In this episode, we tell three tales of punishment, prostitution and pugilism.
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“The Celebrated Professor of the Fist”
Written by
James
Rampton
Performed by
Cassius
Konneh
Delve Deeper
About this story
Born enslaved in British America, Bill Richmond comes to Britain and rises to fame as a boxer in the early 19th-Century.
Holy Trinity Church
,
Wensley
,
Yorkshire
An Unlikely Purchase
Written by
Sarah
Fleming
Performed by
Olivia
Bell
Delve Deeper
The British Library has a copy of William Hogarth’s painting of a scene from The Beggar’s Opera. The Tate Gallery has Hogarth’s portrait of an older Lavinia Fenton as Duchess of Bolton.
Google Books has pages of Lavinia Fenton’s autobiography. Pip’s Patch has pictures of Wensley Church and the opera box-pew.
About this story
The Rags to Riches story of Lavinia Fenton, 1708-1760. From waitress/ prostitute to heroine in John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera. But how much further can she rise?
Charing Cross
,
London
Ritual Humiliation
Written by
Joanna
Clarke
Performed by
Lulu
Freeman
Delve Deeper
About this story
Writer Joanna Clarke imagines a child spectator keen to participate in the degradation of two women condemned to spend time in the Charing Cross pillory (the stocks) in 1719.
