Nelson & His World

I read in a book recently that modern celebrity - a culture of personal fascination - was born in the first decade of the nineteenth century.

Does this mean that Nelson was the originator of this phenomenon - which has now extended through all levels of society for more than 200 years?

Or did anyone prior to Nelson have true celebrity?

MB

Slightly ahead of the nineteenth Century I would have included, John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlbourgh 1650-1774, and possibly Robert Clive of India, 1725-1774.

Mark:

I think the cult of celebrity began a little earlier than the 19th century.

One of the reasons for the rise of the cult of celebrity was the great number of scandal-mongering journals that began to be published which fed the public appetite (or maybe created it? As we know from modern advertising and marketing, demand can be created and stimulated as well as simply met.) I have just finished reading a rip-roaring account of an 18th century ‘crim.con’ case (criminal conversation = adultery) that brought notoriety and scandal to the couple involved. Hallie Rubenhold, author of the above book, notes:

‘Georgians were fascinated with…and greatly covetous of the lives of their social betters’ and were ‘addicted to gossip or intelligence of how the other half lived…..

‘Henry Bate Dudley, founder of The Morning Post, one of the most successful publications, recognised the public desire to reap more than just information from their daily papers…Dudley filled his columns with gossip, reviews, poetry, sport, anecdotes and smut. When in 1781 his profits allowed him to launch a second publication, the Morning Herald, he single-handedly forced a revolution in British journalism.’


Their success could be attributed to ‘their reportage of scandal and the fashionable ‘ton’. Grub Street publishers also reaped a small fortune from printing longer pieces of gossip-journalism about the exploits of high society, or noted actresses or courtesans. Anything that bore the name of one recently in the spotlight was certain to sell, whether satirical poems, exposés or the transcripts of criminal conversation trials. The public’s thirst for such material was unquenchable.’

The only way that gossip could be suppressed was by means of a healthy bribe, or more correctly, extortion and/or blackmail.

Nelson, of course, was alarmed by The Prince of Wales’s interest in Emma, knowing how the press would report and exaggerate it. ‘It will be in all the newspapers with hints.’ He and Emma and Sir William had already been subjected to not-so-subtle innuendo in numerous caricatures and cartoons. And, as we have discussed elsewhere, he was subject to a blackmail attempt, a threat to publish negative reports of his part in the Boulogne failure.

All was not negative though: the theatre and the public prints could be of great advantage to a naval officer seeking recognition. A tableau of a recent naval victory was often staged as an adjunct to a play and heroic acts were reported widely in the press. Nelson was rather blatant about wanting his exploits reported, but other officers, were just as eager to have their letters circulated or published; they were just a little more discreet.

[Quotations from ‘Lady Worsley’s Whim’ by Hallie Rubenhold (Vintage, 2009) A brilliantly-researched and elegantly written account of the ‘crim-con' case brought by Lady Worsley’s husband, with spectacular results! It also gives a wonderful insight into the manners and morals of the day. Highly recommended.]

We 'crossed', Stephen!

Yes, you're right in saying that earlier figures like Marlborough were subject to poetic satire - Swift and Pope had savage pens - but I think their criticisms reached a very limited audience, a tightly-knit circle of literary men (and a few women.) The later celebrity-fever was much more widespread, aided by the public prints that published material that was possibly less truthful, and concerned with trivia as well as major follies. The aspiring middle-class, the 'air-head' ladies of the aristocracy, gentlemen in their coffee houses, were all avid not just for poetic attacks on their victims' characters and failings, such as Pope satirised, but everything about them - their dress, their daily comings-and-goings, how they looked, what they ate, as well as their scandalous affairs - just like the 'celeb' mags of today that haunt well-known figures to snap their photographs or interview them about the minute details of their lives.

Stephen,

Whilst I agree that both the 1st Duke of Marlborough and Clive of India are worthy of pre-19th Century 'celeb' status, it is indeed also remarkable that they died in the same year, the former obviously from the ripe old age of 124! I am sure however, in his case, you meant 1722 and not 1774!