The Penny Dreadful Hour: A Feast of Early-Victorian Street Literature and Stories

4.10: The murdering body-snatchers of old Bethnal Green! — Highwayman Dick Turpin is trapped by treachery! — Sweeney Todd packs his plunder. — A million-dollar jewel heist is foiled!

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Join host Corinthian Finn, a.k.a. Finn J.D. John 18th Baron Dunwitch,* for a one-hour-long spree through the scandal-sheets and story papers of old London!

This is our hour-long Ha'penny Horrid 'Hursday episode, the second of our two weekly shows.

PART I: "THE HA’PENNY HORRIDS”: (Horrid, as in “horror”!)

  • 01:00: DICKENS' DREADFUL ALMANAC for today: An account of a 21-year-old man who stole jewels worth north of half a million modern pounds Sterling … and nearly got away with it!
  • 04:03: SWEENEY TODD, THE BARBER OF FLEET-STREET, Chapter 66-67: Johanna and Arabella get ready to implement their plan. The decide she’ll go over and ask for the job in the morning. … Meanwhile, Todd is musing about the strange fact that his customers always come by twos. He jumps up. “Yes,” he says, “the game is up. I am watched. Off and away.” And then he starts packing up his plunder, preparatory to hopping the twig, leaving Fleet-street in a great blaze behind him … then someone enters the shop. It’s a customer! Todd darts behind him — and bolts the shop door.
  • 29:10: BROADSIDE: The Trials and Sentences of Prisoners at the Old Bailey in 1852 … including a lad who was put in the pillory for perjury after his testimony sent an innocent man to the gallows.
  • 32:31: THE ‘REST OF THE STORY’ ABOUT THE MURDERING BURKERS: Trust me, it’s way more horrible than we realized when we read that Execution Broadside, two weeks ago!

PART II: "THE TWOPENNY TORRIDS”:

This second segment of the Thursday show contains a chapter or two of Dick Turpin's adventures, along with all the more salacious, cheeky, and naughty elements of the week — INCLUDING ...

  • 44:08: BLACK BESS; or, THE KNIGHT OF THE ROAD (starring HIGHWAYMAN DICK TURPIN), Chapter 34-35: Dick and Tom stop at the Samson and Lion and ask the ostler to look after their horses. He is very surly and insolent until they pay him some money, at which point he snaps into line. Dick does a little bragging about Black Bess, which he quickly realizes was a big mistake as it is no part of their plan to reveal who they are … how big a mistake it was, our lads will soon be finding out!
  • 1:08:15: SOME STREET POETRY from a broadside ballad: “The Archer-boy,” “Nan o’ the Valley,” “The Unkind Shepherdess,” and “I Love Thee Night and Day Love.”
  • 1:12:55: A VERY NAUGHTY COCK-AND-HEN-CLUB SONG: "THE WAGER; or, THE HOLY OLD MAID.” In which, we learn that Aunt Sally isn’t nearly so spinsterish as her neighbours think …
  • 1:17:20: A FEW SALTY AND SPICY JOKES from a somewhat edgy 1800s joke book: "The Joke-Cracker."

*The Barony of Dunwitch is located in a wood west of Arkham (where, as H.P. Lovecraft put it, “the hills rise wild, and there are valleys with deep woods that no axe has ever cut; there are dark narrow glens where the trees slope fantastically, and where thin brooklets trickle without ever having caught the glint of sunlight.”) Actually it is a good 3,000 miles west of Arkham. It is not to be confused with Dunwich, the English seacoast town that fell house by house into the sea centuries ago, or Dunsany, the home until 1957 of legendary fantasy author Edward J.M.D. Plunkett, 18th Baron Dunsany.

GLOSSARY OF FLASH TERMS USED IN THIS EPISODE:

  • • CAPER MERCHANTS: Dancing teachers.
  • • BITS O’ MUSLIN: Pretty girls.
  • • KNIGHTS OF THE BRUSH AND MOON: Drunken fellows wandering amok in meadows and ditches, trying to stagger home.
  • • CORINTHIAN: A fancy toff or titled swell. Used here as a reference to Corinthian Tom, the quintessential Regency rake depicted in Pierce Egan's "Life in London" (usually referred to as "Tom and Jerry").
  • • CHAFFING-CRIB: A room where drinking and bantering are going on.
  • • FLATS: Suckers.
  • • FLY TO: Wised-up about, aware of.
  • • FAKEMENT: Plot or scheme.

There are more! But we’re out of space here. A full glossary of all the flash-cant terms used in this episode is at ⁠https://pennydread.com/discord⁠ in the "#season-4-episodes" thread.


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The Penny Dreadful Hour: A Feast of Early-Victorian Street Literature and StoriesBy Finn J.D. John/ Pulp-Lit Productions
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