This poster from 1778 shows the typical variety of popular entertainments on offer during the late 1700s. These include a ballet, rope dancing, tumblers, hire wire dancing, harlequin clowns performing magic, and even a unicorn.

Enlightenment-vision-flowchart

In 1784 the first manned balloon flight was made in England by an Italian aviator, Vincenzo Lunardi, whose balloon is pictured in this illustration. Lunardi’s appearance over the rooftops of London caused an outright sensation. Thereafter, regular balloon flights attracted several thousand onlookers, and ‘Balloonomania’ swept right across the country.

All about Eighteenth-Century Letters and British Culture by Clare Brant. LibraryThing is a cataloging and social networking site for booklovers

Audiences could be rude, noisy and dangerous. Alcohol and food were consumed in great quantity, while people arrived and left throughout the duration of the performance. Audiences chatted among themselves, and sometimes pelted actors with rotten fruit and vegetables. Others demanded that popular tunes be repeated.. Audiences were a mix of rich and poor: ‘persons of quality’ were seated in boxes placed alongside the stage, while working men and women were squeezed into hot and dirty…

Enlightenment book. Read 12 reviews from the world's largest community for readers. For generations the traditional focus for those wishing to understand...

David Wootton's new book challenges the notion that knowledge is culturally relative