Original subtitles

I want to destroy Lydia quickly.

So do I.

Then we'll be allies.

I'm trying to act against Quigley yet I find myself doing her bidding.

I hate you!

My secret is a child.

My brother -

Jesus...

Your uncle is a monsterous incubus.

It is him who I protect you from.

Miss Wells.

May I tempt you out for a drive?

Lord Fallon's made me another offer.

He's sending for me tonight.

You've killed.

Be silent, or your lovely daughter hangs.

I'll confess to the murder of Sir George Howard.

Take care of things for me.

What else?

The Lord Justice was going to spare your mother, but I implored him not to.

Get her down, then!

Tomorrow, you set sail for America.

No, there is no hope for me without my family!

Tell us what you know, or I'll release this avenging angel.

What, Blayne, is he your king?

It's Blayne!

I do freely confess that I see no other path than to take my own life.

She's alive.

No one can know.

She can never come back, can she?

It was your mother who ensured that mine kissed the rope.

Charles!

I can't hang her, no matter what she's done.

You must come with us.

Where?

It's our judgement day.

We're most grateful for your interest in Katherine. She's a headstrong girl,

but with firm instructions she'll transform into a biddable and doting wife.

MAN: I look forward to having her as my own.

She's in the stables. Horse mad.

But I'm sure you'll soon tame that.

Let's go, for this is paradise!

There was no other path for me.

If your position was ordained by birth, then so was mine.

Our men do well at keeping wives and courtesans apart.

I thought some discourse between us might be of use.

I simply want to know if she's ruining my husband.

I'm a bawd now.

I run a house. There's hardly a man in my bed.

So, you live off the flesh of others.

Girls come to me from the street. I offer them income and safety.

They've been ruined by poverty, not by Miss Wells.

And there's more that we can do for them.

You'd have us offer charity to whores?

I knew your minds would be small.

We'll break through their prejudice.

I know their prejudice will break you.

- She's mine, sir. - No, she's mine.

Don't make me laugh. I shall be taking her home tonight.

I've lavished her with gifts the entire month.

Right, you must win me in a chariot race.

Perhaps you'd ride in my chariot? This way. Take my hand.

Ladies and gentlemen, place your bets.

Come on, you lot! There's a lady to be won!

- Well, she makes them roar.

Come on!

Go, go, go, go, go!

So, this is London.

Come on, you lot!

We'll find gold in the muck even if we have to sup with witches.

-You don't look like gentry. -This has all the class we need.

We're sits up from Bishopsgate. Our trade's insurance.

NANCY: Don't be fooled by my dainty size.

Any trouble, I'll flay your face off.

Mr Chadwick, what big guns you've got.

I only have to see a man's pistol and I swoon.

The shot is loaded and I'm taking aim.

- I like you a lot, Mr Chadwick. - Yes.

- Fire away.

I declare it a draw.

A new challenge must decide it.

Whoever licks that bald man's head first, gets me.

They've not spent enough, not yet.

You have to tut one of them in the end.

Tut yourself.

I do.

I've given you my whole month's allowance and I insist.

Well, you'll have to catch me first.

'Ere, Charlotte, put him right. He's a right cheeky dog, that one.

Is this the legend Charlotte Wells?

I'm going to buy whatever she sells.

Don't tell me, you're a poet.

You'll find that I'm cupped with a fine, manly figure.

Your mouth or your manhood, which one's bigger?

There's no pretence with me, you get exactly what you see.

A beauty is funny, with rhyme and uncanny.

What words do you use for your moist nook and cranny?

I call it my cunt, actually.

Poetry was made for rogues and harlots.

I'm no rogue.

Hmm. You disappoint me.

Talon boy, soldier,

citizen, trader.

I earn money with my artful tongue.

We're the same in that.

Of all the like girls and jezebels,

none holds a torch to Charlotte Wells.

DOCTOR: Nerve endings.

This is where mental disorders originate.

And stimulating these nerves

can improve the condition of the lunatic.

There is no more effective stimulation of the nerves

than bodily evacuation,

the more violent the better.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the rotational chair.

Please, please, no, no, no, don't. Please?

No!

I beg you, please!

She will be spun for two hours or more, her dizziness will provoke

involuntary evacuation

through every orifice,

thus enlivening her defective nerves.

Argh!

So,

like Boudica or Lady Godiva?

Shut up and use your mouth better.

Please, fetch me...

Fetch me a bucket, please?

Gin.

You've mistaken me for your flunky.

This is a Pincher tavern now. Only our girls tout here.

I'm not touting, I'm drinking. Gin.

Chadwick, gunmaker, breath like burning rags, but he tips in gold.

Keep it. Your riches are mine in other ways.

Lucy!

Have you fallen off your chandelier?

Hmph. I'm hiding from my col.

Then hide somewhere else.

Don't you know who this is?

Lucy Wells.

Moves through London like a comet, leaving dead gentry in her wake.

Lucy Wells? Welcome to the Saracen's.

I had you in posh rooms up on Swallow Street,

with a maid to sew pearls in your muff hair.

And what are you? A tavern whore?

No, I run all these girls for Hal Pincher,

and I'm riding him for England and St George.

- MAN: Lucy!

Lucy Wells.

Where are you?

My col. Some nights I can't be fadged.

Well, then, those muff pearls will all turn to sand.

I'm gonna go and wash a gunmaker out my garden.

Huh, you win.

Do you know how long it's been since I last rode a poll?

Since I became a bawd.

MAN: What made you break your fast?

Some sport for my restless soul.

MAN: I don't think I've given you my name.

Isaac Pincher.

Me and my brother have taken the lease on the Saracen's Head in Villiers Street.

There's a place for you in our empire.

What do you mean?

This is my list to rival the Harris's.

I'll give you and your girls matchless write-ups

and promote your house to this first in Soho.

For my services in expanding your trade, I'll take nothing but a small levy.

One quarter of what you make.

So not a poet but a sly backstreet pimp.

SAAC: There's a bond between us, you can feel it.

Pfft!

- We're both from the streets. - I'm the world's fool.

How dare you toy with me!

ISAAC: Come to terms amicably,

for every girl you've got is in the arms of one of my men.

Do you threaten us with violence?

- Don't let it come to that.

These men are not what they say they are. Filthy pimping scum!

Hey, hey! Get your hands off me! Get your hands off me!

You need to accept my offer.

Go pinch yourself, you little cock!

I hate to do this, I hate to do this, be my prize.

Oh, I accept.

That's the right decision.

You two stay on the door, take the money, give the girls their portions.

The role I was assigned at birth was poverty.

Hell on Earth, as you know.

Debt collectors. If you don't let 'em in, they'll break down the door.

I can't face them.

DEBT COLLECTOR: Open this door! - You must run.

Where to?

DEBT COLLECTOR: Open this door!

MAN: I've lost it.

I've lost Golden Square.

GIRL: You'll find a way to win it back.

Stop staring at me with those stupid, hopeful eyes.

You're like a fish dying in a puddle.

- Save yourself.

DEBT COLLECTOR: Open up!

- Get out of the way! - After him!

In all that I am.

What better than to Prospero...

...most terrible fool. Poor soul.

- And thine greater father... - WOMAN: No!

I've committed no crime!

No!

In the name of mercy, I beg you!

MAN: A common groom...

gave her obscene pleasure.

DOCTOR: A surfeit of venereal nerves can give the female odd and unbridled lusts.

- She's in the right hands. - Please, not this place.

- This place is hell! -Then pray to God for forgiveness.

Vile hypocrite!

My father will rise up from his grave for what you do to me!

- Shush, shush. - I hope you die of anguish!

Shush, shush. Your pain will be interpreted as mad.

Get back, horrid creature.

Why could I not come down tonight?

My friends would have found me lacking as your guardian.

What was your son on about?

It was a failed experiment.

Few in our circle see the world as I do.

She paraded her courtesan in front of her friends.

Daring or reckless.

Unconventional,

and yet she hides me away and treats me like a child.

Would you be daring too?

William North will kill me for letting in those fiends.

He's not here. He's in York or Scarborough or some other freezing place

- flying his fits. - NANCY: He'd have clubbed with 'em whole.

It's not your fault, Nance.

That rank lyin' fuckster was so plausible I took him to my bed.

He's putting us in his list. If we cross him, he could write what he likes,

call us all vile bitches and pox-ridden sluts.

Then we fight clever. But the day that rhyming prick takes over my house,

- you can step on my festering corpse.

They fall before us like dominoes.

Cross the abyss of St Martin's Lane into the kingdom of Soho,

conquering as we move.

- What have you done, brother?

I drank a chalice of the purest nectar.

I had Charlotte Wells and then I wrecked her.

I never lend money to strangers.

We have a gentleman in common. Mr Digby Reed.

Hmm. He told me you were a legend among London bawds.

You might know of me as Bet Harper.

You ran the best molly house in Bristol.

BET: And plan to surpass it here.

It's Elizabeth Harvey now.

I heard your house fell and folded, leaving nothing but a breeze.

We fell before because we were too visible.

This time we'll hide behind a modest veil.

ELIZABETH: Gentlemen's clothing.

My son has talents with his needle and thread.

You'll dress men in one room,

undress them in another?

I'll keep my boys in safety...

and make us both a pile.

I have 200 in capital.

There's a premises on the market.

I have been watching its decline.

It was a goldmine for a relative of mine,

and I covered it.

Not alone, a share of the deeds.

Where is it?

Azured vault...

Set roaring war...

Jove's stout oak...

Graves at my command...

Oh, God, please don't let me forget it.

WOMAN: Graves at my command...

have waked their sleepers...

- Prospero.

Why has your family forsaken you?

My father's dead.

The man you saw, he wed my mother.

And she's never smiled since.

What was your crime?

I found a heaven in the hay with a boy I'd known since childhood.

I am fallen.

No, angel,

you are bright still.

Isaac was always on show.

Pa used to send him out the frontto drag coins out of the drinkers.

He kept me in the back, counting them up.

But he's fallen into side too fast.

He doesn't think.

What can I do?

It's his vigour.

He was the same in the Fusiliers,always restless for action.

But it's you that holds us together.

Don't let your brother blow it apart.

Isabella, this is most awkward.

When my husband discovered you were coming,

he asked me to retract the invitation.

Because of the guest I invited to my salon?

Not only that.

You must be aware.

Have you not read the papers?

They say your ward is your own child.

Born after a liaison with a servant that your brother had to quash.

It's a lie.

Who's written such slander?

Lady Isabella, I'd never ask you to leave,

but I'm sure you'll understand.

I have my wife's moral welfare to think about.

Sophia,

let us go.

- This is your asp. - Why are we doing this?

They'll just be looking at my dumplings.

They're sophisticated men. We have to entertain them.

I knew a girl who could fire peanuts out of her pipkin.

That was entertaining.

Yes, but this elevates us in their eyes.

I want them to know our calibre.

It's their coins not their plays that'll raise us up.

Hmmm.

Can you do the peanut trick?

- No. - Mm-hmm.

Then die, Queen of Egypt.

Mm-hmm.

ive me my robe, put on my crown, I have a mortal longing...

- A supine congress with a servant? - Never believe that libel.

Well, what else can I believe when you won't tell me who my father is?

Believe you are my beloved and seek to know no more.

I wouldn't judge you for loving a servant.

I just want to understand you.

This rag drags the matter up from where it should lie dead.

It's vicious mischief.

We have an enemy, that much is clear.

- Most magnificent strumpets.

Are you dogs going with them or are you gonna stay and pimp me?

You won't own me in public. I'm your ward, not your child.

I believe that this story's true.

My father's a servant and you are ashamed.

Fuckin' idiots.

I can't do anymore of 'em, Nance.

I charge like a villain, act like a minx and still they come.

One cock stand after another.

You're one of the most talked about women in London, and you have wealth.

Yes, but I've no taste for it. They're rotten.

What do I do, Nance?

Deep down even I have a taste for it.

It's the pretence you cannot brook, I think.

You look for love, as I did,

and that is hard, my girl.

Love?

There's no such thing.

There is. But my birch keeps all that at bay.

I've saved all my gold,

all I've ever earnt.

Do you think I could be a bawd?

I remember your ma once asked me that.

You'd make a fine bawd.

As good as Charlotte?

Mmm.

Where is she? Why's there no rutting?

It's your last chance to get your dogs off my door.

My muse.

Happy the man who Charlotte Wells takes to her amorous bosom.

For in this siren of Soho,

lust and grace are so combined

as to utterly intoxicate.

That's a public act of lewdness.

This is a bawdy and disorderly house.

- Who's the tavern keeper here?! - This man.

- He's our self-named pimp. - Sent bullies to our door.

And if I'm not mistaken, he takes a levy from every girl here.

I'm arresting you under the Bawdy and Disorderly Houses Act of 1752.

You bring the law down upon me?

We're not as helpless or as friendless as you think.

- That is beneath low. - For a man who feeds himself on flesh?

- Stay away from our house, maggot. - You are to be detained...

Help! Help!

...in a court of law to answer the charges again you.

We've fired the slingshot and the pimp Goliath is down.

You've got a visitor.

- He's looking for a loan. - MAN: That's not why. I need your help.

I never should've done it. I sent my mother to the madhouse

- and I haven't slept since. - Charles, your ma's in the right place.

He's lost Golden Square.

- It's up for auction. - CHARLES: Come in with me,

be my partner.

Why would she go into business with you, Charles?

You'd gambled that gold mine away.

Charles, I've just bought this place. Every penny I have is in these walls.

- You owe me your help. - CHARLOTTE: How?

Your ma's alive, isn't she?

We spared her from the gibbet.

- You're free of her, Charles. - I'm on my way to debtor's jail.

- Please? - I'm sorry, truly.

I can spare you a few guineas for your needs.

When is that auction, Charles?

- WOMAN: No! No! No!

- We shall soon have your nerves restored

- and your lust conquered.

Downy windows, close

And golden Phoebus never be beheld

Of eyes again so royal...

Absolutely remarkable. Who'd have believed it?

These duskies reciting the Bard. Bravo.

Who will have the Egyptian queen? Look at her thighs.

MAN: After you.

Come, kind Charmian,

let me comfort you in your hour of need.

LYDIA: I shall die here in the dark,

and no resist from within, and they cannot hurt you.

Imagine the same burning, in here.

Don't let them smother it.

Keep it alive whatever they do. Even when you think it's gone to smoke,

finder a cinder and breathe it back to life.

How long have you been here?

One day bleeds into the next.

Perhaps a year.

I was incarcerated by my son.

Lydia Quigley.

Katherine Bottomley.

Miss Bottomley.

You'll need a new name.

Because my family has disowned me?

Because out there is a city where your future awaits.

I tell you for true.

You could have London wrapped around your fingers

like a dazzling string of pearls.

Now, that's... You are mad.

Mr Quigley?

I'm one of Charlotte's girl, Miss Lambert.

I sometimes come here to visit my friend.

I don't know why I'm here.

That seems as good a reason as any.

I'm a vile wretch.

I've lost everything.

It's a good job your mother's in Bedlam

otherwise she'd blast you with a cannonball, wouldn't she?

What's her name?

It's Kitty.

Hello, Miss Kitty.

Thank you.

- Fredo, here's that remarkable girl. - FREDO: We saw you last night

- tormenting your betters. - We were dazzled.

Lucy Wells.

Mrs Harvey. This is Fredo, my son.

I rise in her East and set in her West.

- Will you bid?

- ELIZABETH: Will you? - FREDO: It's a wonderful property.

It's quite perfect.

I hope it ends up in the right hands.

Hmm, it will.

One hundred.

One-fifty.

Two hundred.

Two-fifty.

Three hundred.

Three-fifty.

Four hundred.

Four-fifty.

Five hundred.

- Why are we bidding against each other? - I want this place.

- So do I, but they have more money. - AUCTIONEER: Five-fifty.

- We could both get it. - How?

- Be reckless, join forces. - Ma.

- I know nothing of you. - AUCTIONEER: 575.

- The bold decision is often the best. - 600.

I've got 200.

I can raise 400.

AUCTIONEER: Do I hear 600?

Any advance on 600?

600.

To the ladies.

A £20 fine, and the law's now got us in its sights.

- That bitch is going to pay. - No, you're gonna pay.

We said we'd start with the little houses, go in slowly, street by street.

We said we'd advance into Soho.

So you swagger into the top house and think it'll fall in your lap?

Have you forgotten your tactics? We move onto new land and penetrate the centre.

This isn't a battle! We could have wealth here.

Don't be fuckin' mad.

What's this?

Your mistress has cost me sore.

Tell her I'm coming for my money.

D'you know your mum's a dirty whore who calls a cunt a cunt?

- Is this her? - Yes. Lydia Quigley, yes.

ISABELLA: Leave us.

LYDIA: Lady Isabella.

How kind of you to come.

There's libel in the press and I'm sure it hails from you.

- So I've come to warn you. - Warn me?

With what?

If I could, I would print my outrage on every page,

but as you can see I have no pen!

Such dangerous items are kept from us lest we spear our visitors' eyeballs.

You once laboured with my brother to bring this vile calamity on me.

I did, I did. Your bed, I'll welcome you when you arrive.

You are toothless.

One day I will bite my way back into the sun!

Give my regards to your succubus, dear Charlotte.

Tell her I think of her every day.

Get her cleaned and dressed and then unlock that monstrous shackle.

I want her forced to take my charity.

Make her kiss the ground in thanks.

And never, ever let her go.

She's as dangerous as you say.

Charles, Charles!

Charles! Hell devour you for what you've done!

Charles!

My beautiful boy.

I... I keep thinking I'm seeing him.

Don't let me be mad. Don't let me be mad.

Don't let me be mad!

Don't let me be mad!

Don't let me be mad.

This will be our emporium.

In here we'll have velvet, silk, even ribbons for the shoes.

In the upper rooms it's clandestine sport.

Not with me. I put my money in to retire.

I want the least amount of fucks for the most amount of money.

Miss Wells, I promise you the greatest entertainment and the fewest fucks

- you have ever had.

- You're a molly. - I'm a genius with the needle.

You've brought me into a molly house.

It's a place of refuge, where men like my son can be themselves in peace.

- How does it pay? - FREDO: It's a hanging offence,

so double.

Not again. You're a sinkhole, Charles.

I've sent enough coins into the depths.

Time costs, friends.

I've got you an ex-col in there, Chadwick.

At least this one's got gold.

I wanted more for you than this.

Huh. Go away.

You threw me out.

Don't come begging for my coinage.

Is my warlord launching an offensive?

Mmm.

Charles Quigley.

He's here!

The rage was coming off him like heat. He won't drop it, Charlotte.

- I didn't think he would. - NANCY: Bastard!

His men are back.

There'll be no trade in here tonight, nor any night that you're here.

I want you in my bed.

Be my mistress. Ten pounds a week, and we can have this rollicking night and day.

For 30 a week did you say?

You jest with me.

You teach me the art of trade, I might make do on less.

I've learnt reading and arithmetic.

I help run this tavern now.

- I wanna learn the art of commerce. - Lesson one.

Commerce is the art of war. My tutelage and £20 a week.

Twenty-five.

I'll prepare my bed for a woman.

Charlotte's out.

Cockfighting.

I've come from Bedlam.

he called Charlotte my succubus, spitting hate.

- She's in torment. - As I was in her house...

when I was 12 years old.

Why did you go?

There's hateful gossip in the press.

And you think Quigley wrote it?

I had to be sure she did not.

Now I fear it's my brother

or one of his agents.

Where is he?

To my knowledge, in Venice,

where I hope he drowns.

Pfft! I'll drink to that.

It's Sophia I feel for.

She believes the lies.

Hmm.

Perhaps I've invited this censure myself.

NANCY: How?

By shaking my own reputation.

NANCY: Pfft.

You have health,

fortune,

a child who loves ya.

Your reputation is a burden.

I have none...

and I'm as free as a crow. If I were you,

I'd own my scandal proudly.

Pour one for yourself.

And what would your mother say?

Come on, join us.

We're like magnets, Miss Wells. You cannot keep away.

I've gathered here every bawd in Soho.

You cannot trick and threaten us all, not now your methods are known.

To show my intention, I have started a list to rival yours.

First entry. Isaac, cock of Villiers Street.

Beady eyes,

gurt in hand and sinews made for love.

- His wattles are like ripest plums...

...and his breath lingers, hot as melting cheese.

Dirty boy.

But a lady should look to her pockets for this magnet of a man

in spite his poetic tongue.

He's a thief of the lowest order.

We'll do business as we always have,

but the bawds at the helm.

WOMEN: Yes!

Pincher girls, come join your sisters for a drink at the Boar's Head.

I can't believe you took on Charlotte Wells.

- You'll never win. - Tell your drab to button it.

Why don't you leave off picking on women?

Look for better ways to expand your cash.

Don't talk to him like that.

I'm going to my new keepers.

- That girl is strife. - You stirred this strife, not Emily.

Shall I go round to Charlotte Wells' with a posy to say sorry?

It's too late for that. She's inciting mutiny among our girls.

So do what you like, but end it.

KATHERINE: That fine lady was afraid of you.

I once held her future in my palm.

- How? - I was arrogant, self-righteous,

ruthless.

I took gold for keeping secrets.

I've hardly been out of my village.

I know nothing of the world.

I fear I'll never see it.

Tell me your story.

I was the high priestess of bawds.

My girls were like... princesses.

We're drinking. Join us?

- I'm perfectly happy by myself. - Have you eaten?

I'm stuffed full of roast.

Don't be offended, will ya?

Lucy Wells. What have you done?

I didn't have enough for the full sale so I was resourceful.

We all have one-third each but she doesn't know about you.

The last Wells girl in Golden Square

threw her bawd into Bedlam.

Lucy Wells is the girl of the hour, and another layer to our gossamer veil.

Don't fret, she's easily played, I'm sure.

Lady Isabella, this is a gentlemen's club.

Your presence will cause scandal.

I have a daughter born out of wedlock.

If that's a scandal, then I own it.

For her love is my greatest blessing.

I hope that's printed in tomorrow's press.

For neither she or I will bow our heads to your censure.

This is unfitting.

I strongly suggest you leave.

Lord Leadsom,

I see your wife's moral welfare's ever in your thoughts.

NANCY: ♪ A gent on the town was fed up with his frown ♪

♪ Some he looked for some good English sponsor ♪

♪ He knew in our street that the women were sweet ♪

♪ And he'd find one who'd do what she oughta ♪

♪ To Soho he came with his prick in a flame... ♪

♪ He showed it his girl as he paid her ♪

♪ She spread its renown

♪ Throughout the whole of the town ♪

Mmm.

♪ For its magnitude

♪ Virtually slayed her

Mmm, good girl.

Good girl.

GIRLS: ♪ It was fine, it was strong... ♪

You should go home.

You could've had all this... freely.

This trade turns us into rats.

Hmmm...

I mean it.

Fly away home.

Do you know what it is to be reckless?

I am a part owner of a molly house.

Lucy, those places end in a noose.

Huh.

It's a daring adventure though, isn't it?

Christ!

Come on, it's all right. Come on, good girl.

Help!

- Help!

- Charlotte! - Nancy!

Kitty, no!

Kitty!

Nancy!

Argh! Ohh!

Take the child. I can't breathe.

No!

- Get help! - Nancy's not safe.

Nancy!

Let me carry her, Lucy.

Your house.

And your money.

Let it burn.

These houses, let 'em all burn.

CHARLES: How far from London can I get?

Be it now or months from hence, I swear I'll get you out.

- Must I be a harlot? - If that is your choice.

And if it is,

I'll take you to where I long to be.

My most beloved home in Golden Square.

Oh.