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MUSIC: Habanera by George Bizet
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In our modern world,
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there's an idea that fills our dreams and desires -
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something we've all searched for.
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Romantic love.
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Ooh!
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What's fascinating is that so much of romance
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isn't about spontaneous feeling.
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All of love's rituals
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had to be invented.
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Even the way we feel can be traced back to specific historical moments.
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Now we reach the Victorian age
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when a changing society
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drew inspiration from the Middle Ages.
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Chivalry was reborn
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and there were new roles to play
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as manly men paid tribute
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to sweet, angelic ladies.
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Valentine's cards and flowers
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created a new language of love...
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..and novels continued to shape our vision of romance,
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transforming the way we felt and behaved...
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..but then women began to speak their minds,
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hidden desires were revealed.
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Welcome to the Victorian way of love.
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It's sometimes hard to see the softer side of Victorian Britain -
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a world of Industry, machinery and hardship...
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..but the workshop of the world
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didn't only manufacture cloth.
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Tales of romance were being woven into ordinary lives,
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even in the most unpromising of places -
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the factories themselves.
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For millions of women,
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romance became an escape.
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Women like Scottish power-loom weaver, Ellen Johnston...
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..part of a tiny tribe of working class WOMEN writers.
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Sent out to work at the age of 11
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by her villainous stepfather,
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Ellen toiled all of her life in factories.
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She was twice abandoned by a lover
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and her daughter was born out of wedlock.
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Ellen's life was as tough as you could imagine
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and yet she had an escape.
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She lived as if she were the heroine of a romantic novel.
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"By reading love adventures," she said,
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"my brain was fired with wild imaginations."
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Ellen's romantic fantasies
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helped her to step outside the difficulties of her young life.
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In her autobiography, she wrote,
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"I had many characters to imitate
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"in the course of the day.
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"In the residence of my stepfather,
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"I was a weeping willow.
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"In the factory, I was pensive and thoughtful."
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And soon, Ellen began to turn these daydreams into poetry.
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Her work was published under the pseudonym of "the Factory Girl".
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This was quite surprising
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and so too were some of the poems.
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One of them was written in praise of
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the surpassing beauty of a young man she fancied.
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And Ellen did not take the easy way out,
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she refused an offer of marriage
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from a middle class man
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because he wanted her to stop writing
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and she didn't really love him anyway.
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For Ellen, romance was more important
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than the drudgery of her everyday life.
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Ellen may have been unconventional,
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but the books that inspired her were not.
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One writer, in particular, began her journey -
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Walter Scott.
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Scott introduced Ellen,
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and indeed the whole of Britain,
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to a new world of romance
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with his own take on medieval tales of love and honour.
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He became so famous
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that he was regarded
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as the 19th century's own equivalent of Shakespeare.
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His home, Abbotsford,
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represents him perfectly -
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a peculiar mix of ancient baronial pile
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and middle class domesticity.
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And when it came to his most influential book, Ivanhoe,
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Scott applied the same approach
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to the chivalric romances of old.
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Published in 1820,
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it was a tale of 12th century knightly adventures...
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but with a modern twist.
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In the story of Ivanhoe,
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the hero has quite a lot in common
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with Walter Scott himself.
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He's modest and honourable,
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and diligent.
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He's basically a man of the 19th century,
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rather than a knight of old...
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and Scott doesn't really approve
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of the heroines of the medieval romances
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that inspired his work.
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"These haughty beauties," he said,
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"sometimes conferred upon their lovers
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"the rights of a husband
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"before any wedding had taken place."
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The leading ladies of Scott's own tales of the olden days
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never get up to any premarital hanky-panky.
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There isn't much in the way of passion.
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We're told more about what the women are wearing,
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than what they're feeling,
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which might explain why ladies liked to dress up
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as the heroines of the book...
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..particularly for the climactic scene,
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where the women in Ivanhoe's life
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compete in a kind of virtue face-off.
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Rebecca is dark, glamorous and Jewish.
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She's also supremely self-sacrificing.
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Ivanhoe rescues Rebecca after she's accused of being a sorceress.
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She loves him, but she knows that she can never marry him,
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because she's a Jew and he's a Christian.
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When Rebecca comes to meet her rival,
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she begs to see the face of the woman who's won Ivanhoe's heart.
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Rowena is a Saxon noblewoman.
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She's blonde, she's virtuous and she's loyal.
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Some people might think she's a bit boring
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but many thought that she was perfect wife material
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and, in the story of Ivanhoe, it's goody-goody Rowena who gets the man.
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Ivanhoe was a phenomenon,
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a guide for behaviour,
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and one of the most influential books of the 19th century.
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The idea of chivalry it promoted
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helped the British to define themselves
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just as society was being totally transformed by industry and empire.
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When Queen Victoria married Prince Albert in 1839,
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chivalry became part of THEIR romance, too.
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Albert dressed up as her knight in shining armour.
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It was an idea that caught on.
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MEDIEVAL DRUMBEAT AND FANFARE
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Chivalry was the perfect expression
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of what it meant to be a Victorian gentleman.
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It gave you a set of rules for living.
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You could aspire to be
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LIKE a medieval knight,
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a man of action and honour -
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even if you were, for example, a bank clerk.
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Medieval knights were supposed to be strong,
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but also gentle and polite.
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They were supposed to be manly.
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They probably had beards
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and that was behind the Victorian fondness for facial hair.
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Chivalry was basically romance,
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but for MEN!
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Ooh, hello!
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No more soft, swooning lovers -
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men were champions.
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They paid homage and then went off to do great deeds.
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And what about the knight's lady?
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Well, obviously, she had to be pretty special
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to deserve all this worship.
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In an ideal world, she'd wait at home to be rescued.
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She was far too pure to experience
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anything like sexual desire.
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It was her job to heal the knight,
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to tend to his wounds
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or, perhaps, to inspire him
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with the shining example of her virtue.
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A chivalrous gentleman
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needed to treat his middle class damsel
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with great delicacy
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if he was to win her heart.
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His visits had to be paid,
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not to the young lady herself but,
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to a respectable guardian
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with calling cards left only
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within certain visiting hours.
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The lives of well-off Victorian young ladies
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were very tightly restricted,
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but there was one moment when THEY held the balance of power
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cos they could decide
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whether or not to receive
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a gentleman who'd come to call.
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You had to make this decision with care,
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cos if you received somebody who was disreputable,
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your own reputation would suffer.
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A "suitable" gentleman might be invited to an informal gathering -
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perhaps an afternoon at home with refreshments and music.
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Hmm.
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Oh, no, Aldwell, tell him I'm not at home, please.
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Ah!
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"Professor Derek Scott, University of Leeds."
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He sounds interesting, he can come in.
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And there was one place where romance could blossom -
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at the piano.
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Derek, what role does music play in courtship?
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Well, music was a great way of gaining attention.
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The possession of some musical skill,
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especially for a young woman
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seems to be connected with
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her whole moral character.
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And it's quite good if you weren't particularly good looking.
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You could show yourself off, in other ways, at the piano.
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That added, kind of, emotional projection
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that music gives
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can make most people attractive.
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If a man and a woman were going to sing together or play a duet,
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presumably this led to wonderful intimacy.
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If the man was playing the bass part,
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and they tend to, the man's right hand and the woman's left hand...
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- They might touch!
- Yeah, they're going to clash...
- Whoa!
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- ..together at times and...
- Yes.
- ..that's most unfortunate.
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Oh, dear, yes.
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That's most regrettable, isn't it?
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So, what sort of songs would they be singing in the drawing room
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when a courtship was underway?
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For example, if you're a man and you want to impress, maybe you sing...
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..a soldier song.
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# Yes, let me, like a soldier, fall
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# Upon an open play. #
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And the woman will think,
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"Wow, there's a butch guy.
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"Maybe I can interest him."
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And women had their own songs as well.
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Songs about the home.
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You'd think, "Oh, this is someone that really cares for their home."
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Songs about children, songs about flowers,
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The Last Rose Of Summer or...
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Did the idea of chivalry
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have any effect on music?
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Oh, certainly.
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If it was a man's song
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that suggests that,
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"I'm not singing this to you
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"because I find you gorgeously attractive
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"and I'm consumed with desire.
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"I'm singing this because
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"you seem to be radiating truth and honesty and,
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"even when you're an old ruin,
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"my love will be like...
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"ivy clinging round a castle wall.
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"I will still feel passionate about you."
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Let's sing that song, that sounds good.
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# Thou would still be adored
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# As this moment thou art
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# Let thy loveliness fade as it will
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# And around the dear ruin
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# Each wish of my heart
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# Would entwine itself verdantly still... #
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If a song failed to win her heart,
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perhaps you could try the big, new craze - the language of flowers.
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Each flower was supposed to represent
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a particular idea or emotion,
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so Victorian lovers could communicate
250
00:14:28,160 --> 00:14:29,960
without ever saying a word.
251
00:14:36,720 --> 00:14:38,240
The author of this book
252
00:14:38,240 --> 00:14:39,560
thinks that everybody
253
00:14:39,560 --> 00:14:43,240
ought to be able to understand the "language of flowers".
254
00:14:43,240 --> 00:14:46,200
That's because, if you send your girlfriend a bouquet...
255
00:14:46,200 --> 00:14:47,960
"It'll make her far happier
256
00:14:47,960 --> 00:14:50,080
"than the far-fetched expressions
257
00:14:50,080 --> 00:14:53,200
"of even the most tender note."
258
00:14:53,200 --> 00:14:55,320
Ladies like flowers.
259
00:14:55,320 --> 00:14:58,200
They're soft, marshmallowy creatures.
260
00:14:58,200 --> 00:15:01,560
It says here that, "The art of lovemaking is, with women,
261
00:15:01,560 --> 00:15:03,600
"the art of self-defence;
262
00:15:03,600 --> 00:15:06,760
"the more scrupulous and delicate they are,
263
00:15:06,760 --> 00:15:08,840
"the more worthy, are they,
264
00:15:08,840 --> 00:15:11,000
"of the homage rendered to them."
265
00:15:12,000 --> 00:15:14,400
Now, because each individual flower
266
00:15:14,400 --> 00:15:16,240
has its own individual meaning,
267
00:15:16,240 --> 00:15:18,360
you can put them together in bunches
268
00:15:18,360 --> 00:15:21,320
to make quite complex sentences.
269
00:15:21,320 --> 00:15:23,880
For example, if you send her
270
00:15:23,880 --> 00:15:25,280
strawberry, mignonette,
271
00:15:25,280 --> 00:15:26,720
bluebell and tulip -
272
00:15:26,720 --> 00:15:28,520
all in the same bouquet -
273
00:15:28,520 --> 00:15:29,640
you're saying,
274
00:15:29,640 --> 00:15:34,480
"Your perfect goodness, excellent qualities and kindness
275
00:15:34,480 --> 00:15:37,800
"constrain me to declare my regard."
276
00:15:37,800 --> 00:15:39,240
If, on the other hand,
277
00:15:39,240 --> 00:15:41,360
you send violet, jasmine and roses,
278
00:15:41,360 --> 00:15:43,400
you're saying something quite different.
279
00:15:43,400 --> 00:15:49,280
"Your modesty and amiability inspire me with the warmest affection."
280
00:15:49,280 --> 00:15:52,160
So I love the idea of Victorian ladies
281
00:15:52,160 --> 00:15:54,720
going, rather desperately, through the book thinking,
282
00:15:54,720 --> 00:15:56,720
"Oh, I hope he made a mistake,
283
00:15:56,720 --> 00:15:58,800
"because he seems to have sent me...
284
00:15:58,800 --> 00:16:00,520
"painful reflections."
285
00:16:04,040 --> 00:16:06,400
Despite the potential for error,
286
00:16:06,400 --> 00:16:08,000
one thing was for sure -
287
00:16:08,000 --> 00:16:10,480
romance was selling books.
288
00:16:10,480 --> 00:16:13,560
Floriography - note the sciencey name -
289
00:16:13,560 --> 00:16:15,720
became something of an industry.
290
00:16:21,440 --> 00:16:24,640
The commercial possibilities of Valentine's day
291
00:16:24,640 --> 00:16:27,080
were also being explored,
292
00:16:27,080 --> 00:16:28,720
partly due to the arrival,
293
00:16:28,720 --> 00:16:31,320
in 1840, of the Penny Post.
294
00:16:34,200 --> 00:16:36,360
Tender expressions of love
295
00:16:36,360 --> 00:16:38,920
were now available ready-made,
296
00:16:38,920 --> 00:16:40,800
complete with poem,
297
00:16:40,800 --> 00:16:42,360
and assembled, quite possibly,
298
00:16:42,360 --> 00:16:44,360
by burly blokes in factories.
299
00:16:47,800 --> 00:16:50,360
These are all Valentine's cards
300
00:16:50,360 --> 00:16:52,680
from the workshop of Jonathan King,
301
00:16:52,680 --> 00:16:54,600
who ran his business next door
302
00:16:54,600 --> 00:16:56,760
to his stationery shop in Islington.
303
00:16:56,760 --> 00:16:58,160
Now, in the 18th century,
304
00:16:58,160 --> 00:17:00,800
you probably would have made your own Valentine's card
305
00:17:00,800 --> 00:17:02,360
but, by the 19th century,
306
00:17:02,360 --> 00:17:03,920
you could go to a shop
307
00:17:03,920 --> 00:17:06,640
and you get a sense that the stakes were raised
308
00:17:06,640 --> 00:17:11,240
because your lady friend would judge you on how much money you'd spent.
309
00:17:11,240 --> 00:17:14,120
Here's a lovely, simple, little card.
310
00:17:15,400 --> 00:17:17,200
Love amongst the roses,
311
00:17:17,200 --> 00:17:18,840
a sweet looking girl,
312
00:17:18,840 --> 00:17:22,280
but if you received that AND this,
313
00:17:22,280 --> 00:17:25,240
you might think that this gentleman loved you more
314
00:17:25,240 --> 00:17:28,200
because he'd obviously spent a lot more money on the gold,
315
00:17:28,200 --> 00:17:30,480
the lace, the cut-out of the lady
316
00:17:30,480 --> 00:17:33,680
and the silver mirror in the middle of it all.
317
00:17:33,680 --> 00:17:37,840
Now, if you think this is a bit too saccharine and feminine,
318
00:17:37,840 --> 00:17:39,920
here's a curious phenomenon -
319
00:17:39,920 --> 00:17:42,440
the vinegar valentine.
320
00:17:42,440 --> 00:17:44,280
You would send one of these,
321
00:17:44,280 --> 00:17:46,440
as an anti-Valentine's card,
322
00:17:46,440 --> 00:17:49,520
to, maybe, a girlfriend who'd dumped you.
323
00:17:49,520 --> 00:17:50,920
Here's an overdressed,
324
00:17:50,920 --> 00:17:52,880
horrible-looking lady and it says,
325
00:17:52,880 --> 00:17:55,320
"False, false, false, false."
326
00:17:55,320 --> 00:17:57,920
She's got false hair, false cheeks -
327
00:17:57,920 --> 00:18:00,200
too much make-up - and a false bosom.
328
00:18:02,600 --> 00:18:04,800
But the best card of all is this.
329
00:18:08,440 --> 00:18:10,760
This... This is the mother
330
00:18:10,760 --> 00:18:12,920
of all Valentine's cards -
331
00:18:12,920 --> 00:18:16,480
and this was made by Jonathan King, himself,
332
00:18:16,480 --> 00:18:18,360
for his lady love
333
00:18:18,360 --> 00:18:21,920
and, as you open it up, you discover...
334
00:18:21,920 --> 00:18:24,080
there are flowers,
335
00:18:24,080 --> 00:18:25,240
a poem,
336
00:18:25,240 --> 00:18:28,760
there are all these, sort of, lacy, ribbony layers to it
337
00:18:28,760 --> 00:18:30,480
with shells,
338
00:18:30,480 --> 00:18:33,800
and gold and silver.
339
00:18:33,800 --> 00:18:36,760
You can imagine her opening all this up and thinking,
340
00:18:36,760 --> 00:18:39,600
"That must be the end of it, there cannot be any more."
341
00:18:39,600 --> 00:18:40,960
But there is...
342
00:18:40,960 --> 00:18:45,640
because, on the back of it, is a secret hidden compartment...
343
00:18:47,400 --> 00:18:48,920
..and if you open up this one,
344
00:18:48,920 --> 00:18:50,480
you discover
345
00:18:50,480 --> 00:18:54,040
a hidden paper chest of drawers
346
00:18:54,040 --> 00:18:58,400
and each of the drawers contains a womanly virtue.
347
00:18:58,400 --> 00:19:00,200
We've got good humour,
348
00:19:00,200 --> 00:19:04,360
here's humility - very important...
349
00:19:04,360 --> 00:19:07,040
You should employ innocence
350
00:19:07,040 --> 00:19:09,080
and if she works her way through,
351
00:19:09,080 --> 00:19:11,560
she would have discovered a gold ring.
352
00:19:11,560 --> 00:19:13,400
This Valentine was probably
353
00:19:13,400 --> 00:19:15,600
his proposal to her.
354
00:19:16,800 --> 00:19:18,200
They did get married
355
00:19:18,200 --> 00:19:19,520
the very next year.
356
00:19:19,520 --> 00:19:21,680
They had 15 children together
357
00:19:21,680 --> 00:19:24,000
and they named one of them Valentine.
358
00:19:25,920 --> 00:19:28,280
Valentine's cards helped to reinforce
359
00:19:28,280 --> 00:19:31,080
an ideal of Victorian womanhood -
360
00:19:31,080 --> 00:19:33,760
pure, delicate and selfless.
361
00:19:36,680 --> 00:19:41,640
Woman's mission, as this painting by George Elgar Hicks would have it,
362
00:19:41,640 --> 00:19:45,120
was to serve as the companion of manhood -
363
00:19:45,120 --> 00:19:46,840
a source of quiet comfort
364
00:19:46,840 --> 00:19:49,080
for the careworn husband...
365
00:19:49,080 --> 00:19:52,480
but the ideal didn't always translate well into reality.
366
00:20:03,080 --> 00:20:05,560
I've come to the home of one fascinating
367
00:20:05,560 --> 00:20:07,560
and famously bickering
368
00:20:07,560 --> 00:20:10,880
Victorian couple - Jane and Thomas Carlyle.
369
00:20:14,000 --> 00:20:16,400
When they moved here in 1834,
370
00:20:16,400 --> 00:20:18,760
Thomas Carlyle was a poor writer,
371
00:20:18,760 --> 00:20:21,480
soon to become famous for his works of history,
372
00:20:21,480 --> 00:20:23,560
philosophy and social comment.
373
00:20:26,480 --> 00:20:29,120
Jane was the elegant - and clever -
374
00:20:29,120 --> 00:20:30,360
daughter of a doctor.
375
00:20:36,240 --> 00:20:39,120
As a young woman, Jane read romances
376
00:20:39,120 --> 00:20:41,640
and she decided never to get married.
377
00:20:41,640 --> 00:20:44,200
"The perfect mortal," she wrote,
378
00:20:44,200 --> 00:20:47,680
"exists only in the romance of my imagination."
379
00:20:47,680 --> 00:20:49,920
Hearing about people getting engaged,
380
00:20:49,920 --> 00:20:52,720
"brought on her asthma," she said.
381
00:20:52,720 --> 00:20:57,320
But over five years, Thomas Carlyle wooed her with his letters.
382
00:20:57,320 --> 00:21:00,080
He was like her tutor bringing her on.
383
00:21:00,080 --> 00:21:03,440
Eventually she said, "Yes, I am going to marry him.
384
00:21:03,440 --> 00:21:07,480
"He has a towering intellect to command me,
385
00:21:07,480 --> 00:21:09,520
"and a spirit of fire,
386
00:21:09,520 --> 00:21:11,720
"to be my guiding star."
387
00:21:11,720 --> 00:21:13,840
In other words, a bit of a bossy boots.
388
00:21:16,320 --> 00:21:19,400
They were a freethinking couple in their romance...
389
00:21:21,000 --> 00:21:22,400
..but once they were married,
390
00:21:22,400 --> 00:21:24,160
they adopted the roles that
391
00:21:24,160 --> 00:21:26,040
contemporaries prescribed.
392
00:21:26,040 --> 00:21:28,640
He - at his writing,
393
00:21:28,640 --> 00:21:32,720
she - keeping the house quiet and tending to his needs.
394
00:21:34,080 --> 00:21:39,960
Author AN Wilson has agreed to help me understand their relationship
395
00:21:39,960 --> 00:21:43,080
with the help of some Victorian conduct manuals.
396
00:21:48,160 --> 00:21:50,520
This is incredibly unromantic.
397
00:21:50,520 --> 00:21:53,680
It says here, "Married women, it must be gratifying to receive,
398
00:21:53,680 --> 00:21:55,640
"from a husband, just so much attention
399
00:21:55,640 --> 00:21:58,560
"as indicates a consciousness of your presence."
400
00:21:58,560 --> 00:22:00,440
THEY LAUGH
401
00:22:00,440 --> 00:22:02,880
- Oh, dear.
- So, you must be very grateful
402
00:22:02,880 --> 00:22:04,920
if he even recognises you've come into the room
403
00:22:04,920 --> 00:22:06,760
or that you're sitting inside of the room.
404
00:22:06,760 --> 00:22:08,520
And that's enough.
405
00:22:08,520 --> 00:22:12,720
How typical would you say that Thomas and Jane Carlyle's marriage was?
406
00:22:12,720 --> 00:22:15,120
Well, they were very strong characters.
407
00:22:15,120 --> 00:22:17,320
It was an unusual marriage in lots of respects.
408
00:22:17,320 --> 00:22:20,680
It was childless and I think, probably, deliberately childless.
409
00:22:20,680 --> 00:22:22,400
Certainly on his part.
410
00:22:22,400 --> 00:22:24,080
They got on extremely badly.
411
00:22:24,080 --> 00:22:26,400
- I mean, legendarily badly.
- Oh, dear.
412
00:22:26,400 --> 00:22:29,760
When they were apart, they realised that they did, deep down,
413
00:22:29,760 --> 00:22:32,920
really love one another, so it's a heartbreaking marriage, actually.
414
00:22:32,920 --> 00:22:34,560
Do you think that Thomas Carlyle
415
00:22:34,560 --> 00:22:36,760
expected his wife, Jane, to do all the things
416
00:22:36,760 --> 00:22:39,440
that Victorian gentlemen expected their wives to do?
417
00:22:39,440 --> 00:22:40,520
Certainly.
418
00:22:40,520 --> 00:22:43,800
I mean, he regarded her with awe and reverence,
419
00:22:43,800 --> 00:22:46,160
and he realised what a clever person she was.
420
00:22:46,160 --> 00:22:49,880
This didn't, in any way, stop him expecting her to do all the chores
421
00:22:49,880 --> 00:22:53,320
and take responsibility for absolutely everything.
422
00:22:53,320 --> 00:22:56,160
When she married him, he was a very poor man
423
00:22:56,160 --> 00:22:59,320
and there was no money for all the servants that she'd been used to
424
00:22:59,320 --> 00:23:02,120
so she taught herself how to cook,
425
00:23:02,120 --> 00:23:04,720
how to run a household as
426
00:23:04,720 --> 00:23:06,320
if she was a housemaid.
427
00:23:06,320 --> 00:23:08,680
She didn't do it quietly and meekly, though, did she?
428
00:23:08,680 --> 00:23:10,800
She did not do anything quietly or meekly.
429
00:23:10,800 --> 00:23:13,440
She was a very hot-tempered, difficult person
430
00:23:13,440 --> 00:23:16,600
and he was aware of her doing all these chores.
431
00:23:16,600 --> 00:23:19,840
"The domestic sphere is the woman's sphere,
432
00:23:19,840 --> 00:23:24,680
"the sphere of the man is work and club, land and that sort of thing."
433
00:23:24,680 --> 00:23:27,120
But what's always intriguing about conduct books is that
434
00:23:27,120 --> 00:23:29,040
they present an ideal and
435
00:23:29,040 --> 00:23:31,960
reality rarely matches, doesn't it?
436
00:23:31,960 --> 00:23:33,880
Well, that's absolutely true
437
00:23:33,880 --> 00:23:35,760
but I think these books are
438
00:23:35,760 --> 00:23:37,520
attempting to make us
439
00:23:37,520 --> 00:23:39,120
come to terms with reality -
440
00:23:39,120 --> 00:23:40,960
if we are Victorian, young women -
441
00:23:40,960 --> 00:23:43,920
and one of the realities is that, for much of the time,
442
00:23:43,920 --> 00:23:46,240
the life of a domestic women,
443
00:23:46,240 --> 00:23:50,840
whether in the 19th century or any other century, is extremely boring.
444
00:23:50,840 --> 00:23:55,040
Don't expect life to be like a romantic novel.
445
00:23:55,040 --> 00:23:56,120
Mmm.
446
00:23:56,120 --> 00:23:59,040
On the other hand, obviously, it's rather nice if,
447
00:23:59,040 --> 00:24:02,320
when you first set out to live with somebody,
448
00:24:02,320 --> 00:24:03,520
if you're in love.
449
00:24:03,520 --> 00:24:07,160
But they're recommending a sort of steady, sensible, everyday,
450
00:24:07,160 --> 00:24:08,920
mundane sort of love, aren't they?
451
00:24:08,920 --> 00:24:12,120
They certainly are because, I mean, passion...
452
00:24:12,120 --> 00:24:14,320
Oh! That's bad.
453
00:24:14,320 --> 00:24:16,160
- That's rather dangerous.
- It's dodgy.
454
00:24:16,160 --> 00:24:17,840
I mean, I think it's a little dodgy.
455
00:24:17,840 --> 00:24:20,760
- Passion is the enemy of domestic bliss.
- Yes.
456
00:24:23,080 --> 00:24:27,240
What was an independent-minded girl to do?
457
00:24:27,240 --> 00:24:29,040
In the end, the chivalrous suitor
458
00:24:29,040 --> 00:24:32,720
expected you to devote yourself to serving him.
459
00:24:36,120 --> 00:24:38,160
Then, in 1847,
460
00:24:38,160 --> 00:24:39,680
a book appeared that proposed
461
00:24:39,680 --> 00:24:41,080
a new kind of romance...
462
00:24:43,080 --> 00:24:46,320
..and introduced a new kind of heroine.
463
00:24:58,920 --> 00:25:01,200
The author, Charlotte Bronte,
464
00:25:01,200 --> 00:25:03,280
had set out to prove to her sisters
465
00:25:03,280 --> 00:25:05,960
that it was possible to write a romantic novel
466
00:25:05,960 --> 00:25:09,360
about a girl who wasn't beautiful.
467
00:25:09,360 --> 00:25:13,440
"I will show you a heroine as plain and as small as myself,
468
00:25:13,440 --> 00:25:18,200
"who shall be as interesting as any of yours," she said...
469
00:25:18,200 --> 00:25:20,080
and along came Jane Eyre -
470
00:25:20,080 --> 00:25:22,200
"A plain, Quaker-ish governess."
471
00:25:31,920 --> 00:25:35,760
Jane isn't a conventional Victorian heroine
472
00:25:35,760 --> 00:25:39,400
and Rochester is pretty unconventional too.
473
00:25:39,400 --> 00:25:41,880
He's 20 years older than Jane.
474
00:25:41,880 --> 00:25:44,160
He's almost ugly.
475
00:25:44,160 --> 00:25:47,200
He's described as having a "grim mouth"
476
00:25:47,200 --> 00:25:50,640
and he's got a cruel, dark brow.
477
00:25:50,640 --> 00:25:54,160
He also behaves cruelly to Jane.
478
00:25:54,160 --> 00:25:56,080
He plays games with her,
479
00:25:56,080 --> 00:26:00,960
he tricks her into thinking that he's going to marry her beautiful rival
480
00:26:00,960 --> 00:26:03,720
and Rochester says things to Jane
481
00:26:03,720 --> 00:26:07,240
that no conventional Victorian woman should hear.
482
00:26:07,240 --> 00:26:11,640
He tells her about his previous sexual indiscretions.
483
00:26:15,320 --> 00:26:17,560
One commentator concluded
484
00:26:17,560 --> 00:26:21,360
"The hero and heroine are both so singularly unattractive
485
00:26:21,360 --> 00:26:24,520
"that the reader feels they can have no vocation in the novel
486
00:26:24,520 --> 00:26:26,600
"BUT to be brought together."
487
00:26:28,360 --> 00:26:32,760
But most shocking of all is the way that Jane speaks to Rochester.
488
00:26:34,680 --> 00:26:36,360
Jane.
489
00:26:37,480 --> 00:26:41,440
Jane is clever, she's proud, she's combative.
490
00:26:43,640 --> 00:26:46,800
"Do you think I am an automaton?"
491
00:26:46,800 --> 00:26:48,080
She says.
492
00:26:48,080 --> 00:26:50,600
"A machine without feelings?
493
00:26:50,600 --> 00:26:54,720
"Do you think - because I am poor, obscure, plain and little -
494
00:26:54,720 --> 00:26:57,440
"I am soulless and heartless?
495
00:26:57,440 --> 00:26:59,320
"You think wrong!
496
00:26:59,320 --> 00:27:02,480
"It is my spirit that addresses your spirit,
497
00:27:02,480 --> 00:27:04,800
"just as if both had passed through the grave
498
00:27:04,800 --> 00:27:06,320
"and we stood at God's feet -
499
00:27:06,320 --> 00:27:08,360
"equal, as we are!"
500
00:27:10,840 --> 00:27:13,680
Contemporary reviewers were shocked.
501
00:27:13,680 --> 00:27:17,160
Charlotte Bronte used the pseudonym of Currer Bell
502
00:27:17,160 --> 00:27:18,880
and many felt that the author
503
00:27:18,880 --> 00:27:21,120
could not have been a woman.
504
00:27:21,120 --> 00:27:26,080
What woman could create a heroine so outspoken, so unfeminine?
505
00:27:26,080 --> 00:27:27,920
What woman could imagine a plot
506
00:27:27,920 --> 00:27:32,720
where the so-called hero tries to commit bigamy?
507
00:27:32,720 --> 00:27:35,920
But the book was a spectacular success.
508
00:27:35,920 --> 00:27:39,880
Jane Eyre changed the romantic landscape for ever.
509
00:27:41,920 --> 00:27:44,480
A few years after Jane Eyre came out,
510
00:27:44,480 --> 00:27:46,880
another novelist, Mrs Oliphant,
511
00:27:46,880 --> 00:27:51,600
described it as "a declaration of the rights of woman."
512
00:27:51,600 --> 00:27:57,520
She said that the age was past for chivalrous, knightly, reverent love -
513
00:27:57,520 --> 00:28:00,760
all that really did was make the woman look inferior.
514
00:28:00,760 --> 00:28:03,280
"Girls of today," Mrs Oliphant said,
515
00:28:03,280 --> 00:28:08,400
"didn't want to be treated like sensitive lilies or beautiful roses,"
516
00:28:08,400 --> 00:28:13,040
and that this was "the most alarming revolution of modern times."
517
00:28:14,160 --> 00:28:17,360
Jane Eyre introduced a new type of courtship,
518
00:28:17,360 --> 00:28:19,200
one in which women could fight,
519
00:28:19,200 --> 00:28:21,160
could prove their strength
520
00:28:21,160 --> 00:28:23,560
and achieve something like equality.
521
00:28:28,480 --> 00:28:31,080
This new vision of romance,
522
00:28:31,080 --> 00:28:32,320
a battle of the sexes
523
00:28:32,320 --> 00:28:35,440
where the outcome was an alliance of mind and soul,
524
00:28:35,440 --> 00:28:37,160
could be an inspiration...
525
00:28:38,680 --> 00:28:40,880
..but it could also sow discontent,
526
00:28:40,880 --> 00:28:43,960
when real marriages did not match the ideal.
527
00:28:45,400 --> 00:28:47,240
The intimate fantasies
528
00:28:47,240 --> 00:28:49,440
of Victorian wives
529
00:28:49,440 --> 00:28:52,320
have rarely been preserved for posterity -
530
00:28:52,320 --> 00:28:55,520
but there is one startling exception.
531
00:29:02,960 --> 00:29:06,720
Isabella Robinson was a respectable, married lady,
532
00:29:06,720 --> 00:29:10,000
living with her slightly horrible husband, Henry.
533
00:29:10,000 --> 00:29:15,480
He was grumpy with her and she felt he was misusing her money.
534
00:29:15,480 --> 00:29:17,440
The three volumes of her diaries
535
00:29:17,440 --> 00:29:20,120
that go from 1850-1855,
536
00:29:20,120 --> 00:29:23,120
give the details of her growing friendship with a doctor,
537
00:29:23,120 --> 00:29:24,720
Edward Lane.
538
00:29:24,720 --> 00:29:26,960
He was ten years younger than Isabella
539
00:29:26,960 --> 00:29:29,240
and he was married to somebody else.
540
00:29:29,240 --> 00:29:33,160
At first, this was a meeting of minds to Isabella,
541
00:29:33,160 --> 00:29:36,720
they used to have deep intellectual conversations,
542
00:29:36,720 --> 00:29:38,880
but, as time went on, her feelings
543
00:29:38,880 --> 00:29:41,480
developed into something even deeper.
544
00:29:41,480 --> 00:29:44,320
It all came to a head in 1854
545
00:29:44,320 --> 00:29:47,640
when they went out together on a country walk.
546
00:29:51,080 --> 00:29:56,120
"We walked on, and seated ourselves in a glade of surpassing beauty.
547
00:29:57,640 --> 00:30:00,080
"The sun shone warmly down upon us.
548
00:30:00,080 --> 00:30:02,920
"I gave myself up to enjoyment.
549
00:30:04,600 --> 00:30:10,360
"He leaned over me and exclaimed, 'if you say that again, I will kiss you.'
550
00:30:10,360 --> 00:30:13,120
"You may believe I made no opposition
551
00:30:13,120 --> 00:30:19,040
"for had I not dreamed of him and of this full many a time before."
552
00:30:19,040 --> 00:30:20,560
SHE SIGHS
553
00:30:20,560 --> 00:30:22,400
What Isabella wrote in her diary
554
00:30:22,400 --> 00:30:25,600
was terribly, terribly romantic...
555
00:30:25,600 --> 00:30:28,120
but when you compare it to contemporary novels,
556
00:30:28,120 --> 00:30:30,280
it was also terribly shocking.
557
00:30:35,800 --> 00:30:39,560
A novel with such an immoral take on adultery
558
00:30:39,560 --> 00:30:42,560
would never have made it into print...
559
00:30:42,560 --> 00:30:45,640
but Isabella's husband, Henry, used her diaries
560
00:30:45,640 --> 00:30:49,920
as evidence in his petition to divorce her.
561
00:30:49,920 --> 00:30:51,560
It was one of the first cases
562
00:30:51,560 --> 00:30:53,800
in London's new divorce court.
563
00:30:53,800 --> 00:30:58,320
Before that, you'd needed an act of parliament to dissolve a marriage.
564
00:30:58,320 --> 00:31:01,800
And so, in 1858, Isabella's diaries
565
00:31:01,800 --> 00:31:03,640
became the talk of the town.
566
00:31:05,320 --> 00:31:09,280
Author Kate Summerscale has studied the case.
567
00:31:09,280 --> 00:31:11,160
Shall we have a look at a bit of the diaries
568
00:31:11,160 --> 00:31:14,040
that ended up being read out in a courtroom like this?
569
00:31:14,040 --> 00:31:15,360
Yes, and not only that,
570
00:31:15,360 --> 00:31:17,360
all the extracts that were read out in court
571
00:31:17,360 --> 00:31:20,920
were published, in full, in just about every newspaper in Britain.
572
00:31:20,920 --> 00:31:24,000
Including The Times, the paper record.
573
00:31:24,000 --> 00:31:26,720
So, here are all the divorce court reports
574
00:31:26,720 --> 00:31:29,280
and then we get on to the Robinson case.
575
00:31:29,280 --> 00:31:32,480
It says, "What followed, I hardly remember.
576
00:31:32,480 --> 00:31:37,120
"Passionate kisses, whispered words, confessions of the past."
577
00:31:37,120 --> 00:31:39,320
"Oh, God!"
578
00:31:39,320 --> 00:31:41,720
"I hoped never to see this hour
579
00:31:41,720 --> 00:31:44,160
"or to have any part of my love returned."
580
00:31:44,160 --> 00:31:47,120
Yes, and this "What followed, I hardly remember"
581
00:31:47,120 --> 00:31:50,320
is very typical of her style in the diary.
582
00:31:50,320 --> 00:31:53,160
A, sort of, coyness when it comes to really describing
583
00:31:53,160 --> 00:31:55,040
what happened between them.
584
00:31:55,040 --> 00:31:57,560
- And that's what happens in fiction, isn't it?
- Yes.
585
00:31:57,560 --> 00:32:01,960
The diary was written in a very high-flown, elaborate...
586
00:32:01,960 --> 00:32:04,640
swooning style -
587
00:32:04,640 --> 00:32:07,960
as if drawn from the pages of romantic fiction -
588
00:32:07,960 --> 00:32:10,960
and this caused a real problem for the court
589
00:32:10,960 --> 00:32:13,680
whether to trust passages so written,
590
00:32:13,680 --> 00:32:17,080
whether they could constitute proof of adultery.
591
00:32:17,080 --> 00:32:19,520
It says here, "We adjourned to the next room
592
00:32:19,520 --> 00:32:21,920
"and spent a quarter of an hour in blissful excitement.
593
00:32:21,920 --> 00:32:24,960
"I became nearly helpless with the effects of his presence."
594
00:32:24,960 --> 00:32:27,200
I loved the idea of a lot of very serious judges going,
595
00:32:27,200 --> 00:32:29,680
"Now, what do we think that she means by that?
596
00:32:29,680 --> 00:32:32,200
- "Does that mean...?"
- "The effect of his presence." Yes.
597
00:32:32,200 --> 00:32:35,280
"Does that mean yes or does it mean no?"
598
00:32:35,280 --> 00:32:36,960
Dr Philimore, one of the lawyers,
599
00:32:36,960 --> 00:32:40,040
said that "the journal had evidently been written by a woman
600
00:32:40,040 --> 00:32:43,400
"of so flighty, extravagant, excitable, romantic
601
00:32:43,400 --> 00:32:48,400
"and irritable a mind as almost to amount to insanity."
602
00:32:48,400 --> 00:32:50,360
And that's HER lawyer.
603
00:32:50,360 --> 00:32:52,360
That's her lawyer?! Oh, my goodness.
604
00:32:52,360 --> 00:32:53,440
Poor woman.
605
00:32:53,440 --> 00:32:56,480
What's the ending of the whole story, then?
606
00:32:56,480 --> 00:32:58,880
Who were the winners and the losers from it?
607
00:32:58,880 --> 00:33:00,480
Well, in the end,
608
00:33:00,480 --> 00:33:02,480
the judge in the case,
609
00:33:02,480 --> 00:33:04,000
after much deliberation,
610
00:33:04,000 --> 00:33:07,880
adjournments, it was months before they gave a verdict
611
00:33:07,880 --> 00:33:11,520
and he refused Henry Robinson his divorce.
612
00:33:11,520 --> 00:33:14,400
What they eventually ruled was
613
00:33:14,400 --> 00:33:16,840
that Isabella was not mad,
614
00:33:16,840 --> 00:33:21,600
the diary was an essentially truthful document
615
00:33:21,600 --> 00:33:24,240
but because of the coyness and romance
616
00:33:24,240 --> 00:33:26,520
in which she couched her descriptions,
617
00:33:26,520 --> 00:33:27,920
it was impossible to know
618
00:33:27,920 --> 00:33:30,960
if they had actually consummated their affair.
619
00:33:30,960 --> 00:33:33,160
Now, clearly Mrs Robinson's diary
620
00:33:33,160 --> 00:33:35,120
has been affected by novels.
621
00:33:35,120 --> 00:33:38,080
Did it, in turn, affect novels that were to come?
622
00:33:38,080 --> 00:33:39,320
I think so.
623
00:33:39,320 --> 00:33:42,320
I think the divorce court proceedings, in general,
624
00:33:42,320 --> 00:33:46,400
which began in the year of this trial
625
00:33:46,400 --> 00:33:48,800
and Isabella's diary, specifically,
626
00:33:48,800 --> 00:33:51,040
did feed into the sensation fiction
627
00:33:51,040 --> 00:33:53,440
of the 1860s and afterwards -
628
00:33:53,440 --> 00:33:55,480
particularly, the figure of
629
00:33:55,480 --> 00:33:57,760
the brooding, moody,
630
00:33:57,760 --> 00:33:59,920
dissatisfied wife -
631
00:33:59,920 --> 00:34:02,600
the dangerously frustrated woman
632
00:34:02,600 --> 00:34:05,720
starts to become a, kind of, anti-heroine
633
00:34:05,720 --> 00:34:07,360
of the novels of the period.
634
00:34:12,800 --> 00:34:15,160
These new books were page-turners
635
00:34:15,160 --> 00:34:16,960
and came in cheap editions
636
00:34:16,960 --> 00:34:19,800
perfect for long railway journeys,
637
00:34:19,800 --> 00:34:23,160
which is why they were sometimes known as "railway novels".
638
00:34:25,760 --> 00:34:29,720
One book, from 1861, seems to have had a distinct connection
639
00:34:29,720 --> 00:34:32,200
to the case of Isabella Robinson...
640
00:34:32,200 --> 00:34:33,880
both in the heroine's name,
641
00:34:33,880 --> 00:34:36,440
and in the theme of adultery -
642
00:34:36,440 --> 00:34:39,760
East Lynne, by Mrs Henry Wood.
643
00:34:43,400 --> 00:34:45,880
It's about the beautiful Lady Isabel Vane.
644
00:34:47,400 --> 00:34:51,120
She gets seduced by the dashing Sir Francis Levison.
645
00:34:52,200 --> 00:34:54,080
She leaves her children.
646
00:34:54,080 --> 00:34:56,560
She leaves her rather stolid husband
647
00:34:56,560 --> 00:34:59,760
in order to go off to France with Sir Francis.
648
00:34:59,760 --> 00:35:02,280
Her husband divorces her.
649
00:35:02,280 --> 00:35:04,320
Sir Francis abandons her.
650
00:35:04,320 --> 00:35:07,400
Alone and penniless, she gets onto the train
651
00:35:07,400 --> 00:35:09,520
to return to England...
652
00:35:09,520 --> 00:35:12,120
but then things get even worse.
653
00:35:18,360 --> 00:35:20,480
HORN BLARES
654
00:35:24,280 --> 00:35:26,680
Lady Isabel's fate is far worse
655
00:35:26,680 --> 00:35:29,240
than that of Isabella Robinson.
656
00:35:30,360 --> 00:35:33,640
There's no chance that a fictional Victorian adulteress
657
00:35:33,640 --> 00:35:35,560
will go unpunished.
658
00:35:38,120 --> 00:35:39,560
The train crashes...
659
00:35:45,720 --> 00:35:49,000
..but Isabel's terrible journey continues.
660
00:35:49,000 --> 00:35:52,000
Her new baby is killed and she, herself,
661
00:35:52,000 --> 00:35:57,920
is transformed into a shattered, crippled invalid.
662
00:35:59,000 --> 00:36:02,000
She now returns to her former home,
663
00:36:02,000 --> 00:36:04,320
her husband had remarried
664
00:36:04,320 --> 00:36:06,200
and, because of her injuries
665
00:36:06,200 --> 00:36:09,880
and with the help of a pair of blue-tinted spectacles,
666
00:36:09,880 --> 00:36:14,480
she gets a job, in disguise, as her own children's governess.
667
00:36:15,640 --> 00:36:18,520
She experiences tremendous anguish,
668
00:36:18,520 --> 00:36:20,880
she wastes away and she dies.
669
00:36:22,480 --> 00:36:25,880
No-one could have missed Mrs Henry Wood's point.
670
00:36:25,880 --> 00:36:29,440
She bludgeons you over the head with it.
671
00:36:29,440 --> 00:36:31,680
"Lady, wife, mother,"
672
00:36:31,680 --> 00:36:33,480
she addresses her readers,
673
00:36:33,480 --> 00:36:36,960
"should you ever be tempted to abandon your home,
674
00:36:36,960 --> 00:36:40,600
"you will fall into an abyss of horror."
675
00:36:48,040 --> 00:36:50,520
East Lynne was an instant hit
676
00:36:50,520 --> 00:36:53,520
and stage adaptations followed.
677
00:36:53,520 --> 00:36:57,760
Audiences revelled in the opportunity to have a good weep.
678
00:36:59,480 --> 00:37:02,720
The end is a sentimental tour de force.
679
00:37:02,720 --> 00:37:04,560
On her deathbed, Lady Isabel
680
00:37:04,560 --> 00:37:07,840
reveals her true identity to her former husband
681
00:37:07,840 --> 00:37:09,920
and they are finally reconciled.
682
00:37:12,120 --> 00:37:15,440
Such maudlin stuff was absolutely
683
00:37:15,440 --> 00:37:17,480
to the tastes of the time.
684
00:37:17,480 --> 00:37:21,120
Somehow, death had become part of the romantic idea.
685
00:37:31,840 --> 00:37:36,320
Love beyond death was a big feature of Victorian romance,
686
00:37:36,320 --> 00:37:38,240
particularly as the 19th century wore on
687
00:37:38,240 --> 00:37:41,320
and the cult of mourning deepened.
688
00:37:41,320 --> 00:37:44,640
Sometimes it seems that people were more passionate about the dead
689
00:37:44,640 --> 00:37:46,160
than they were the living.
690
00:37:46,160 --> 00:37:47,960
At least there was the advantage
691
00:37:47,960 --> 00:37:50,520
that no embarrassing questions of sex came up.
692
00:37:50,520 --> 00:37:54,920
It turns out that you could have a pretty hot date at a seance.
693
00:37:57,320 --> 00:38:00,160
Spiritualism had begun in America,
694
00:38:00,160 --> 00:38:03,000
but quickly spread to Victorian Britain.
695
00:38:03,000 --> 00:38:05,360
In an age of science and scepticism,
696
00:38:05,360 --> 00:38:08,040
it offered up proof of Christian belief -
697
00:38:08,040 --> 00:38:11,280
above all, the existence of an afterlife
698
00:38:14,040 --> 00:38:16,960
The promise of reunion with a lost beloved
699
00:38:16,960 --> 00:38:19,640
made seances hugely popular
700
00:38:19,640 --> 00:38:21,840
and soon a new phenomenon
701
00:38:21,840 --> 00:38:24,800
made them more overtly romantic.
702
00:38:26,680 --> 00:38:31,760
Roger, what would happen at a dark seance of the 1870s?
703
00:38:31,760 --> 00:38:36,360
This was the brand-new sensation of Victorian culture
704
00:38:36,360 --> 00:38:39,280
around spiritualism at the time.
705
00:38:39,280 --> 00:38:41,640
You would arrive...
706
00:38:41,640 --> 00:38:43,560
for about 8 o'clock,
707
00:38:43,560 --> 00:38:45,960
it's a dark space,
708
00:38:45,960 --> 00:38:48,840
you would sit at a table very much like this,
709
00:38:48,840 --> 00:38:53,640
and then you'd be introduced to the young girl medium -
710
00:38:53,640 --> 00:38:55,720
15, 16 years old, perhaps -
711
00:38:55,720 --> 00:38:57,720
who would be showing you round,
712
00:38:57,720 --> 00:38:59,040
introduced to you,
713
00:38:59,040 --> 00:39:01,680
then she would be taken into an adjoining room,
714
00:39:01,680 --> 00:39:03,760
what was called a cabinet,
715
00:39:03,760 --> 00:39:07,600
and then, after the lights went completely dark,
716
00:39:07,600 --> 00:39:10,800
you would have this magical appearance through the curtain.
717
00:39:10,800 --> 00:39:12,360
This is the full-scale
718
00:39:12,360 --> 00:39:14,840
emanation of spiritual force.
719
00:39:14,840 --> 00:39:17,360
It's an other-worldly, weird,
720
00:39:17,360 --> 00:39:20,280
strange, kind of, atmosphere that's been built.
721
00:39:20,280 --> 00:39:23,800
And then, the spirit would arrive,
722
00:39:23,800 --> 00:39:26,400
wander round, perhaps introduce herself,
723
00:39:26,400 --> 00:39:29,360
perhaps talk, perhaps not,
724
00:39:29,360 --> 00:39:33,360
perhaps engage physically with the sitters,
725
00:39:33,360 --> 00:39:36,320
touch them, slap them,
726
00:39:36,320 --> 00:39:38,800
gesture, swear at them,
727
00:39:38,800 --> 00:39:41,040
talk to them, comfort them perhaps,
728
00:39:41,040 --> 00:39:44,920
speaking about what life was like in the afterlife,
729
00:39:44,920 --> 00:39:49,360
and then, after that, would vanish again behind the curtain.
730
00:39:49,360 --> 00:39:52,400
Surely that was the medium, herself, dressed up in a sheet?
731
00:39:52,400 --> 00:39:53,600
Depends on your position.
732
00:39:53,600 --> 00:39:56,120
If you fully believe this,
733
00:39:56,120 --> 00:39:59,960
then this was an emanation of spirit matter
734
00:39:59,960 --> 00:40:02,320
from the medium, that was their power.
735
00:40:02,320 --> 00:40:04,400
Do you think that people enjoyed
736
00:40:04,400 --> 00:40:06,640
having this beautiful, young lady
737
00:40:06,640 --> 00:40:09,640
coming up to them, passing closely by them
738
00:40:09,640 --> 00:40:12,520
in the dark, maybe brushing them with their hands.
739
00:40:12,520 --> 00:40:15,720
Absolutely, this was the literal sensation of it
740
00:40:15,720 --> 00:40:17,920
and it was quite common
741
00:40:17,920 --> 00:40:20,080
to feel the bodies of the spirits -
742
00:40:20,080 --> 00:40:23,000
to have a quick squeeze, if you like -
743
00:40:23,000 --> 00:40:26,080
of a sense of what this creature was.
744
00:40:26,080 --> 00:40:27,720
SHE LAUGHS
745
00:40:27,720 --> 00:40:29,920
So, if I was going to squeeze the spirit,
746
00:40:29,920 --> 00:40:31,760
what would I be hoping to feel?
747
00:40:31,760 --> 00:40:33,440
Surely, she'd feel, sort of, mushy.
748
00:40:33,440 --> 00:40:35,320
Actually, what they were feeling
749
00:40:35,320 --> 00:40:38,320
was something...so Victorian.
750
00:40:38,320 --> 00:40:40,240
On this side of the world,
751
00:40:40,240 --> 00:40:43,600
if you were a young woman, then you are constrained in your clothing.
752
00:40:43,600 --> 00:40:45,960
You're wearing a corset and
753
00:40:45,960 --> 00:40:48,680
part of the feeling and checking out here
754
00:40:48,680 --> 00:40:52,320
was whether or not, the spirit was, in fact, wearing a corset.
755
00:40:52,320 --> 00:40:54,400
So, if she's not wearing a corset,
756
00:40:54,400 --> 00:40:56,000
it's proof that she's a real spirit.
757
00:40:56,000 --> 00:40:59,040
Absolutely, this is definitely the afterlife.
758
00:40:59,040 --> 00:41:01,720
- 100%.
- Fantastic, cos if she was a real human being,
759
00:41:01,720 --> 00:41:04,400
- she would be wearing a corset.
- Obviously.
760
00:41:04,400 --> 00:41:07,720
Now, it seems also that some spiritualist investigators,
761
00:41:07,720 --> 00:41:10,040
like Professor William Crooks, for example,
762
00:41:10,040 --> 00:41:12,360
they fall in love with the spirit, don't they?
763
00:41:12,360 --> 00:41:15,200
- They have a romance with a ghost.
- Absolutely.
764
00:41:15,200 --> 00:41:19,560
Yes, so, Professor Crooks was a very respectable scientist,
765
00:41:19,560 --> 00:41:22,120
happily married with ten children
766
00:41:22,120 --> 00:41:25,880
and he set out to try and prove, scientifically,
767
00:41:25,880 --> 00:41:28,080
that this was an actual force -
768
00:41:28,080 --> 00:41:30,160
something that he called "psychic force".
769
00:41:30,160 --> 00:41:31,680
He began to investigate
770
00:41:31,680 --> 00:41:34,480
women mediums like Florence Cook,
771
00:41:34,480 --> 00:41:36,880
this lovely 15-year-old girl,
772
00:41:36,880 --> 00:41:39,200
from Hackney,
773
00:41:39,200 --> 00:41:41,280
who was a famous medium,
774
00:41:41,280 --> 00:41:46,160
able to materialise, fully, this spirit, Katie King.
775
00:41:47,680 --> 00:41:51,160
Do you think that his wife was bothered by this
776
00:41:51,160 --> 00:41:53,040
or did she think, "No, it's fine,
777
00:41:53,040 --> 00:41:55,480
"he may be in love with her, but she's dead?"
778
00:41:55,480 --> 00:41:59,080
I think his wife would probably have seen
779
00:41:59,080 --> 00:42:01,320
that the seance was a kind of ritual,
780
00:42:01,320 --> 00:42:03,440
so it's a sense of getting away from
781
00:42:03,440 --> 00:42:05,680
the conventions of family life
782
00:42:05,680 --> 00:42:07,400
and the conventions of married life.
783
00:42:07,400 --> 00:42:11,360
This is the space where respectable middle-class men
784
00:42:11,360 --> 00:42:13,720
can be hanging out with
785
00:42:13,720 --> 00:42:15,440
working class girls from Hackney.
786
00:42:15,440 --> 00:42:17,360
What did the young women get out of it?
787
00:42:17,360 --> 00:42:20,120
Presumably, they were in charge, it must have been quite fun.
788
00:42:20,120 --> 00:42:25,280
It's a licence, really, to be able to perform however you wanted to -
789
00:42:25,280 --> 00:42:28,360
so, they would be coquettish
790
00:42:28,360 --> 00:42:33,240
and, of course, if they said something foul or filthy, or rude,
791
00:42:33,240 --> 00:42:34,960
it's nothing serious, really,
792
00:42:34,960 --> 00:42:36,560
it's just a passing spirit.
793
00:42:39,480 --> 00:42:42,960
These working class girls were able to break into restricted,
794
00:42:42,960 --> 00:42:45,080
middle class drawing rooms
795
00:42:45,080 --> 00:42:47,520
and middle class men could reassure themselves
796
00:42:47,520 --> 00:42:52,840
that their illicit desires were evidence of a spiritual affinity -
797
00:42:52,840 --> 00:42:56,880
a perfect match which transcended earthly convention.
798
00:42:59,600 --> 00:43:02,640
Usually the classes were utterly separate
799
00:43:02,640 --> 00:43:04,920
and so were their romantic lives.
800
00:43:07,640 --> 00:43:11,040
Working class women often had extraordinary freedom
801
00:43:11,040 --> 00:43:12,920
compared to middle class girls -
802
00:43:12,920 --> 00:43:14,600
they could walk out alone
803
00:43:14,600 --> 00:43:17,080
and spend time with men unchaperoned.
804
00:43:18,840 --> 00:43:21,280
Sex before marriage was common
805
00:43:21,280 --> 00:43:24,280
and, as long as the couple stayed together,
806
00:43:24,280 --> 00:43:25,560
all was well...
807
00:43:25,560 --> 00:43:26,920
but the unfortunate women
808
00:43:26,920 --> 00:43:29,240
who were deserted when pregnant
809
00:43:29,240 --> 00:43:33,680
might petition the Foundling Hospital in London to look after their baby.
810
00:43:38,880 --> 00:43:42,360
The hospital investigated each pregnancy
811
00:43:42,360 --> 00:43:46,760
to make sure the mothers were of previously good character,
812
00:43:46,760 --> 00:43:50,320
which means the hospital's archives contain a rare insight
813
00:43:50,320 --> 00:43:52,160
into the lives and loves
814
00:43:52,160 --> 00:43:54,840
of working class Victorian women.
815
00:44:00,480 --> 00:44:03,480
This is the petition of Annie Culver.
816
00:44:03,480 --> 00:44:06,880
She was a maid in a big house near Regent's Park
817
00:44:06,880 --> 00:44:10,080
where she wouldn't have had many opportunities of meeting men.
818
00:44:10,080 --> 00:44:13,160
Her gentleman was a friend of the cook.
819
00:44:13,160 --> 00:44:15,640
They used to meet up in the street
820
00:44:15,640 --> 00:44:17,440
and then, in September,
821
00:44:17,440 --> 00:44:20,080
criminal conversation took place
822
00:44:20,080 --> 00:44:23,560
two or three times in the park.
823
00:44:23,560 --> 00:44:26,040
"When pregnant, I told him
824
00:44:26,040 --> 00:44:27,920
"and he slighted me.
825
00:44:27,920 --> 00:44:30,920
"He told me to drown myself."
826
00:44:30,920 --> 00:44:32,280
Poor Annie.
827
00:44:32,280 --> 00:44:35,720
Luckily for her, the hospital did look after her baby
828
00:44:35,720 --> 00:44:37,480
so she didn't have to worry.
829
00:44:38,840 --> 00:44:41,800
There wasn't much in the way of romance for Annie -
830
00:44:41,800 --> 00:44:43,280
but in these records,
831
00:44:43,280 --> 00:44:46,840
you get a sense of a different set of rules for courtship.
832
00:44:46,840 --> 00:44:51,040
Couples go out together, to the theatre, or to eat,
833
00:44:51,040 --> 00:44:54,520
and public places allowed all sorts of encounters -
834
00:44:54,520 --> 00:44:56,680
as in the case of Charlotte Parker.
835
00:44:59,080 --> 00:45:01,800
She was walking in Regent's Park...
836
00:45:01,800 --> 00:45:03,680
"Where I met with a gentleman
837
00:45:03,680 --> 00:45:05,640
"who offered me an umbrella
838
00:45:05,640 --> 00:45:08,000
"as it began to rain."
839
00:45:08,000 --> 00:45:11,440
They later met up at the Adelphi Theatre
840
00:45:11,440 --> 00:45:14,000
and then, it says here,
841
00:45:14,000 --> 00:45:18,760
that the seduction took place at the Coliseum Coffee House
842
00:45:18,760 --> 00:45:22,040
where she slept with the father three times -
843
00:45:22,040 --> 00:45:25,080
they passed for man and wife.
844
00:45:25,080 --> 00:45:28,240
And this passing for man and wife was Charlotte's problem,
845
00:45:28,240 --> 00:45:30,440
the governors weren't convinced
846
00:45:30,440 --> 00:45:32,120
that she was truly respectable -
847
00:45:32,120 --> 00:45:35,640
they thought that she knew, all too well, what she was doing.
848
00:45:42,040 --> 00:45:44,280
Unfortunately for Charlotte,
849
00:45:44,280 --> 00:45:47,800
that meant the hospital didn't accept her baby.
850
00:45:47,800 --> 00:45:51,040
She may have had greater freedom, but when it all went wrong,
851
00:45:51,040 --> 00:45:53,640
she was required to prove that she, at least,
852
00:45:53,640 --> 00:45:56,040
had thought a wedding was on the cards.
853
00:45:58,720 --> 00:46:00,880
Those who sat in judgment on Charlotte
854
00:46:00,880 --> 00:46:04,480
made sure that middle class values prevailed.
855
00:46:04,480 --> 00:46:06,840
A woman's desires were not to extend
856
00:46:06,840 --> 00:46:08,640
beyond marriage and the home.
857
00:46:20,200 --> 00:46:21,640
In the middle classes,
858
00:46:21,640 --> 00:46:24,320
some adult women played out this obsession
859
00:46:24,320 --> 00:46:26,080
by creating doll's houses.
860
00:46:28,400 --> 00:46:30,240
This one, from 1890,
861
00:46:30,240 --> 00:46:31,840
is a tiny snapshot
862
00:46:31,840 --> 00:46:34,080
of the Victorian domestic ideal.
863
00:46:36,440 --> 00:46:39,000
The men are in their masculine world,
864
00:46:39,000 --> 00:46:40,520
in the billiard room,
865
00:46:40,520 --> 00:46:43,960
while the women are separated off in the parlour, taking tea.
866
00:46:45,560 --> 00:46:49,280
In the dining room, there's a wedding breakfast being prepared
867
00:46:49,280 --> 00:46:53,280
with champagne, and a newly fashionable white wedding cake.
868
00:46:53,280 --> 00:46:54,480
How very romantic!
869
00:46:56,160 --> 00:46:57,960
And yet Amy Miles,
870
00:46:57,960 --> 00:47:00,640
the middle class woman who created this tableau,
871
00:47:00,640 --> 00:47:03,800
was a spinster in her thirties.
872
00:47:03,800 --> 00:47:08,480
For her, the only way she could fulfil her proper feminine role
873
00:47:08,480 --> 00:47:09,880
was in miniature.
874
00:47:12,840 --> 00:47:15,320
The fact was that, for many women,
875
00:47:15,320 --> 00:47:17,440
domestic bliss was out of reach.
876
00:47:21,800 --> 00:47:24,800
Was it right that they were being taught
877
00:47:24,800 --> 00:47:27,080
it was the only thing to make them happy?
878
00:47:29,760 --> 00:47:31,840
Some people were beginning to think women
879
00:47:31,840 --> 00:47:34,640
needed to turn their back on the home completely.
880
00:47:38,280 --> 00:47:41,520
In 1889, a play opened on the London stage
881
00:47:41,520 --> 00:47:44,080
which argued just that -
882
00:47:44,080 --> 00:47:46,720
Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House.
883
00:47:47,840 --> 00:47:50,760
In act three, Nora, the heroine,
884
00:47:50,760 --> 00:47:52,880
is in trouble with her husband,
885
00:47:52,880 --> 00:47:54,160
Torvald,
886
00:47:54,160 --> 00:47:58,600
cos he has discovered that she's taken out an illegal loan of money
887
00:47:58,600 --> 00:48:01,240
and is now being blackmailed for it.
888
00:48:01,240 --> 00:48:02,640
He's furious.
889
00:48:02,640 --> 00:48:04,360
"You're not fit," he says,
890
00:48:04,360 --> 00:48:06,760
"to look after our three children."
891
00:48:07,800 --> 00:48:11,200
But then, in comes the maid.
892
00:48:11,200 --> 00:48:12,520
She's got a letter.
893
00:48:12,520 --> 00:48:17,760
It's good news. The blackmailer has returned the incriminating document.
894
00:48:17,760 --> 00:48:19,920
Torvald is very pleased.
895
00:48:19,920 --> 00:48:22,080
He says, "Let's make it up.
896
00:48:22,080 --> 00:48:25,480
"I know you only did it, Nora, because you're a bit stupid,
897
00:48:25,480 --> 00:48:29,520
"and I quite like the way you're dependent upon me, like a child."
898
00:48:29,520 --> 00:48:32,040
SHE MAKES KISSING NOISES
899
00:48:32,040 --> 00:48:34,960
But Nora isn't having this.
900
00:48:34,960 --> 00:48:37,120
"All my life," she says,
901
00:48:37,120 --> 00:48:40,040
"I've been treated like a doll."
902
00:48:40,040 --> 00:48:42,240
She leaves behind her wedding ring,
903
00:48:42,240 --> 00:48:44,160
she leaves behind her keys,
904
00:48:44,160 --> 00:48:46,680
she leaves behind the three children
905
00:48:46,680 --> 00:48:48,760
and she storms out,
906
00:48:48,760 --> 00:48:51,160
slamming the door.
907
00:48:51,160 --> 00:48:54,000
She wants to discover who she really is.
908
00:48:59,480 --> 00:49:01,360
One critic described Nora as
909
00:49:01,360 --> 00:49:06,840
"the most morally repulsive woman ever to appear on the stage,"
910
00:49:06,840 --> 00:49:08,520
but after the performance,
911
00:49:08,520 --> 00:49:10,480
women lingered behind to talk.
912
00:49:12,320 --> 00:49:15,120
The idea that self-fulfilment was more important
913
00:49:15,120 --> 00:49:17,000
than a role as wife and mother
914
00:49:17,000 --> 00:49:18,560
inspired a generation
915
00:49:18,560 --> 00:49:20,200
of proto-feminists,
916
00:49:20,200 --> 00:49:22,520
who became known as "New Women."
917
00:49:24,160 --> 00:49:26,960
A rash of campaigning novels shaped them -
918
00:49:26,960 --> 00:49:30,200
"attacks on men," as this cartoonist has it.
919
00:49:30,200 --> 00:49:32,440
Books like A Superfluous Woman,
920
00:49:32,440 --> 00:49:35,360
The Heavenly Twins, The Yellow Aster...
921
00:49:36,680 --> 00:49:38,800
..replete with debauched husbands,
922
00:49:38,800 --> 00:49:40,160
unfulfilling marriages
923
00:49:40,160 --> 00:49:42,320
and rebellious wives.
924
00:49:42,320 --> 00:49:44,920
They said that things had to change for women.
925
00:49:53,640 --> 00:49:54,920
Whoo!
926
00:49:54,920 --> 00:49:56,600
In the public imagination,
927
00:49:56,600 --> 00:49:58,800
New Women were inextricably linked
928
00:49:58,800 --> 00:50:01,000
to another innovation of the period -
929
00:50:01,000 --> 00:50:02,880
the bicycle.
930
00:50:02,880 --> 00:50:04,720
Suddenly, middle class girls
931
00:50:04,720 --> 00:50:06,680
could get around unaided
932
00:50:06,680 --> 00:50:09,040
and their new, strenuous activity
933
00:50:09,040 --> 00:50:11,760
required less restrictive clothing,
934
00:50:11,760 --> 00:50:13,120
such as bloomers -
935
00:50:13,120 --> 00:50:14,640
shockingly trouserish.
936
00:50:16,600 --> 00:50:20,840
New Women were derided as mannish,
937
00:50:20,840 --> 00:50:22,400
over-intellectual,
938
00:50:22,400 --> 00:50:25,200
child-hating and dull...
939
00:50:25,200 --> 00:50:26,600
but for the women themselves,
940
00:50:26,600 --> 00:50:28,000
there were new opportunities
941
00:50:28,000 --> 00:50:29,800
and new freedoms.
942
00:50:34,280 --> 00:50:36,440
How do you think that the bicycle,
943
00:50:36,440 --> 00:50:39,000
humble though it is, changed society?
944
00:50:39,000 --> 00:50:44,320
More than, almost, anything intended to bring women liberation.
945
00:50:44,320 --> 00:50:48,160
The bicycle changed reality for them
946
00:50:48,160 --> 00:50:49,960
in that it did away with
947
00:50:49,960 --> 00:50:51,880
the chaperonage system.
948
00:50:51,880 --> 00:50:53,760
You couldn't have a maid...
949
00:50:53,760 --> 00:50:55,800
She can't keep up with you, going...
950
00:50:55,800 --> 00:50:57,200
That's right.
951
00:50:57,200 --> 00:50:59,400
Secondly, she said it was the first amusement
952
00:50:59,400 --> 00:51:03,080
women did for their own pleasure rather than for the pleasure of men
953
00:51:03,080 --> 00:51:07,160
and they did it in the outside, in the open air.
954
00:51:07,160 --> 00:51:10,800
What does the New Woman like, apart from bicycling, which she loves?
955
00:51:10,800 --> 00:51:12,360
Depending on who she is,
956
00:51:12,360 --> 00:51:13,680
she could like feminism -
957
00:51:13,680 --> 00:51:15,360
she could be a feminist activist.
958
00:51:15,360 --> 00:51:16,920
She could be an ordinary,
959
00:51:16,920 --> 00:51:18,840
middle class, young woman
960
00:51:18,840 --> 00:51:22,120
who wants to have a little bit of fun and education.
961
00:51:22,120 --> 00:51:23,920
Socialising with her friends,
962
00:51:23,920 --> 00:51:25,280
female and male,
963
00:51:25,280 --> 00:51:30,240
not always being in the hothouse atmosphere of the marriage market.
964
00:51:30,240 --> 00:51:32,480
When I imagine the New Woman,
965
00:51:32,480 --> 00:51:35,120
I picture her wearing bloomers,
966
00:51:35,120 --> 00:51:37,240
she's been to university,
967
00:51:37,240 --> 00:51:39,680
maybe she has premarital sex.
968
00:51:39,680 --> 00:51:43,800
Premarital sex, of course, happened...
969
00:51:43,800 --> 00:51:46,640
more often than, probably, was talked about
970
00:51:46,640 --> 00:51:49,320
but it was still very much a case
971
00:51:49,320 --> 00:51:52,120
of losing your reputation if it came out
972
00:51:52,120 --> 00:51:56,080
unless you were among the avant-garde, the literati,
973
00:51:56,080 --> 00:51:58,160
the intellectuals and, even then,
974
00:51:58,160 --> 00:51:59,960
it could be very problematic.
975
00:51:59,960 --> 00:52:02,520
In one case of Edith Lanchester -
976
00:52:02,520 --> 00:52:04,520
a very prominent case -
977
00:52:04,520 --> 00:52:06,640
a young, socialist woman
978
00:52:06,640 --> 00:52:10,760
who had a working class partner
979
00:52:10,760 --> 00:52:14,080
and declared to her family that she was going to live with him,
980
00:52:14,080 --> 00:52:15,480
and her father and her brothers
981
00:52:15,480 --> 00:52:18,360
had her committed to a lunatic asylum.
982
00:52:18,360 --> 00:52:22,760
Because she was organised politically,
983
00:52:22,760 --> 00:52:25,160
she was released very quickly.
984
00:52:25,160 --> 00:52:26,400
That's incredible.
985
00:52:26,400 --> 00:52:29,440
So, Edith Lanchester was sent to a lunatic asylum for saying that
986
00:52:29,440 --> 00:52:32,160
she was going to live with a man without being married to him.
987
00:52:32,160 --> 00:52:35,000
Yes, and the doctor who signed the certificate felt that
988
00:52:35,000 --> 00:52:36,720
her refusal to marry...
989
00:52:38,440 --> 00:52:40,560
..was enough to prove
990
00:52:40,560 --> 00:52:43,600
that she was prepared to commit social suicide,
991
00:52:43,600 --> 00:52:47,080
which was equivalent to actual suicide.
992
00:52:49,280 --> 00:52:51,880
By the early years of the 20th century,
993
00:52:51,880 --> 00:52:56,560
there was a new generation of educated, liberated young women.
994
00:52:56,560 --> 00:53:00,120
Different types of romance seemed possible.
995
00:53:00,120 --> 00:53:03,680
One book in particular explored this idea.
996
00:53:03,680 --> 00:53:05,320
Its author, HG Wells,
997
00:53:05,320 --> 00:53:06,840
was already famous
998
00:53:06,840 --> 00:53:09,040
as a writer of science fiction -
999
00:53:09,040 --> 00:53:12,480
now he turned to the future of relationships.
1000
00:53:16,160 --> 00:53:21,000
Ann Veronica is a portrait of a confident, independent, young woman.
1001
00:53:22,240 --> 00:53:24,920
She longs to escape her restrictive,
1002
00:53:24,920 --> 00:53:26,920
suburban surroundings
1003
00:53:26,920 --> 00:53:29,000
and find adventures on her own.
1004
00:53:30,280 --> 00:53:34,120
Along the way, she encounters a number of suitors.
1005
00:53:39,600 --> 00:53:42,160
First up is Mr Manning.
1006
00:53:42,160 --> 00:53:44,080
He's a real manly man,
1007
00:53:44,080 --> 00:53:46,280
look at the manly moustache on him,
1008
00:53:46,280 --> 00:53:48,120
and he's very chivalrous.
1009
00:53:48,120 --> 00:53:50,560
He says and he does all the right things.
1010
00:53:50,560 --> 00:53:54,960
He's a poet, and he writes Ann Veronica a love letter.
1011
00:53:54,960 --> 00:53:58,080
Then he offers her a sapphire engagement ring...
1012
00:53:58,080 --> 00:53:59,640
Look at that!
1013
00:53:59,640 --> 00:54:01,000
..but the trouble is,
1014
00:54:01,000 --> 00:54:03,480
she just doesn't fancy him.
1015
00:54:03,480 --> 00:54:05,520
In her own words, she chucks him,
1016
00:54:05,520 --> 00:54:08,920
and she says "I'm done with the age of chivalry."
1017
00:54:11,080 --> 00:54:14,320
So, moving on, we have Mr Ramage.
1018
00:54:14,320 --> 00:54:16,160
He's an urbane, married man
1019
00:54:16,160 --> 00:54:17,640
in his fifties,
1020
00:54:17,640 --> 00:54:19,320
he works in the city
1021
00:54:19,320 --> 00:54:23,800
and he says that he's in favour of independence for women.
1022
00:54:23,800 --> 00:54:26,880
He lends Ann Veronica £40
1023
00:54:26,880 --> 00:54:29,720
to pay for her university biology course,
1024
00:54:29,720 --> 00:54:31,120
but there's a catch -
1025
00:54:31,120 --> 00:54:35,240
it turns out that he is a villainous philanderer
1026
00:54:35,240 --> 00:54:39,520
and what he wants in return for his £40 is, of course,
1027
00:54:39,520 --> 00:54:41,560
sexual favours.
1028
00:54:41,560 --> 00:54:43,920
Which leaves us with Mr Capes.
1029
00:54:45,320 --> 00:54:47,440
He works in the Biology lab
1030
00:54:47,440 --> 00:54:49,960
where Ann Veronica is studying
1031
00:54:49,960 --> 00:54:51,440
and, on the face of it,
1032
00:54:51,440 --> 00:54:53,080
he's not much, really.
1033
00:54:53,080 --> 00:54:55,440
He's separated from his wife,
1034
00:54:55,440 --> 00:54:58,640
he's been named in somebody else's divorce case
1035
00:54:58,640 --> 00:55:00,920
and he's inconsistent -
1036
00:55:00,920 --> 00:55:02,680
sometimes he's brilliant,
1037
00:55:02,680 --> 00:55:05,840
but at other times he's irritable.
1038
00:55:05,840 --> 00:55:07,640
But none of this matters
1039
00:55:07,640 --> 00:55:12,440
because it turns out that he and Ann Veronica are made for each other
1040
00:55:12,440 --> 00:55:15,440
and she decides that, even though they're not married,
1041
00:55:15,440 --> 00:55:17,640
they're going to go off to Switzerland
1042
00:55:17,640 --> 00:55:19,440
for an unofficial honeymoon.
1043
00:55:23,640 --> 00:55:27,560
A happy ending without a wedding was radical stuff...
1044
00:55:27,560 --> 00:55:30,320
but the big scandal around Ann Veronica
1045
00:55:30,320 --> 00:55:32,920
was that she was based on a real life woman.
1046
00:55:34,760 --> 00:55:38,200
HG Wells was married with two children
1047
00:55:38,200 --> 00:55:39,840
but, according to him,
1048
00:55:39,840 --> 00:55:43,200
women just wouldn't stop throwing themselves at him.
1049
00:55:44,320 --> 00:55:48,000
Amber Reeves, a brilliant young student at Cambridge,
1050
00:55:48,000 --> 00:55:50,560
was no exception.
1051
00:55:50,560 --> 00:55:53,240
In 1908, HG Wells and Amber Reeves
1052
00:55:53,240 --> 00:55:55,320
started having an affair.
1053
00:55:55,320 --> 00:55:59,000
He was 41, she was only 20.
1054
00:55:59,000 --> 00:56:01,840
Their relationship was deeply intellectual,
1055
00:56:01,840 --> 00:56:05,200
but also energetically sexual.
1056
00:56:05,200 --> 00:56:07,000
On one trip to the countryside,
1057
00:56:07,000 --> 00:56:09,360
they persuaded the sexton of a church
1058
00:56:09,360 --> 00:56:11,280
to let them into the belfry,
1059
00:56:11,280 --> 00:56:14,280
which they used for...you know what -
1060
00:56:14,280 --> 00:56:17,400
and again in the woods on the way home.
1061
00:56:17,400 --> 00:56:19,760
HG Wells was cock-a-hoop.
1062
00:56:19,760 --> 00:56:21,040
He later wrote of the
1063
00:56:21,040 --> 00:56:24,720
"unregretted exhilaration and happiness of that summer."
1064
00:56:24,720 --> 00:56:26,080
As well he might,
1065
00:56:26,080 --> 00:56:29,360
with a beautiful and adventurous young girl in his power -
1066
00:56:29,360 --> 00:56:32,120
but how did things work out for Amber?
1067
00:56:33,800 --> 00:56:35,880
Reality for Amber Reeves
1068
00:56:35,880 --> 00:56:37,640
didn't quite match the fiction.
1069
00:56:37,640 --> 00:56:39,480
When her parents found out,
1070
00:56:39,480 --> 00:56:42,920
she demanded that HG made her pregnant,
1071
00:56:42,920 --> 00:56:45,560
and they ran away together to France,
1072
00:56:45,560 --> 00:56:48,640
but in the end, he went back to his wife...
1073
00:56:48,640 --> 00:56:52,320
And Amber, now about to become an unwed mother,
1074
00:56:52,320 --> 00:56:55,640
went home and married the first available man -
1075
00:56:55,640 --> 00:56:57,400
a chivalrous old friend
1076
00:56:57,400 --> 00:56:59,160
approved by her father.
1077
00:57:01,160 --> 00:57:05,640
Though Amber thought she could rewrite the rules of romance,
1078
00:57:05,640 --> 00:57:08,080
the truth was that a respectable girl
1079
00:57:08,080 --> 00:57:11,040
couldn't really get away with bonking in a belfry
1080
00:57:11,040 --> 00:57:13,080
without first walking down the aisle.
1081
00:57:20,920 --> 00:57:23,480
Since the start of Queen Victoria's reign,
1082
00:57:23,480 --> 00:57:26,680
romance had changed immeasurably.
1083
00:57:26,680 --> 00:57:29,280
Women had been pure, meek,
1084
00:57:29,280 --> 00:57:31,440
domesticated little creatures -
1085
00:57:31,440 --> 00:57:35,040
but now many of them were educated, liberated,
1086
00:57:35,040 --> 00:57:37,120
ready to connect with men on equal,
1087
00:57:37,120 --> 00:57:38,960
intellectual terms...
1088
00:57:42,960 --> 00:57:46,840
..but where were the new men to match this ideal?
1089
00:57:46,840 --> 00:57:48,520
Well, they didn't exist.
1090
00:57:48,520 --> 00:57:50,680
As soon as real life romance
1091
00:57:50,680 --> 00:57:52,760
side-stepped convention,
1092
00:57:52,760 --> 00:57:54,240
there was scandal
1093
00:57:54,240 --> 00:57:56,640
and loss of reputation.
1094
00:57:56,640 --> 00:58:01,480
What was all very well in literature didn't yet translate into real life.
1095
00:58:01,480 --> 00:58:06,080
In 1909, romance still led to the altar.
1096
00:58:08,600 --> 00:58:11,360
Next time, the lid finally comes off
1097
00:58:11,360 --> 00:58:16,840
as romance becomes the dream of every 20th century boy and girl...
1098
00:58:16,840 --> 00:58:21,560
but this is a new, racy form of romantic love.
1099
00:58:21,560 --> 00:58:24,960
For the generations defined by two world wars,
1100
00:58:24,960 --> 00:58:27,760
it really was...anything goes.
84375
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