In the Regency period, we developed brilliant ways of putting people down. It’s time to revive them, says Lulu Taylor
There is someone in my town who cuts me. He walks past me without acknowledging the fact that I am there, or that we know each other. In Regency times, cutting someone was considered a great insult and the Cut Direct the greatest of all. The cutter looked their foe in the eye, and then coldly and deliberately looked away or even turned their back. The cuttee could be under no illusion that they had been publicly ignored and deeply insulted. The Cut Direct was about social power as punishment, and was so potentially damaging that rules about its use had to be observed. A gentleman could never cut a lady, for example, and he also had to be wary of cutting another gentleman who might take such great offence that he issued a challenge. Hosts could not cut their guests – the rule of hospitality trumped personal feelings. Spinsters...
I’m afraid this isn’t one of our four free articles available in full, which are set out in the first two rows of the ‘Magazine’ page.
Please click here to find them.
To buy a digital version of this issue for just £2.99, click here
