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On 29th May, 1660, King Charles II returned from exile
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to reclaim his throne.
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Everyone believed the Stuart dynasty had lost power forever.
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His father, Charles I, had been publicly executed
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only 10 years previously and England had been firmly in the grip
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of Oliver Cromwell's Commonwealth,
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but now the monarchy was back in business.
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The Restoration was a turning point in British history.
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It marked the end of the Medieval and the beginning of the modern age.
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It affected the life of every single person in the country.
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In this series I'm looking at the lives of women
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in the late-17th century.
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This is a really exciting time to be a woman.
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For centuries they've been lurking about in the footnotes of history
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but now they come to prominence.
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Some of them have such modern attitudes and ambitions
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and we see them coming up against a world
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that was still pretty male and misogynistic.
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'Over three programmes,
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'I've been exploring their lives at the newly liberated Royal Court...'
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The King without a doubt would have been completely delighted.
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- If all my clothes had suddenly fallen off?
- Yes, I'm sure he would.
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'..at home behind closed doors...'
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Oh!
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'..and now in public, at work and play.'
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She dominated the theatre. She had more plays put on than anybody.
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Not any woman, any man.
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You might have thought that Britain was swinging in the 1960s,
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but it was the 1660s that really shook things up.
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APPLAUSE
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In this final programme I'll meet a band of female pioneers,
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mavericks who made names for themselves
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in new and unprecedented ways.
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Now, the one Restoration woman you'll have heard of was Nell Gwynn.
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Famously she was an orange seller, and an actress
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and then the mistress of Charles II,
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but she wasn't alone,
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there were other extraordinary women in her age.
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There were explorers and scientists
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and business women and writers, and even female spies.
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All of them were defying convention at a time when most women
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were expected to be spinsters, wives, widows,
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or, if they were unlucky, a prostitute.
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Now, my question is, was this just a group of
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extraordinary, exceptional individuals
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or was there something about the new world of Restoration England
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that allowed these women to take centre stage?
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In the summer of 1698, travellers up and down the country
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might have encountered a most unusual figure on the road.
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This was Celia Fiennes,
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a remarkable noble woman
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who travelled the length and breadth of England
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from Penzance in the south to Newcastle in the north,
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virtually alone.
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Celia's account of her travels is an amazingly detailed survey
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of a nation on the brink of modernity.
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Celia's always been a heroine of mine because of her independence.
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She stayed single, really unusual for a Restoration woman,
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and this gave her control of her own fortune.
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She used it to go travelling.
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She travelled 3,000 miles over her life time.
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This was extraordinary, even for a contemporary man.
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Celia toured the country
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well before travel had become a fashionable pastime.
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In fact, she's the first woman recorded to have visited
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every different county in the kingdom.
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She travelled on roads largely unaltered since Roman times,
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but the country she surveyed was changing fast
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and Celia was fascinated by every last detail of its transformation.
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No portraits of Celia survive but here at the Fiennes' family seat,
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Broughton Castle in Oxfordshire,
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they've still got her original journal.
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There's her signature.
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- She's signed it.
- A beautiful hand, that's clearly Celia's own hand.
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- Yeah.
- She was inquisitive. She wanted to know practical things,
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she wanted to know the price of fish and where you got coal from
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and why they built dams over rivers, and so on.
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She says that both ladies and gentlemen
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should make observations of the pleasant prospects, good buildings,
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- different produces and manufactures of each place.
- Yes.
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So that's saying, they should go like industrial spies really,
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recording all the products of the nation.
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One feels about her, she very much didn't lie on the beach, did she?
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She does go on and on and on, very long sentences.
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- I don't know what sort of education she'd had.
- Well, obviously not bad.
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- Hmm.
- Although I have to tell you, she doesn't really get punctuation.
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Perhaps Celia's urge to explore lay in her Fiennes' family genes.
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After all, the polar adventurer and conqueror of Mount Everest,
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Sir Ranulph Fiennes is her descendent.
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She must have been very courageous, I think,
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because it's an equivalent, if you like,
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to somebody going to the North Pole or something now,
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it was a great adventure.
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So in her own way she really is a pioneer, isn't she?
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Yes, I wonder if they'd peered her from the villages and said,
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"What's that woman doing on a horse?"
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Yes, it must have been unusual, I think.
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Celia was a first-hand witness to the country's evolution
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from an overwhelmingly rural society
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to a far more urban one,
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built on the profits of flourishing trade and manufacturing.
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She sets off from London, and as she's travelling
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she is interested in seeing great houses
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and touristy things like natural wonders,
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but what really interests her
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are the economically important parts of Britain,
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places where they're making money.
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She goes up to Liverpool.
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Liverpool, records Celia, "was just a few fisherman's houses
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"and is now grown to a large fine town, there be 24 streets in it."
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Now she comes over to Newcastle.
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"Newcastle, upon a high hill, two miles from the city,
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"I could see all about the country which was full of coal-pits,
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"the sulphur of it taints the air."
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She comes through Bristol,
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a very important port in the late-17th century.
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"Bristol, a very great trading city. I saw the harbour was full of ships
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"carrying coals and all sorts of commodities."
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She was the first traveller since William Harrison
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over a 100 years before to make such a complete tour
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and this means she was the first traveller really to tour
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the earlier stage of industrial Britain.
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Nowhere was the country's modernisation more dramatic
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than in the capital.
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The benchmark by which Celia measured every other town.
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Charles II's Restoration caused a real boom in London.
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When it was finished, the new cathedral of St Paul's
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would tower over a really thriving city, full of opportunities
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for people to work and play, and there is a population explosion.
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Nearly 600,000 people now living in London,
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making it bigger than Paris and well on its way
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to overtaking the biggest city in the world, which was Constantinople.
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With the city growing so fast, it soon burst out of its boundaries
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and it flowed beyond the old city walls to the open fields westwards.
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Here sprang up stately new squares
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and avenues and public parks to create the West End.
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Covent Garden, built 30 years earlier,
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became the home of London's reopened theatres.
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Nearby, St James's Park was reinvented by Charles II
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as an elegant new public space devoted to leisure.
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The graceful squares and wide streets of the new West End
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became the most desirable places to live.
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It was here that the greatest transformations took place
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in the lives of our Restoration women.
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Whether they were actresses, servants, shopkeepers
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or even street walkers.
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In the park and on the streets of the West End,
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women were more visible than ever before.
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By 1700, they outnumbered the capital's men
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by a pretty staggering 25%.
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London was now becoming a city of women.
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- We're going to see a lot of women, aren't we, wandering around?
- Yes.
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This is a great new era for single women.
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It's a great era for women's work.
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What jobs did they come for?
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Most of them were coming in to come into domestic service.
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They're not going to be servants their whole lives.
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We're still in a period when service is something
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that you do for that interim period
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between your late teens and your mid-twenties.
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People marry, most people marry very late,
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so you've got a time in which you need to earn some money,
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set yourself up as ready to have a household of your own.
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So this crowd of young women in particular coming into London,
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it has such an effect, by the end of the 17th century,
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you've got four women for three men.
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There's a lot more women now than men in fact.
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- Yeah. The sex ratio has completely warped.
- Changed.
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I guess that the park is just one of the new sort of public spaces
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for women to be, you know,
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they weren't at home all the time any more.
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- They can go to...the theatre.
- The theatres.
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- They can go shopping.
- Covent Garden.
- Covent Garden.
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They can go to all the city squares that are appearing.
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Visitors to England frequently comment that, um...
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- English women have a peculiar freedom.
- Hmm.
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In some ways, they have more constraints than anywhere else
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and, in other ways, like their activities outside the home,
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they seem to have more freedom.
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'These new freedoms were tightly linked
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'to the country's growing prosperity,
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'as women became ever more important players in the national economy.'
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By the time of the Restoration,
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England had established itself as a great trading nation,
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and exotic new imports, from coffee to calicos,
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flooded into the capital.
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When the traveller Celia Fiennes' tour of the country
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brought her to Greenwich, she was suitably impressed.
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She describes coming here to Greenwich one day
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and standing here and looking out to the Thames
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twisting and turning itself up and down and covered with ships.
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She said that, "of a morning,
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"you could see 100 sails of ships passing by
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"and that is one of the finest sights that is."
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The goods they were unloading were new and exotic.
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They were bringing tobacco and sugar from the West Indies,
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and silk and spices from the Middle East.
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From India, it was calico and black pepper.
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And from China, it was tea and porcelain.
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By the end of the 17th century,
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there were £10 million worth of goods
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coming through London every year.
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It seemed like there were more and more luxuries than ever before,
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and the city was getting richer than ever before.
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'Many of these new imports were targeted specifically at women.
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'And Restoration London's elegantly appointed new arcades
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'were designed to appeal directly to this new female market.'
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You're looking at the wrong gloves. These are the ones.
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'This was the moment the shopping mall came of age.'
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I quite fancy these.
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- Such choice, amazing.
- And I like this. This is the capitalist glove.
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- Yeah.
- With the fur around the bottom.
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And the slightly punk glove here.
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- That's horrible, that one is.
- I'm not sure about that.
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So, Helen, we're spending the afternoon with a lot of other people
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wandering up and down and looking in shop windows.
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Is this a new Restoration form of behaviour?
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Yes, it is, and I think
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it would have been a much more pleasurable experience
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than in previous generations,
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where you went into dark pokey shops
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that had window shutters made of wood.
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For the first time, you've got window displays in the shop window
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and you have glass so that you can see in,
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and see the goods that are on offer.
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And it becomes a kind of leisure activity in its own right.
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The owners and managers of these arcades could actually specify
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what goods were sold there
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so that you weren't going and buying your lovely lace in one booth
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and next door there was a butcher doing horrible things.
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It was all supposed to be very polite and clean and genteel.
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That's still the case here in the arcade. No potatoes on sale here.
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- Absolutely no potatoes, just pearls.
- Just pearls.
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A few tiaras thrown in for good measure.
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The women who flocked to these smart boutiques
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soon made a name for themselves.
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They were called "the silk worms."
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Addison in the Spectator talks about these women
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who go from shop to shop in their carriages
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and they drive the haberdashers mad
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because they just go into the shops
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and they're unravelling lengths and lengths of silk
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but they're not actually buying anything.
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They're just there to gossip with their friends.
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And that's the one I fancy.
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- This, gems on it.
- Beautiful.
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Ooh, it's £19,500.
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Have you brought your credit card?
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00:13:55,480 --> 00:13:58,920
'The Restoration shop keepers were quick to spot this new market
250
00:13:58,920 --> 00:14:02,040
'and went out of their way to win women over
251
00:14:02,040 --> 00:14:05,560
'with surprisingly modern marketing techniques.'
252
00:14:05,560 --> 00:14:09,480
One trick which the Spectator talks about is employing handsome young men
253
00:14:09,480 --> 00:14:12,520
- to entice women in and to flirt with them.
- Like gigolos.
254
00:14:12,520 --> 00:14:16,240
Kind of, and er, yes, they flirt with them and they draw them in.
255
00:14:16,240 --> 00:14:19,760
'Well before the invention of the joint bank account,
256
00:14:19,760 --> 00:14:22,720
'some of these ladies even found cunning new ways
257
00:14:22,720 --> 00:14:26,280
'to exploit an old-fashioned legal system.'
258
00:14:26,280 --> 00:14:28,920
Tremendous advantage in a patriarchal society,
259
00:14:28,920 --> 00:14:32,000
where married women who have no legal personality of their own,
260
00:14:32,000 --> 00:14:35,920
- is that they're not liable for the debts that they run up.
- Oh, I like it!
261
00:14:35,920 --> 00:14:38,440
So they can go around saying to the shopkeeper,
262
00:14:38,440 --> 00:14:41,640
"Well, go on and give me those goods and my husband will pay you later,"
263
00:14:41,640 --> 00:14:44,320
and, um, of course, he's obliged to do it.
264
00:14:44,320 --> 00:14:47,760
And this really goes too far in some cases.
265
00:14:47,760 --> 00:14:51,720
And what we find actually is some intriguing newspaper advertisements
266
00:14:51,720 --> 00:14:54,360
where a shopkeeper will have handed over a lot of goods
267
00:14:54,360 --> 00:14:55,760
and the husband's been appalled
268
00:14:55,760 --> 00:14:57,800
and he actually puts an advertisement saying,
269
00:14:57,800 --> 00:15:00,960
"Mrs Worsley, my wife, is a petite blonde woman,
270
00:15:00,960 --> 00:15:04,040
"please don't give her any more credit because I won't pay her bills."
271
00:15:05,760 --> 00:15:08,880
I love the idea of these ladies having a high old time in the shops.
272
00:15:08,880 --> 00:15:10,480
Absolutely, and it can go to court,
273
00:15:10,480 --> 00:15:12,280
you know, the husband ends up in the dock
274
00:15:12,280 --> 00:15:15,840
because women and children have no actual responsibility
275
00:15:15,840 --> 00:15:18,240
for debts that they accrue.
276
00:15:18,240 --> 00:15:21,960
Give them an inch and they'll take a mile.
277
00:15:24,000 --> 00:15:28,440
'But, of course, some women's credit rating was unimpeachable.'
278
00:15:28,440 --> 00:15:31,200
Now, right at the top of the fashion food chain,
279
00:15:31,200 --> 00:15:33,640
we've got the Queen, Mary II.
280
00:15:33,640 --> 00:15:36,040
She was quite a shopper.
281
00:15:36,040 --> 00:15:40,160
This bill was for just six months in 1694
282
00:15:40,160 --> 00:15:42,360
and it's full of lovely clothes.
283
00:15:42,360 --> 00:15:45,960
She's getting a nightgown with green flowers.
284
00:15:45,960 --> 00:15:48,400
And another one with white and gold flowers.
285
00:15:48,400 --> 00:15:50,600
She's buying buttons,
286
00:15:50,600 --> 00:15:53,800
gold flowered wadded nightgown
287
00:15:53,800 --> 00:15:57,440
and a silver chain, silk wadding, underwear,
288
00:15:57,440 --> 00:16:01,200
a pair of gold tissue stays, stitched with silver.
289
00:16:01,200 --> 00:16:02,880
They sound splendid.
290
00:16:02,880 --> 00:16:05,040
Now, an important thing about a lot of this fabric
291
00:16:05,040 --> 00:16:07,880
is that it's the new, exotic, imported stuff.
292
00:16:07,880 --> 00:16:10,960
Look, it's from India. It comes from the East.
293
00:16:10,960 --> 00:16:12,600
Right down at the bottom we've got,
294
00:16:12,600 --> 00:16:14,920
"For lining a morning gown quite through
295
00:16:14,920 --> 00:16:17,840
"with white Indian damasque."
296
00:16:17,840 --> 00:16:20,080
This is going to be the start of a new trend.
297
00:16:20,080 --> 00:16:22,840
Everybody's going to want something like that.
298
00:16:24,240 --> 00:16:27,320
'And for the fashion-conscious shopper without a royal budget,
299
00:16:27,320 --> 00:16:29,960
'a new industry was born,
300
00:16:29,960 --> 00:16:32,720
'producing cheap English imitations
301
00:16:32,720 --> 00:16:35,720
'of these luxurious fabrics from India and China.'
302
00:16:37,960 --> 00:16:41,600
- Isn't that lovely?
- It's just glorious. It hasn't faded at all.
303
00:16:41,600 --> 00:16:43,440
The colours are so fresh and bright.
304
00:16:43,440 --> 00:16:46,800
This isn't an actual proper Indian fabric, is that right?
305
00:16:46,800 --> 00:16:48,800
No, that's right. This was made in England.
306
00:16:48,800 --> 00:16:50,600
It's much cheaper than buying,
307
00:16:50,600 --> 00:16:52,680
with the fabrics that are coming in from India.
308
00:16:52,680 --> 00:16:55,640
- Crazy colours, aren't they?
- Yes, and they're often a lot brighter
309
00:16:55,640 --> 00:16:57,160
than we might associate with,
310
00:16:57,160 --> 00:16:58,840
you know, historical clothing.
311
00:16:58,840 --> 00:17:01,800
They're really vibrant and luminous.
312
00:17:01,800 --> 00:17:07,120
After the sober shades and restrained styles of the Commonwealth period,
313
00:17:07,120 --> 00:17:09,840
no wonder the Restoration saw a steep rise
314
00:17:09,840 --> 00:17:12,160
in dedicated followers of fashion.
315
00:17:12,160 --> 00:17:15,840
Look at this lovely conical shape that's really, um,
316
00:17:15,840 --> 00:17:19,240
typical of the late-17th century.
317
00:17:19,240 --> 00:17:21,200
So the jumps is the informal,
318
00:17:21,200 --> 00:17:23,000
comfortable, soft version
319
00:17:23,000 --> 00:17:24,360
- of the stays?
- Yeah.
320
00:17:24,360 --> 00:17:28,400
It sucks you in a little bit, but it's like wearing your track suit.
321
00:17:29,760 --> 00:17:32,680
From top to toe, a host of new accessories
322
00:17:32,680 --> 00:17:35,160
left no extremity unadorned.
323
00:17:35,160 --> 00:17:40,480
'Towering head-dresses made the most of expensive continental lace.'
324
00:17:40,480 --> 00:17:44,440
- Fabulous!
- You can only make about an inch and a half of this per day.
325
00:17:44,440 --> 00:17:46,920
'Wielding a fan showed off
326
00:17:46,920 --> 00:17:49,240
'your lovely white forearms.'
327
00:17:49,240 --> 00:17:51,840
What I really want is this pair of shoes.
328
00:17:51,840 --> 00:17:53,760
'And ingenious slap-soled shoes
329
00:17:53,760 --> 00:17:56,560
'got you along muddy streets in style.'
330
00:17:56,560 --> 00:18:00,080
- It's like a wedgie.
- It's a wedgie, exactly.
331
00:18:00,080 --> 00:18:03,920
'And now, you could get hold of up-to-the-minute fashion prints.'
332
00:18:03,920 --> 00:18:05,680
So this lovely fontage style
333
00:18:05,680 --> 00:18:07,920
that was all the rage in the French courts...
334
00:18:07,920 --> 00:18:10,640
'These allowed women outside the world of the court
335
00:18:10,640 --> 00:18:13,240
'to copy what the beautiful people were wearing.
336
00:18:13,240 --> 00:18:16,400
'They were the 17th century's answer to Vogue.'
337
00:18:16,400 --> 00:18:18,440
It's a way into high-end fashion, I suppose,
338
00:18:18,440 --> 00:18:20,160
for the normal folk at home.
339
00:18:20,160 --> 00:18:23,520
Absolutely and, in a sense, it's almost the trade in the luxury goods
340
00:18:23,520 --> 00:18:26,280
that allows a wider proportion of people to use it
341
00:18:26,280 --> 00:18:28,240
because it's the wives of the people
342
00:18:28,240 --> 00:18:30,480
making their fortunes from importing these things.
343
00:18:30,480 --> 00:18:32,720
I mean, how better to get it
344
00:18:32,720 --> 00:18:35,240
than to be married to someone who imports it? Easy.
345
00:18:35,240 --> 00:18:36,400
SHE LAUGHS
346
00:18:36,400 --> 00:18:37,640
You get it at cost-price.
347
00:18:37,640 --> 00:18:39,720
- So the merchant classes start to grow.
- Yeah.
348
00:18:39,720 --> 00:18:41,400
And the wives of the merchant classes
349
00:18:41,400 --> 00:18:43,480
are, are wearing more ostentatious clothing
350
00:18:43,480 --> 00:18:47,280
and, um, creating a huge demand. They've got the money.
351
00:18:47,280 --> 00:18:50,880
With the birth of these modern consumers fashion
352
00:18:50,880 --> 00:18:53,440
became a serious business.
353
00:18:55,520 --> 00:18:58,840
For a long time, there'd been criticism, particularly of women,
354
00:18:58,840 --> 00:19:01,080
for having too many and too fancy clothes,
355
00:19:01,080 --> 00:19:03,080
but now, people began to realise
356
00:19:03,080 --> 00:19:05,520
it was an important part of the economy.
357
00:19:05,520 --> 00:19:09,360
A 17th-century statistician called Gregory King calculated
358
00:19:09,360 --> 00:19:12,560
that, in the single year of 1688,
359
00:19:12,560 --> 00:19:17,080
the English people purchased 79 million separate garments.
360
00:19:17,080 --> 00:19:20,280
They were spending a quarter of their income on clothing.
361
00:19:20,280 --> 00:19:23,440
One commentator, called Nicholas Barbon, says,
362
00:19:23,440 --> 00:19:26,040
"Ladies, fashion is good!
363
00:19:26,040 --> 00:19:28,600
"It occasions the expense of new clothes
364
00:19:28,600 --> 00:19:31,040
"before the old ones are worn out.
365
00:19:31,040 --> 00:19:34,720
"It is the spirit and life of trade."
366
00:19:34,720 --> 00:19:37,600
For a growing number of women,
367
00:19:37,600 --> 00:19:40,120
it wasn't just a case of looking the part.
368
00:19:40,120 --> 00:19:42,240
They had to act it too.
369
00:19:42,240 --> 00:19:45,640
For all the new freedoms that women enjoyed,
370
00:19:45,640 --> 00:19:48,920
their behaviour was still very tightly prescribed.
371
00:19:48,920 --> 00:19:52,160
The 17th century saw a rash of conduct books
372
00:19:52,160 --> 00:19:54,520
aimed at female readers.
373
00:19:54,520 --> 00:19:57,600
These set out the distinctly old-fashioned codes
374
00:19:57,600 --> 00:19:59,960
of meek and modest behaviour
375
00:19:59,960 --> 00:20:03,400
still demanded of any respectable woman.
376
00:20:03,400 --> 00:20:06,880
If you did venture out into St James's Park as a lady,
377
00:20:06,880 --> 00:20:10,720
it was very important to follow the rules for female behaviour,
378
00:20:10,720 --> 00:20:14,160
set out by Hannah Woolley in her book of 1675,
379
00:20:14,160 --> 00:20:16,720
called A Guide To The Female Sex.
380
00:20:16,720 --> 00:20:21,480
Hannah was Restoration England's favourite agony aunt.
381
00:20:21,480 --> 00:20:25,800
Her work was part cook-book, part indispensable guide to everything,
382
00:20:25,800 --> 00:20:32,040
from courtship to managing servants and, above all, to female etiquette.
383
00:20:32,040 --> 00:20:35,280
First of all, she says, don't talk to any gentlemen
384
00:20:35,280 --> 00:20:38,600
cos they might take the opportunity to tell you a smutty story.
385
00:20:38,600 --> 00:20:41,080
She says that you should stick to sucking up to people
386
00:20:41,080 --> 00:20:42,720
who are better than you,
387
00:20:42,720 --> 00:20:45,120
don't speak to anyone who's inferior to you.
388
00:20:45,120 --> 00:20:47,480
Your walk is very important.
389
00:20:47,480 --> 00:20:51,680
She said that a light carriage shows that you've got a light mind.
390
00:20:51,680 --> 00:20:55,400
And I guess that means you've got to walk very sedately and soberly.
391
00:20:55,400 --> 00:20:58,120
And finally, take care what you do with your eyes.
392
00:20:58,120 --> 00:21:00,720
Don't send forth any tempting glances.
393
00:21:00,720 --> 00:21:03,240
This will reveal that you have a light character.
394
00:21:03,240 --> 00:21:06,280
Instead, you should just send your eyes up to heaven.
395
00:21:11,160 --> 00:21:13,600
'Women out and about in London didn't only run the risk
396
00:21:13,600 --> 00:21:16,840
'of a social faux pas.
397
00:21:16,840 --> 00:21:20,680
'The West End streets and squares may have looked elegant and refined,
398
00:21:20,680 --> 00:21:25,680
'but many of the people you encountered on them definitely weren't.
399
00:21:25,680 --> 00:21:27,480
'By night, the area attracted
400
00:21:27,480 --> 00:21:31,240
'both cheeky thieves and committed criminals.'
401
00:21:31,240 --> 00:21:34,240
This is way before the invention of street-lighting
402
00:21:34,240 --> 00:21:36,800
and if you wanted to get home, you'd hire a link-boy,
403
00:21:36,800 --> 00:21:40,360
who'd run in front of you with a flaming torch to show the way,
404
00:21:40,360 --> 00:21:41,920
if you were lucky.
405
00:21:41,920 --> 00:21:44,920
If you were unlucky, he'd lead you up a blind alley
406
00:21:44,920 --> 00:21:47,520
and all of his friends would jump on you and rob you.
407
00:21:47,520 --> 00:21:50,640
This is 150 years before the invention of the police
408
00:21:50,640 --> 00:21:54,320
and it's said that a gentleman walking home alone at night
409
00:21:54,320 --> 00:22:00,080
needed to arm himself to the teeth with a sword and a blunderbuss.
410
00:22:00,080 --> 00:22:06,280
'If it was dangerous for men, imagine what it was like for women.'
411
00:22:06,280 --> 00:22:09,960
Women out at night probably felt particularly vulnerable
412
00:22:09,960 --> 00:22:13,200
because of their clothes, which were surprisingly accessible.
413
00:22:13,200 --> 00:22:15,120
They had this low bodices,
414
00:22:15,120 --> 00:22:16,680
a groping hand
415
00:22:16,680 --> 00:22:18,280
could make its way down there
416
00:22:18,280 --> 00:22:20,480
and, although I look well protected,
417
00:22:20,480 --> 00:22:22,600
actually, these layers just lift up.
418
00:22:22,600 --> 00:22:25,160
And here's my outer skirt,
419
00:22:25,160 --> 00:22:28,200
here's my under skirt.
420
00:22:28,200 --> 00:22:33,560
Underneath that, I've got my linen smock or shift.
421
00:22:33,560 --> 00:22:35,280
Then, here are my stockings,
422
00:22:35,280 --> 00:22:37,440
but they stop just above the knee
423
00:22:37,440 --> 00:22:39,400
and that's it.
424
00:22:39,400 --> 00:22:42,520
Women's knickers haven't been invented yet.
425
00:22:42,520 --> 00:22:47,520
Women's vulnerability was often exploited,
426
00:22:47,520 --> 00:22:50,440
even by apparently civilised gentlemen,
427
00:22:50,440 --> 00:22:52,720
like the diarist Samuel Pepys,
428
00:22:52,720 --> 00:22:55,280
whose behaviour now seems pretty shocking.
429
00:22:57,480 --> 00:23:00,080
Samuel Pepys' diaries often mention him
430
00:23:00,080 --> 00:23:02,160
following pretty women down the street
431
00:23:02,160 --> 00:23:05,520
and literally having a squeeze, seeing what he could get away with.
432
00:23:05,520 --> 00:23:08,880
On one occasion, he even had a go at a lady in church,
433
00:23:08,880 --> 00:23:10,920
but he bit off more than he could chew,
434
00:23:10,920 --> 00:23:12,960
because she opened up her pocket.
435
00:23:12,960 --> 00:23:14,640
Now, it was a tie-on pocket,
436
00:23:14,640 --> 00:23:17,920
of the kind that Lucy Locket lost and Kitty Fisher found,
437
00:23:17,920 --> 00:23:21,000
and out she got a huge, great pin
438
00:23:21,000 --> 00:23:23,160
and she threatened to prick him with it
439
00:23:23,160 --> 00:23:25,160
and, after that, he left her alone.
440
00:23:28,400 --> 00:23:31,480
Pepys' victim was well able to look after herself
441
00:23:31,480 --> 00:23:35,280
but many of the women who came to the capital in search of work
442
00:23:35,280 --> 00:23:38,160
found it a cruel and unforgiving place.
443
00:23:40,880 --> 00:23:43,360
'Far from home, they could end up penniless,
444
00:23:43,360 --> 00:23:46,360
'without support and very alone.'
445
00:23:49,600 --> 00:23:52,960
This is not very secure employment, is it?
446
00:23:52,960 --> 00:23:56,200
They might find themselves out of a job, on the streets.
447
00:23:56,200 --> 00:23:58,760
If it went wrong, they had a problem, they had a problem
448
00:23:58,760 --> 00:24:01,200
because they didn't have many family and friends about,
449
00:24:01,200 --> 00:24:03,800
so they could quickly fall on very hard times.
450
00:24:03,800 --> 00:24:06,240
They would probably, they would not be settled in London
451
00:24:06,240 --> 00:24:09,000
so they wouldn't get parish relief, so they could quickly turn
452
00:24:09,000 --> 00:24:11,680
to any source of income that they could find.
453
00:24:11,680 --> 00:24:13,920
'For those desperate enough,
454
00:24:13,920 --> 00:24:17,400
'the West End provided one final job opportunity -
455
00:24:17,400 --> 00:24:20,880
'the world's oldest profession.'
456
00:24:20,880 --> 00:24:24,040
And then, they were coming to Covent Garden, weren't they?
457
00:24:24,040 --> 00:24:26,920
This was the centre of the vice business.
458
00:24:26,920 --> 00:24:30,880
Yes, it was. It, it was conveniently located between the City of London
459
00:24:30,880 --> 00:24:34,520
and the more wealthier parishes, er, west of here.
460
00:24:34,520 --> 00:24:36,280
Is it at all possible to estimate
461
00:24:36,280 --> 00:24:39,480
just how many brothels there were on the streets round here
462
00:24:39,480 --> 00:24:42,080
and how many women were working as prostitutes?
463
00:24:42,080 --> 00:24:44,480
Well, you can only really make an estimate, but we would,
464
00:24:44,480 --> 00:24:47,240
I would estimate that there were certainly dozens of brothels,
465
00:24:47,240 --> 00:24:51,480
maybe more, and thousands of, of women, er, walking the streets.
466
00:24:51,480 --> 00:24:53,200
How could you spot a prostitute?
467
00:24:53,200 --> 00:24:55,360
Did she come and give you a little poke with her fan?
468
00:24:55,360 --> 00:24:56,720
I don't think it was difficult.
469
00:24:56,720 --> 00:24:59,400
They were quite aggressive in terms of propositioning men.
470
00:24:59,400 --> 00:25:01,800
It's pretty clear at the lower end of the trade,
471
00:25:01,800 --> 00:25:03,200
at the higher end of the trade,
472
00:25:03,200 --> 00:25:06,240
probably the transaction would have been a little more subtle.
473
00:25:06,240 --> 00:25:10,680
The West End teemed with thousands of prostitutes
474
00:25:10,680 --> 00:25:12,920
openly plying their trade.
475
00:25:12,920 --> 00:25:17,160
By night, the area was regarded as a sink of sin.
476
00:25:20,200 --> 00:25:22,480
'Even those parts owned by the Crown
477
00:25:22,480 --> 00:25:24,680
'gained a reputation for debauchery.'
478
00:25:26,320 --> 00:25:29,840
The park at night was a very different place.
479
00:25:29,840 --> 00:25:32,800
It wasn't flirtation and ogling going on in there,
480
00:25:32,800 --> 00:25:36,600
it was assignations of prostitutes and muggings too.
481
00:25:36,600 --> 00:25:38,440
You might wonder how this could be,
482
00:25:38,440 --> 00:25:41,040
cos the gates were locked at ten o'clock every night.
483
00:25:41,040 --> 00:25:43,920
The answer was - authorised key holders.
484
00:25:43,920 --> 00:25:46,280
6,500 of them.
485
00:25:46,280 --> 00:25:49,560
And who knows how many illegal, unauthorised keys
486
00:25:49,560 --> 00:25:51,760
were floating around London too.
487
00:25:54,600 --> 00:25:57,360
'When Charles II handed out the keys to his new park,
488
00:25:57,360 --> 00:26:00,120
'he must have known exactly what his favourite courtiers
489
00:26:00,120 --> 00:26:02,680
'would be getting up to in it.
490
00:26:02,680 --> 00:26:06,600
'Their behaviour seemed to get the royal nod.'
491
00:26:06,600 --> 00:26:11,560
The Earl of Rochester wrote one of his typically salacious poems about the park.
492
00:26:11,560 --> 00:26:13,920
He called it A Ramble In St James's.
493
00:26:13,920 --> 00:26:16,080
He described the park at night
494
00:26:16,080 --> 00:26:18,800
being teeming with men and women of all ranks,
495
00:26:18,800 --> 00:26:21,080
all of them up to no good.
496
00:26:21,080 --> 00:26:24,680
He said that nightly, beneath the trees' shades,
497
00:26:24,680 --> 00:26:28,360
buggeries, rapes and incests are made.
498
00:26:28,360 --> 00:26:31,960
The location of the park, handy for the court
499
00:26:31,960 --> 00:26:34,200
and the West End, was really convenient.
500
00:26:34,200 --> 00:26:36,960
No wonder they all came here for their liaisons.
501
00:26:40,840 --> 00:26:44,880
'The quarter century of Charles II's reign had seen an explosion
502
00:26:44,880 --> 00:26:49,400
'in prostitution and public lewdness and licentiousness.'
503
00:26:49,400 --> 00:26:51,840
To the Puritans, who'd been the guardians
504
00:26:51,840 --> 00:26:54,320
of the nation's morality under Cromwell,
505
00:26:54,320 --> 00:26:59,480
it seemed the country was sliding into debauchery.
506
00:26:59,480 --> 00:27:03,640
They believed that the numerous disasters which had beset the nation
507
00:27:03,640 --> 00:27:06,280
were the expressions of God's anger.
508
00:27:06,280 --> 00:27:09,520
Plague, Dutch attacks on the fleet,
509
00:27:09,520 --> 00:27:12,120
and the Great Fire of London
510
00:27:12,120 --> 00:27:17,040
were the consequences of this immoral age.
511
00:27:17,040 --> 00:27:22,600
'But in 1688, a much less merry monarch came to the throne.
512
00:27:22,600 --> 00:27:25,160
'The Puritans were to gain a powerful ally
513
00:27:25,160 --> 00:27:29,720
'in the staunchly protestant new King, William III.'
514
00:27:29,720 --> 00:27:33,880
So in the 1660s and '70s, you've got lots of vice.
515
00:27:33,880 --> 00:27:37,680
Everybody enjoying themselves. But it all changes in 1688.
516
00:27:37,680 --> 00:27:40,040
Yes, with the arrival of William III,
517
00:27:40,040 --> 00:27:42,640
they decide that they're going to justify this new regime
518
00:27:42,640 --> 00:27:45,480
by creating a godly monarchy which is going to lead
519
00:27:45,480 --> 00:27:48,160
a kind of second protestant reformation.
520
00:27:48,160 --> 00:27:54,040
The scale and fervour of this anti-vice crusade were astonishing.
521
00:27:54,040 --> 00:27:58,120
An organisation called the Society For The Reformation Of Manners
522
00:27:58,120 --> 00:28:01,320
was founded to halt the country's moral decline.
523
00:28:01,320 --> 00:28:03,880
Its volunteers patrolled the city's streets,
524
00:28:03,880 --> 00:28:08,200
zealously pursuing women suspected of prostitution.
525
00:28:08,200 --> 00:28:12,520
How did the Society For The Reformation Of Manners actually work?
526
00:28:12,520 --> 00:28:14,040
It had to rely on informers,
527
00:28:14,040 --> 00:28:16,640
so informers were people who were religiously motivated
528
00:28:16,640 --> 00:28:18,960
or perhaps financially motivated, er,
529
00:28:18,960 --> 00:28:22,520
to go out and arrest, er, prostitutes in particular.
530
00:28:22,520 --> 00:28:23,880
It's not fair, is it?
531
00:28:23,880 --> 00:28:25,400
Well, no, it isn't fair.
532
00:28:25,400 --> 00:28:28,760
And I don't think that many of the prosecutions that the Reformers instigated
533
00:28:28,760 --> 00:28:32,240
would, would match any kind of standards of evidence that we would expect.
534
00:28:32,240 --> 00:28:34,320
They used to do naming and shaming, didn't they?
535
00:28:34,320 --> 00:28:40,040
Yes, we have here a Black Roll which the, er, the Society's published,
536
00:28:40,040 --> 00:28:42,800
which is basically a published list of all the offenders
537
00:28:42,800 --> 00:28:45,360
that they've prosecuted in the past year.
538
00:28:45,360 --> 00:28:46,960
So, after what you've said,
539
00:28:46,960 --> 00:28:48,600
we can't really be sure
540
00:28:48,600 --> 00:28:50,760
that all of these women were guilty.
541
00:28:50,760 --> 00:28:54,840
Some of them could have been, you know, walking in a street where prostitutes were known to work.
542
00:28:54,840 --> 00:28:56,880
They could have been tarred by association.
543
00:28:56,880 --> 00:28:58,400
I think that's quite possible.
544
00:28:58,400 --> 00:29:02,280
Er, there was a great distrust of young, unmarried women at the time
545
00:29:02,280 --> 00:29:05,240
and I think anyone who was acting at all suspiciously
546
00:29:05,240 --> 00:29:07,920
was quite, er, likely to be arrested.
547
00:29:07,920 --> 00:29:11,600
'This backlash wasn't directed at prostitutes alone.
548
00:29:11,600 --> 00:29:14,120
'Almost any ordinary woman
549
00:29:14,120 --> 00:29:17,160
'might find herself a victim of the morality police.'
550
00:29:18,720 --> 00:29:22,680
'Sometimes, just being in the wrong place at the wrong time was enough.'
551
00:29:22,680 --> 00:29:26,400
The impact of the Society's campaign was considerable.
552
00:29:26,400 --> 00:29:30,400
Every week, 40 or 50 so-called "night walkers" were packed off
553
00:29:30,400 --> 00:29:36,760
to the infamous Bridewell Prison, many on decidedly dodgy evidence.
554
00:29:36,760 --> 00:29:40,880
Once in jail, the women were set to hard labour, beating hemp.
555
00:29:40,880 --> 00:29:44,320
Members of the public could even come in and watch them,
556
00:29:44,320 --> 00:29:48,960
stripped to the waist and whipped in a positively medieval punishment.
557
00:29:48,960 --> 00:29:52,560
This was still a deeply misogynistic society,
558
00:29:52,560 --> 00:29:54,960
profoundly suspicious of women,
559
00:29:54,960 --> 00:29:59,200
what they wore, where they went, how they behaved.
560
00:29:59,200 --> 00:30:00,960
At the same time, though,
561
00:30:00,960 --> 00:30:05,040
the Restoration did offer incredible opportunities for women.
562
00:30:05,040 --> 00:30:08,840
None greater and yet more provocative than in the theatre.
563
00:30:12,960 --> 00:30:16,080
It was here that women were to experience
564
00:30:16,080 --> 00:30:18,120
a whole new level of freedom.
565
00:30:18,120 --> 00:30:22,440
Theatres had been outlawed under the Commonwealth.
566
00:30:22,440 --> 00:30:26,440
Charles II re-opens them on his Restoration in 1660
567
00:30:26,440 --> 00:30:29,680
and they were to become the symbol of his age.
568
00:30:40,200 --> 00:30:43,080
'There's one surviving theatre in the country,
569
00:30:43,080 --> 00:30:45,840
'the small but perfectly formed, Theatre Royal
570
00:30:45,840 --> 00:30:47,480
'in Richmond, North Yorkshire,
571
00:30:47,480 --> 00:30:49,200
'which provides our best guide
572
00:30:49,200 --> 00:30:51,760
'to the world of the Restoration playhouse.'
573
00:30:51,760 --> 00:30:55,960
Ooh, this is pretty good up here. What's this part of it?
574
00:30:55,960 --> 00:30:58,720
'After 18 years of closure under the Puritan regime,
575
00:30:58,720 --> 00:31:01,960
'theatres weren't simply re-opened in 1660,
576
00:31:01,960 --> 00:31:05,040
'they were totally reinvented.'
577
00:31:05,040 --> 00:31:07,480
This is a completely new thing of the 1660s, isn't it,
578
00:31:07,480 --> 00:31:10,400
- having the curtain between the back and the front?
- Yes.
579
00:31:10,400 --> 00:31:13,240
- Shakespeare wouldn't have known what we were doing here?
- No.
580
00:31:13,240 --> 00:31:16,960
Da-dah! Ooh, it's great down here on the stage, isn't it?
581
00:31:16,960 --> 00:31:19,160
Tell me how this scenery works. This was new.
582
00:31:19,160 --> 00:31:20,960
You have four sets of flats here.
583
00:31:20,960 --> 00:31:22,480
They're angled in a "V" shape
584
00:31:22,480 --> 00:31:24,720
to give you perspective up towards the back.
585
00:31:24,720 --> 00:31:27,840
Whoa!
586
00:31:29,280 --> 00:31:32,600
Arrg! Arrg!
587
00:31:33,840 --> 00:31:37,720
'With the newly introduced footlights blazing,
588
00:31:37,720 --> 00:31:40,160
'and occasionally burning down the theatre,
589
00:31:40,160 --> 00:31:42,280
'a visit to the playhouse in the 1660s
590
00:31:42,280 --> 00:31:44,600
'would have been a thrilling experience.'
591
00:31:46,960 --> 00:31:48,720
For women in particular,
592
00:31:48,720 --> 00:31:51,840
the theatre offered more than mere entertainment.
593
00:31:51,840 --> 00:31:53,320
This was a new space,
594
00:31:53,320 --> 00:31:56,400
in which they were welcome on equal terms with men.
595
00:31:59,400 --> 00:32:02,520
Is the opening up of the theatre going to be really important
596
00:32:02,520 --> 00:32:06,320
for letting women come to the fore in society?
597
00:32:06,320 --> 00:32:07,760
I think it is
598
00:32:07,760 --> 00:32:10,800
and I think what...you know, Restoration society
599
00:32:10,800 --> 00:32:12,880
is a very much more open society.
600
00:32:12,880 --> 00:32:15,360
If we think about one of the other new inventions,
601
00:32:15,360 --> 00:32:18,040
social inventions at the time, the coffee house,
602
00:32:18,040 --> 00:32:22,760
where men go to drink coffee and to talk about politics,
603
00:32:22,760 --> 00:32:25,200
women are not allowed in coffee houses
604
00:32:25,200 --> 00:32:28,560
so the theatre is the other great sort of public space
605
00:32:28,560 --> 00:32:32,480
where culture can be discussed, political arguments can be voiced,
606
00:32:32,480 --> 00:32:36,440
so theatre opens up a whole set of opportunities
607
00:32:36,440 --> 00:32:39,880
for women connecting with that broader public.
608
00:32:39,880 --> 00:32:43,120
In Shakespeare's time, the upper crust stayed away
609
00:32:43,120 --> 00:32:46,800
from the rough and tumble of London's playhouses.
610
00:32:46,800 --> 00:32:49,360
But now, encouraged by the King's patronage,
611
00:32:49,360 --> 00:32:51,040
they flock to the theatre.
612
00:32:53,120 --> 00:32:56,360
The auditorium is divided up on class lines,
613
00:32:56,360 --> 00:32:59,920
so you get higher, lower people sitting in different areas.
614
00:32:59,920 --> 00:33:01,240
Down here in the pit,
615
00:33:01,240 --> 00:33:04,000
this is perhaps the most lively and exciting area,
616
00:33:04,000 --> 00:33:07,200
this is where all the young, single men and gallants would want to come
617
00:33:07,200 --> 00:33:09,600
so they could be really up close to the actresses.
618
00:33:09,600 --> 00:33:11,920
Sitting amongst them you might find the odd female,
619
00:33:11,920 --> 00:33:14,400
she was likely to be a high-class prostitute.
620
00:33:14,400 --> 00:33:18,040
You could spot her by her black masque or vizard.
621
00:33:20,560 --> 00:33:23,760
These are the boxes, the most expensive seats,
622
00:33:23,760 --> 00:33:26,440
and here you would have got respectable gentlemen
623
00:33:26,440 --> 00:33:28,520
bringing their respectable wives,
624
00:33:28,520 --> 00:33:30,880
even to see some fairly unrespectable plays,
625
00:33:30,880 --> 00:33:35,680
cos this is where the fashionable world would sit to see and to be seen.
626
00:33:35,680 --> 00:33:38,080
And if there were any Royal visitors in the house,
627
00:33:38,080 --> 00:33:39,840
this is where they would have sat.
628
00:33:39,840 --> 00:33:42,320
So these are the cheapest seats up here, in the gallery.
629
00:33:42,320 --> 00:33:44,960
This is where you'd have got all the booing and the cat-calling
630
00:33:44,960 --> 00:33:47,040
and the drumming of the feet on the floor.
631
00:33:47,040 --> 00:33:49,440
Up here, it was pretty cheap and cheerful.
632
00:33:49,440 --> 00:33:51,920
You're a long way from the stage, but the big advantage is
633
00:33:51,920 --> 00:33:56,040
you can drop your orange peel down onto the heads of the people below.
634
00:34:01,040 --> 00:34:04,840
Charles hadn't just reinstated the theatres in 1660,
635
00:34:04,840 --> 00:34:10,280
he'd also ordered that the female roles must now be taken by women.
636
00:34:10,280 --> 00:34:14,760
Previously the girls had always been played by boys.
637
00:34:14,760 --> 00:34:17,000
The first generation of women
638
00:34:17,000 --> 00:34:19,960
to take to the public stage became stars
639
00:34:19,960 --> 00:34:24,240
and invented an entirely new profession - that of the actress.
640
00:34:26,200 --> 00:34:29,240
These women were real pioneers in lots of senses, weren't they?
641
00:34:29,240 --> 00:34:32,040
They're very much pioneers and they're real risk takers as well,
642
00:34:32,040 --> 00:34:33,920
because, when you think about it,
643
00:34:33,920 --> 00:34:35,920
this is an incredibly dangerous thing to do.
644
00:34:35,920 --> 00:34:38,880
There had been no professional actresses before this in England.
645
00:34:38,880 --> 00:34:40,560
How did they know it was going to work,
646
00:34:40,560 --> 00:34:42,200
that they were going to make a living?
647
00:34:42,200 --> 00:34:44,200
Well, I'm here on the stage, just here,
648
00:34:44,200 --> 00:34:45,960
and you're in the auditorium,
649
00:34:45,960 --> 00:34:48,440
but we're in the same space effectively, aren't we?
650
00:34:48,440 --> 00:34:51,200
There's none between us and there is accounts which suggest
651
00:34:51,200 --> 00:34:54,400
that in fact this, what we're doing now, happened during shows.
652
00:34:54,400 --> 00:34:56,000
What, how did that happen then?
653
00:34:56,000 --> 00:34:58,320
For example, if something happened they didn't like,
654
00:34:58,320 --> 00:35:01,280
the audience would boo and shout, and the actors might kind of adlib
655
00:35:01,280 --> 00:35:03,360
and extemporise and kind of change it.
656
00:35:03,360 --> 00:35:06,840
- It's all very fast and loose.
- Oh, yes.
- They're making it up as they're going along.
657
00:35:06,840 --> 00:35:08,520
So the actresses will have to pretend
658
00:35:08,520 --> 00:35:10,200
that they're somebody they're not,
659
00:35:10,200 --> 00:35:13,160
but also they had to be really good at crowd control, don't they?
660
00:35:13,160 --> 00:35:15,440
The skills of an actress in the Restoration
661
00:35:15,440 --> 00:35:18,640
are akin to the skills of, for example, a stand-up comic now.
662
00:35:18,640 --> 00:35:20,920
You know, you've got to be able to deal with hecklers,
663
00:35:20,920 --> 00:35:23,480
you've got to be prepared to extemporise and make things up
664
00:35:23,480 --> 00:35:25,680
to go with the flow of it.
665
00:35:25,680 --> 00:35:27,120
In the Restoration,
666
00:35:27,120 --> 00:35:29,920
it was a much more dramatic, riskier thing to be doing.
667
00:35:29,920 --> 00:35:33,000
You know, plays could completely collapse. They could fall to bits,
668
00:35:33,000 --> 00:35:36,120
because you just didn't know how the audience were going to react.
669
00:35:36,120 --> 00:35:40,320
In the most daring innovation of the Restoration theatre,
670
00:35:40,320 --> 00:35:42,040
'the so-called breeches role,
671
00:35:42,040 --> 00:35:46,680
'women were now literally wearing the trousers.'
672
00:35:46,680 --> 00:35:49,800
Now, today you'd only see a woman in this kind of get up
673
00:35:49,800 --> 00:35:54,760
on the stage in a pantomime, but it was really common in the 1660s
674
00:35:54,760 --> 00:35:57,040
and these breeches roles were...
675
00:35:57,040 --> 00:35:58,800
Yes, OK, they were about looking
676
00:35:58,800 --> 00:36:01,080
at a lady's lovely legs and titillation.
677
00:36:01,080 --> 00:36:05,200
But also, it's a real sense that when women put on the men's clothes,
678
00:36:05,200 --> 00:36:06,840
they were somehow released.
679
00:36:06,840 --> 00:36:09,200
They could say and do all sorts of new things,
680
00:36:09,200 --> 00:36:13,880
which even included a little bit of masculine violence and fighting.
681
00:36:13,880 --> 00:36:17,240
The real importance of the breeches role
682
00:36:17,240 --> 00:36:19,720
was the opportunity it gave the actresses
683
00:36:19,720 --> 00:36:24,920
to launch a devastating critique of Restoration men.
684
00:36:24,920 --> 00:36:27,840
You know, a very masculine society in some ways, Restoration, hmm,
685
00:36:27,840 --> 00:36:29,480
culture, Restoration theatre,
686
00:36:29,480 --> 00:36:32,720
Restoration theatre's full of these really rather unpleasant men
687
00:36:32,720 --> 00:36:34,960
- who just go round seducing hundreds of women.
- Hmm.
688
00:36:34,960 --> 00:36:36,520
You know, and that's very funny.
689
00:36:36,520 --> 00:36:37,880
Er, so there's something
690
00:36:37,880 --> 00:36:40,280
about having women on stage wearing trousers,
691
00:36:40,280 --> 00:36:43,320
parodying men, parodying the way men behave when they're in courtship,
692
00:36:43,320 --> 00:36:45,800
the way men behave when they're all being mates together.
693
00:36:45,800 --> 00:36:48,000
Making fun of men when they all get their swords out
694
00:36:48,000 --> 00:36:49,400
and start hitting each other.
695
00:36:49,400 --> 00:36:51,600
There's something, I mean, there is a kind of extend
696
00:36:51,600 --> 00:36:54,240
to which it does give a space or allows a space for women
697
00:36:54,240 --> 00:36:58,440
to resist aspects of Restoration culture, I think.
698
00:36:58,440 --> 00:37:02,400
MUSIC AND APPLAUSE
699
00:37:02,400 --> 00:37:06,320
But the women taking these outrageous liberties on the public stage
700
00:37:06,320 --> 00:37:08,600
wouldn't always get away with it.
701
00:37:08,600 --> 00:37:13,560
The theatre was at the very heart of Restoration's society's ferocious culture wars.
702
00:37:13,560 --> 00:37:16,840
To outraged Puritans, actresses treading the boards
703
00:37:16,840 --> 00:37:20,680
were just as bad as prostitutes walking the streets.
704
00:37:22,920 --> 00:37:26,400
And what did those old Puritans really have against women actors?
705
00:37:26,400 --> 00:37:29,520
Why did they get so offended by them?
706
00:37:29,520 --> 00:37:33,160
In general, er, Puritans don't tend to like women very much at all.
707
00:37:33,160 --> 00:37:37,440
They, they're the origins of most sin in human society, hmm,
708
00:37:37,440 --> 00:37:40,480
so Puritans are very anxious about sexuality,
709
00:37:40,480 --> 00:37:44,200
they're very anxious about the discipline of the godly family
710
00:37:44,200 --> 00:37:49,560
and women on the stage represent just about everything that would be wrong.
711
00:37:49,560 --> 00:37:51,480
You can almost hear the sort of
712
00:37:51,480 --> 00:37:53,760
17th-century Mary Whitehouse's saying, you know,
713
00:37:53,760 --> 00:37:56,280
"This is just unacceptable. Turn it off!"
714
00:37:56,280 --> 00:37:59,640
They called them notorious strumpets and objectionable whores
715
00:37:59,640 --> 00:38:01,240
and all that sort of thing.
716
00:38:01,240 --> 00:38:03,440
Some fine language, the most peculiar, I think,
717
00:38:03,440 --> 00:38:04,880
is, er... "buttered buns."
718
00:38:04,880 --> 00:38:07,080
- They're buttered buns?
- Buttered buns.
719
00:38:07,080 --> 00:38:09,760
Buttered buns, er, er, whores on the stage who've,
720
00:38:09,760 --> 00:38:12,560
who've been over used, shall we say?
721
00:38:15,200 --> 00:38:17,440
Despite the Puritans' best efforts,
722
00:38:17,440 --> 00:38:19,400
within 30 years of the Restoration,
723
00:38:19,400 --> 00:38:22,200
there were almost 100 professional actresses
724
00:38:22,200 --> 00:38:24,320
and it was in the theatre
725
00:38:24,320 --> 00:38:28,040
that arguably the most famous person of the century
726
00:38:28,040 --> 00:38:29,560
was to make her name.
727
00:38:31,120 --> 00:38:34,320
This is Nell Gwynn.
728
00:38:34,320 --> 00:38:37,320
She wasn't the first female to appear on a London stage
729
00:38:37,320 --> 00:38:39,960
but she is the most celebrated.
730
00:38:39,960 --> 00:38:43,080
From the top, you could think she was a court lady
731
00:38:43,080 --> 00:38:45,640
with the languid eyes and the pink cheeks
732
00:38:45,640 --> 00:38:48,400
and all of these very expensive looking pearls,
733
00:38:48,400 --> 00:38:50,360
but lower down, you can sense
734
00:38:50,360 --> 00:38:53,080
that Nell is treading that fine line
735
00:38:53,080 --> 00:38:57,080
between respectability and raunchiness.
736
00:38:57,080 --> 00:38:59,480
Her clothes are only just clinging onto her.
737
00:38:59,480 --> 00:39:02,400
In fact, we do have a hint of nipple.
738
00:39:04,520 --> 00:39:07,200
Witty, independent,
739
00:39:07,200 --> 00:39:10,440
unafraid to express her desires and speak her mind.
740
00:39:10,440 --> 00:39:12,440
Nell embodied a new breed of woman,
741
00:39:12,440 --> 00:39:15,840
both in real life and on the stage.
742
00:39:15,840 --> 00:39:18,640
In his play Secret Love,
743
00:39:18,640 --> 00:39:21,880
John Dryden created a character especially for Nell.
744
00:39:21,880 --> 00:39:25,720
Florimel was a wild mistress who only accepted marriage
745
00:39:25,720 --> 00:39:29,160
when guaranteed freedom within it.
746
00:39:29,160 --> 00:39:33,840
The part was to make Nell a bone fide star. Pepys was bowled over.
747
00:39:33,840 --> 00:39:36,760
He declared it impossible to have Florimel's part
748
00:39:36,760 --> 00:39:39,520
"ever done better than it is by Nellie."
749
00:39:39,520 --> 00:39:44,280
Nell was custom-made for the bawdy, vigorous world of the theatre
750
00:39:44,280 --> 00:39:47,440
and, in many ways, she's the complete Restoration woman,
751
00:39:47,440 --> 00:39:51,040
who really couldn't have existed at any moment before the 1660s.
752
00:39:53,800 --> 00:39:58,960
Nell is a very, very fine actress and she's stunningly beautiful
753
00:39:58,960 --> 00:40:03,200
and Dryden comments that she's really designed for the stage.
754
00:40:03,200 --> 00:40:05,840
- She's so beautiful. She's only good at comedies though.
- Yeah.
755
00:40:05,840 --> 00:40:08,680
And that's one of the things, she's not very good at the tragedies.
756
00:40:08,680 --> 00:40:10,320
And, and a lot of the playwrights
757
00:40:10,320 --> 00:40:15,040
actually make prologues for women like Nell
758
00:40:15,040 --> 00:40:17,320
to sort of address the audience directly
759
00:40:17,320 --> 00:40:20,560
and, and you can think of those prologues as er, as Nell saying,
760
00:40:20,560 --> 00:40:22,480
"Look at me, you know, I'm pretty good,
761
00:40:22,480 --> 00:40:25,440
"if you're impressed by me, come and have a chat afterwards, you know,
762
00:40:25,440 --> 00:40:28,280
"if you want to give me some money or land, that would be excellent."
763
00:40:28,280 --> 00:40:31,200
It's, he wants his testimony to her brilliance and the only,
764
00:40:31,200 --> 00:40:34,560
the brilliance of the other women hmm, but they are so popular
765
00:40:34,560 --> 00:40:39,400
that the theatrical companies know they can make money out of them being there.
766
00:40:41,200 --> 00:40:44,560
On the back of her stage career, Nell became rich,
767
00:40:44,560 --> 00:40:48,720
famous and ultimately the mother of the King's children.
768
00:40:48,720 --> 00:40:52,560
She triumphed in the face of her numerous Puritan critics.
769
00:40:52,560 --> 00:40:57,480
Do you think it's going too far for us to imagine Charles II
770
00:40:57,480 --> 00:40:59,440
and Nell Gwyn having a bit of a laugh
771
00:40:59,440 --> 00:41:01,240
at the expense of the Puritans,
772
00:41:01,240 --> 00:41:02,880
teasing them, if you like?
773
00:41:02,880 --> 00:41:05,040
It's difficult for us to really recapture
774
00:41:05,040 --> 00:41:06,680
quite how horrified they were...
775
00:41:06,680 --> 00:41:08,080
SHE CHUCKLES
776
00:41:08,080 --> 00:41:11,120
..if, if the King was encouraging this sort of degeneracy
777
00:41:11,120 --> 00:41:13,400
and was clearly part of it.
778
00:41:13,400 --> 00:41:17,040
Er, I think if, if we think especially about some of the plays
779
00:41:17,040 --> 00:41:19,480
that they might have performed in the comedies,
780
00:41:19,480 --> 00:41:24,400
the figure of the rather dry, boring, hypocritical Puritan
781
00:41:24,400 --> 00:41:27,000
is one that both Charles and Nell
782
00:41:27,000 --> 00:41:30,200
would have had a jolly good chortle about.
783
00:41:30,200 --> 00:41:32,120
By sheer force of personality,
784
00:41:32,120 --> 00:41:37,680
Nell made her way to the very pinnacle of the Restoration world.
785
00:41:37,680 --> 00:41:41,680
'But it wasn't just on stage that women were taking men's roles.'
786
00:41:46,800 --> 00:41:49,720
By the end of the century, a small but growing band
787
00:41:49,720 --> 00:41:54,040
of fiercely independent women had made their mark.
788
00:41:54,040 --> 00:41:59,360
Some of them in the most masculine profession of all.
789
00:41:59,360 --> 00:42:04,480
'And Restoration's society now seemed just about ready to recognise
790
00:42:04,480 --> 00:42:07,800
'and even to celebrate their achievements.'
791
00:42:10,360 --> 00:42:15,440
The Royal Hospital in Chelsea was founded by Charles II in 1681,
792
00:42:15,440 --> 00:42:18,160
to care for old and infirm soldiers
793
00:42:18,160 --> 00:42:20,400
and its archives reveal the story
794
00:42:20,400 --> 00:42:23,400
of one of the most remarkable of these women.
795
00:42:26,560 --> 00:42:29,840
This is a list of old soldiers entitled to a pension
796
00:42:29,840 --> 00:42:32,760
as administered by the Royal Hospital at Chelsea here.
797
00:42:32,760 --> 00:42:36,320
As well as their names, you get their physical characteristics.
798
00:42:36,320 --> 00:42:39,040
For example here, we have John Woods,
799
00:42:39,040 --> 00:42:41,920
who is "a black man, shot by the left eye."
800
00:42:41,920 --> 00:42:45,520
You get the descriptions of the wounds, so you don't give the money to the wrong guy.
801
00:42:45,520 --> 00:42:48,240
Underneath John Woods, we have Christian Welsh.
802
00:42:48,240 --> 00:42:49,760
Now, here's a surprise.
803
00:42:49,760 --> 00:42:51,840
Christian Welsh is in fact
804
00:42:51,840 --> 00:42:55,920
"a fat, jolly woman who has received several wounds in the service."
805
00:42:55,920 --> 00:42:58,840
And here's the amazing part - "in the habit of a man."
806
00:42:58,840 --> 00:43:05,480
In 1691, the 26-year-old Christian was running a pub in Dublin.
807
00:43:05,480 --> 00:43:07,680
One day, her husband Richard disappeared.
808
00:43:07,680 --> 00:43:10,800
When she discovered that he'd joined the army,
809
00:43:10,800 --> 00:43:13,880
'she decided to track him down by enlisting herself.'
810
00:43:13,880 --> 00:43:17,280
Now, what I'm dying to know is how on Earth
811
00:43:17,280 --> 00:43:20,240
did she get away with it for 12 years, living as a man?
812
00:43:20,240 --> 00:43:22,440
Christian Welsh says in her memoir very simply
813
00:43:22,440 --> 00:43:23,720
that she just put on
814
00:43:23,720 --> 00:43:25,120
her husband's clothes
815
00:43:25,120 --> 00:43:27,320
and, luckily, they were the same size.
816
00:43:27,320 --> 00:43:29,520
She says that her breasts were quite small
817
00:43:29,520 --> 00:43:32,960
so they didn't need to be bound and she also wore a quilted waistcoat.
818
00:43:32,960 --> 00:43:35,320
The other thing she did was that she had what she called
819
00:43:35,320 --> 00:43:38,320
"a silver painted urinary instrument."
820
00:43:38,320 --> 00:43:40,400
- A urinary instrument?
- A urinary instrument.
821
00:43:40,400 --> 00:43:43,240
- So I'm thinking that's so that she can wee...wee standing up?
- Pee.
822
00:43:43,240 --> 00:43:44,920
- Yes, yes.
- Golly.
823
00:43:44,920 --> 00:43:48,920
Christian fought her way across the mud of Flanders
824
00:43:48,920 --> 00:43:53,920
with the Duke of Marlborough's troops as they took on the French.
825
00:43:53,920 --> 00:43:57,960
She was captured and exchanged and wounded several times.
826
00:43:57,960 --> 00:44:02,680
She fought and won a duel and looted and pillaged with the best of them.
827
00:44:02,680 --> 00:44:07,240
But after 12 years living as a man, the game was up.
828
00:44:07,240 --> 00:44:10,200
How did she finally get found out
829
00:44:10,200 --> 00:44:13,480
because she is discovered to be a woman in the end, isn't she?
830
00:44:13,480 --> 00:44:15,360
Yeah, well, she's on the battlefield.
831
00:44:15,360 --> 00:44:17,920
She's wounded and I think she says that there's a bullet
832
00:44:17,920 --> 00:44:22,120
- that goes into her groin so er, there's no disguising that.
- Yeah.
833
00:44:22,120 --> 00:44:24,440
The urinary instrument isn't going to...
834
00:44:24,440 --> 00:44:26,640
isn't going to cut the mustard there.
835
00:44:26,640 --> 00:44:30,800
So she's taken off to a hospital and er, her disguise is, is,
836
00:44:30,800 --> 00:44:32,840
I mean, her identity is found out.
837
00:44:32,840 --> 00:44:37,680
But this wasn't the end of Christian's story.
838
00:44:37,680 --> 00:44:41,200
The tale of the female soldier disguised as a man,
839
00:44:41,200 --> 00:44:43,960
captured the public imagination.
840
00:44:43,960 --> 00:44:48,760
Far from being condemned for her deception, she was celebrated.
841
00:44:48,760 --> 00:44:53,880
When her memoirs were published, they became an instant hit.
842
00:44:53,880 --> 00:44:57,520
"A Corporal belonging to Brigadier Panton's regiment
843
00:44:57,520 --> 00:44:59,760
"attempted to steal my booty;
844
00:44:59,760 --> 00:45:03,720
"he drew and I had the sinew of my little finger cut in two,
845
00:45:03,720 --> 00:45:09,520
"so with the butt end of my pistol, I struck out one of his eyes."
846
00:45:09,520 --> 00:45:12,640
Do you think that the reason that her book is so popular
847
00:45:12,640 --> 00:45:15,760
is that it's wish fulfilment for these stuck-at-home women thinking,
848
00:45:15,760 --> 00:45:18,000
"Wow, Christian! I want to be like you."
849
00:45:18,000 --> 00:45:19,760
I certainly think they did.
850
00:45:19,760 --> 00:45:22,000
I mean, I could imagine women reading that
851
00:45:22,000 --> 00:45:26,880
and actually being inspired themselves to go off and do what she did or, in other ways,
852
00:45:26,880 --> 00:45:29,720
to feel that they could break gender boundaries of the period.
853
00:45:29,720 --> 00:45:32,280
I think all of that kind of adds to this idea
854
00:45:32,280 --> 00:45:34,560
that there might be something else I could do
855
00:45:34,560 --> 00:45:38,200
and I think that she probably was very inspirational for women.
856
00:45:40,520 --> 00:45:43,000
Christian didn't just win public acclaim.
857
00:45:43,000 --> 00:45:46,760
She also received the ultimate royal seal of approval.
858
00:45:46,760 --> 00:45:49,560
Queen Anne personally granted her a military pension
859
00:45:49,560 --> 00:45:54,040
and she ended her days at the Royal Hospital.
860
00:45:54,040 --> 00:46:01,160
Christian broke boundaries, refusing to allow her sex to hold her back.
861
00:46:01,160 --> 00:46:04,320
'But other women went even further.
862
00:46:04,320 --> 00:46:07,600
'Taking on men with brains as well as brawn.'
863
00:46:09,400 --> 00:46:12,360
In 1666, at the height of his war with the Dutch,
864
00:46:12,360 --> 00:46:15,280
King Charles II needed a trusted agent
865
00:46:15,280 --> 00:46:19,120
to report back on enemies plotting against him in Holland.
866
00:46:19,120 --> 00:46:23,440
'The choice of spy was a surprising one.
867
00:46:23,440 --> 00:46:26,920
'A young woman from a relatively humble background'
868
00:46:26,920 --> 00:46:30,880
at the margins of court society was dispatched to Antwerp
869
00:46:30,880 --> 00:46:33,520
to gather vital intelligence.
870
00:46:33,520 --> 00:46:36,360
She had code names for this.
871
00:46:36,360 --> 00:46:40,400
Sometimes she was called Agent 160, other times Astrea.
872
00:46:40,400 --> 00:46:44,600
She'd run up expenses and the government hadn't paid her back,
873
00:46:44,600 --> 00:46:46,240
so she wrote to a friend saying,
874
00:46:46,240 --> 00:46:48,960
"Please lend me money or I'm going to jail tomorrow."
875
00:46:48,960 --> 00:46:52,440
Just a couple of years later, though, she'd really turned things around.
876
00:46:52,440 --> 00:46:55,560
She'd started writing plays for the London stage
877
00:46:55,560 --> 00:46:57,880
and she was earning good money.
878
00:46:57,880 --> 00:47:01,400
She wrote some of her plays under her spy name of Astrea
879
00:47:01,400 --> 00:47:05,360
but her real name was Aphra Behn.
880
00:47:05,360 --> 00:47:08,440
Through her talent and tenacity,
881
00:47:08,440 --> 00:47:10,360
Aphra forced her way
882
00:47:10,360 --> 00:47:13,680
into the utterly male-dominated literary world.
883
00:47:13,680 --> 00:47:16,840
She became the first woman in English history
884
00:47:16,840 --> 00:47:19,280
to make her living from writing.
885
00:47:22,840 --> 00:47:27,080
'And she was fearless in demanding equality with her male peers.'
886
00:47:31,640 --> 00:47:35,040
'She's buried here at Westminster Abbey,
887
00:47:35,040 --> 00:47:38,040
'though not quite where you might expect.
888
00:47:38,040 --> 00:47:41,760
'Poets Corner is the literary holy of holies
889
00:47:41,760 --> 00:47:45,480
'with memorials to Chaucer and Shakespeare,
890
00:47:45,480 --> 00:47:48,520
'to contemporaries of Aphra's like Dryden and Milton,
891
00:47:48,520 --> 00:47:52,320
'and to other female authors like George Eliot and Jane Austen.'
892
00:47:53,640 --> 00:47:56,240
'But there's no sign of Aphra here.
893
00:47:56,240 --> 00:48:00,400
'The obscurity of her grave mirrors the sad neglect of her work.
894
00:48:00,400 --> 00:48:04,840
'For over 200 years, she was simply way ahead of her time
895
00:48:04,840 --> 00:48:07,240
'and it wasn't until the 20th century
896
00:48:07,240 --> 00:48:11,120
'that her reputation was finally resurrected.'
897
00:48:11,120 --> 00:48:17,680
This is the grave of Mrs Aphra Behn, died 1689
898
00:48:17,680 --> 00:48:21,640
and Virginia Woolf said that every woman ought to come and lay flowers
899
00:48:21,640 --> 00:48:23,280
on the grave of Aphra Behn
900
00:48:23,280 --> 00:48:27,520
because she gave them the right to speak their minds.
901
00:48:27,520 --> 00:48:29,840
And she did, but I think she also gave them
902
00:48:29,840 --> 00:48:31,720
the right to speak their bodies.
903
00:48:31,720 --> 00:48:33,400
- To talk about their bodies?
- Yes.
904
00:48:33,400 --> 00:48:35,360
And this was new. It hadn't happened before?
905
00:48:35,360 --> 00:48:38,560
It's very new and it wouldn't happen for a long time again.
906
00:48:38,560 --> 00:48:41,520
So she is really something.
907
00:48:41,520 --> 00:48:43,200
She dominated the theatre.
908
00:48:43,200 --> 00:48:46,920
She had more plays put on than anybody. Not any woman, any man.
909
00:48:46,920 --> 00:48:48,280
- Any man as well?
- Yes.
910
00:48:48,280 --> 00:48:50,360
She had a lot of successes, um,
911
00:48:50,360 --> 00:48:53,400
and when the theatres seemed to fail, she turned to fiction.
912
00:48:53,400 --> 00:48:55,840
She wrote some of the best fiction of the period.
913
00:48:55,840 --> 00:48:58,120
She wrote poetry, she was a court poet.
914
00:48:58,120 --> 00:49:00,160
She was a woman of great distinction.
915
00:49:00,160 --> 00:49:03,720
She's the first woman who makes her whole living like this.
916
00:49:03,720 --> 00:49:06,520
But, but then she's one of the first people,
917
00:49:06,520 --> 00:49:08,360
- you don't have to gender it.
- Right.
918
00:49:08,360 --> 00:49:10,320
I mean, this is the first generation
919
00:49:10,320 --> 00:49:13,800
in which people made a living solely out of writing.
920
00:49:13,800 --> 00:49:17,120
For a woman as enterprising as Aphra,
921
00:49:17,120 --> 00:49:22,200
the recently re-opened theatres presented a real opportunity.
922
00:49:22,200 --> 00:49:25,920
The time is right for a professional writer
923
00:49:25,920 --> 00:49:28,880
and the time is certainly right for a professional woman writer
924
00:49:28,880 --> 00:49:31,440
because women at that stage would not know
925
00:49:31,440 --> 00:49:34,040
that they were supposed to write differently from men.
926
00:49:34,040 --> 00:49:36,840
Later they were told they had to, and they did.
927
00:49:39,080 --> 00:49:45,240
Unconstrained, Aphra told the truth above love and marriage and sex.
928
00:49:45,240 --> 00:49:50,960
Even today, her most notorious poem still retains its power to shock.
929
00:49:53,600 --> 00:49:56,360
I'm dying to ask you about the poem called The Disappointment.
930
00:49:56,360 --> 00:49:58,440
- Oh, yes.
- What's that one about?
931
00:49:58,440 --> 00:50:00,320
Ah, well, now, that is naughty.
932
00:50:00,320 --> 00:50:03,600
That is all set in a little pastoral theme of shepherds and shepherdesses.
933
00:50:03,600 --> 00:50:05,880
The shepherdess is dying for it,
934
00:50:05,880 --> 00:50:08,840
she's there, all ready for the sexual act
935
00:50:08,840 --> 00:50:10,160
and she gets herself ready
936
00:50:10,160 --> 00:50:12,560
and lays herself out for...precisely for that.
937
00:50:12,560 --> 00:50:15,920
The man comes and it's going to be a hot erotic moment
938
00:50:15,920 --> 00:50:21,040
but, at the very climax, he finds he has premature ejaculation.
939
00:50:21,040 --> 00:50:24,920
- It's a disappointment.
- It is a disappointment to her and she runs away
940
00:50:24,920 --> 00:50:26,760
and he is left cursing his fate.
941
00:50:26,760 --> 00:50:29,040
It's hilarious. Who would have thought it?
942
00:50:29,040 --> 00:50:31,280
It's hilarious and nobody, no woman
943
00:50:31,280 --> 00:50:34,360
in the 18th or 19th century could have written like that.
944
00:50:34,360 --> 00:50:38,280
The Restoration provided the perfect conditions
945
00:50:38,280 --> 00:50:42,920
for Aphra's openness and brutal honesty to flourish,
946
00:50:42,920 --> 00:50:47,640
but she was a fierce critic of the inequalities of the age.
947
00:50:52,320 --> 00:50:54,080
Hellena says in The Rover,
948
00:50:54,080 --> 00:50:56,720
"What would I get from sex before marriage?
949
00:50:56,720 --> 00:50:59,400
"Well, a cradle full of noise and mischief."
950
00:50:59,400 --> 00:51:02,760
- A baby and that's not going to do you any good at all.
- A baby, yes.
951
00:51:02,760 --> 00:51:05,200
This is the, the double standard is absolute.
952
00:51:05,200 --> 00:51:09,880
Aphra was acutely conscious of her position as a pioneer
953
00:51:09,880 --> 00:51:13,840
and made a remarkably modern sounding call for equality.
954
00:51:16,840 --> 00:51:20,640
In the introduction to one of her plays, Aphra Behn says
955
00:51:20,640 --> 00:51:22,920
she's not doing it for the money.
956
00:51:22,920 --> 00:51:27,120
She says, "I am not content to write for a third day only,"
957
00:51:27,120 --> 00:51:30,000
by this she means the third day of the performance,
958
00:51:30,000 --> 00:51:33,160
when the playwright gets to take home the profits of the theatre.
959
00:51:33,160 --> 00:51:34,560
"This is not enough.
960
00:51:34,560 --> 00:51:36,800
"I value fame," she says,
961
00:51:36,800 --> 00:51:39,480
"as much as if I had been born a hero."
962
00:51:39,480 --> 00:51:40,960
Not a heroine.
963
00:51:40,960 --> 00:51:43,480
This sounds like someone in the 20th century, doesn't it?
964
00:51:43,480 --> 00:51:46,800
Saying I'm a woman, I want the same recognition as a man.
965
00:51:46,800 --> 00:51:50,200
And I believe there must have been something special
966
00:51:50,200 --> 00:51:53,680
about the Restoration to allow women to start saying these things,
967
00:51:53,680 --> 00:51:56,640
because Aphra Behn isn't the only one.
968
00:51:58,640 --> 00:52:02,200
'These remarkable women took advantage of a nation in flux,
969
00:52:02,200 --> 00:52:05,720
'a new King, a new city and a new culture,
970
00:52:05,720 --> 00:52:08,520
'to stake their claim to equality.'
971
00:52:10,160 --> 00:52:12,560
'Buried not far from Aphra, in the Abbey,
972
00:52:12,560 --> 00:52:15,040
'is a woman who demanded her part
973
00:52:15,040 --> 00:52:19,160
'in the most ground-breaking and the most defiantly masculine development
974
00:52:19,160 --> 00:52:22,640
'of the Restoration - the scientific revolution.'
975
00:52:24,360 --> 00:52:27,720
This is the tomb of my heroine, Margaret Cavendish,
976
00:52:27,720 --> 00:52:29,680
the Duchess of Newcastle.
977
00:52:29,680 --> 00:52:32,600
At first sight, she looks like a proper 17th-century wife,
978
00:52:32,600 --> 00:52:36,320
lying demurely next to her husband, and it says down here
979
00:52:36,320 --> 00:52:39,840
that she was "virtuous and loving"
980
00:52:39,840 --> 00:52:42,240
but, actually, she could be here in her own right,
981
00:52:42,240 --> 00:52:45,520
and the clue to why is the book that's in her hand.
982
00:52:49,000 --> 00:52:51,720
Margaret was a prolific writer.
983
00:52:51,720 --> 00:52:55,480
Her material was always challenging and often subversive.
984
00:52:55,480 --> 00:52:58,960
It covered everything from romance to philosophy
985
00:52:58,960 --> 00:53:02,440
and, most radically of all, she was the first woman in the country
986
00:53:02,440 --> 00:53:04,320
to publish scientific works.
987
00:53:05,960 --> 00:53:09,920
She came into confrontation with some of the leading thinkers of the day
988
00:53:09,920 --> 00:53:13,680
and she made statements that you can only describe as feminist
989
00:53:13,680 --> 00:53:19,160
and that's where I think she's the most controversial woman of the whole Restoration period.
990
00:53:19,160 --> 00:53:23,920
As a woman, Margaret was denied a university education,
991
00:53:23,920 --> 00:53:26,200
but that didn't hold her back.
992
00:53:26,200 --> 00:53:28,680
She learnt her science at home.
993
00:53:28,680 --> 00:53:31,560
She published six books on the subject
994
00:53:31,560 --> 00:53:34,920
and took on her male peers in many of the current debates.
995
00:53:34,920 --> 00:53:40,040
On everything from matter and motion to the nature of magnetism.
996
00:53:40,040 --> 00:53:44,160
Her reputation was so great that, in May 1667,
997
00:53:44,160 --> 00:53:47,400
she secured an invitation
998
00:53:47,400 --> 00:53:50,280
to the ultimate bastion of scientific endeavour,
999
00:53:50,280 --> 00:53:52,520
the newly founded Royal Society.
1000
00:53:54,160 --> 00:53:56,560
Was it quite unusual that they allowed a woman
1001
00:53:56,560 --> 00:53:57,880
to come into their meeting?
1002
00:53:57,880 --> 00:53:59,000
Yes, unprecedented.
1003
00:53:59,000 --> 00:54:01,280
She was the first woman to visit the Royal Society.
1004
00:54:01,280 --> 00:54:04,280
These were...a society of gentlemen,
1005
00:54:04,280 --> 00:54:07,320
"gentlemen free and unconfined," they called themselves.
1006
00:54:07,320 --> 00:54:10,200
So Margaret was very special in that respect.
1007
00:54:10,200 --> 00:54:15,160
Well, we know that she saw the air being weighed in Boyle's pump,
1008
00:54:15,160 --> 00:54:17,520
she saw a piece of roast mutton being turned into blood,
1009
00:54:17,520 --> 00:54:20,320
- we don't know how they did that, do we?
- No, I don't.
1010
00:54:20,320 --> 00:54:25,840
And we also know that she saw a louse down Hooke's microscope.
1011
00:54:25,840 --> 00:54:28,480
And here is a huge louse.
1012
00:54:28,480 --> 00:54:29,960
Look at that.
1013
00:54:29,960 --> 00:54:33,240
- That's holding a human hair.
- Isn't that wonderful?
- Ughh.
1014
00:54:33,240 --> 00:54:35,960
It's in Hooke's book, called Micrographia.
1015
00:54:35,960 --> 00:54:37,440
Yes, recently published.
1016
00:54:37,440 --> 00:54:39,440
Which is all about the use of the microscope
1017
00:54:39,440 --> 00:54:41,360
- and what you can see, isn't it?
- Indeed, yeah.
1018
00:54:41,360 --> 00:54:44,640
And what you can see, and also what you understood about what you saw.
1019
00:54:46,360 --> 00:54:50,680
'Robert Hooke's best seller, Micrographia,
1020
00:54:50,680 --> 00:54:54,240
'had publicised and popularised the Royal Society's work.
1021
00:54:54,240 --> 00:54:57,800
'Pepys declared it the most ingenious book ever,
1022
00:54:57,800 --> 00:55:01,400
'but Margaret begged to differ.'
1023
00:55:01,400 --> 00:55:04,360
This is her own book and she's saying, "Well, you know,
1024
00:55:04,360 --> 00:55:07,360
"microscopes are all very well, but what's really the point of them?"
1025
00:55:07,360 --> 00:55:12,440
"A louse by the help of a magnifying glass appears like a lobster."
1026
00:55:12,440 --> 00:55:14,160
That's not really what it looks like.
1027
00:55:14,160 --> 00:55:17,200
- It's deceptive, in some way.
- Well, yeah.
- It's distorting it.
- Yeah.
1028
00:55:17,200 --> 00:55:20,880
- She's, she's questioning the value, I suppose.
- That's true.
1029
00:55:20,880 --> 00:55:24,200
And Margaret says that very clearly - by investigating nature
1030
00:55:24,200 --> 00:55:27,240
through these artificial instruments, you're distorting the truth.
1031
00:55:27,240 --> 00:55:30,640
How can you possibly say that you're getting closer to the truth
1032
00:55:30,640 --> 00:55:34,200
by using an instrument that you know is illusory?
1033
00:55:34,200 --> 00:55:36,360
The instrument is deceptive,
1034
00:55:36,360 --> 00:55:39,600
so how can you possibly believe what it's telling you in other respects.
1035
00:55:39,600 --> 00:55:43,880
So the point that she makes there is in many ways a valid one.
1036
00:55:43,880 --> 00:55:49,200
Though it wasn't a point the Royal Society were keen to hear.
1037
00:55:49,200 --> 00:55:53,960
Her views were largely ignored and she was branded "mad Madge".
1038
00:55:53,960 --> 00:55:59,880
'But Margaret wasn't prepared just to watch from the sidelines.
1039
00:55:59,880 --> 00:56:02,720
'She found a brilliantly original way to question the work
1040
00:56:02,720 --> 00:56:05,400
'of these male scientists and make a bold statement
1041
00:56:05,400 --> 00:56:08,880
'of her own radically different view of the world.'
1042
00:56:10,960 --> 00:56:15,920
She published one of the very first works of science fiction.
1043
00:56:15,920 --> 00:56:19,920
In parts, this was a description of an incredible parallel universe
1044
00:56:19,920 --> 00:56:22,680
with futuristic technology like submarines
1045
00:56:22,680 --> 00:56:24,480
and ships powered by wind cannons.
1046
00:56:28,400 --> 00:56:31,000
But this is more than mere fantasy.
1047
00:56:31,000 --> 00:56:34,800
It was also a satire on the established world of science.
1048
00:56:34,800 --> 00:56:40,520
In Margaret's utopia, her own scientific theories carried the day.
1049
00:56:40,520 --> 00:56:44,920
'Women had the upper hand and men were their intellectual inferiors.'
1050
00:56:48,600 --> 00:56:52,640
So this book of Margaret's, called The Blazing World,
1051
00:56:52,640 --> 00:56:56,440
is really the first science fiction novel
1052
00:56:56,440 --> 00:56:59,400
and the new world that she imagines is a very feminine place.
1053
00:56:59,400 --> 00:57:01,160
It's ruled over by an Empress,
1054
00:57:01,160 --> 00:57:04,800
and Margaret herself appears in the story
1055
00:57:04,800 --> 00:57:06,640
and she really stakes her claim.
1056
00:57:06,640 --> 00:57:08,160
This is what she says,
1057
00:57:08,160 --> 00:57:12,840
"Though I cannot be Henry V or Charles II,
1058
00:57:12,840 --> 00:57:16,040
"yet I endeavour to be Margaret I
1059
00:57:16,040 --> 00:57:19,080
"and, although I have neither power,
1060
00:57:19,080 --> 00:57:22,360
"time nor occasion to conquer the world,
1061
00:57:22,360 --> 00:57:26,040
"I have made a world of my own."
1062
00:57:26,040 --> 00:57:31,280
For a 17th-century woman, that's an extraordinary statement.
1063
00:57:31,280 --> 00:57:35,000
350 years after the Restoration,
1064
00:57:35,000 --> 00:57:36,680
Margaret is now regarded
1065
00:57:36,680 --> 00:57:39,880
as one of the most original thinkers of the age
1066
00:57:39,880 --> 00:57:45,080
and Aphra's plays are celebrated as some of the 17th century's finest.
1067
00:57:47,600 --> 00:57:49,680
And, as for Nell Gwyn,
1068
00:57:49,680 --> 00:57:54,160
she was and has always been the ultimate Restoration woman.
1069
00:57:58,200 --> 00:58:01,680
Nell and Margaret and Aphra were extraordinary women.
1070
00:58:01,680 --> 00:58:03,800
No-one can deny their brilliance,
1071
00:58:03,800 --> 00:58:06,200
but they did live in an extraordinary age.
1072
00:58:06,200 --> 00:58:09,520
It was the liberated atmosphere of the Restoration
1073
00:58:09,520 --> 00:58:13,400
that allowed them to sound so much like modern women.
1074
00:58:13,400 --> 00:58:16,680
We have to admit that the Restoration was a blip.
1075
00:58:16,680 --> 00:58:20,320
As the status quo returned and things settled down again
1076
00:58:20,320 --> 00:58:22,240
after the wars and the revolution,
1077
00:58:22,240 --> 00:58:24,160
doors did begin to close
1078
00:58:24,160 --> 00:58:28,080
but that's what makes our Restoration women so admirable,
1079
00:58:28,080 --> 00:58:32,040
so inspirational and so utterly memorable.
1080
00:58:52,880 --> 00:58:56,040
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