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Judicial Corporal Punishment Of Women: Stories And Novels

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elephas, I have a paperback copy (Bluemoon) of Shades and believe me, it is over rated. The premise is good and the first few chapters are good, but the balance of the book is so repetitious as to be unreadable except in small quantities. That is, I can read at most two chapters a week!

Even then it's better to have a few days elapse between the two chapters.
 
Today we have a good find: the German original of "Nell in Bridewell".

Reinhard's "Lenchen" was first published in Karlsruhe in 1840, then in Leipzig around 1890 under the title: "Lenchen im Zuchthause. Schilderung des Strafverfahrens (Flagellantismus) in einem Süddeutschen Zuchthause vor 1848. Ein Beitrag zur Sittengeschichte." [Lenchen in prison. Description of the punishment proceedings (flagellantism) in a South German prison before 1848. A contribution to the history of morals.]

This is a 1974 edition.

Reinhard, Wilhelm. Lenchen im Zuchthause. Die berühmten Briefe über den Flagellantismus. München: Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, 1974.
[Lenchen in prison. The famous letters on flagellantism.]

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A story from Tiredny's archive.
From “Indeed!” by Edith Cantor (1980).

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Magistrate's whipping

I remembered some words of the Magistrate two days before: “We use a position here that allows the very underpart of the bottom to get the full measure.”

“We give it to them in three's,” was another remembered remark that only now became relevant as the flogging progressed and I saw the pattern developed. A man standing to one side of her with the whip held over and behind his head would cut the lash into the poor creature's buttocks three times with great severity and extreme rapidity before standing back to allow the effort to express itself. As he so obviously expected, the three strokes, reinforcing each other so immediately, caused a crisis in the culprit, so that she lost all control of herself and shamelessly screamed in the echoing space.

She worked her legs as energetically as the trestle would allow, and, devoid of all other opportunity of movement to express her anguish, bent and straightened her arms in a movement which can, but have been to the further disadvantage of her comfort: for the forward movement of the tightened waistband of the trousers must have dragged the linen across the rawness of the weals.

After a space of time which, on reflection, I now judge must have been some two minutes, a second beadle with another whip flogged her in like manner from the opposite side so that the buttocks were afflicted symmetrically. Thus, the awful ceremonial proceeded, not so much as one punishment, but as eight - each to be waited for and suffered separately and each to be discussed separately by many of those who were watching the spectacle. But the particular anguish which the Magistrate had planned for me was to be sharpened by a callousness whispered from his coarse lips and deliberately intended to outrage me.

For although he stayed his tongue whenever the whip was raised to herald the next application of three lashes and observed the silence that the floggers seemed to expect of the audience for the performances, he filled the times between by quietly informing my unwilling ears of all his thoughts as to how prostitutes should be flogged and how he regretted regulations that now restricted this punishment to such women only. It was a sort of gallows sermon in seven parts and to offend me the more, he described in the crudest terms and most explicit detail how, if not prevented by regulation, he would have them flogged in full public view, how they would be made to strip themselves naked - ‘‘as befits a tart” and how they would be positioned to cause them the maximum humiliation.

“I regret the trousers as they deserve no such protection to their modesty, but do not imagine, Madam, that we fit them in order to protect the ass from the sting. On the contrary, I believe a woman can be more effectively stung through the thin stuff of the trousers than if the lash were laid directly upon the flesh. As Madam must know better than I, a woman's bare bottom is loose and fleshy and can move and disperse itself while receiving the thong - and thus act as its own cushion to the impact. But when I get a girl in trousers - to a fit that I personally approve before each flogging - the encased flesh is held so firm for the whip that it cannot make retreat from the savagery of the attack - Madam can hear the tight surface in the noise of the strokes.” – and here he was interrupted by another triple fustigation.

“See how hard he does it,” he resumed, “and how those who watch approve his vigour! For that is the second truth of trousers. It would be different if her big fat bottom was bared, for the trousers remove compassion and sympathy from both my men and those who watch. Get a bare bottom on the bench and the men think of their wives and daughters! But get a pair of trousers filled to bursting point and they see a criminal with undeserved protection. It is a challenge to them! Their sense of justice demands that these dutiful fellows cut down with all their strength, knowing they have to bite through the stuff to give the Magistrate's intention its full effect.”

After the first girl had been dismounted, scarce able to stand, she was leant across the bench and had her trousers roughly lowered so that Jane should see the weals (and some wounding as well) that had resulted.

“Now, my girl, inspect the results of our efforts against your friend's trousers - and you can then proceed to imagine how it is to be for you, who will have your dues across your bare ass.”
 
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This is a case from the history of Swedish justice that I discovered thanks to this picture.
It was in the 1660s when Gunilla Jonsdotter, a Sami woman known as a healer in her parish, was prosecuted for "witchcraft". The Swedish Wikipedia has a small article about her which I have translated via Google.


Gunilla Jonsdotter

Gunilla (Gunill) Jonsdotter, born unknown year, died after 1667, was a Sami healer or naturopath. She was put on trial for witchcraft. That Sami women were brought before the court for witchcraft was not common in Sweden, and her case has been suggested to be part of the ongoing Christianization of the Sami.

Gunill was the sister of the Lapland sheriff Tomas Jonsson. She was active as a naturopath or healer and well known in that profession. She had three children but was unmarried, and should not have been particularly interested in the Christian religion but refused to take communion. This was at a time when the Sami were often baptized in the Christian faith and bore a Christian name, but were only Christians and used their Christian names in contact with the Christian northerners, while they otherwise used Sami names and practiced Sami religion; hence the name Gunilla.

She was accused before the court on November 6, 1665 by the chaplain Werner Adamsson and his brother Claes Adamsson for in 1662 having murdered their father, the former parish priest in Undersåker, Adam Wellamsson, or Werner Adami Klangundius, by witchcraft. It was stated that the pastor had refused to marry Gunill to her third child's father, which had resulted in a conflict. Shortly afterwards, Wellamson became ill and eventually died. Since Gunill was well known as a successful naturopath, it was argued that she, who could save lives, should consequently also be able to end life.

Gunill denies having that knowledge and she is asked to get witnesses to swear on her innocence until next time. At the court on October 18, 1666, her brother, sister-in-law and nieces testify in her favor, but their testimony is not accepted and she is sentenced to death for witchcraft. On April 20, 1667, the death sentence is confirmed by the Court of Appeal.

Gunill was taken to the execution site and tied to the bonfire. According to an agreement without her knowledge, she would be executed if confessed, but in the event of continued refusal she would be released. She refused, and was subjected to whipping, after which she was released and banned from the neighborhood.
 
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This is a case from the history of Swedish justice that I discovered thanks to this picture.
It was in the 1660s when Gunilla Jonsdotter, a Sami woman known as a healer in her parish, was prosecuted for "witchcraft". The Swedish Wikipedia has a small article about her which I have translated via Google.
The Swedish wiki has a link to a master thesis in English (PDF) which goes into some detail regarding Gunilla's case (pp.19-21).

Furthermore, the peasantry here in Undersåker and Oviken and around the whole country testifies that this Gunnila roams the houses, drinking herself full of liquor, and becomes impossible to get rid of, because when they try to throw her out of the door and off their land she threatens them and speak of all evil things, gnashes, swears and curses on her language, so that people fear her, requesting to get her away from the mountains and the parish.

:devil:
 
We must all congratulate elephas for his wonderful find of the original German version of "Nell in Bridewell". Nell is something very special in the genre of erotic chastisement. There is a lot going on in this book and I'll share some of my findings in another post.

In this post I wanted to share what I learned from elephas. In short, Nell has a sequel called "Nell's Farewell". It has never been translated into English, but the German version is available "online" in a number of libraries. To see the libraries near you, just enter your zip code and hit: Find Libraries


If we could get our hands on the German version, we could use Google Translate to learn whether Nell is subjected to a house of correction "Farewell".

Problem seems to be, you must be enrolled in the Universities to access their online books.
 
We must all congratulate elephas for his wonderful find of the original German version of "Nell in Bridewell". Nell is something very special in the genre of erotic chastisement. There is a lot going on in this book and I'll share some of my findings in another post.

In this post I wanted to share what I learned from elephas. In short, Nell has a sequel called "Nell's Farewell". It has never been translated into English, but the German version is available "online" in a number of libraries. To see the libraries near you, just enter your zip code and hit: Find Libraries


If we could get our hands on the German version, we could use Google Translate to learn whether Nell is subjected to a house of correction "Farewell".

Problem seems to be, you must be enrolled in the Universities to access their online books.
Tired, thanks for the congratulations! This is a really good find. As for "Lenchens Abschied", I'm afraid the chances of getting the text are not very high. However, let us express the cautious hope that we will be lucky.
I invite our writers to take a look at the Nell / Lenchen story and write their own sequel. Let me remind you that at the end of the novel, when Nell is punished with a pizzle while wearing special thin drawers, it is said that she should receive her "Farewell" punishment with a birch on her bare buttocks.
 
Welcomes and Farewells for a House of Correction

Many years ago I encountered this notion of a Welcome and Farewell to a prison in "Nell in Bridewell". There could possibly be even older references to this idea, but it's my guess that it was Nell that introduced this idea to generations of CP writers (Little, Rawlings, etc.). (I'm also guilty of appropriating this idea is a couple of my stories.)

Anyhow, what I wanted to share is that this "appropriation" is almost always WRONG! The typical story is our heroine arrives at the prison and then is subjected to the following:

1. Medical inspection​
2. Shower​
3. Issued prison uniform​
4. Immediately taken with the other new arrivals to receive their prison "Welcome"​

(As an aside, if I were in charge, I'd have the shower first followed by the medical inspection. Then while still wrapped in a towel, I'd perform the Welcome and only then issue the uniform. Perhaps this might be after a "cooling down" period.)

Getting back to my original point of an "incorrect appropriation", what's wrong is the timing. Here is the exact wording in Nell:

… I at last ventured to ask her what was really meant by the “Welcome” I had heard so much talked about.
“The Welcome, my girl?” she replied, with a self-satisfied smile and laughing. “I will show you.”
She opened a cupboard, took from it a 3½-foot stout bull's pizzle, and said: “With this we welcome new-comers to the House of Correction, but often only a long time after their arrival, so that they may know and feel where they are, and may have become sufficiently humbled and obedient. Stand up, my girl,” she added; and now she began to feel those parts of my body which by my erect position had become more specially open to her inspection.

In Nell, our delinquent learns about the “Welcome” long before she is subjected to it. Indeed, Nell actually observes one being dispensed. This is a HUGE difference to the way Welcomes are superficially treated in all of the other books. Because Nell knows what is in her indeterminant future, she anticipates it with extreme dread. She shares her feelings with readers and other prisoners. She schemes any way she can to avoid; even going so far as to prefer a birching in the Warden's office. Now such a "birching" would be on the bare, but it would be a fairly private affair. Again, Nell would far prefer this to the formal Welcome which is a public event, dispensed with a bull's pizzle over the new, thin "whipping drawers".
 
I just found this e-book on a random online search -- this is a shortish (113 pages) book on corporal punishments in history written by a medieval historian and published by Amsterdam University Press in 2014:


I like the dedication: "To all my dentists".
 

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From “Bombay Bound” by Richard Manton.

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Captain Charles De Vane, who is ordered to march to India, first travels to Budapest to see his friend Lord Algernon Regis, who was spending time with Baroness Anna von Luft. Julie, the 19-year-old maid of the baroness, is accused of stealing a gold ring from her mistress, which she easily admits to the police. As a result, she is sentenced to be flogged in the Raab market square, near Budapest, in front of the gates of the city prison...

From the chapter three:


Presently there was a movement among the crowd in the cobbled square below the window. It was a ripple of anticipation as the double doors in the archway of the prison were unbolted and drawn back. On every side there was a glint of opera-glasses being raised and a positioning of cameras. Julie was standing back between two men, preparing herself for what was to come. She still wore the woollen top, tight denim working-trousers, and the little shoes with tall heels. Now, however, I could just make out that she had gathered her hair into a long strand which she was holding forward over her head and twisting into a rough plait. When that was done, she coiled it into a charming little bun and, taking several pins which were held in her mouth, she formed a coquettish little top-knot of it.

Anna, who was well accustomed to such public displays as this, explained to us the due procedure. Julie would be led out on to the platform. There she would be made to kneel over the bench and would be fastened to it. The hangman or his assistant must then undo and pull down the tight denim trousers. To preserve decency, however, Julie would have been given a pair of close-fitting cotton drawers to put on underneath. These would remain during the whole of the punishment. It was the practice that a culprit must remain over the bench, exposed in public shame, for half an hour before the whipping was carried out. In this case, the shape of Julie's posterior charms would be perfectly revealed, though the cotton drawers would conceal their details from the prying eyes of the crowd.

Anna explained this to us with a strange mocking humour in her eyes which, at the time, was a mystery to me. I knew, from Algy, that we would be privileged by the governor's laissez-passer to view Julie in her cell after the ordeal. Was it this thought, perhaps, which caused Anna such malicious amusement?

"It disappoints you that she will enjoy such protection from a pair of pants?" asked the young Baroness, perhaps sensing my uncertainty. "Never fear. The severity of the discipline is augmented to counter that. A leather pony-switch is used instead of a birch and the strokes are increased to thirty!"

A silence fell upon the crowd as Julie was led on to the low wooden platform by the hangman and his assistant. She seemed a petite figure indeed between these two strongly-built fellows. Yet the little top-knot of blonde hair gave an added pertness to her indolent young face. They led her to the nearer end of the bench and made her turn her back to the people.

First she was required to kneel, sitting on her heels. Then, lifting her hips and seat, they made her kneel forward along the bench. Her wrists were strapped to the two further legs so that her arms were pulled out at full stretch in front of her. A cushion had been placed for her head so that she lay with her moody little face turned aside towards one part of the crowd.

The hangman pulled the hem of the woollen jumper up so that he was able to fasten her down at the waist by a strap which was against her bare skin. Then, stooping over her, he undid the jeans at their top and stripped them down to her knees.

It seemed as if one universal gasp of astonishment escaped the entire crowd at the same time, a single quiver of excitement uniting men and women alike. Under the denim which had now been stripped from her, Julie's hips, backside, and thighs were naked as the moment she was born!
...


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Tired, thanks for the congratulations! This is a really good find. As for "Lenchens Abschied", I'm afraid the chances of getting the text are not very high. However, let us express the cautious hope that we will be lucky.
I invite our writers to take a look at the Nell / Lenchen story and write their own sequel. Let me remind you that at the end of the novel, when Nell is punished with a pizzle while wearing special thin drawers, it is said that she should receive her "Farewell" punishment with a birch on her bare buttocks.
That would be great if Nell's farewell was available. To read about her birching after her bottom has healed from the application of the bull's pizzle subject to the surgeon's agreement would be a treat.
 
Savage Eden by Constance Gluyas

Savage Eden by Constance Gluyas (Signet, 1976) is a kitschy romance novel, but it opens with an excellent whipping scene. In the year 1700, Lady Carolyn, a beautiful 20-year-old blonde-haired noblewoman is wrongfully convicted of theft, adultery and manslaughter. Due to the egregiousness of her crime, she is stripped of her title of nobility so she can be given the sort of degrading punishment reserved for commoners. Then she is sentenced to be stripped to the waist and whipped through the streets at cart tail, a punishment normally meted out to common folk.

When the book begins, the former Lady Carolyn is fifteen minutes into her public whipping, on an unusually hot summer day in London, and is now a pitiful sight. The former noblewoman who has been reduced to the status of a commoner is naked to the waist and barefoot—and in almost unbearable pain. And she must endure her torture and humiliation in front of thousands.

The single-tail lead-tipped lash has already drawn a crisscross pattern of lines across Carolyn’s bare shoulders and arms that ooze droplets of blood. Her wrists are rubbed raw by the thin leather cords binding them firmly to the tail of the cart, Not used to walking around barefoot as do the common folk, Carolyn’s bare feet are gashed and bruised by the cobblestones and are bleeding. Onlookers, who number in the thousands and line both sides of the street shower her with taunts and insults and spit in her face, yet she is unable to wipe the spittle away due to her hands being restrained. Others rip at her dress, exposing the bare flesh of her legs. Meanwhile some men in the crowd are sexually stimulated by her bare breasts that glisten with sweat and bob seductively as she stumbles along.

Carolyn tries to endure her pain in silence. When the whip lands on her back, she tries to stifle her scream, yet her stifled moan is audible and she clearly winces. Then one especially heavy stroke sends her tumbling to the street. Now screaming, Carolyn is dragged over the sharp, filthy cobblestones, her bare forearms, still bound to the cart, grotesquely straining upward as she is pulled along. Nearly naked and covered with her own blood, Carolyn is beaten to within an inch of her life before she is finally rescued by a rogue highwayman, and they’re soon off to a series of adventures.
Where can I download it? Thank you
 
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