Mr Dickens presents: “The Whip”

Back in 1859, Charles Dickens began publication of his own weekly literary magazine, “All the Year Round”, having fallen out with his former publisher. It continued for more than three decades, and featured the first appearance – in serialised form – of various notable novels, by Dickens himself and other novelists such as Wilkie Collins.

Perhaps of more immediate interest, though, is the issue of 4 August 1860, which featured an article entitled “The Whip”. I’ve transcribed a few of the more salacious snippets, as I thought they might entertain those amongst you who enjoy the occasional little history lesson:

Roman ladies were particularly cruel to their slaves. The poor girls in attendance… sometimes filled the whole house with their cries…

Young Roman libertines often chose the disguise of a slave’s dress for their love adventure. Rich people kept so great a crowd of slaves, that they did not know them all personally, and thus the introduction into houses was made easy. Sometimes, however, the master of the house got a hint… and the intruder was flogged as a runaway slave, or spy. Such an occurrence gave particular delight to the real slaves…

Caligula used the whip with his own hand, and on the spot; even upon people who, by talking too loudly at the theatre, spoilt his enjoyment of the players. He did not much care who the offender was…

The vestal Urbinia was whipped by a priest, and led in procession through the streets. Other vestals, we are told, had been whipped for the same offence. The guilty one, covered over with a thin veil, was whipped by a priest in a dark room…

Elizabeth, daughter of King Andreas II of Hungary, suffered much from the severity of her confessor, Conrad of Marburg. He was suspected of being the lover of the princess, and when one of her friends, Schenk von Argula, hinted at this rumour, she folded back a part of her dress, saying: “You may see the kind of love this holy man bears to me, and I to him.” Her skin was torn and bleeding from a severe whipping she had just had for a trifling disobedience…

At the courts, even ladies of honour were beaten. Catherine de Medicis, Queen of Frances, not seldom laid her ladies over her knees, to punish them with her own hands. At the Russian court the ladies of honour, down to a very recent time, suffered the rod for gossiping or over-freedom. The Semiramis of the North was very free with this kind of punishment, and thought probably not much of it, for it is reported that she sometimes got a horsewhipping herself from her favourite Potemkin.

Paul the First was also very free with the stick, even upon ladies. The wife of a rich hotel-keeper, named Remuth, having neglected to leave her carriage to kneel down when meeting the emperor in the street, was carried off to the house of correction, and then beaten with rods three days consecutively.

The Empress Elisabeth of Russia, jealous of the beautiful wife of the Chancellor Bestuschen, ordered the knout to be given to her in public…

OK, any takers for a spot of historical re-creation…?