A Gentleman's Guide to Debauchery
Or; How to Have Fun with Hookers & Hooch
[Warning: contains some graphic descriptions and depressing facts, though these generally fall on the female and poverty-stricken. Carry on, rich men, carry on.]
Part of the Articles series.
Written by Emily.
So we're all fairly aware that Ye Olde Manly Men might partake heavily of Drink and Women in a liberal fashion to amuse themselves, and that a young fellow's initiation into manhood might include his father procuring the services of a woman to teach his son the ways of the netherworld, as it were. But who were these women? What was this world? How did it work? What did they drink? And what is a "good side-box piece"?
(It's a prostitute one would find in a box on either side of the stage, in theatres.)
The information I've put together here has been taken almost entirely from Hallie Rubenhold's The Covent Garden Ladies: Pimp General Jack & the Extraordinary Story of Harris's List, with further incidental reading of interviews with modern-day prostitutes in general relation to their trade.
What’s a Whore?
Good question. I’m glad you asked.
Many women at all levels could be considered fairly-termed whores by their peers, depending on their modes of conduct, as laid out by this contemporary listing from the highest to lowest ranks of loose women. (Words and phrases in italics are from the period, with clearer modern explanations of precisely which women these referred to.)
The Georgian Hierarchy of Whores:
“Women of Fashion Who Intrigue” - members of high society who conducted scandalous affairs were classed as whores.
“Demi-reps” - high-born or seemingly respectable women who had extra-marital relations with whomever they pleased.
“Good-natured girls” - usually unmarried women who allowed their admirers sexual favours.
“Kept mistresses” - courtesans; or any woman supported by a man in lodgings in exchange for exclusive sexual rights.
“Ladies of Pleasure” - polite, attractive and accomplished whores who worked in high-class brothels or out of their own independent lodgings.
“Whores” - women in lower brothels, and those who worked openly in taverns, theatres and coffeehouses.
“Park-walkers” - like streetwalkers, but with a show of modesty in keeping to the parks.
“Street-walkers” - women openly and aggressively working the streets. Cheap, but medically-risky; usually the sex act would be undertaken in a dark alley or filthy lodgings close by.
“Bunters” - the lowest street-walkers: rude, lewd, usually diseased and half-starved wretches.
“Bulk-mongers” - homeless beggars who would generally sleep on the bulks beneath shop windows. Disease and alcoholism was rife among these women, and they were the most likely to die swift and terrible deaths.
Well-Known Sexual Publications of the Time:
Aretino’s “Postures” was a popular series of engravings illustrating sexual positions from Pietro Aretino's 1534 Sonetti Lussirosi.
“Oeconomy of Love” by John Armstrong; contained a recipe for a concoction to restore virginity, among other tricks involving soaked sponges and bags of blood concealed in crucial spots.
“Atlantises” were various erotic publications which had existed since the end of the 17th century, noting amorous tales of well-known ladies, though individuals were given bawdy nicknames.
Glossary:
Bagnio - a bathhouse; usually involved sexual favours for clients; a pseudo-exotic full-service spa experience for men
Bridewell - a prison for prostitutes
Bully - a prostitute’s protector; rather like the modern bouncer or bodyguard
Clap - gonorrhoea or other venereal taint
The Fleet - main debtor’s prison
The Lock Hospital - devoted to the treatment of VD
The Magdalen Hospital - reformatory for repentant prostitutes
Mercury - often used to treat VD, particularly syphilis
Nunnery - high-class brothel, usually on or around King’s Place (handily situated right next to Almack’s)
Pox - syphilis
Sal/salivation/“down in a sal” - someone being treated with mercury, which caused excessive drooling
Serail - a high-class French-style brothel
When & Where
Hallie Rubenhold’s excellent research largely focuses on the latter portion of the Georgian era, i.e. a generation or so before our current era. Though fashion made the preferred watering-holes in Covent Garden fall out of favour by the end of the 18th century, business went on much the same as ever, in establishments very much in vogue in St. James, Piccadilly and Mayfair. The rougher trades of the taverns and coffeehouses were considered fashionably unacceptable for gentlemen by the turn of the century. Though there would always been shady and vile nooks for those less burdened with earthly lucre or a perverse preference for slumming it, the fashion for genteel high-end brothels was all the rage among the upper echelons of society gentlemen, meaning that noble and respectable families could well find themselves abiding next-door to a notorious brothel. These establishments could be fronted by regular shops (usually millinery) or homes, and were only known to those who frequented them. Tastes ran to the neo-Classical, with fashionable euphemisms speaking of Greco-Roman ideals of beauty, temples and Venus-worship, rather than the lewder bawdy songs and poems of the former decades.
Districts nearest to theatres would generally boast taverns, coffeehouses and brothels--all places to meet with various kinds of loose women. Better-quality taverns would have neatly-uniformed waiters, who expected handsome tips, to be split among the staff. A cook in such a place could make seven pounds a week, on average.
Streets and alleys in certain areas were dark and dangerous--foot pads, muggers, violent drunks…even lantern-boys might co-operate with robbers and lead their clients into an ambush.
The open solicitation of sex and the keeping of brothels was technically illegal, but unevenly prosecuted. Pimps, bawds and the working women themselves were, of course, the main targets of any zealous lawmen, rather than the demanding clientele whose ready money and insatiable appetites for flesh made the business worth the risks. A woman could work independently of a bawd or a pimp, if she could afford to set herself up in a private home. The law generally only bothered to crack down on street-walkers on a regular basis.
Who
Right off, no woman who considered herself anything near to a respectable lady would knowingly go anywhere near a brothel, tavern or coffeehouse; or even acknowledge that they knew such places existed. Ladies would only speak of the “demi-monde” (half-world) in private and in whispers, and never admit to knowing anything of such places or such women. Particular squares and streets would be wholly out-of-bounds. In that vein, the knowledge herein is largely directed at those who play male characters.
Prostitution had a high turnover rate--prison and illness took some lives, though others gained wealth and moved on. Regardless of this, there was always a steady steam of London-bound travelers ready to replenish the stock of flesh in town.
Men, as a rule, found no reason for discretion in visiting brothels. It was accepted by other men, and not supposed to be known or spoken of by ladies, at any rate.
A client, known as a cull or cully, was any man who could afford to pay, and rank hardly dictated preference, though the more money one had, the better range of choice available. Men of every rank up to a duke might be found in a tavern after a night at the theatre, drinking with the daughters of tailors or wealthy merchants fallen on hard times. Officers, lawyers, painters, criminals, celebrity actors, writers, politicians, playwrights, poets…alongside actresses, dancers and singers. Any term for a female entertainer was considered synonymous with being a whore. These women were called by many names. A sampling of terms from the time includes: women of the town, members of the Cyprian Corps, impures, strumpets, light girls, thaises, wantons, demi-reps, demi-mondaines, jades, hussies, tarts, votaries of Venus, nymphs, jezebels, doxies, molls, fallen women, trollops and harlots.
Whether born into prostitution or being recruited orphans, seduced servants, poor seamstresses, trained milliners, hopeful actresses and rape victims--thousands of such women wound up as working girls. They came from all over the western world, and converged upon the capital. In London there would be no lack of women from the American colonies, West Indies, France, Italy, Germany or the Netherlands, to say nothing of every corner of England, Scotland or Ireland. Foreigners, especially “exotics” of varying ethnicities generally charged higher sums than British girls, though French, German and Italian ladies could charge more as well.
Families at the lower end of the middle-class scale may see their circumstances vary enough to force their daughters to sell themselves. Financial positioning was precarious in those times, with no guarantees by most banks and businesses and overflowing debtor’s prisons. Newspapers would publish shameful lists of those names who had gone bankrupt. Shopkeepers, craftsmen, apothecaries, publishers, schoolmasters and petty clergy struggled to hang on; but given their slightly elevated status above labourers, their daughters might have more of an education, and therefore be more likely to serve in a more exclusive brothel to more genteel clients.
Brothels and taverns were generally quite youthful places, with much of the population being in their teens and twenties, including the customers. The dramas that played out in the hours after the theatres closed were filled with “adolescent angst, emotional outbursts, infidelities, romances, complicated friendships…[and] large quantities of alcohol.” So it was kind of like college.
“Posture girls” were much like modern strippers--entirely naked, they would strike lewd poses on tavern tables and frolic among the clients in order to titillate them before leaving intercourse to the prostitutes waiting close by.
A man might love a prostitute; but the mindset was “once a whore, always a whore”. and so he must accept her profession and resign himself to sharing his lover. Some mistresses later married their keepers, from aristocrats and men of the gentry to the wealthier middle-classes--Harriet Powell eventually married the Earl of Seaforth. If aristocrats did it, society would follow, though there would always be those who looked down their noses at such women.
Surnames were dispensable among the lower classes, unless they had some noble connection; so many changed their names, perhaps as often as it suited them to reinvent their own histories. An alluring name or one that hinted at a great lineage or talent was bound to set the gossips buzzing about an individual--a great boon to an ambitious man or woman in the world of the lower orders. A kept mistress might adopt her keeper’s surname, acting as a de facto wife, as well as to make proper society steaming mad and utterly unable to do a damn thing about it.
The direst poverty meant hand-to-mouth, work or starve, until one died. Beds in slums and squalor would be shared with other people, rats, mice, lice, fleas and bedbugs. The least of these would have ragged and thin clothes, usually just the one set. Among these desperate people, prostitution went hand-in-hand with housebreaking, pick pocketing, robbery, dealing in stolen goods (known as fencing), forgery, cheating at cards, bawdy work or pimping, all in the taverns and coffeehouses.
Tavern guests were waited on by boys and young men, who would offer to procure whores in exchange for a gratuity that might far outweigh the measly sum of a few pennies they would receive simply for setting food and drink before men. These fellows were variously known as pimps, procurers or panderers. Their services were coyly referred to as merely “making introductions” between two interested parties. Pot-boys as young as six or seven would bus tables and deliver drinks, perhaps hoping to one day work their way to the position of a waiter-pimp. The staff in these establishments also took part in coin-clipping, counterfeiting, theft, extortion, violent assault and rape in the upstairs rooms and cellars. Street-walkers would often pick pockets.
A pimp ostensibly offered his customers protection from the diseases and dangers of low streetwalkers, though he might just as soon offer up some local girl he was friendly with, regardless of safety. Rivalries might form between the finest women--their managers treated the matter like thoroughbred horses, each wanting to polish up a winner. Any girl who ran away from her bawd could and would be pursued and prosecuted for the theft of the clothes she wore, having been dressed by their employers to look well for business. A waiter-pimp would know how to suck up to his clients. The best in that trade were smooth talkers with enough subservience to make them as agreeable as possible to their clients, flattering them endlessly and fawning over the usually quite badly-behaved and hot-headed young men. Nonetheless, there were risks--clients who contracted a disease, jealous lovers and angry husbands could have violent revenge against a pimp…especially those with the pox. To potentially infect one’s wife and future offspring, as well as possibly shortening the man’s life and hacking away at his would-be family tree--well, it’s no wonder such a man might be pissed off beyond all reason. A pimp might sample whores as a kind of gratuity or job-perk.
Girls often began their working lives in their early teens--thirteen or fourteen being the most common--at the onset of their menses or “womanhood”, for those born into the whorehouses. Smallpox, drink or violence could destroy a woman’s features and prospects. Poor judgement or bad luck could end a profitable career for a young woman.
“Fresh game” implied a variety of women made available to intrigue men who might be bored with the same old whores in the same old scenes. An unhappily-married woman could be drawn into selling herself--a not-uncommon occurrence. Some women, usually domestics or entertainers (dancers, singers, actresses,) would turn to intermittent prostitution during a dry spell in the theatre season--this was behind the general notion of an actress “resting”. Once these periods of unemployment ended, the women would return to their less salacious labours when they were able to afford it. Some women had day-jobs as domestic servants, seamstresses, midwives or shopkeepers, with their other services kept largely secret.
What
General 18th century manly belief was that all women had a libidinous nature, which only needed its appetite whetted to be released. Hence the line between rape and “seduction” was further blurred, as many men believed at some point a woman’s switch would be flipped and she would eventually welcome all sexual contact. Though a woman might protest, a no would be taken to mean yes. It was dependant upon the man to “force his point”; and once initiated, the woman would become the insatiable sexual aggressor. Once virginity was gone, a woman was as lustful as any man. No matter if she had been willing or not--she was now a carnal creature. There was no grey area on this point. Either one was chaste before marriage or one was not.
Drinks were taken in establishments by men and women alike--gin, wine or brandy, usually, or “usquebaugh”, better known as whisky . In more disreputable establishments, people would literally drink themselves under the tables, sliding out of their seats and onto the floor, their clothes covered in their own sick. Careless people were apt to have their pockets picked, here, as well. At higher-end establishments, a number of aphrodesiacs might be made available--pullets, pigs, veal, fresh eggs, oysters, crabs, prawns, sea-holly, or drugs taken in honey or syrup.
The pox and the clap were both treated with mercury, which lost its effectiveness with persistent use. If used incorrectly, death could be slow and painful.
Coffeehouses and taverns were very much alike--both served liquor, and at better establishments, food. Meals could be taken in the communal taproom, or in private quarters upstairs, for a price. Male societies might gather annually or monthly in such rooms for private dinners, debating politics, science and art over a formal meal, which would then generally descend into utter debauchery.
An evening’s entertainment might unfold more slowly in a sumptuous brothel, with conversation and perhaps music in the drawing room; followed by drinks and a round of cards. Then would the couples retire to private rooms. In the morning the client might be billed for food, drink, music, lodging in a bed, and any losses at gaming. These bills could be so high as to require a banknote rather than coin, though most established men of fortune would keep a tab or line of credit with the bawds and pimps of the house. Only a few such evenings could easily run to a cost of a hundred pounds. (Bear in mind that the typical annual salary of, say, a curate would be fifty pounds or so. Not that a curate would, even if he might afford it...)
The offerings of a nunnery on a typical day might be laid out rather like a menu, with deeds being done in every corner of the house…on sofas and on back staircases, as well as the bedchambers and dressing-rooms.
A night with a “virgin” - 20 guineas
A night with a black prostitute - 5 guineas
Whipping - 10 guineas
A “modest woman”, i.e. a servant seduced or enlisted, usually a virgin - upwards of 20-50 guineas
A hand job - 2 guineas
To merely play at cards or other non-sexual games - 5 guineas
“Dalliance” with a lover [of uncertain status] - 10 guineas
Well-endowed men might be kept by a brothel to service married ladies who had drawn the short straw in marriage (so to speak).
For working girls in taverns, prices generally hovered around a pound per throw, with those more genteel ladies working from private lodgings something nearer to five or ten.
Married women and people conducting affairs could meet their lovers at a brothel and pay the bawd for the room and her discretion, up to 50 pounds, perhaps, for a standing arrangement on a continuing basis.
In one case, a man found his friend was sleeping with his wife. He then bet his friend a thousand pounds that the friend would have the clap within the month. Having secured the wager, the betrayed man asked a bawd to perform the opposite of her usual task and seek him out a diseased woman. Infecting himself, he then made certain to pass the clap along to his friend via his unfaithful wife, and soon collected on the wager. This rather proves the point that anything could be had, for the right price, from a pimp or bawd who knew how to do their work well.
Naked “masques” could be held with actresses, courtesans, and noble and aristocratic ladies of ill-repute. Those who came as “Mother Eve” wore masks of fig-leaves and nothing else.
Certain brothels boasted elastic beds, which greatly enhanced the amorous experience for some and convinced many an old goat that they were quite as young and vigorous as ever.
Gossip in these districts was rife--there was little not seen or heard, and there would be constant talk and a steady flow of information (true or false) floating about among tavern-staff and the prostitutes. Such tittle tattle, even among higher society, could be to a courtesan’s advantage. To be the popular name being whispered all about town could bring in any number of advantageous introductions to men of great fortunes.
In the rowdier crowds of coffeehouses and taverns, there would be practical jokes played, impromptu fighting (with seedier bystanders often placing spur-of-the-moment wagers on the outcomes) and card-games for amusement. Sex in these atmospheres was not a protracted affair, and out in the open more often than not, with pairs coupling on tables, floors, or against walls. Private rooms in taverns might be used for accommodation by those men who did not belong to any clubs. Those too poor or eager to take a private room could sate themselves in a corner of the taproom, though the girls complained (and reasonably enough) that the muck of the tavern floor quite ruined their clothes.
Infant mortality in London was nearly 50% for children under the age of three. Many surgeons, midwives and quacks could perform abortions, or sell mixtures which would “remove obstructions” from the uterus. Every prostitute would know what herbs and powders to take, or what to douche with after intercourse. If these did not work, infanticide was often the result for the desperate. If they hadn’t the nerve for it, a child might be abandoned on the church steps--the Foundling Hospital temporarily halted this, but it quickly filled with up to 15 000 infants for its care. Filthy “nursemaids” would take an infant for a small fee. The mother was not obliged to return for her child. Many starving orphans begging in the streets would be the children of prostitutes. Only the occasional fetishist sought out a pregnant prostitute. Generally it was an unwanted condition, unless one had a secure keeper with an assured future. Callous keepers might cut off a pregnant mistress to protect inheritances. Rather than run the risk of finding out the hard way which sort of man kept them, most mistresses terminated the pregnancy as quickly as possible.
The theatre was the domain of the whore--from the orange-sellers coyly offering their other fruits, to the most celebrated courtesans and mistresses of the ton. A fresh face appearing with a known bawd in a theatre-box was a sign to all and sundry that the girl was new on the market. The backstage areas of theatres filled with men and women mingling in shameless states of varying undress, and broods of the actresses’ children (by other actors or patrons), all tumbling freely about and without much restraint. Actresses might play more scandalous breeches-parts, in male clothing.
High-class brothels which catered to the cream of society would follow society wherever it went. As men left London for the pleasures of resort towns, some bawds would follow with some specially-selected girls as a sampling of their wares, to set up shop temporarily wherever they might be needed, like a traveling show. A wife who sought to take her philandering husband away from the London temptress might be dismayed to find the same woman in Bath!
How
A night with a virgin could cost anywhere from twenty to fifty pounds. The most beautiful girls and the cleverest bawds could perhaps set the price as high as a hundred. A virgin was considered the only truly “safe” encounter; though this was mostly a fiction men would cleave to in order to spare themselves from worrying. Actual virgins were rare, and a girl might be sold as an untouched article several times to less-canny men. These novel young women would often be passed around and sampled by many of a brothel’s usual clientele, perhaps in search of an offer to place her in high-keeping as a mistress.
A male servant was useful to have on hand in case of a violent client. Even independent prostitutes free of a brothel or pimp tended to live and work in pairs or small groups. Much like young single women of today, city rents were cheaper when split. Roommates would attend balls and plays together as close-knit friends. A bawd might take her finest beauties out for a promenade in the park, or to attend assemblies, balls, or the theatre, in order to best advertise her wares, all as finely dressed as possible.
The desire for virgins was so widespread that what was considered fairly normal sexual tastes then would certainly be pedophilia, now. Even intact girls aged twelve or thirteen were hard to come by--either having been already seduced or too closely protected. Virgins were thought to cure venereal diseases; but, being unable to supply the demand, most maidenheads were heavily recycled via varying tricks of the trade to carry off the ruse.
“Specialties” were individuals that would have to be particularly inquired after for their talents, as not all prostitutes offered the same services, or “did everything”, though the most desperate of women in a down-and-out situation wouldn’t be in much of a position to refuse any offers for any acts. Oral sex, anal sex, and fetish-work such as flagellation, transvestism, hair-combing or eye-licking (hey, there’s records of dudes who asked for those services and nothing particularly sexual, so quite extensively, whatever floats your boat.) Higher-ranking whores could charge more for these acts than their standard prices for straightforward copulation. In some cases, anal sex could cost double the charge for traditional intercourse. Such fetish-work as well as bisexual encounters (lesbian three-ways) were laughed at in the community, but were certainly available for those who didn’t mind being the butt of some jokes.
A kept mistress or courtesan, depending on her patron, might have obscene amounts of cash available to her, living in a style quite as high as their keeper’s lawful wife. They threw lavish parties and private dinners, had lines of credit with dressmakers, milliners, shopkeepers, and at gambling tables, taverns and theatres. They might be kept at a chic address, keep a private coach, command an army of servants, sometimes in their own unique livery; and have any number of jewels, clothes, gilded furnishings, and damask-lined walls in their apartments.
Composure, dignity and gentility could single a woman out from a more foul rabble of whores. The appearance, if not the practice of the virtues and honesty of a well-bred woman in a whore enthralled and thrilled men of the age. (Talk about a Madonna/whore complex.) Elite bawds might train up girls in conversation as well as physical allurements, with an education as rigorous as might be taught to more privileged young women of quality (albeit with a slightly different curriculum in some respects.) The career of a courtesan was often an option for attractive, educated girls with no fortune to assure them a respectable marriage. Daughters of lawyers, clergymen, half-pay officers, schoolmasters, physicians and shopkeepers often found themselves having to pursue such a line of work to earn their fortunes. Even among whores, genteel breeding was made to count.
If a man desired a particular unsullied girl to be seduced or “persuaded” to give themselves to him, a pimp could be applied to in order to use their talents of persuasion. This might extend as far as kidnapping and rape, and in at least one case, a pimp assumed a false identity, and, funded by his retainer, spent several months in the country wooing a girl in great earnest, only to persuade her to elope with him, whereupon he handed her over to his master and left. Some pimps would rape a client’s prospective paramour in order to first “break-in” a resistant girl, if the gentleman did not wish to trouble himself with the task of having to first seduce a reluctant female.
Rape was coyly referred to in publications as “seduction against their will” by the authors of the day. Though the veracity of some accounts must be taken with a grain of salt, there must be a grain of truth alongside it in every rumour. Standing records include reports of women being abducted and raped by noblemen. Most such incidents were never prosecuted or even reported to authorities.
An interested man might ask after a certain woman who is in keeping, and it was very much left to the lady’s discretion, then. Some did not scruple to take other lovers as they chose, while some preferred to stick with their patrons. This naturally varied from case to case, and depended on the wisdom of the woman, and how well she knew her keeper, and how much she knew to conceal from his knowedge.
Keepers would demand fidelity, but wouldn’t trust their mistresses to abide by such a promise, anyway. A kept woman might cultivate several backup lovers-in-waiting in case she found herself in want of protection or funds. A patron might become violent, even with an expensive mistress. Now and then a kept woman might be beaten, violated, cut, injured and dumped. A woman called Ann Bell was anally raped, repeatedly slashed with a penknife and had her hands broken before she was abandoned at a bathhouse by her keeper.
A pimp might double-book a whore servicing the upper rooms in a tavern in what was known as a “flier”. If in particular demand, the woman in question might be called away from one lover to quickly attend to the client who insisted on seeing her, before returning to the first with some vague excuse to finish her work with him.
The risks of prostitution (for the women, at least,) included syphilis, all manner of venereal taint, pregnancies and induced abortions, alcoholism, violence, imprisonment and starvation. Some women were happy and successful, and doubtless many more were not; however those who did not bother to conceal their disappointment or resentment of their lots were largely treated with disdain by their peers and clients.
In other reading, I came across the following quote from a modern-day call girl, working for an exclusive West End clientele: "You have to go into it at the top. This is not a job where you start at the bottom and work your way up. If you start at the bottom, you just sink lower."
This bears truth for all eras of prostitution. For all many women believed they could better their lots if they were clever (and some did,) they still had to contend with a society that used and abused them, and owed them nothing once the pounds and shillings were paid, (and no one but the women themselves much cared if payment were actually given or not.) For all we hear of women such as Nell Gwynne and Lady Hamilton and their high-born lovers, we must recall that Nell died of complications arising from syphilis before she was forty; and Emma also died comparatively prematurely, having spent time in prison, drinking heavily and in exile due to her debts. Mary Robinson, with her supposedly vaunted association with the Prince of Wales, died in her forties as well, after a life riddled with illness and disability as she drifted from lover to lover. The Prince abandoned her to debts, reneging on his promised payment, and the public who would not take her back in her former career on the stage due to her affair with royalty.
Rags to riches was the dream of many, and the visible high life led by the trade's most successful prostitutes seemed to uphold the possibility of it. However, a woman had to be careful, clever, and above all, lucky enough. Those who managed and retired quietly had had a bittersweet journey to their 'happy' ending in relative peace and prosperity, and they were the shockingly slim fraction of a percent-point, out of the thousands, if not millions, who had gone before, and with them on the same paths, only to end in debt, illness, solitude, and misery.