante,
Divina Commedia
(early 1300s):
Also known as
The Divine Comedy
, Dante’s epic poem was his most important work. In it the poet goes on a journey into hell with the spirit of the great Greek classical poet Virgil as his guide. Dante offered readers a vision of the inferno, purgatory and paradise before leading them to God. An allegorical work, it was thought by many to be heretical but the strength of the language, the vision and continual allusions to the human experience gave it universal appeal.

Maria Edgeworth,
Castle Rackrent
(1800):
A tale of Ireland and the eventual downfall of the hard-living and reckless Rackrent family as told by the family steward, Thady Quirk.

Tales of a Fashionable Life
(1812):
The Absentee
was one of the most popular of a series of stories published in six volumes by Mrs Edgeworth from 1809. It tells the story of Lord Colambre and his improvident parents Lord and Lady Clonbrony and the family’s eventual return to Ireland at the son’s behest.

James Hervey,
Meditations Among the Tombs
(1746–7):
Hervey’s two volumes of
Meditations and Contemplations
were extremely popular for many years. ‘Meditations Among the Tombs’ was included in Volume One along with ‘Reflections on a Flower Garden’ and ‘A Descant Upon Creation’. Hervey had an immense appreciation of nature but his writing was often prosy and over-filled with truisms.

Homer,
The Iliad:
The epic Greek poem tells, in twenty-four books of verse, the story of the Trojan War and, in particular, the story of Achilles.

The Odyssey:
The second of Homer’s epic poems, it tells the story of Odysseus (Ulysses) and his many adventures as he travels home to Ithaca after the Trojan War.

Lady Caroline Lamb,
Glenarvon
(1816):
Published anonymously, Lady Caroline’s first novel was written as a form of revenge against the poet Byron after he ended their affair. The novel caused a scandal with its thinly veiled sketches and caricatures of members of the
haut ton
, including Lady Caroline herself (as the innocent Calantha), her husband, mother and aunt, and Lord Byron as
Glenarvon
. Despite their outrage, members of the upper class pored over the book, looking for portraits of themselves and those they knew.
Glenarvon
went into several editions and even had a key published for easy identification of the various characters.

Matthew ‘Monk’ Lewis,
Ambrosio, or the Monk
(1796):
A story of sin, seduction, murder and a pact with the devil, the Gothic novel made Lewis famous and earned him the nickname ‘Monk’.

William Paley,
Natural Theology
(1802):
One of several texts by Paley, a fellow of Christ’s College, Cambridge, which argued that proof of the existence of God was to be found in the clear design inherent in the natural world and especially in the human body.

Anna Maria Porter,
The Hungarian Brothers
(1807):
A popular novel set against the background of the French revolutionary war, it tells the story of the orphaned sons of a Hungarian nobleman who must seek their fortune as officers in the Hungarian army. It was written by the sister of Jane Porter, the popular author of
Thaddeus of Warsaw
, and published in three volumes.

Jane Porter,
Thaddeus of Warsaw
(1803):
A popular historical novel in four volumes which tells the story of Thaddeus, a patriotic young man, and his exploits during Poland’s struggle for independence. It was reprinted several times during the Regency.

Mrs Radcliffe,
The Mysteries of Udolpho
(1794):
The story of Emily de St Aubert, an orphan who is left to the care of her ambitious aunt. The aunt, who is married to the sinister Signor Montoni, has Emily carried off to the castle of Udolpho in the Italian countryside where various apparently supernatural events take place before the heroine is eventually reunited with her lost love.

Clara Reeve,
The Old English Baron
(1777):
Originally published as
The Champion of Virtue, A Gothic Story
, and later renamed
The Old English Baron,
the story takes its inspiration from Horace Walpole’s
Castle of Otranto,
a Gothic romance with a strong supernatural element. Clara Reeve’s novel tells the story of Edmund, a humble hero of obscure origin destined to discover his rightful heritage, overcome temptation and defeat the villain of the piece.

The School for Widows
(1791):
The stories of three women: close friends Rachel Strictland and Frances Darnford, whose husbands are as profligate as their wives are virtuous, and Isabella di Soranzo, a tragic widow.

Colonel David Roberts,
Adventures of Johnny Newcome
(1815):
First published by ‘an Officer’,
The Military Adventures of Johnny Newcome, with an account of his campaigns on the Peninsula, and in Pall Mall
was illustrated with sketches by the famous artist Thomas Rowlandson. A poem in four cantos entitled
Adventures of Johnny Newcome in the Navy
(also with plates by Rowlandson) was published in 1818 under the name of Alfred Burton—aka John Mitford.

Mr Samuel Rogers,
The Pleasures of Memory
(1792):
A popular poem of limited literary merit but which was considered ‘agreeable verse’ during the Regency.

Sir Walter Scott,
Marmion
(1808):
A dramatic poem in six cantos, it tells the story of the wicked Lord Marmion and his attempts to win the hand of the wealthy Lady Clare. The fifth canto includes the ballad of Lochinvar, a young hero who rescues the fair Ellen from marriage to a dastardly suitor by swinging her on to his horse and riding off with her in the middle of the bridal feast.

Lady of the Lake
(1810):
A romantic poem in six cantos. Set in Scotland, it tells the story of a knight and his love for Ellen, the daughter of an outlawed Highland chief. A tale of love and sacrifice.

Waverley
(1814):
Generally recognised as the first historical novel, it recounts the adventures of Edward Waverley, a romantic young Englishman who travels to Scotland and becomes embroiled in the Jacobites’ attempt to restore the Pretender to the throne.

Guy Mannering
(1815):
Set in Scotland in the reign of George III, it tells the story of Harry Bertram who, as a young child, is kidnapped and taken abroad at the instigation of the evil lawyer Glossin who has designs on the family estate. Bertram’s life becomes intertwined with that of Guy Mannering and his daughter Julia whom he loves. Ignorant of his true identity, on his return to Scotland Bertram is again threatened by Glossin’s scheming but is saved by the old gypsy Meg Merrilies and the farmer Dandie Dinmont. This was the story which so enthralled Mrs Underhill and her family in
The Nonesuch
.

Mary Shelley,
Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus
(1818):
The story of a young student, Frankenstein, who brings to life a creature he has made from dissected corpses and then abandons it at the moment of its birth. The novel was written as a tale of terror and enjoyed widespread popularity from its first printing. The Duke of Sale could hardly put it down in
The Foundling
.

Mr Robert Southey,
The Curse of Kehama
(1810):
A long poem based on Hindu mythology which tells the story of Ladurlad and his daughter Kailyal and the curse placed on Ladurlad by the great Rajah of the world, Kehama, after the death of his son Arvalan.

Felix Lope de Vega (1562–1635):
Second only to Cervantes among Spanish writers, Lope de Vega remains the world’s most prolific playwright and is considered the founder of the Spanish drama. In addition to plays, he also wrote romantic prose, narrative poetry, parody and historical epics. He was known as the ‘Prodigy of Nature’ and was so revered by the Spanish that the phrase ‘Es de Lope’ meant perfection.

Friedrich Augustus Wolf,
Prolegomena ad Homerum
(1795):
A revolutionary text in that it was the first to focus on the problem of the authorship of
The Iliad
and
The Odyssey
. Wolf addressed the questions of whether Homer actually existed and had written both epic poems, thus establishing the foundation for an important part of modern Homeric scholarship.

Ajax:
The original Ajax was a hero of the Trojan War and his deeds are related in Homer’s
Iliad
. ‘The Unknown Ajax’ was a character in Shakespeare’s
Troilus and Cressida
in which he was portrayed as a valiant but foolish man and a great fighter.