The Bawds Tryal and Execution:

A GRUESOME DREAM-TRIAL IN WHICH A WOMAN IS ACCUSED OF INFECTING A MAN WITH VENEREAL DISEASE AND CONDEMNED TO A SLOW DEATH

also, a Short Account of her whole Life & Travels. Written by Misomastropus. With Allowance.

 

First Edition. Small Folio (appox 285 x 195mm). [2], 6pp. Upper fore-corner of the final leaf very neatly repaired but otherwise a largely uncut and clean copy carefully disbound from a larger volume. Preserved in a high quality custom-made red cloth folder and morocco-backed slip case by James Macdonald of New York, lettered in gilt on slipcase (very lightly rubbed at the edges).

 

London: for L.C., 

Rare. Wing B1166 recording BL, Bodley (x2) only in the UK; Harvard ("Narcissus Luttrell's copy, priced in his autograph: 2d.  Ms. correction on p. 3", Clark Library UCLA and Yale only in the USA. 

 

A rare, harrowing and deeply gruesome dream narrative in which a gentleman ravaged by venereal disease ("the French Commodity") imagines a woman put on trial so her supposed "hidden" crimes might be exposed to the public. The man imagines the woman ("the Lewd Criminal") ravaged by time and ill-health being cross-examined over details of her "wicked" life before eventually being found guilty and having the judge condemn her to a hideously slow and painful death: "For 'tis not to dye, but to be dying, that makes death a Torment."

 

The dream trial takes place in the Court of Princess Agnotes [Purity] where the "pox-blasted" man imagines the judge Philagnotus presiding over the case of the "guilty Punk grown decrepit with her Crimes that hung more heavy on her head than the ponderous weight of Threescore Years" (p.2) The decayed appearance of the woman is described in horrific detail:

 

"Her old Eyes (those loathsome snuffs of Lascivious lights) were sunk deep into the skonse, but still endeavoured to cast forth from the bottom of the socket an amorous glimmering that ravished just as much as the twinkling Relique of an expiring Candle, that burns but stinks, and smokes, and now and then glances a dull offensive light upon the Nauseating Beholders. ..." (p.2)

 

The woman is accused by "fair Parthenia" a "Chaste Virgin" who addresses the judge and  states that she wishes to "turn her [the accused] inside out that her hidden Crimes might appear to every Vulgar Eye" (p.2):

 

"...to search into this wicked womans Life, is to Dive in a Jaques [toilet]; To Paint her in her proper Colours, is to draw a Picture to be Scar'd with: Like some Timerous Painter, that with a lucky hand, Copies the Devil so well, that he Trembles at the Spirit which his Majestick Pencil rais'd; no less than a Young Conjurer the unruly Fiend which his Charms summon'd into this Circle: Yet I cannot but think it just, that we rather suffer our own Stomach to be turn'd with stirring this Filth, than let Vice go without the grand punishment of being publish'd." (p.3)

 

The woman's supposed crimes are described in detail culminating in her continuing to pursue her "vices" in later life:

 

"For when old Age had made her Loathsome to man, even in the hottest Feaver-fit of Lust, or Extasie of Wine and her Jaded Body tir'd under her and left her to the dry delight of wishes and desires; she sat her down to a nasty Feast to Chew the Cud, and Feed on Meats she had already Eat, but brought up again with a ruminating reach of Fancy to Chew over the second time." (p.3)

 

The man is also allowed to speak to the court with his own decrepit and diseased state said to be the living embodiment of her crimes, "by shewing the ruines of a Manly Fabrick, brought to this decay by that wicked Womans unjust practices..." (p.4)

 

The woman is unsurprisingly found guilty and condemned to have her body rot and, "creep unto its ruine Limb after Limb" on the basis that "tis not to dye, but to be dying, that makes death a Torment." (p.6)

 

The punishment is described in gruesome detail:

 

"...already infected with the contagious Disease that began to spread over her whole body, faster than a Water-Circle over the surface of a dead Pool, and Eat more Hungrely than Aquafortis, destroying all the way it went, and leaving nothing behind it but Putrefaction: Her Nose began presently to creep off her Face upon the backs of Maggots, and Legs walk'd from under her, her Eyes (those once foolish Lovers Planets) became falling Stars, and dropt from their Orbs, lay like filthy Jelly upon the ground; her Lips, so often Nick-named Cherries, rotted off the Tree: The Roses of her Cheeks (long since faded and decay'd,) began now to Putrify; her Tongue and Teeth were blown out of her Mouth with her vehement Sighs, and her Flesh fell from her Bone all round her, like melting Snow from the Boughs of an over burthen'd Tree, and as it dropt, away from her, lothing the Monstrous Soul from whom 'twas got loose. ..." (p.6)

 

The man awakes from his dream in an "Acclamation of Joy" and, "... fancied 'twas something more than a Dream, and so concluded when he consider'd, that Sleep was sometimes Prophetick as well as Fabulous, and had its true Visions, as well as Phantoms." (p.6)

 

This pamphlet is listed in A General Catalogue of all the stitch'd Books and Single Sheets ... printed the last two years, commencing from the first discovery of the Popish Plot (London 1680). This may be because the "L.C." found in the imprint has been attributed to the "vehement Whig propagandist" Langley Curtis, a trade publisher active during the period of the Plot. The initials appear on c.8 publications in the period 1678-1683 including The Anti-Roman pacquet: or, Memoirs of popes and popery, for the conviction of papists, and satisfaction of Protestants (1680), The condemnation, behaviour, last dying words and execution of Algernon Sidney (1683) and The happy return, or An account of his Grace the Duke of Monmouth’s surrendring himself (1683).

 

Melissa M. Mowry sees satirical works such as the present playing, "to the nation's fears of social and political instability", which were exacerbated by the Exclusion Crisis and the Popish Plot (The bawdy politic in Stuart England, 1660-1714 : political pornography and prostitution (2004) p. 93). Mowry goes on to note that the punishment imposed on the woman, "chillingly mimics the punishment for high treason, usually reserved for male traitors...The bawd's dismemberment is compensatory, but it is also disciplinary...the judicial authority that hands down her punishment exposes the bawd for what she is. Identity for her is purely punitive" (p.93-4).

 

Provenance: Small indecipherable red circular ink stamp on the folding case. Clipped catalogue description of the [?Cyril Hackett] Wilkinson copy pasted to the folding case noting "only four copies of this lurid pamphlet are recorded"

Stock Code: 249786