“There was one scene yet to come that was perfect in its wickedness. A ballet began with a man dressed up as a woman, and a country clown. The most disgusting attitudes were struck, the most immoral acts represented, without one dissenting voice. If there had been any feat of agility, any grimacing, or, in fact, anything with which the laughter of the uneducated classes is usually associated, the applause might have been accounted for: but here were two ruffians degrading themselves each time they stirred a limb, and forcing into the brains of the childish audience before them thoughts that must embitter a lifetime, and descend from father to child like some bodily infirmity.
The most obscene thoughts, the most disgusting scenes were cooly described, making a poor child near me wipe away the tears that rolled down her eyes with the enjoyment of the poison.”
Henry Mayhew (b1812d1887) “Of the Penny Gaff”.
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