#bridewell

The Whipping Cheer is a c. 1625 ballad about Bridewell, the (if)famous workhouse, and it's simultaneously a work song and a prison song. Workhouses were basically prisons which systematically used forced labour, and locked up "the idle poor": vagrants, beggars, thieves, "women of loose morals", the unemployed, the homeless, and anyone without an approved occupation.

Workhouses sucked ass. At their worst, which was often, they involved hard labour (repetitive, exhausting, and way too much of it every day), brutal corporal punishment, and worst of all, endless preaching about how idleness is the mother of all vices, and only hard work builds character for the likes of you (obviously this rigorous work ethic didn't extend to the rich, who could wank all day long for all anyone cared).

For more on English Poor Laws from a rogue's perspective, see No rest for the wicked: Anti-vagrancy laws in Tudor England, 1495-1604. This will bring us to the Elizabethan Poor Law of 1601, which didn't invent but firmly established the institution of "houses or correction" (the precursors to workhouses) for many years to come. Bridewell Prison lasted from 1556 to 1855, and along with Bedlam, remains an iconic example of how early modern England treated its outcasts.

The Whipping Cheer comes in two parts, one for the girls who turn the spindle in Bridewell,

and one for the boys who beat hemp,

or at least will be when they get caught. (To be perfectly honest, I have questions about the 2nd part's meaning, so if anyone's super comfortable with Elizabethan English and wants to give it a shot, please let me know.) Hemp was indeed a product of Bridewell Prison, as we can see in this 1732 engraving by William Hogarth, from A Harlot's Progress.

Bridewell prison with inmates (including prostitutes and a card-player) beating hemp under the supervision of a warder holding a cane; a man stands with his hands in a pillory, with the sign "Better to Work than Stand thus" [x]

A few years back, the band Dead Rat Orchestra took some verses from the first part of the ballad, and made it a great song and a great video. You can read the original ballad in its entirety here.

Dead Rat Orchestra - The Whipping Cheer

Come you fatal Sisters three, whose exercise is spinning: And help us to pull out these threads, for here’s a harsh beginning.

Oh hemp, and flax, and tow to to to, Tow to to to, tow tero. Oh hemp, and flax, and tow to to to, Tow to to to, tow tero.

You punks and panders every one, follow your loving sisters: In new Bridewell there is a mill, Fills all our hands with blisters.

Bess the eldest Sister, she is stained much with honour, And cannot endure the labour which has been thrust upon her.

The blinded whipper he attends us, if we the wheel leave turning, And then the very Matron's looks, turns all our mirth to mourning.

‘CAN I FORGET YOUR FACE?’

Several students and I exhibited our work in the Bridewell Gallery (independent [outside of university])

Having been inspired by Angelo Madonna’s work in the Bridewell, I decided to also exhibit my work in the cells. I thought my art worked well in the prison as the portrait paintings were of a criminal I knew from the past who had not been caught (NO JUSTICE TO THOSE HARMED BY HIM). Due to him committing suicide before the police could put him in a trial to send to jail, I decided to sentence him myself via paintings. 

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A manhunt is underway after a violent killer who murdered his girlfriend goes on the run.