Gallantry was, of course, a man’s world. Yet, at least in racy London society, ladies were assumed to possess strong sexual appetites and the right to their gratification. They were not kept prudishly innocent or ignorant, as perhaps in Victorian times, for sex manuals, such as Aristotle’s Masterpiece, seem to have circulated widely among women (…). London waxworks mounted ‘educational’ displays of female reproductive organs. And the Nottingham Weekly Courant of 26 November 1717 carried an advertisement informing readers that:
Any able young Man, strong in the Back, and endow’d with a good Carnal Weapon, with all the Appurtenances thereunto belonging in good Repair, may have Half A Crown per Night, a Pair of clean Sheets, and other Necessaries, to perform Nocturnal Services on one Sarah Y---tes, whose Husband having for these 9 Months past lost the Use of his Peace-Maker, the unhappy Woman is thereby driven to the last Extremity.
Roy Porter, English Society in the Eighteenth Century, 1982
Any able young Man, strong in the Back, and endow’d with a good Carnal Weapon, with all the Appurtenances thereunto belonging in good Repair, may have Half A Crown per Night, a Pair of clean Sheets, and other Necessaries, to perform Nocturnal Services on one Sarah Y---tes, whose Husband having for these 9 Months past lost the Use of his Peace-Maker, the unhappy Woman is thereby driven to the last Extremity.
Roy Porter, English Society in the Eighteenth Century, 1982
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire