Birth of Modern Europe; H Band.

Draft: Culture of London up to the 1830’s

Alberto F. Monegro

            London’s commercial and financial importance was fertile soil for its cultural growth by means of attracting societies from England and other regions of the world. Ever since it was a commercial port under Roman rule in the 14^th century up to the 1830’s it experienced a bloom in culture as it merited world recognition. Its culture branched fruit in the arts, social customs, and fashion. A Londoner, Dr. Johnson, once said in the 1700’s “when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.” The cultural life, however, was mostly restricted to the pleasures of upper and middle classes.

Arts

Paintings      

The arts of London evolved in the course of its history from abstract art, to classical art, to romantic art. Archeologists have imputed Britain’s abstract art to the bronze crafts of the Celtics, one of the early inhabitants in the fifth century BC. Unlike their subsequent invaders – as the Romans, the Anglo-Saxons, and Ango-Normas -, they weren’t interested in realism but rather in simple, linear patterns.

Afterwards, from intermingling of Britain culture with other nations, emerged classicism in the early seventeen century.  It rudimentarily propelled under Van Dyck, although Samuel Cooper actually mastered the perfectionism of classicism. In 1632, Anthony Van Dyck, a Flemish artist, led the way for classicism as a Court Painter in London. His paintings were classical in being portraits, but yet flawed by emphasizing the image instead of the meticulous physique. Aristocratic families as the Pembroke favored him to paint an honorable self-image of the elite class. After Van Dyck’s death, Classicism took mold under the leadership of Samuel Cooper. Although his portraits were miniature compared to Van Dyck’s he mastered in the skill of realism, characteristic of classical art.

            Nearing to the 1830’s of the Victorian Age, arouse romantic art, when kindled by the vivacity of the Glorious Revolution. Classicism faded since it couldn’t express the passion of the movement. During this epoch, Britain had a wealth of romantic painters in William Blake, John Constable, Richard Bonington, and David Cox.  These men broke away from classicist restrictions, promoted by the Royal Academy School, to give way to the painter’s emotional and visual views. John Constable, for instance, revolutionized art with a new brilliance, and freshness that disregarded conventional colors, best observed in his studies of nature, like those for The Hay Wain and Leaping Horse. Regardless their stylistic differences, through their unique water-color paintings, they individualized their paintings to their vision  and feelings of the scenery.

Music

            In 1625, Britain was still the leading musical country of Europe. Formerly, during the reign of the early Tudors, most of London’s music was directed by the Church to be played during mass.  William Cornish and Robert Fayrfax’s music, for instance, was written for the Catholic Church at St. Albans Abbey, northwest of London. But as a result of the Wars of the Roses, the new secular age lessened the importance of the Church in the arts, allowing for competition from other individuals and institutions as theaters.

Music culminated around the 17^th century due to John Bull, Byrd Gibbons, and Orlando Gibbons. John Bull excelled as the first professor of Music at Gresham College, a doctor of Music to the King, and musical tutor of Prince Henry. And in 1611, Bull and Gibbon’s composed the masterpiece Parthenia. However, after their deaths, london’s musical production as well as interest declined. Music wasn’t taken seriously and by 1830’s most of London’s music was produced for musical plays.

Literature

            Britain has bred some of the philosophical minds of the world during the scientific revolution and enlightenment: Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Francois Bacon, and Isaac Newton.

Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679), who once served as a secretary for Francois Bacon, developed a political theory in his Leviathan (1651) in response to the Civil War of England. Using the principle that natural phenomena can be reasoned, he analyzed the basis for absolutism. He explained that humans by nature are egotistic, competing, pleasure-seekers, who establish a monarch to prevent humanity’s self-destruction. His ultimate argument was that absolutism was according to the natural law.

            John Locke (1632–1704) came to a significantly different conclusion of a monarchy in his Two Treatises on Civil Government (1690). He assumed that human beings weren’t as self-centered as Hobbes described, and being sovereign had the right – if the natural rights of life, liberty, and property were encumbered – to limit the power of any government they established. Yet, as Hobbes, he concluded that the British constitution was according to the natural law.

Furthermore, Locke believed that human beings’ understanding are so limited that they have no right to impose their beliefs on others. Consequently, John Locke was known as the philosopher of the Glorious Revolution of 1688, when the Bill of Rights (1689) and the religious Toleration Act was passed.

            Furthermore, Francois Bacon (1561–1626) also left an engraving on London literature after his major works: The Advancement of Learning and Novum Organum. He became a propagandist for an empirical method, and disdained medieval philosophies. He had faith that through the empirical method scientific discoveries would enhance commerce, industry, and the conditions of human beings. One of his influences was the establishment of biology as a science by William Harvey in 1639, soon after his death.

            Finally, Isaac Newton (1642–1727) revolutionized science with some of the most important discoveries of history. Newton systematically explained the universal physical laws in Principia (The mathematical Principles of Natural Knowledge). He developed calculus, described mathematically the three laws of motion, and created the laws of gravitation.

            These philosophers and scientists weren’t all born in London, but were of obvious influence to London for being the great center of the book trade in the year 1500 with St. Paul’s Church yard as it’s principal mart (pg. 80).

Social Customs

The social customs of London encircled a busy social life of entertainment at coffeehouses, Clubs, and theaters. These social gatherings usually occurred in the afternoon, “being the idlest time of the day, wherein men that are their own masters…do wholly bestow themselves upon pleasure” (lf 108)

Coffeehouses

Mainly coffeehouses were the center of social gatherings in London, where one may talk politics, read the newspapers, make appointments, and where one may meet others of one’s trade or interest. London had a vast array of coffeehouses that would suit any individual’s preferred light drinks and social settings. For instance, at Garray’s Coffehouse, tea was sold; at White’s or the Cocoa Tree’s, chocolate was on sale; at Hogarth’s Coffee house, latin lessons were offered at 4 pm.  They also had their social characteristics. At Will’s, one could indulge in chats with London’s literary scholars; the Wigs political party resorted to the St. James Coffeehouse and the Tories opted to gather at the Cocoa Tree Coffeehouse; the booksellers met at The Chapter Coffeehouse; and those interested in shipping and foreign trade met at Lloyd’s Coffeehouse. At Coffeehouses, Londoners found the opportunity to engage in arguments, intellectual conversations, casual conversations, and to become informed of news whether from the rumors of other Londoners or the newspapers. Coffeehouses were communal institutions that greatly enriched the social life of London.

Clubs and Ballrooms

            The upper and middle class also valued clubs, even though Coffeehouses surpassed club’s overall popularity, for their exclusivity among those of high status. Generally tickets covered admission to the balls, supper, and facilities for gaming. Each club had their own rules, some flexible other inflexible. Sometimes concerts, dances, scene lectures, and reading provided entertainment, besides risky gambling. Yet, gambling at high stakes was the prominent activity of clubs. To give a clear picture of the high stakes in Club Gambling, William Crockford, the son of a seafood-merchant retired in 1840 as a millionaire after gambling at Brook’s club.(pg225) Famous clubs included the Almack’s Rooms (mid-18^th century) , Brook’s Club, Crockford’s Club, the Kit-Cat Club (early 1700’s) – exclusive to Whig politicians, painters, and writers-, Dilettanti (1734), The Traveller’s Club (1814) – “which became so popular that it soon had a ten year’s waiting list for admission” 226 –, Athenaeum (1824), and Arts Club (1863).

Theaters

            Theater was another popular entertainment in London. Even when there wasn’t any formal theater, before 1576, theater was still performed on built structures in the inner courtyards of the inns of London, such as Lincoln’s Inn Field and Gray’s Inn. The theaters of London included the Theatre - the first official theater, built by James Burbage in 1576-, Curtain, Rose, Swan, Hope, Fortune, the Globe – the theater where Shakespeare first acted in -, the Convent Garden, and the celebrated Drury Lane Theater. The theater, however, at some points in the history London lost popular interest from the religious attacks of Puritans. Their chief arguments were that plays were a waste of time, and that male actors playing females was immoral. William Prynne in 1630’s argued ‘Stage plays, the very pomps of the Devil, are sinful, heathenish, lewd, ungodly spectacles.’(pg 158 che). In 1564 an attempt was made to suppress London theater on the grounds that it promoted the dispersion of diseases; again this occurred in 1573; and in 1642, Puritans, through Cromwell’s austere Parliament, restricted the performance of plays until the Restoration in 1660. During these periods, although plays were performed outside the City boundaries, the people lost interest until the Reformation.

            Admissions to theaters varied depending on the seat, the closest seats to the sage being the most expensive. “You could stand for a penny but would have to pay extra for a seat, and still more for a cushion to lay upon it. A further payment entitled onlookers to sit in one of the boxes, or even to take a stool and sit upon the stage.”(lf108) Once the play was about to begin, someone would raise a flag and sound a trumpet, and everyone was expected to quickly find a seat-for they weren’t reserved. Through the years, theater became more sophisticated with an orchestra introduction, better clothing, stylistic dancing, and more seats.

            The atmosphere of theaters was of informality and freedom in behavior. Some boisterously shouted their opinions, ate food, played cards in the theater, or talked of their affairs. Yet only twice in the 18^th century did huge riots arise in theaters, one in the Convent Garden Theater, and the other in Drury Lane Theater.

Fashion and Manners

Meals

            Normally, among the middle class, breakfast was served at 10:00 AM, consisting of tea, with cream or sweet milk, bread, and butter. Tea was drunk throughout the day. If one were an aristocrat, at about 1:00 PM luncheon would take place, lasting half an hour, consisting of a simple entrée, sweets, and fruits. Afterwards, the ladies would leave the dinner into the drawing room, followed by the men. At about 3:00 PM they would begin to make visits to other nobles.

Dinner was served at about 4:00 PM. Dinner was extremely technical among the upper classes, dived into five courses each with their own term. For most, dinner was the last meal, but otherwise, supper was at 9:00 or 10:00 PM, which was simply cold meat, and cheese with more tea.

Clothing and Hair Styles

            Fashions changed in London in the course of time. In the late 18^th century, the style for upper class women was to have “head-dresses,” which were elaborate hair designs about 1 or two foot high, decorated with feathers and other ornaments. Men on the other hand,  in the 17^th century, wore wigs. Again in the 18^th century, aristocratic men wore short coats, with tight sleeves, small cuffs, and high collars.

Manners

            It was customary for Londoners to greet each other by giving a firm handshake and also by doffing their hats to each other.