"I burn for you": On Bridgerton, Venus and Mercury
What were the real consequences of promiscuity in Georgian and Regency England?
Bridgerton is upon us! A fictional world of romance, passion, love affairs and happy endings. But what were the real consequences of promiscuity in Georgian and Regency England? Well, for many, they were… Venereal Disease.
Writing in his 1777 tract A New Method for Curing the Venereal Disease by Fumigation, Sir Peter Lalonette argued:
“There are few diseases, the effects of which are more felt by society than those of the Venereal Disease . . . It taints as it were the very source of life, and descends from one generation to another.”
Indeed, by the end of the eighteenth century Venereal Disease (VD) was endemic in society and as hospitals became more uniform, with regular records, we see a significant number of admittances for people suffering from the disease.
A few years ago I conducted some research into the records of Chester Infirmary in my home town in the North West of England. I was struck (although not surprised) by the typical pattern of admittances. Often patients would be soldiers passing through the city, whose treatment would coincide with or be closely followed by a number of female cases.
I’ll omit their names out of respect, but on 27 May 1760 a 22 year old male soldier was treated for venereal disease at the infirmary after displaying symptoms for 8 months. He was held at there for 23 days, before being ‘cured’. Then, like dominos, in September 1760, a 21 year old woman was admitted with VD, followed by a 17 year old woman and then a 24 year old woman, which they claimed to have had had for 3 weeks, 5 months and 6 months respectively. All were recorded as ‘cured’ – an impossibility at this time if they had contracted gonorrhoea or syphilis.
The above picture shows just one admissions entry page from 1773. Out of the 26 patients, 6 have VD (23%), and this is not an atypical entry. Interestingly, from Chester Infirmary’s inception in the 1750s to the end of the eighteenth century, there seem to have been a slightly higher number of women treated for venereal disease at than men. But this may not be the whole picture, many entries detail men coming to the hospital with “sore legs”, which may or may not have been related.
But what was venereal disease? The term is a catchall used to describe a number of symptoms linked to sexually transmitted diseases such as syphilis and gonorrhoea. It was associated with sexual intercourse, but (as the quote from Sir Peter Lalonette above suggests) it was also known to be heritable.
During the early stages of the disease (known as “the clap”), patients experienced symptoms such as rashes, inflammations, burning sensations and ulcers. If and when these symptoms developed into the more serious disorders, they came to be known as “True (or Confirmed) Pox” and the whole body could be affected: scabs, itching, chronic pain, pustules, paralysis, sunken noses and fallen palates, madness and death. The final sequence of event could take years or even decades to fully effect the body.
There have been many interesting studies into the history of venereal disease. The historian Olivia Weisser, for example, has shown that from 1675 to 1750, there were 206 original advertisements for venereal cures in newspapers, which appeared – and I quote her – “alongside notices for other health and cosmetic products, such as hair dye and tinctures for toothaches.” The booming trade offered sufferers antivenereal pills, powders and injections with names like the “Royal Decoction” and the “Herculean Antidote”. That’s not to mention the hundreds of tracts published on the topic. But could it be cured?
The short answer is no. In this pre-antibiotics age there was no way of curing bacterial diseases, but that didn’t stop people trying. One way that many claimed to find relief was through the use of mercury, which was administered in a variety of ways – from being ingested as a pill to being rubbed into sores, and even “fumigation”, where sufferers would inhale and absorb the vapours of burning mercury (with other ingredients). It gave rise to the saying “One night in Venus, a lifetime with Mercury”.
It was a devasting illness that brought with it the added burden of shame, especially if the disease progressed to the point where it became physically noticeable. One wonders how the young women admitted to the infirmary told their loved ones.
So, in season 1, when Daphne Bridgerton says, figuratively, ‘I burn for you’ her real-life counterparts may have also been experiencing that burning sensation, but literally.
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