Thanks again to Kitty Stryker for pulling me into the world of Vesta Tilley, Victorian drag king. Born Matilda Powles in 1863, Tilley was famous for her music hall performances where she accurately mimicked and mocked masculine roles in her comedic song and dance performances. Here’s an excerpt from a description of one of her shows by contemporary reviewer W.R. Titterton:

“…How sure the singer is! How despotically she rules over her audience – dallies with the rhythm, draws it out, pauses in mid-gesture, the hand in the air, the monocle nearing the eye – pauses perilously long, you get uneasy, the bicycle goes so slow you are afraid it will topple – it almost does, but in good time the chorus comes to its conclusion with a ‘My word!’ and one dainty feminine hand slaps the other, and the body wriggles into itself with a foot up. ‘My word! he-is-a naugh-ty boy!’ O Tilley!”

For a wonderful article about Vesta Tilley at the Victorianist blog and the full Titterton review click here, and for more photos at Buzzfeed click here.