POPULAR ENTERTAINMENT: 1700s

Advert for a Giant (1742)

Eleanor and Saskia

TEXT SUMMARY

‘This giant man is from Sweden, and brings immense satisfaction to all who see him. He has been moved to the park where he can be seen by the public from 9am-9pm, at a rate of 1 shilling each. It is impossible to explain how astonishing this sight is; we won’t try to do it justice. However, we assure you that he is a foot taller than ancient giants; in fact, he could be deemed the first person since Goliath to be so huge.’

Genre: An advertisement for a contemporary form of

entertainment, most likely found in a newspaper or shop window

Audience: Middle class citizens; those with enough excess money to spend on luxuries, i.e. entertainment. Polysyllabic lexis suggests a learned and well-read readership

Purpose: To advertise a freak show exhibit. Attempts to persuade the public to pay for tickets to see a ‘giant’ man

OVERVIEW: GAP

The ‘curiosity’ trend began in the 1500s with exhibitions of ‘abnormal’ people travelling through towns,

taverns and circuses Reveals discriminatory attitude to minorities; people with disabilities or physical abnormalities were

considered subhuman, and thus objects to be gawped at and ridiculed In the 21st Century this makes for a rather uncomfortable read; it is far from today’s Western ideal of equality

and diversity The Georgian Era was characterised by strict codes of morality. Immense social change meant further rigidity

regarding the class system, propriety, and behaviour. Anything beyond the ‘normal’ was derogated or humiliated

Travelling abroad was expensive and unheard of, so anything ‘foreign’ was perceived to be a novelty but also aroused suspicion

The text states that a brief viewing of the ‘giant’ cost 1 shilling each. Today this would be approximately £90, the same price for a ticket to see certain West End shows

The language of the advert serves to reinforce the objectification of the individual concerned: “gives such amazing Satisfaction to all that see him” “he…is now remov’d” “Prodigy in Nature”

PRAGMATICS/CONTEXT

Semantic weakening: over time, adjectives like ‘wonderful’ and

‘amazing’ have undergone semantic weakening due to overuse. However, in the 18th Century it is likely that they would have meant ‘inspiring wonder’ and ‘inspiring amazement’ respectively. Nevertheless, sources suggest that these adverts were “prone to exaggeration”

Notable lexical choices: Colossus: a statue of the Greek sun god, Helios; it stood over 30m tall.

Reference to Classical mythology presupposes that the reader is educated Goliah: reference to Goliath, the Old Testament giant. England was still a

predominantly Christian country, therefore most readers would have understood this allusion; helps establish external cohesion. Perhaps presents the giant as the enemy, an ‘other’ to be defeated by being demeaned

LEXIS AND SEMANTICS

ORTHOGRAPHY Long/short s: Long s used at the

beginning of lower-case words and in the middle of words (‘ſuch’ and ‘Paſſages’). Short s reserved for beginning of upper-case words and end of words (‘Sweden’ and ‘Mews’)

Capital letters: Used to denote proper nouns and the beginning of sentences. Predominantly a device to emphasise particular lexemes, including ‘Prodigy in Nature’ and ‘Number of Gentlemen and Ladies’

Spelling shifts: Very few variant spellings. Those present include ‘publick’ (public), ‘Goliah’ (Goliath) and ‘aera’ (era). The graphs show that ‘non-standard’ spellings began to be replaced by today’s spelling within the century. Today publick and aera are obsolete spellings

aera/era

Publick/public

Goliah/Goliath

Hyphenation: of nouns acting as modifiers, e.g. “Lottery-Office”, “Glass-Shop”

and “Mews-Wall” Contractions: Use of apostrophe within the ‘ed’ inflexion; examples include

‘assur’d’, ‘call’d’ and ‘express’d’. This was a trend in the 18th century, so would most likely have been used by the author to convey modernity

It is clear from the graph that use of this contraction decreased dramatically during the 1700s. This decline may have occurred because the apostrophe was becoming increasingly associated with working class slang. Interestingly, this change is accompanied by the increased publication of prescriptivist grammar books, including Robert Lowth’s A Short Introduction to English Grammar (1762)

GRAMMAR

Sentence length: Entire text contains

three multi-clause compound sentences, each on average 55 words long.

Punctuation: Each sentence is regularly punctuated with commas. 3 full stops used in total to mark paragraph endings.

Likely a product of fashion, although today makes the piece awkward and uncomfortable to read

In 1892, a Professor Sherman noted a trend over time of sentences shortening in length

SYNTAX

The first two words are “From Sweden”, perhaps utilising the simultaneous xenophobia and

fascination with foreign cultures within 18th Century society as a hook for the reader The text is approximately 170 words long. This makes for a long advert; it is as if the

advertiser has taken full advantage of the space available, valuing quantity over readability The writer attempts to persuade through both a narrative and explicitly informative style, as

opposed to rhetorical skill. Resembles the introduction of a character in a novel:a) Introduces the giantb) Describes where he is from and where he can be foundc) Who can see him, when and how much d) The characteristics of the giante) Comparison to historical/literary figuresf) Final description

DISCOURSE

Mundane, unobtrusive in appearance. By today’s

standards, the advert is relatively nondescript. It lacks colour, graphics and uniqueness of design

Three paragraphs of text with narrow line-spacing Most conspicuous feature is title, ‘GIANT’, which

supposedly mirrors the enormity of the ‘exhibit’ in comparison to the general population

It is likely that this advertisement featured in a newspaper. The advertiser would therefore have been limited by price, word-limit and standard of printing

GRAPHOLOGY

http

://www.bl.uk/learning/timeline/external/Living%20London_192Kbit_44kHz%20mono.mp3

http://www.bl.uk/learning/timeline/item126704.html http://www.bl.uk/learning/cult/bodies/freak/freakshow.html http://www.bl.uk/learning/timeline/item105421.html http://altereddimensions.net/2014/history-freak-show https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freak_show http://priceonomics.com/the-rise-and-fall-of-circus-freakshows/

EXTRA RESOURCES/LINKS