Today we're traveling back to early-18th-century England with The Favourite! Join us for a discussion of Sarah Churchill, baroque dancing, duck racing, whether or not Queen Anne really had all those pet rabbits, and more!

Sources:

Rabbits/Queen Anne's Health:

Hannah Greig, "The Favourite: The Real History Behind the New Queen Anne Film," History Extra, available at https://www.historyextra.com/period/stuart/real-history-the-favourite-film-queen-anne-olivia-colman-hannah-greig/ HE Hemson, "For Want of An Heir: The Obstetrical History of Queen Anne," British Medical Journal 304, 6838 (1992) Elizabeth Lane Furdell, "Medical Personnel at the Court of Queen Anne," The Historian 48, 3 (1986)

Film Background: Off Set, "'You can look as awful as possible!': Olivia Colman on mud baths and her The Favourite make-under," YouTube (7 January 2019). https://youtu.be/-ffDZBXTrXE "When Sex Scenes Go Wrong," Graham Norton Show https://youtu.be/y-9hRmaoCTg BBC Radio 1 "It's a bit ropey!" https://youtu.be/zLDCiq4UQEU CBS This Morning, "Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz call "The Favourite" a "high-stakes 'Mean Girls'" YouTube (9 November 2018). https://youtu.be/3yilBo3GGQ8 IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5083738/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_favourite_2018 Heather Hogan, ""The Favourite" Review: Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone Out-Gay Each Other in Twisted Majesty," Autostraddle (3 December 2018). https://www.autostraddle.com/the-favourite-review-rachel-weisz-and-emma-stone-out-gay-each-other-in-twisted-majesty/ SAG-AFTRA Foundation, "Conversations with The Favourite," YouTube (9 November 2018). https://youtu.be/upCcaXXk_Cs

"I Have Spoken"

The Secret Garden clip: https://youtu.be/oSorBOm828U

Sarah Churchill:

Charles Littleton, "The politics of the royal bedchamber: what The Favourite does (and does not) tell us about party, Parliament and the court of Queen Anne," The History of Parliamanet: British Political, Social & Local History. https://thehistoryofparliament.wordpress.com/2019/02/06/the-politics-of-the-royal-bedchamber-what-the-favourite-does-and-does-not-tell-us-about-party-parliament-and-the-court-of-queen-anne/ A.T. Thompson and Philip Wharton, "Sarah, duchess of Marlborough," The Queens of Society (J.W. Jarvis & Son, 1932). https://www.google.com/books/edition/Sarah_duchess_of_Marlborough/Rpg1AQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0

Historic Royal Palaces, "Queen Anne," https://www.hrp.org.uk/kensington-palace/history-and-stories/queen-anne/#gs.3zvsjj James Falkner, "Churchill [nee Jenyns], Sarah, duchess of Marlborough, (1660-1744)," Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (3 January 2008). https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/5405 Frances Harris, "Accounts of the Conduct of Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, 1704-1742," The Electronic British Library Journal British Library (1982). https://www.bl.uk/eblj/1982articles/pdf/article2.pdf Authentick Memoirs of the Life and Conduct Of her Grace, Sarah, Late Dutchess of Marlborough, Containing A geniuine Narrative of her Grace's Conduct, from her first coming to Court, to the Death of her Royal Mistress Queen Anne, and from the Demise of the Queen to her Grace's Death. (Fleet-Lane, London: R. Walker, 1746). https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=inu.30000114520582&view=1up&seq=9

Baroque Dancing:

John Weaver, Orchesography; or, the Art of Dancing. 1706. Full text available at https://www.gutenberg.org/files/9454/9454-h/9454-h.htm David Wilson, "But How Do You Know How They Danced So Long Ago?" https://web.archive.org/web/20120216070000/http://www.earlydancecircle.co.uk/conf2003-2.html Eight Bars of Dance Recorded by Feuillet in 1700. Image available at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beauchamp-Feuillet_notation#/media/File:Page_1_of_the_dance_la_Bouree_d'Achille_published_in_1700_by_Feuillet.jpg Smithsonian Channel, "Can You Learn the Steps to This 18th Century Dance?" Available at https://youtu.be/m4oDi4fd39E Matt Donnelly, "Breaking Down "The Favourite"'s Insane Royal Dance Battle," Variety, available at https://variety.com/2018/film/news/favourite-dance-scene-rachel-weisz-joe-alwyn-1203085751/ Gabriella Karl-Johnson, "From the Page to the Floor: Baroque Dance Notation and Kellom Tomlinson's The Art of Dancing Explained," Signs and Society 5, 2 (2017)