The Poor-Whores Petition
The Whores' Petition (also known as The Poor Whores' Petition) was a satirical letter addressed from brothel owners and prostitutes affected by the Bawdy House Riots of 1668, to Lady Castlemaine, lover of King Charles II of England. It requested that she come to the aid of her "sisters" and pay for the rebuilding of their property and livelihoods. Addressed from madams such as Damaris Page and Elizabeth Cresswell, it sought to mock the perceived extravagance and licentiousness of Castlemaine and the royal court.
Bawdy House Riots
Starting on
Petition
Following the riot, a satirical petition began to circulate, addressed from Page and Cresswell and other London madams. Written to Lady Castlemaine, the King's lover, notorious for her own wild promiscuity, the brothel owners requested that the aristocrat act on the behalf of her 'sisters' and repay the madams for the rebuilding of their brothels, funded by the national tax coffers. They address Castlemaine as a prostitute herself, a great practitioner of "venereal pleasures", and list the sites of the brothels where her fellows struggle. It is addressed as:
The Poor Whores' Petition to the most splendid, illustrious, serene and eminent Lady of Pleasure the Countess of Castlemayne &c: The humble petition of the undone company of poore distressed whores, bawds, pimps, and panders ... Signed by us, Madam Cresswell and Damaris Page, in the behalf of our sisters and fellow sufferers (in this day of our calamity) in Dog and Bitch Yard, Lukenor's Lane, Saffron Hill, Moorfields, Chiswell Street, Rosemary Lane, Nightingale Lane, Ratcliffe Highway, Well Close, East Smithfield etc.[3]
Given her great experience in whoring, Lady Castlemaine would, they argued, be able to deeply sympathise with prostitutes across the city.[1][2] "Should your Eminency but once fall into these Rough hands", they wrote, "you may expect no more Favour than they have shewn unto us poor Inferiour Whores".[4]
Authorship and agenda
Some historians, such as Linnane, infer an active role of the addressers Page and Cresswell in the writing of the document.[5] Others such as Mowry and Turner suggest it is an organ of political ventriloquism on behalf of anonymous, radical dissenters; a "bogus work" and "pseudo-female".[6][4]
The agenda of the Petition may be interpreted in varied ways. It may taken as an anti-royalist work, lampooning Charles's court as "the great bawdy house at Whitehall", in
Responses
The petition was a brazen act of transgressive, public satire and diarist
Many anonymous, satirical broadside responses to the Petition circulated in the London coffee houses. They included four pamphlets entitled The Gracious answer of the most illustrious lady of pleasure, the Countess of Castlem---- to the poor-whores petition; The Prentices' Answer to the Whores' Petition; The Most gracious answer of Dame Barbara CountesseofC to the peticion of undone, poore, and distressed company of Whores and The Citizen's Reply to the Whores' Petition and the Prentices' Answer.[6]
Turner comments: "These broadsides were indeed printed, distributed, and enjoyed by the radical underground; by changing their style from fiery sermonizing to sexual mockery and ventriloquistic parody, anti-monarchist dissidents exploit the amphibiousness of festive-aggressive satire."[4] They represented further political ventriloquism, especially on behalf of lady Castlemaine. Turner describes the transgressive satires as "mingling the political protest against absolutism and corruption with the misogynistic hatred of 'female' secrecy, passion, and influence. Castlemaine becomes a figure of extravagance and carnivalesque theatricality, an embodiment of the kind of libertines and radicals in early modern London.[4]
References
- ^ a b Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
- ^ a b Linnane (2007) p. 76
- ^ University of Massachusetts archive, Politics, Literary Culture & Theatrical Media in London : 1625–1725 "The Whores' Petition".
- ^ a b c d e f Turner pp. 190–192
- ^ Linnane (2007) p. 75
- ^ ISBN 9780754641575
- ISBN 9780520034266
Sources
- Callow, John (2004). "Madam Cresswell". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press online.
- Linnane, Fergus (2007). London: The Wicked City: A Thousand Years of Prostitution and Vice. Robson. ISBN 9781861059901.
- Turner, James Grantham (2001). Libertines and Radicals in Early Modern London: Sexuality, Politics and Literary Culture, 1630–1685. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521782791.