Julius Soubise

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A Mungo Macaroni , drawing by Matthew & Mary Darly, 1772

Julius Soubise ( 1754 - 25 August 1798 ) was a freed Afro-Caribbean slave who became known as Fop in the late 18th century in Great Britain . The satirical portrayal of Soubise as " A Mungo Macaroni " is a popular example of the intersectionality of race, class and gender in 18th century London. His life in luxury as a free “man of color” allowed him to take part in the leisure pursuits of the elite. He excelled as a fencer, for example, and was known in London's upper class as an exception to the rules.

Life

Soubise was born on the island of St. Kitts in the Caribbean . He was the son of a slave from Jamaica . He was sold as a slave himself at the age of 10. The Royal Navy Captain Stair Douglas bought it and took it to England, where it was named "Othello". In 1764 it was given to Catherine Douglas, Duchess of Queensberry , a relative of Douglas' and a well-known eccentric of London's high society. She manumitted him. It was given a new name after the French Duke Charles de Rohan, prince de Soubise . The Duchess made a privileged life possible for Soubise and treated him like her own son - apparently with the consent of her husband Charles Douglas, 3rd Duke of Queensberry .

Soubise received training from Domenico Angelo , a fencing master whom he regularly accompanied as an adjutant (usher) to Eton and Windsor . Then Soubise became the cavalry master and fencing master of the Duchess, making him a popular "celebrity" (acquaintance) among young nobles and playing an important role in the upper-class circles. He became a member of numerous popular clubs, such as the Thatched House Club . The personal patronage of the duchess enabled Soubise to have a lifestyle of social occasions and fashion. Occasionally he introduced himself as "Prince Ana-Ana-maboe" or as "The Black Prince" and claimed to come from an African royal family. There were rumors that his relationship with the Duchess was also sexual.

In the collected letters of the famous freedman Ignatius Sancho there is the letter XIIII of October 11, 1772, which is addressed to Soubise. Sancho encourages him to use his happy position as an unusually privileged black person and to lead a more decent life.

On July 15, 1777, however, Soubise fled Britain to India . Historical reports argue whether he was sent away to contain his debauchery or whether he fled to avoid charges of raping a Duchess maid. The Duchess died two days after he left. In India he founded a fencing and riding school in Calcutta , Bengal. He promoted a school that was open to men and women. On August 25, 1798, Soubise fell from his horse while trying to tame a horse and the resulting injuries resulted in his death. He was the father of two famous children, Mary and William Soubise. The mother's name was not known.

Julius Soubise is portrayed in an animation film called The Swordsman of Trelawny .

Cartoons

Print by William Austin, "The Duchess of Queensberry and Soubise"

Soubise became prominent enough to serve as a motif for several caricatures. Soubise is first and foremost a model for the cartoon A Mungo Macaroni . The caricature was published on September 10, 1772 as part of a famous satirical series of drawings depicting fashionable young men from 1771 to 1773. It was published by Matthew and Mary Darly . The term " macaroni " was a contemporary name for a fashion fool , a dandy , while "Mungo" was the name of an eager slave in the comic opera ( operetta ) The Padlock by Isaac Bickerstaffe from 1769. Before that, the term "mungo" was often used for luxury slaves who were often theatrically treated like pets of the elite. This designation was intended to mock Soubise's identity, which he had adopted for himself.

William Austin's famous satirical print, The Duchess of Queensbury and Soubise. May 1, 1773 shows the couple in a fencing match. Austin's copperplate engraving was based on depictions of fencing from the Angelos fencing dynasty and reports on soubise from Henry Angelo's memoir. Austin satirically depicts the inappropriate relationship between Soubise and the Duchess. Soubise is portrayed as Mungo the servant . In the print, Soubise is assigned a text in which he says: “Mungo here, Mungo dere, Mungo every where; Above and below. Hah! Vat your gracy tink of me now? " (Mungo here, Mungo there, Mungo everywhere; below and above. Hah! What does your Grace think of me now?) These lines come straight from the piece The Padlock. This print has been published several times under various titles, including the title “The Eccentric Duchess of Queensbury fencing with her protégé the Creole Soubise (otherwise 'Mungo')” and “The Duchess of Queensberry playing at foils with her favorite Lap Dog Mungo after expending near £ 10,000 to make him a—. ”

Art and education

It is said that Soubise has played various theater roles as Othello or as Mungo in The Padlock . These roles were usually played by actors in blackface . However, these reports are from Hicky's Bengal Gazette and may have been published for satirical purposes only. Soubise was strongly identified with these roles.

However, he had numerous privileged training courses, besides horse riding and fencing, he was also an amateur violinist, singer and actor. He was even taught how to speak by famous actor David Garrick .

Fashion

Soubise's style has often been compared to the other Fops of his time and is characterized by the French influence that his namesake also gave him. A Mungo Macaroni shows Soubise in a luxurious hat, frilly dresses, a walking stick and a decorative sword. He is known to wear large powdered wigs, fine fabrics such as silk, and dresses that accented his body. There is also a report that he was said to have worn diamond-studded shoes with red heels. Accordingly, it has been associated with effeminacy and debauchery. However, it can also be recognized that Soubise embodied a unique black identity of extravagance.

literature

  • Julius Soubise
  • P. Edwards, J. Walvin: Black Personalities in the Era of the Slave Trade. London, 1983.
  • Shyllon, Folarin: Black People in Britain 1555-1833. London, New York and Ibadan: Oxford University Press and the Institute of Race Relations, 1977.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g Miller, Monica L .: Slaves to fashion: black dandyism and the styling of black diasporic identity . Duke University Press, Durham 2009, ISBN 978-0-8223-9151-7 .
  2. ^ A b Felicity Nussbaum: The global eighteenth century . Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, Md. 2005, ISBN 978-0-8018-8269-2 .
  3. ^ A b Black Presence: Asian and Black History in Britain. The National Archives (UK Government), accessed January 17, 2007 .
  4. ↑ Carretta, Vincent .: Unchained voices: an anthology of Black authors in the English-speaking world of the eighteenth century . Expanded. University Press of Kentucky, Lexington 2004, ISBN 978-0-8131-4408-5 .
  5. ↑ a b c Vincent Carretta: Unchained Voices: An Anthology of Black Authors in the English-speaking World of the 18th Century (Expanded Edition) . University Press of Kentucky, 2004, ISBN 978-0-8131-9076-1 , pp. 103 ( google.com ).
  6. ↑ Vincent Carretta: Naval records and eighteenth ‐ century black biography. In: Journal for Maritime Research. vol. 5, 1, 2003: 143-158.
  7. ↑ a b c d e Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina: Black London: Life Before Emancipation . Rutgers University Press, 1995, ISBN 978-0-8135-2272-2 , pp. 54 .
  8. ^ Lars Eckstein: Re-Membering the Black Atlantic: On the Poetics and Politics of Literary Memory . Rodopi, 2006, ISBN 978-90-420-1958-4 , pp. 85 ( google.com ).
  9. ↑ Vincent Carretta, Philip Gould: Genius in Bondage: Literature of the Early Black Atlantic ; University Press of Kentucky 2001: 209, ISBN 0-8131-2203-1 .
  10. ↑ Carretta and Gould: Genius in Bondage . 2001, p. 63 ( google.com ).
  11. ^ Markman Ellis: The Politics of Sensibility (Cambridge Studies in Romanticism) . Cambridge University Press, 1996, ISBN 978-0-521-55221-9 , pp. [1] .
  12. ^ Laura J. Rosenthal, Infamous Commerce: Prostitution in Eighteenth-Century British Literature and Culture , Cornell University Press 2006: 161, ISBN 0-8014-4404-7 .
  13. ^ A b Ignatius Sancho (ed. Vincent Carretta): The Letters of the Late Ignatius Sancho, an African . Penguin Classics, 1998, ISBN 978-0-14-043637-2 , pp. 257 ( google.com ).
  14. ↑ a b Vincent Carretta: Soubise, Julius [formerly Othello] (. C 1754-1798), one of fashion (=  Oxford Dictionary of National Biography . Band 1 ). Oxford University Press, September 23, 2004, doi : 10.1093 / ref: odnb / 60841 .
  15. ^ Catherine Lynette Innes: A History of Black and Asian Writing in Britain, 1700-2000 . Cambridge University Press, 2002, ISBN 978-0-521-64327-6 , pp. 27 ( google.com ).
  16. ^ The Swordsman of Trelawny .
  17. ↑ Miles Ogborn: Spaces of Modernity: London's Geographies 1680 to 1780 . Guilford Press, 1998, ISBN 978-1-57230-365-2 , pp. 134 ( google.com ).
  18. ^ A b Moody, Jane, 1967-2011., O'Quinn, Daniel, 1962-: The Cambridge companion to British theater, 1730-1830 . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2009, ISBN 978-1-139-00165-6 .
  19. ^ Henry Angelo: The Reminiscences of Henry Angelo . Ayer Publishing, 1972, ISBN 978-0-405-18118-4 , pp. 350 ( google.com ).
  20. ^ Henry Charles W. Angelo, Angelo's Pic nic; or, Table Talk. : 61.
  21. ↑ satirical print / print. In: British Museum. Retrieved November 3, 2018 .
  22. ↑ a b The D ------ of [...] - playing at foils with her favorite lap dog Mungo after expending near £ 10000 to make him a ---------- *. In: interactive.britishart.yale.edu. Retrieved November 3, 2018 .
  23. ^ Felicity Nussbaum: The Limits of the Human: Fictions of Anomaly, Race and Gender in the Long Eighteenth Century . Cambridge University Press, 2003, ISBN 978-0-521-01642-1 ( google.com ).
  24. ↑ A Mungo Macaroni. Macaronies, Characters, Caricatures & c by MDarly. [1772] (Vol.4). In: British Museum. Retrieved November 4, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Soubise, Julius
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Othello, Prince Ana-Ana-maboe
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English freedman and social figure
DATE OF BIRTH 1754
PLACE OF BIRTH St. Kitts
DATE OF DEATH August 25, 1798