Victorian Ventriloquists: Henry James and George Du Maurier

Abstract

In Chapter 1 I addressed several examples of ventriloquial voices, ranging from the Delphic oracle in Ancient Greece to nineteenth-century spirit mediums. The ‘origin’ of the voice(s) in each of these circumstances is certainly debateable but there is a common theme in which the source of the voice was traced to a supernatural agency, whether demonic or divine. However, Leigh Eric Schmidt identifies a shift in popular ideas about ventriloquial voices from the eighteenth century onwards: ‘In performative practice, the ventriloquist’s art shifted the focus […] from the divine struggle over the soul to the protean malleability of personal identity, the fears and attractions of imposture, and the sheer pleasures of amusement’ (Schmidt, 1998, p. 274). It was during the eighteenth century that ventriloquism began to be billed as an overt performance art, becoming a form of popular entertainment as opposed to the manifestation of supernatural forces (Vox, 1981, p. 47) and we can see that this correlates with the eighteenth century’s increased questioning of and scepticism towards superstition. Ventriloquism became a mainstay of travelling fairs and outdoor markets.