the reigning cyprian

it makes me laugh, because maybe people forget that "actress" meant also "courtesan" for most of history, and so our modern idol worship of them is sort of funny considering.

second life exists to make the impossible happen, and so for an hour or two my little alter ego was transformed into the celebrated (and most probably unwashed) mrs. juana baddeley, actress and reigning cyprian. it sounds demented but i love reading about the lives and times of these grandes horizontales and so i spent my few hours flitting from 18th century sim to 18th century sim just being mrs. baddeley.

but without the leeches, purges, bloodletting, surgery without painkillers, and useless visits to the baths. oh and without blackmailing feminine companions. mrs. baddeley of course would have to go rehearse her play, and so she did. but sadly nobody was there. it's just as well because it was getting way too histrionic i think. perhaps she'd fight about her salary or something. and avoid her pimp of an ex-husband.

being short of money she might pay a little visit to charlotte hayes' nunnery to moonlight for some pocket change. but very discreet of course....wouldn't want to end up on the list of covent garden ladies.

i must confess, one thing really confounds me. how the hell can you pursue this line of work without getting your heavily pomaded and half rotten 'do from getting irretrievably wrecked in the course of discharging your duties? (yeah i said discharge lol) i mean, it just doesn't make sense. perhaps they knew something special that we don't know anymore about having your hair did so that it lasts.

maybe having exerted herself maybe she might eat something, somewhere fashionable, and then speed off to a very august address, for a very private visit to meet one of her benefactors.

another incredulous modern interjection here: all this without antibiotics? and all sorts of omg disgusting venereal disease floating around everywhere? ewww. ewww. not to mention the whole pregnancy and childbirth without painkillers and aieee back alley abortions from hell. i guess these ladies were just made of sterner stuff that we pitiful cossetted modern girls.

sigh. now time to go home and drink a pint of gin and laudanum, and sleep till noon.

the notorious mrs. juana baddeley wears:

jabot, cuffs, jacket, pants (i made them breeches) and tails valerian suit, and caged bird gloves and stockings by silent sparrow
curlicue undershirt from chichi set , shoes mme renaud by cutea bennelli
black pompadour and mourning tricorne by nonna hedges
snow white skin by i forgot.
giltterati earrings by violet voltaire