Vinegar Valentines: Delivered with Hate

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Trolls… are the scourge of the internet. But trolls are nothing new. More than 150 years ago, Victorian ‘trolls’ mailed off insulting anonymous valentines cards to people they didn’t like.

These so called ‘Vinegar Valentine’ were illustrated with exaggerated, grotesque artwork and snarky poetry, and became popular as the early postal services became more established.
Here’s one…. sent to someone whose crime was being ugly.

So completely all charm does your countenance lack,
That a glimpse of your face would a looking-glass crack.
You’ve the mouth of a toad, and the head of an ape,
The ears of a calf, and a nondescript shape.
You’re so horribly ugly you frighten the crows,
So what chance is there for you to capture the beaus.

They are also described as poison valentines. In Britain, they were known as mock or comic valentines. It appears they originated in the United States around 1840.

You purchased them from lower class stationers' shops. The card mocked some characteristic of the recipient. You could send them to gluttons, drinkers, braggarts, windbags, spinsters, cowards, lazy colleagues, ugly people, fat and thin people, vain people, and stupid people – they were all fair game.

Whereas a nasty comment from an Internet troll can be posted online in seconds, the Victorian greeting card troll had to go out and purchase the appropriate card, buy the stamp and mail it to their victim. That’s quite the effort for an insult. Thankfully, these insulting valentines are a thing of the past.

Go long tongue go, most hateful woman,
Thou detestable, friend of no man,
Such ugly mugs I’m sure as thine,
Will never gain a Valentine.

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