Actually the title is simply Aristocrats, based on the Stella Tillyard book on the lives and loves of the four Lennox sisters. The eldest eloped with Charles Fox, while the youngest, Sarah, came close to marrying George III(lost out due to political reasons, for the politically safe German princess Charlotte), married hurriedly elsewhere under familial pressure, separated, and then had an affair and later married(happily)below her social class.
Sarah's sins seem to have been: 1)Not snagging King Georgie in the first place(jilting or being jilted by a king, no less, was not quite acceptible), 2)Not staying with Husband #1(who was no prize)no matter what and having a nice quiet affair or affairs on the side, and 3)a woman who marries or re-marries beneath her socio-economic class was a serious no-no. On the other hand, a man of the ton could have dumped an unsatisfactory wife in a country house and lived as we wished in London or wherever, had plenty of affairs, and upon said wife's death(should she be so obliging)married a beautiful nobody, a rich merchant's daughter or(gasp)an actress, and suffered little if any public censure. Wish the BBC would do a series on Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, her husband, and Lady Elizabeth Foster, the most (in)famous menage a trois of the 18th century. Cindy Abel _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list [email protected] http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
