A history of English sexual morals / by Ivan Bloch ; translated by William H. Forstern.

  • Iwan Bloch
Date:
1936
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: A history of English sexual morals / by Ivan Bloch ; translated by William H. Forstern. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    635/700 (page 605)
    Whilst others, ill-bred, lolling over their mugs, Were laughing and toying with their fans and their I jugs, Disdain'd to be slaves to perfections, or graces, Sat puffing tobacco in their mistresses' faces. Some 'prentices too, who made a bold venture And trespassed a little beyond their indenture, Were each of them treating his mistress' maid, For letting him in when master's abed. ... The music-hall was already in the seventeenth century ssentially a place for performing variety acts, so that ariety, more or less as we know it to-day, first originated in Ingland. The first programmes of the music-halls were omposed of mediaeval mysteries and morality plays, so hat the influence of this type of drama was perpetuated trough the music-hall. The music-hall thrived to the Irecise extent to which the former methods of public Lerry-making—at annual fairs and various popular festivals ; [-ceased to be available. The music-hall provided entertain- ment for the middle and lower classes, to whom it offered til the traditional elements of the old English shows— nusic, singing, dancing, jugglery, rope walking,^ etc. The Author of the Foreigner's Guide wrote of Sadler's Wells in L730: ' Here you are offered throughout the summer singing, music, rope walking performances, etc., and also, each evening, a farce, which anyone who pays for a bottle of wine can see.' The famous music-halls of the eighteenth century were the 'New Pantheon', a rendezvous of prostitutes, the ' Dog and Duck ' and the ' Garden of Apollo '. Prominent music-halls of the nineteenth century included Evans's Music Hall in Covent Garden, the ' Alhambra', 6 Highbury Barn' in Islington, the c Greek Music Hall' in City Road, the ' Cave of Harmony ', which is mentioned by Thackeray BiR [605]