cat houses, clams, convents & nuns

[James Landau]

1759 is a century and a half too late.  In Hamlet Act III Scene I ("Get
thee to a nunnery") it is ambiguous whether Hamlet is using "nunnery" to
mean a residence for celibate women or a brothel.  "We are arrant knaves,
all; believe none of us.  Go they ways to a nunnery...be thou as chaste as
ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny.  Get thee to a
nunnery, go".  Actually I think Shakespeare did not intend one or the other
meaning but reather was deliberately playing on the ambiguity.  Note that
Hamlet, in his mad north-north west speeches is fond of sexual imagery.


Date: Thu, 9 Mar 2006 12:15:27 -0500
From: George Thompson <george.thompson at NYU.EDU>
Subject: cat houses, clams, convents & nuns

More low words from the gutter press of olden days:

1832: Mr. Editor. Some few nights since I was called upon by a
gentleman, in appearance, to convey himself and lady to a convent in
Thomas-street, I obeyed his call, handed off the lovely Rosina to the
coach, then drove the loving pair off in fine style, away we rattled
over the stones, arrived at the door out popped the lovers, in popped
my gentleman and lady and I got diddled out of my carriage hire. What
can I do in such a case? he is a confectioner, and she is a OH DEAR.
Hawk & Buzzard, September 8, 1832 (I:4) p. 4, col. 2

1833: . . . I wish to notice a young gentleman who made his debut on
Sunday evening on the Chapel-street carpet with the passions of a
Romeo. . . , he wilted like a head of cabbage under the pelting rays
of a NUN. . . . Now Mr. Editor, let me ask you whether such language
is fit to be used in a respectable convent.
Ely’s Hawk & Buzzard, September 21, 1833 (ns II:7) p. 2, col. 2

HDAS has only one cite, from 1759; the sense doesn't seem to be in OED
at all. This seems remarkable to me: one of the things my ancestors
were really good at was anti-catholicism -- another was antisemitism,
of course -- as well as -- but never mind. In any event, I would have
thought that calling a brothel a convent would hvae been fairly
widespread in England as well as the U. S.

1833: The nuns who were at the Bowery theatre on Monday night, found
business on the increase, the flats bit well and some of the prime uns
nibbled. Paint add much to attract in the evening, and two covies
found themselves in company not with virgins but half anotomized [sic]
figures when they awoke in the morning.
Ely’s Hawk & Buzzard, September 21, 1833 (ns II:7) p. 1, col. 3

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