Queen Mary and Westfield College London University PhD Thesis ...

is the typical madhouse visitor 47. People coming to Bethiem for 'idle' or mischievous purposes
were regarded by the Governors as visitors under false 'p[re]tence[s]', with 'no Business' being
in the hospital48 . Staff were carefully instructed upon their conduct towards visitors in a way
which made overt the social divide anticipated by the Governors between the two groups, and
the crucial importance accorded to visitors' charity. A sight of the lunatics was, envisioned, and
did indeed function, as a direct appeal to charity, the Governor8 relying on the pity, compassion
and approval of visitors to inspire donations to the poors' box and servants (who were themselves
allowed a charity box in 1662). Money 'given [by visitorsj in the house or at the doore' was
spoken of explicitly as 'for the benefitt of the poore Lunatiq[ues]', and for much of the seventeenth
century was laid out (occasionally, before, but normally immediately after, it had been brought
to account) for provisions and necessaries required at the hospital 49. Visitors were not simply
moved to such oblique forms of charity, but often gave money to patients themselves, or gifts
in kind50 . Less directly, exhibiting the insane might elicit retrospective benefactions or legacies.
The Governors were only too appreciative of the deficient state of the hospital's income and its
dependence on the public. 'Laying before [the public] objects of charity', either physically or
metaphorically, was the standard method of raising money for public charities. An account of a
visit to I3ethlem might also be presented 'for the advancement of good-will amongst men'51.
Showing the insane as an exhortation was reinforced by an inscription on the poors' box
praying visitors to 'remember the poore Lunaticks', although the additional clause 'and put your
Charity into the Box with your own hand', was a constant reminder and warning for the duration
of the period of the undercurrent of abuse beneath the rhetoric of charity. While visitors' alms
often did not reach its intended objects (see infra), the Governors went to considerable pains
to ensure that it did and to cement the charitable nature of the hospital in the minds of their
public patrons. With the hospital's rebuilding at Moorfields, the connections between charity
and the public spectacle of insanity were rendered even more explicit. The blue that had long
See Francis Beaumont & John Fletcher, The Pilgrim (1621/2), IV, ii, Is 21-80; Middleton & Rowley, The
Chengeling (1621/2), e g. IV, iii, Is 102-135.
48 BCGM, 4 September 1650 & 11 August 1699, loIs 462-3 & 289.
BCGM, 29 March & 21 June 1637, foI' 112 & 125-7.
See infrs, 'Patients And Visitor,'. The Prince of Wales gave 2 guineas, in 1735, 'to be distributed amongst
some of the Patients who he had the Curiosity to talk to and to enquire the Cause of their Disorder'. LEP,
No.1239, 25-28 October 1735.
The Gsmrd,mn, No.79, 11 June 1713.
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