Show notes
Join guest host COUNT CHOCULA, filling in for Corinthian Finn for a one-hour-long spree through the scandal-sheets and story papers of early-Victorian London! This show cycles through four themes over a month-long cycle, one show per week. As today is the fifth Sunday of the month, this is a bonus show: OOPS! ALL VAMPIRES! It’s a solid wall of blood-curdling fun. Our regular sequence will start afresh for September with next week’s “Sixpenny Spookies” episode, which will be followed by ...The “Graanam Gothics” theme episode, the second Sunday of the month;The “Ha’penny Horrors” theme episode, the third Sunday; and finally—The “Twopenny Torrids” theme episode, the fourth Sunday. Then we’ll be right back around to the “Sixpenny Spookies” again, for the first Sunday of October! ———— For COMPLETE SHOW NOTES, including art and links to resources, see pennydread.com/discord. ———— IN TODAY'S "SIXPENNY SPOOKIES" EPISODE:02:45: DRACULA, by BRAM STOKER (1897), Chapter 5: We turn to an exchange of letters between Miss Mina Murray (soon to be Harker, if he survives) and her childhood friend, Miss Lucy Westenra. We learn that, on May 24 — a few days before Jonathan Harker’s desperate attempt to get the Szgani to post a letter for him — one of which is from a physician in charge of a London lunatic asylum. Could this be the asylum next door to Carfax, soon to be Count Dracula’s new home? This doesn’t bode well, does it?21:30: GHOSTLY POETRY, to-wit: THE VAMPYRE, by John Stagg (1810): Herman’s best friend Sigismund died a few weeks ago; but now he visits every night and feasts upon his heart’s best blood. As he feels death approaching, he asks his wife Gertrude to stay up and watch for the vampire ….31:00: VICTORIAN GHOSTLY SHORT STORY, to-wit: CLARIMONDE (original title: La Morte Amoreuse), by Theophile Gautier (1836), Part 1 of 3 parts: Young Romauld had always wanted to enter the church and never even thought about women. But at his investment ceremony, he makes eye contact with a gorgeous dame in the gallery and obsession begins to take over his life. Her name, he learns, is Clarimonde, and she is a notorious courtesan. But … is that all she is? Or is she something worse?58:15: VARNEY THE VAMPYRE; or, THE FEAST OF BLOOD, Chapter 64: Brave Mr. Tom Eccles hurries pistol in hand toward the old ruins where the vampire disappeared, prey to considerable doubts and fears. The plan is to hide a handkerchief there so his friends can see next day that he did it, and can thereby win his wager. As he nears the spot, Mr. Marchdale accosts him, claiming to be on a mission to find the vampire and shoot him. They hide in the ruins. Soon Varney appears and Marchdale urges Eccles to shoot him. He does, but instantly regrets it, crying, “Now I’m a murderer!” But Marchdale warns they must finish him off at once or the moonlight will revive him. Eccles wants to wait and watch to see if that happens. So … will it?GLOSSARY OF EARLY-VICTORIAN SLANG USED IN THIS EPISODE:BLOODS AND CHOICE SPIRITS: (from intro patter) Young, high-spirited rakes on the town.KNIGHTS OF THE CLEAVER: (ibid) Butchers. CLARET: Slang for blood, although usually used to refer to a nosebleed. Starting a nosebleed by punching someone in the sniffer was “drawing a cork and starting the claret.”SLUICE YOUR TOMBSTONES: Take a drink.BLACKLEGS: (from outro patter) Crooked gamblers.RUM BLADES: Good but rakish companions.KNIGHTS OF THE POST: Prisoners being punished at the pillory.SHERRY OFF: (ibid) Run away. FLATS: (ibid) Suckers. GET FLY TO THE FAKEMENT: (ibid) Get wise to the swindle. BOLT THE MOON: (ibid) Leave in the middle of the night. BRUSH OFF: (ibid) Leave. Note this phrase means something slightly different today. FOOTNOTE: Special co-host Count Von Count wants you to know that "This special OOPS! ALL VAMPIRES! Episode of the Penny Dreadful Hour podcast is brought to you by the numbers 86 and 47! Ah ah ah!”)
