Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 4: Sexual Selection In ManEllis, Havelock
Science
Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 4: Sexual Selection In Man
Ellis, Havelock
Sex; Sex (Psychology)
In the twelfth century story of _Aucassin et Nicolette_,
"Nicolette had fair hair, delicate and curling; her eyes were
gray (_vairs_) and smiling; her face admirably modeled. Her nose
was high and well placed; her lips small and more vermilion than
the cherry or the rose in summer; her teeth were small and white;
her firm little breasts raised her dress as would two walnuts.
Her figure was so slender that you could inclose it with your two
hands, and the flowers of the marguerite, which her toes broke as
she walked with naked feet, seemed black in comparison with her
feet and legs, so white was she."
"Her hair was divided into a double tress," says Alain of Lille
in the twelfth century, "which was long enough to kiss the
ground; the parting, white as the lily and obliquely traced,
separated the hair, and this want of symmetry, far from hurting
her face, was one of the elements of her beauty. A golden comb
maintained that abundant hair whose brilliance rivaled it, so
that the fascinated eye could scarce distinguish the gold of the
hair from the gold of the comb. The expanded forehead had the
whiteness of milk, and rivaled the lily; her bright eyebrows
shone like gold, not standing up in a brush, and, without being
too scanty, orderly arranged. The eyes, serene and brilliant in
their friendly light, seemed twin stars, her nostrils embalsamed
with the odor of honey, neither too depressed in shape nor too
prominent, were of distinguished form; the nard of her mouth
offered to the smell a treat of sweet odors, and her half-open
lips invited a kiss. The teeth seemed cut in ivory; her cheeks,
like the carnation of the rose, gently illuminated her face and
were tempered by the transparent whiteness of her veil. Her chin,
more polished than crystal, showed silver reflections, and her
slender neck fitly separated her head from the shoulders. The
firm rotundity of her breasts attested the full expansion of
youth; her charming arms, advancing toward you, seemed to call
for caresses; the regular curve of her flanks, justly
proportioned, completed her beauty. All the visible traits of her
face and form thus sufficiently told what those charms must be
that the bed alone knew." (The Latin text is given by Houdoy, _La
Beauté des Femmes du XIIe au XVIe Siècle_, p. 119. Robert de
Flagy's portrait of Blanchefleur in _Sarin-le-Loherain_, written
in same century, reveals very similar traits.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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