Theatrics and Entertainment in Austens Time

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Theatrics and Entertainmentin Austens Time

• Tiffini Drew
• Chelsea Lockie
• Nina Cervana
• Hunter Molzen

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Outdoor Activities
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• Hunting and Fishing
• Fishing was considered an appropriate activity
  for genteel women
• Property requirements for hunting
• Had to own land worth 100
• Or, had to lease land worth 150 a year
• Prey
• Early in the century
• Deer
• Game birds (hunted with guns or hawks)
• Later
• Foxes
• Hares
• Horses and Dogs were bred specifically for these
  purposes
• Hunt clubs were founded
• Riding wear became popularized for all casual
  occasions
• What Joy Was Mine! Entertainment

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http//www.janeausten.co.uk/magazine/page.ihtml?pi
d632step4
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• Horse Racing
• Became an organized and professional sport in the
  18th century
• The Jockey Club
• Founded in Newmarket in the early 1750s
• Wrote rules of racing and sanctioned racecourses
• Still controls English racing today
• Only men were jockeys, and they were the primary
  patrons of horse races
• Gambling was a major part of the races
• What Joy Was Mine! Entertainment
• http//www.localhistories.org/18thcent.html
• http//georgiantimes.homestead.com/files/sport/hor
  se/races.html

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• Sports
• Cricket
• Popular across class and gender lines
• The first cricket club founded around 1750 in
  Hambledon
• Drew huge crowds (20,000 for a match between
  Kent and Hampshire in 1772)
• People would gamble on matches, innings, and
  even individual balls.
• In 1751, Prince Frederick (a great patron of
  Cricket) was supposedly hit by a cricket ball and
  killed, which led to his son George III becoming
  king.
• A formal game of cricket can last anything from
  an afternoon to several days.
• What Joy Was Mine! Entertainment
• http//www.cs.purdue.edu/homes/hosking/cricket/e
  xplanation.htm

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• The Laws of Cricket
• Two teams of 11 players
• Equipment
• Cricket Ball Cricket Bat Wickets Stumps
• Bails Protective Gear Shoes Clothing
• Only the wicket-keeper (who stands behind one of
  the wickets) is allowed to wear a glove
• Coin toss determines batting order of teams (the
  captain who wins the toss elects to bat or field
  first)
• To score runs, the striker (the batsman opposite
  of the bowler) hits the ball and then both
  batsmen run to the popping crease of the opposite
  wicket. Multiple runs can be scored if they
  repeat this before the ball is thrown back to the
  wicket.
• Outs
• The ball is caught by a fielder after it is hit
  and before it hits the ground
• A fielder hits a wicket with the ball before the
  batsmen are behind the crease
• http//www.cs.purdue.edu/homes/hosking/cricket/exp
  lanation.htm

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http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cricket
http//www.cs.purdue.edu/homes/hosking/cricket/exp
lanation.htm
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• More Sports
• Tennis
• Golf
• Lawn Bowling
• Skittles (a variety of bowling)
• Shovel-board (shuffleboard)
• Quoits (related to horseshoe pitching)
• Ninepins (a variety of bowling)
• Football

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Entertainment in Austen

• Hunting
• Her brother and sister came back delighted with
  their new acquaintancethey seemed all to know
  each other perfectly, and Captain Wentworth was
  coming the very next morning to shoot with
  Charles. (Persuasion 39)
• William expressed an inclination to hunt and
  Crawford could mount him without the slightest
  inconvenience to himself (MP 162)
• When you have killed all your own birds, Mr.
  Bingley, said her mother, I beg you will come
  here, and shoot as many as you please, on Mr.
  Bennets manor. I am sure he will be vastly happy
  to oblige you, and will save all the best covies
  for you. (PP 219)
• Hunters! repeated Edward But why must you
  have hunters? Everybody does not hunt. (SS 67)

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Entertainment in Austen

• Sports
• Catherine preferred cricket, base ball, riding
  on horseback, and running about the country (NA
  7)

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Music, Theatre, and Opera
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Music

• Harpischord
• Pianoforte
• Harp
• Voice

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Music- Harpsichord Merges to Pianoforte

• The harpsichord was the most popular keyboard
  instrument used until 1765, but still did not
  decline in production until 1780 (in fact,
  production increased).
• The pianoforte (Henri Silbermann of Strasbourg)
  started gaining popularity in 1765, but sales
  started booming in the 1770s.
• Painoforte Perks Hammering action, Dampers the
  instrument in some detailbeing able to give
  greater or lesser emphasis to a note by pressing
  harder or softer on the keys. (Michael J. Cole
  The Pianoforte in the Classical Era)

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Pianoforte and Jane Austen

• Accounts of public concerts and private balls as
  well as music programs with hired musicians fill
  her letters. A dedicated amateur herself, Austen
  ordinarily played at the pianoforte at least an
  hour a day before breakfast from the 8-book music
  collection now preserved in her home at Chawton.
  For nieces and nephews she practiced 'country
  dances,' a number of which appear in her
  collections. Austen painstakingly copied and
  bound music that especially interested her. Two
  books are in her own hand - one of piano pieces
  and the other (Book III), of vocal music,
  recorded here in its entirety. Some pieces
  contain her own suggestions for ornamentation.
  Prominent themes are naval affairs, country life,
  drinking songs, love, Turkish and Moorish motifs,
  female character pieces, and the French
  Revolution
• http//www.jr.com/product/classical/pc/_541596/

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Austen and Pianoforte Cont.

• Austens niece, Caroline, describes Austens use
  of the pianoforte.
• Aunt Jane began her day with music for which I
  conclude she had a natural taste as she thus
  kept it up tho she had no one to teach was
  never induced (as I have heard) to play in
  company and none of her family cared much for
  it. I suppose that she might not trouble them,
  she chose her practising time before breakfast
  when she could have the room to herself She
  practised regularly every morning She played
  very pretty tunes, I thought and I liked to
  stand by her and listen to them but the music
  (for I knew the books well in after years) would
  now be thought disgracefully easy Much that she
  played from was manuscript, copied out by herself
  and so neatly and correctly, that it was as
  easy to read as print. (Austen, Caroline. My
  Aunt Jane, a Memoir - 1867. Jane Austen Society
  1952.)

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Popular Theatrics

• Besides engaging in music and elaborate balls,
  plays and attending the theatre were popular
  pastimes.
• During this time, Gothic literature was extremely
  popular, making Austens work seemingly unpopular
  (at least compared to today).

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The Opera

• Todays Opera/Theatre
• Seated quietly, dark room, easily annoyed by
  conversations during the performance (or
  texting).

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Opera

• 18th Century Opera
• The audience would socialize during the majority
  of the opera.
• Their attitudes toward the opera can be
  typically event oriented.
• Less barriers between audience and Performance,
  acceptable to yell out.
• Seeing and being seen.
• (Hall-Witt, Jennifer Fashionable Acts Opera and
  Elite Culture in London, 1780-1880)

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Opera

• Composers rarely revised their own operas to
  better showcase the talents of a new cast of
  singers, and they often reused music from earlier
  compositions in later works. Such practices
  resulted in high production rates Piccinni wrote
  some 134 opers, for instance- and fed the demand
  for novelty.
• -Jennifer Hall-Witt

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Opera and Social Rank

• When attending the opera, it was very important
  who was sitting in whos box.
• Ladies, dress up!
• Great opportunity to make conversation.
• Some would decide on which opera they were going
  to by who they could find out was attending.
• Climb social latter.

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Popular Composers/Operas

• Mozart (1756-1791)
• Ferdinando Paër (1771-1839)
• Giovanni Paisiello (1740-1816)
• Joseph Haydn Father of Symphony (1732-1809)
• Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868)

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Its not over until
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Indoor Pastimes
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Indoor Past Times

• Draw
• Paint
• Talk
• Tell stories
• Embroider
• Play music (pianofortes and spinets)
• Write in diaries (poetry, autobiographies)
• Read

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Reading

• History
• Biography
• Magazines
• Bible
• Almanac
• Old Moores almanac sold 100,000 one year
• Novel
• Epistolary
• Satire
• Etiquette books
• Gothic
• Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe (Northanger
  Abbey)

• 150,000 titles were published in the English
  language.
• Towards the end of the century, publishing
  increased 400.
• Possible explanation The entry of fiction in the
  education system

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The Temple of the Muses (Lackington Allen. Co.)
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Lending Libraries Circulating Subscription
Libraries

• Circulating Libraries
• First circulating library in England was
  established around 1730.
• By 1800, there were 26
• Often ran by booksellers
• Mostly held nonfiction, but also held plays,
  music scores, graphic arts, magazines
• Fiction was a controversial genre!
• Booksellers would lend and sell

• Subscription Libraries
• Started as a response to the circulating
  libraries and its selection
• Library vs. Booksellers
• Small subscription fee
• One guinea for the subscription
• Small fee per book
• Books were expensive
• Novel in 3 volumes 90
• Tales of Fashionable Life by Maria Edgeworth

An evergreen tree of diabolical knowledge Sir
Anthony Absolute (Richard Sheridens The Rivals)
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The Circulating Library in Scarborough
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Other Indoor Games

• Billiards
• Puzzles
• Guessing games
• Capping verses played by educated men

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Pastimes for the Children

• Dressed babies
• Marbles
• Dolls with glass eyes
• Toy fiddles
• Toy watches
• Puzzles
• Bilbo catchers
• Shooting flies with small guns
• Keeping Mayflies on a leash using a sewing string
• Conquer
• Pressing snails against another until a shell
  broke

http//www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/dolls-are
-more-than-toys/
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Fighting as Entertainment

• Cudgeling
• Each opponent receives two sticks, one to hit and
  the other with a shield
• Backswords
• Singlestick
• Each opponent receives one stick, and arm is tied
  to the back
• Game ends when blood is drawn (sometimes it has
  to be an inch)
• Good points to hit scalp, teeth, nose, etc.
  (wherever blood was most likely to be exposed)
• Boxing
• Wrestling
• Illegal, but lived though the support aristocrats
  
• (sponsorships, attendance, prizes)
• Bare-fisted
• Around 30 rounds
• Women also fought with women and sometimes men

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Animal fighting and torture

• Dog fighting
• Cockfighting
• Welsh Main A tournament of 32 birds
• Baiting A spectacle where a tied-up animal
  (bull was popular) was set up against dogs that
  are set loose
• Badge baiting betting on how many dogs can make
  a badger come out of a box
• Bear baiting
• Shying Contestants throws sticks for a fee at a
  rooster that is tied to a stake in hopes of
  knocking the rooster down and grabbing the animal
  before it stands up. The winner wins the rooster
  and can continue the game, earning more winnings.

• Supported by the local gentry, but there were few
  who opposed
• Cockfighting participants came from all levels of
  society

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Stores and Shops

• Square plate glass windows replace bottle bottoms
  of stores
• Window displays
• Lightened stores
• Window-shopping
• Jewelers and Goldsmiths (Marianne in Sense and
  Sensibility)
• The Royal Exchange, first shopping mall in 1568

Behind the great glass windows absolutely
everything one can think of is neatly,
attractively displayed, and in such abundance of
choice as almost to make one greedy. On
Oxford Street, Sophie von Rochea, German
novelist, 1896
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More stores

• Hardin, Howell Co. was one of or the first
  department store, being established in 1809 at
  Pall Mall
• 100 and 50 feet in length
• Divided into 4 departments
• Furs and fans
• Haberdashery silks, lace, gloves, muslin
• Jewelry, french clocks, perfume
• Millinery and dresses

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Travel and Tourism

• Medieval ruins
• Welsh mountains
• British Museum
• Peak and Lake Districts
• For those who could not travel
• Visits to neighbors for conversation, tea, dining
• Parades and street spectacles
• Cheese rolling
• Northumberland during Christmas
• Musicians and sword dancers go from door to door
  and perform. If they receive a tip, they fire a
  gun.

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Austens Time vs. Today?
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Ball Activities
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Ball Activities

• Food
• Dancing
• CARD GAMES!

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Social Interaction

• Men Hunting, Horse Races, Boxing, Wrestling,
  Animal Fights
• Women Reading, Music, Sewing, Conversing
• Men Women Eating (not really), Dancing, and
  Card Playing!

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Card Games

• Allowed men and women to interact in a proper
  social context
• Why is it important in Austens novels?
• Used to reveal character
• Used to provide a setting for men and women to
  interact

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Card Games of the 18th Century

• COMMERCE
• Players 3-12
• Object To finish with the best hand
• From Highest to lowest

Three of a Kind Three in a row of same
suit The greatest value of 2 or 3 cards of the
same suit, counting Aces as 11, Court Cards as
10 and others at numerical value. If equal, a 3
card flush beats a 2 card one. If sti ll equal,
the tied player nearest in turn after the dealer
wins.
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Card Games of the 18th Century

• LOO
• Players 3-17
• Object To win tricks and earn a share of the pot
• Shares similarities with poker
• Opportunities to Bet, Raise, and Fold
• Player with the best card, and/or the ability to
  trump the next highest card wins the pot

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Card Games of the 18th Century

• CASINO
• Players 2-4 (more if on teams)
• Object To be the first with 21 points
• The only popular fishing game in 18th century
  London
• Each Player is dealt four cards, and four cards
  are placed face up on the table
• The player with the highest valued cards at the
  end of each hand gets the most points
• The first player to reach 21 points wins

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Playing Cards in Austen

• Do you prefer reading to cards? That is rather
  singular!
• Darcy to Elizabeth in Pride and Prejudice
• After some time spent in saying little or doing
  less, Lady Middleton sat down to cassino and as
  Marianne was not in spirits for moving about, she
  and Elinor luckily succeeding to chairs, placed
  themselves at no great distance from the table.
• Sense and Sensibility
• Not as you represent it. Had she merely dined
  with him, she might only have discovered whether
  he had a good appetite but you must remember
  that four evenings have been also spent together
  -- and four evenings may do a great deal.
• Yes these four evenings have enabled them to
  ascertain that they both like Vingt-un better
  than Commerce but with respect to any other
  leading characteristic, I do not imagine that
  much has been unfolded. Pride and Prejudice
• On entering the drawing-room she found the whole
  party at loo, and was immediately invited to join
  them but suspecting them to be playing high, she
  declined it, for the short time she could stay
  below, with a book. Pride and Prejudice
• Here, however, the kindness of Mrs. Jennings
  interposed most acceptably for to send the
  Colonel away while his love was in so much
  uneasiness on her sister's account would be to
  deprive them both, she thought, of every comfort
  and, therefore, telling him at once that his stay
  at Cleveland was necessary to herself that she
  should want him to play at piquet of an
  evening Sense and Sensibility

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Ball Suggestions

• Card Games
• Poker
• Speed
• B.S.
• Board Games
• Checkers
• Chess
• Other Suggestions?

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Sources

• An Explanation of Cricket. Ed. David Mar. Oct.
  1995. 26 Apr. 2009. s/hosking/cricket/explanation.htm.
• Austen, Caroline. My Aunt Jane, a Memoir - 1867.
  Jane Austen Society 1952.
• Coopers Hill Cheese Rolling. Information
  Britain. 30 April 2009 tain.co.uk/customdetail.php?id2.
• Cricket. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Apr.
  2009. 27 Apr. 2009. /Cricket.
• "The 18th Century Theatre." Britannica.
  Encyclopedia Britannica. Web.28 Apr 2009.
  Western-theatre/274700/The-18th-century-theatre.
  
• The First Horse Races and Courses in Britain.
  Georgian Index. Ed. D. Wagoner. Aug 2000. 25 Apr
  2009. ort/horse/races.html.
• Forsling, Yvonne. Regency Shopping. Regency
  England. 27 April 2009 om/regency/stores.htm.
• Hall-Witt, Jennifer. Fashionable Acts Opera
  Elite Culture in London, 1780-1880. University of
  New Hampshire Press, 2007. Print.
• http//www.davidparlett.co.uk/histocs/
• http//www.historicgames.com/RPcards.html
• http//jducoeur.org/game-hist/game-rules.html
• http//www.pagat.com/
• Lambert, Tim. Life in the 18th Century.
  Localhistories.org. 21 Apr. 2009. http//www.localhistories.org/18thcent.html.
• Moody, Jane. Illegitamate Theatre in London,
  1770-1840. Cambridge. College University Press,
  2000. Print.
• Morehead, Albert H. and Geoffery Mott-Smith, eds.
  Hoyles Rules of Games. 2nd ed. New York Signet,
  1983.
• "A Must for Jane Fans." Albany Records. 27 Apr
  2009 ant.mvc?ScreenPRODStore_CodeARProduct_CodeTRO
  Y722.
• Olsen, Kirstin. What Joy Was Mine!
  Entertainment. Daily Life in 18th-Century
  England. London Greenwood, 1999.

FIN