'Bridgerton': A vindication of Lord Debling's vegetarianism

Haven't you heard the classic joke? How can you tell if a Regency man is vegetarian? Don't worry, he'll tell you. 

But it fits the debonair, blond-mustachioed Lord Debling (Sam Phillips) like an independent Brooklyn-designed glove in Bridgerton Season 3, and honestly, he's right to campaign for it. The Ton's latest character not only vies for the attention of our heroine Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan), but also the meat-favouring members of English 19th-century society. Yes, Debling is a conservationist and vegetarian, and yes, he believes himself socially ostracised for it. 

"Apparently he only eats vegetables," scoffs a ball onlooker in episode 3. The cheek, the nerve, the gall, the audacity and the gumption! Vegetables!?

"I've forgone eating the flesh of dead animals, and they barely tolerate me for that great sin," Debling tells Penelope, believing himself to be sharing a sweet moment with her as social outcasts.

But despite this extremely wealthy, Mayfair-dwelling man's belief that his standing in society is somehow rattled by his plant-based diet (it's really not), the fact that Lord Debling is vegetarian is a distinctive element of his character in the Regency context. Netflix has a great guide on the food of Bridgerton, including the period's obsession with venison and its association with royalty. Hunting animals was a regular activity of society's elite — Will Mondrich (Martins Imhangbe) is invited on a hunt in Bridgerton Season 3 thanks to his newly lofty social status, and Kate Sharma (Simone Ashley) goes on a (notably steamy) hunt in Season 2. Staring at three deer heads stuffed and mounted on the wall of a ballroom in Season 3, episode 3, Lord Debling barely contains his (completely warranted) disdain for such decoration.

Some in the Ton think "his concern for the wilderness endearing" while others describe him as a "bore" — "Lord Debling spends half his time devoting himself to nature and the other half talking about it," says Queen Charlotte (Golda Rosheuvel) about our man in episode 3, aptly named "Forces of Nature". In the same episode, at the balloon fair, he explains to Penelope, Eloise Bridgerton (Claudia Jessie), and Cressida Cowper (Jessica Madsen) that he's trying to save the great auk, a flightless bird which would actually become extinct in the 19th century — Debling sadly failed this one. However, gentle reader, don't forget this nature-loving man courts by bringing Penelope a pot plant as a present "so that you might continue to enjoy nature from your windowsill." Swoon. There's a reason he's so high on our Bridgerton crush list.

In fact, Lord Debling's proud vegetarianism and concern for nature both aligns him with the period's Romanticism movement and makes him one of the most modern characters in Bridgerton, casually channeling what Mashable's features editor Rachel Thompson calls a "Regency hipster" energy. But despite Lord Debling's insistence at publicly championing not eating meat giving him a rebellious reputation, he's not wrong to do so — it's now a truth academically acknowledged that opting for a plant-based diet can significantly lower your emissions, is less taxing on the environment, and has major health benefits. The problem with Lord Debling is he's preaching in the early stages of the Industrial Revolution, before the damage would really start happening. 

But perhaps there's more to Lord Debling's plant-based preferences than a character trait; it could, in fact, be a reference to one of the Regency era's most famous vegetarians.

Is Lord Debling's vegetarianism a reference to a famous Regency vego?

Watching Lord Debling's eating habits be considered somewhat rebellious by the members of the Ton, it occurred to me that perhaps his character's preference is based on one of the Regency period's very real rebel vegos, Percy Bysshe Shelley. By no means the first vegetarian in the history of the world, just a famous one from this period and location, the famed writer became vegetarian after he was expelled from Oxford, as did his wife Harriet Westbrook. He was influenced by fellow vegetarian John Frank Newton, and even authored a pamphlet of essays about vegetarianism, A Vindication of Natural Diet, published in 1813, in which he writes, "By all that is sacred in our hopes for the human race, I conjure those who love happiness and truth, to give a fair trial to the vegetable system.” His views were considered radical, just like Lord Debling's are in Bridgerton.

Later, his second wife, author Mary Shelley, also lived mainly as a vegetarian, and in her most famous book Frankenstein, the titular doctor's monster is technically vegan, living off berries, not brains. Playwright and critic George Bernard Shaw even suggested a rebrand for vegetarianism, calling it "Shelleyism." 

Percy Bysshe Shelley isn't mentioned in Bridgerton — though Jane Austen's 1815 novel Emma is name-dropped by Eloise Bridgerton in Season 3. But through Lord Debling's character we get a tiny nod to vegetarian attitudes in the early 1800s, when Bridgerton is set. And, quite frankly, watching a steadfast vegetarian rattle the hunting-obsessed aristocracy with polite disdain? That's hot.

How to watch: Bridgerton Seasons 1 and 2 are now streaming on Netflix. Season 3 will drop in two halves, with Part 1 streaming on May 16 and Part 2 on June 13.