“It’s … it’s … the tops of her feet! How utterly scandalous!” (laughter). I heard several variations of this phrase at the Victorian Tea, an event held by the Honors English 10–Global 2 Combined class (co-taught by Ms. Mellander and Mr. Ballard), wherein students rewound the clock 150 years to experience elements of Victorian culture at Cornell’s picturesque A. D. White House. The phrase mocks what students in the class considered to be excessive Victorian prudery, and shows just how much times have changed.
We wore clothes that would be considered excessively formal today, and—prepare to be shocked—spent three hours without touching a video game. For the most part, we found other, Victorian forms of entertainment like dance, parlor games, music, and eating—all surprisingly enjoyable.
Students had positive reactions to waltzing. Noel Bentley ’17 found it to be “something new and interesting, but also fun,” while Max Fink ’17 said, “I thoroughly enjoyed dancing.”
Parlor games followed. We played two; one was similar to charades, the other was “Passing the Smile.” This amusing game involved sitting in a circle and trying to get others to crack a smile or laugh.
After a period of listening to Victorian-era music, namely, a part from Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado and piece by Mendelssohn, we enjoyed a spectacularly-presented excerpt from Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, regularly punctuated by giggles from the audience. While anyone reading the play’s script can see the humor in Wilde’s dialogue, the actual play—put on by students in our class—went another two or three steps further into hilarity. Imagine a supposedly demure Victorian lady swatting cake onto the ground in a large spray of chunks and crumbs, all in a fit of annoyance.
Although cake had been sacrificed for the sake of the play, there was a lot of other delicious food, and tea, to consume. We snacked on various baked goods, from cakes to cookies to biscuits and everything in between, as well as a delectable Victorian oddity: cucumber sandwiches—slices of bread with cucumber, vinegar, and mayonnaise in between.
Like all good things, the event came to an end, having lasted only three hours.