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The The Circus Circus and and Nature Nature in in Late
Late
Georgian Georgian England
England
Marius Kwint
You at command make brutes obey,
Walk, work, or dance, with movement gay.
Your horses far excel report,
Whose minuet might grace a Court;
Their hornpipe quick to music true,
They seem as if each step they knew,
But all the art and skill’s with you.
The monkey, though of race despis’d
Unequall’d must by all be priz’d
His excellence excites surprise;
For e’en with man for fame he vies.
The dancing dogs, where Lady Flaunt
In chariot plac’d to take a jaunt
With flirting airs so perfect seen,
She seems to move a fairy queen.
The hunting, where the taylors chace,
A fox with mirth o’er spreads each face.
“lines . . . addressed to Mr. Astley by a Lady, on
seeing his performances” (1785) 1
The modern circus has a rather different form and content from the chariot races
of its ancient Roman namesake because it is the product of more recent times. It
was invented chiefly around London during the 1760s and 1770s by a new breed
of plebeian equestrian who possessed extraordinary skills of gymnastic trick
riding. 2 Several of them had learned their techniques while training as cavalrymen
in the British army during the Seven Years War (1756–63), which left Britain with
a vastly expanded empire. Once demobilized, they sought to turn their skills to
profit by performing stunts (such as headstands in the saddle or bestriding three
cantering horses at once) at pleasure gardens and fairgrounds across Britain,
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