Editing Lady Godiva (section)

===Peeping Tom===
{{redirect|Peeping tom|other uses|Peeping Tom (disambiguation)}}
[[File:Peeping Tom effigy Coventry-Gentlemans Magazine-vol96(1826)-p20.png|thumb|Wooden statue of Peeping Tom exhibited for the Coventry parade. Sketch by W. Reader (from an 1826 article)]]

The story of Peeping Tom, who alone among the townsfolk spied on the Lady Godiva's naked ride, probably did not originate in literature, but came about through popular lore in the locality of [[Coventry]]. Reference by 17th century chroniclers has been claimed,<ref name=Times/> but all the published accounts are 18th century or later.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hickling |first=W. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mfkVAAAAYAAJ&q=lady+godiva |title=History and Antiquities of the City of Coventry: Being a Descriptive Guide to Its Public Buildings, Institutions, Antiquities, &c. Also the Ancient Legend of Lady Godiva. The Whole Compiled from the Earliest Authentic Records, and Continued to the Present Time |date=1846 |publisher=W. Hickling of Coventry }}</ref>

According to an 1826 article submitted by someone well versed in local history identifying himself as 'W. Reader',<ref>{{cite journal |last=Reader |first=W. |year=1826 |title=Peeping Tom of Coventry and Lady Godiva |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N6hJAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA20 |journal=The Gentleman's Magazine |volume=96 |page=20}}, ib., "Show Fair at Coventry described". pp. 22– (with a sketch of Peeping Tom wooden statue)</ref> there was already a well-established tradition that there was a certain tailor who had spied on Lady Godiva, and that at the annual Trinity Great Fair (now called the [[Godiva Festival]]) featuring the [[Godiva Procession|Godiva processions]] "a grotesque figure called Peeping Tom" would be set on display, and it was a wooden statue carved from oak. The author has dated this [[effigy]], based on the style of armour he is shown wearing, from the reign of [[Charles II of England|Charles II]] (d. 1685). The same writer felt the legend had to be subsequent to [[William Dugdale]] (d. 1686) since he made no mention of it in his works that discussed Coventry at full length.{{efn|{{Harvnb|Reader|1826|p=22}} "yet no one, including the late Sir W.&nbsp;Dugdale, even hints at the circumstance in question. We may safely, therefore, appropriate it to the reign of Charles II".}} (The story of the tailor and the use of a wooden effigy may be as old as the 17th century, but the effigy may not have always been called "Tom".){{efn|See 1773 date below, and the alternate suggested name "Action".}}

W. Reader dates the first Godiva procession to 1677,{{efn|{{Harvnb|Reader|1826|p=22}} "In 1677{{nbsp}}... the Procession at the great Fair was first instituted."}} but other sources date the first parade to 1678, and on that year a lad from the household of James Swinnerton enacted the role of Lady Godiva.<ref>Hartland, E. Sydney, (1890), ''[[iarchive:scienceoffairyta00hartiala/page/75|Science of Fairy Tales]]'', p. 75, taken down from the ''Annals of Coventry'', ms. D:"31 May 1678, being the great Fair at Coventry.. and Ja. Swinnertons Son represented Lady Godiva"</ref>

The English ''[[Dictionary of National Biography]]'' (''DNB'') gives a meticulous account of the literary sources.<ref name=dnb>{{Harvnb|DNB|1890}}, "That one person disobeyed the order{{nbsp}}... first stated by Rapin (1732){{nbsp}}... Pennant (Journey from Chester to London)(1782) calls him 'a certain taylor.' The name 'peeping Tom' occurs in the city accounts on 11 June 1773 when a new wig and fresh paint were supplied for his effigy."</ref> The historian [[Paul de Rapin]] (1732) reported the Coventry lore that Lady Godiva performed her ride while "commanding all Persons to keep within Doors and from their Windows, on pain of Death", but that one man could not refrain from looking and it "cost him his life"; Rapin further reported that the town commemorates this with a "Statue of a Man looking out of a Window."<ref>{{cite book| author1 = Paul M. Rapin de Thoyras| author2 = N. Tindal Thomas (tr.)| title = The History of England| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=pHJZAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA135| edition = 2nd| volume = 1| year = 1732| publisher = J., J. and P. Knapton| page = 135| access-date = 16 April 2022| archive-date = 25 April 2023| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230425020145/https://books.google.com/books?id=pHJZAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA135| url-status = live}}</ref>

[[File:Lady-Godinas-Route-Gillray.jpeg|thumb|300px|In ''Lady Godina's Rout;—or—Peeping-Tom spying out Pope-Joan'' (1796), the English satirist [[James Gillray]] appealed to the Godiva legend in caricaturing the fashions of the time.]]
Next, [[Thomas Pennant]] in ''Journey from Chester to London'' (1782) recounted: "[T]he curiosity of a certain taylor overcoming his fear, he took a single peep".<ref name=pennant/> Pennant noted that the person enacting Godiva in the procession was not fully naked of course, but wore "silk, closely fitted to her limbs", which had a colour resembling the skin's complexion.<ref name="pennant">Pennant, Thomas, (1811) ''[[iarchive:journeyfromches00penngoog/page/n205|The Journey from Chester to London]].'' p. 190.</ref> (In Pennant's time, around 1782, silk was worn, but the annotator of the 1811 edition noted that a cotton garment had since replaced the silk fabric.)<ref name=pennant/> According to the ''DNB'', the oldest document that mentions "Peeping Tom" by name is a record in Coventry's official annals, dating to 11 June 1773, documenting that the city issued a new wig and paint for the wooden effigy.<ref name=dnb/>

There is also said to be a letter from pre-1700, stating that the peeper was actually Action, Lady Godiva's groom.{{efn|{{Harvnb|DNB|1890}}, "Poole quotes from the 'Gentleman's Magazine' a letter from Canon Seward (ca. before 1700) which makes the peeper 'a groom of the countess,' named Action (?Actæon – same name as the figure in Greek mythology who was put to death by being hunted with hounds after seeing the goddess Artemis in her bath)".}}

Additional legend proclaims that Peeping Tom was later struck blind as heavenly punishment, or that the townspeople took the matter in their own hands and blinded him.<ref>Leman Rede, (1838), "Peeping Tom", ''[[The New Monthly Magazine|The New Monthly Magazine and Humorist]]'', Part the First, p. 115: "Tradition adds, that the people resolved to close up their houses{{nbsp}}... but{{nbsp}}... that one, whose name has not survived, looked forth upon her, and was stricken blind, as some affirm, by the vengeance of Heaven; or, according to others, was deprived of sight by the inhabitants." (A quote from a source merely identified as "a modern writer".)</ref>