The Intermediate Sex: A Study of Some Transitional Types of Men and WomenCarpenter, Edward
General
The Intermediate Sex: A Study of Some Transitional Types of Men and Women
Carpenter, Edward
Homosexuality; Sex
[11] Perhaps, like Queen Christine of Sweden, who rode across Europe, on
her visit to Italy, in jack-boots and sitting astride of her horse. It is
said that she shook the Pope’s hand, on seeing him, so heartily that the
doctor had to attend to it afterwards!
[12] “Homosexual,” generally used in scientific works, is of course a
bastard word. “Homogenic” has been suggested, as being from two roots,
both Greek, _i.e._, “homos,” same, and “genos,” sex.
[13] “Athenæus” xiii., ch. 78.
[14] See Plutarch’s “Eroticus,” §xvii.
[15] See “Natural History of Man,” by J. G. Wood. Vol: “Africa,” p. 419.
[16] See also Livingstone’s “Expedition to the Zambesi” (Murray, 1865) p.
148.
[17] Though these two plays, except for some quotations, are lost.
[18] Mantegazza and Lombroso. See Albert Moll, “Conträre
Sexualempfindung,” 2nd ed., p. 36.
[19] Though in translation this fact is often by pious fraudulence
disguised.
[20] W. Pater’s “Renaissance,” pp. 8-16.
[21] Among _prose_ writers of this period, Montaigne, whose treatment of
the subject is enthusiastic and unequivocal, should not be overlooked.
See Hazlitt’s “Montaigne,” ch. xxvii.
[22] I may be excused for quoting here the sonnet No. 54, from J. A.
Symonds’ translation of the sonnets of Michel Angelo:--
“From thy fair face I learn, O my loved lord,
That which no mortal tongue can rightly say:
The soul, imprisoned in her house of clay,
Holpen by thee to God hath often soared:
And though the vulgar, vain, malignant horde
Attribute what their grosser wills obey,
Yet shall this fervent homage that I pay,
This love, this faith, pure joys for us afford,
Lo, all the lovely things we find on earth,
Resemble for the soul that rightly sees,
That source of bliss divine which gave us birth:
Nor have we first-fruits or remembrances
Of heaven elsewhere. Thus, loving loyally,
I rise to God, and make death sweet by thee.”
The labours of von Scheffler, followed by J. A. Symonds, have now pretty
conclusively established the pious frauds of the nephew, and the fact
that the love-poems of the elder Michel Angelo were, for the most part,
written to male friends.
[23] See an interesting paper in W. Pater’s “Renaissance.”
[24] For a fuller collection of instances of this Friendship-love in the
history of the world, see “Ioläus: an Anthology,” by E. Carpenter (George
Allen, London. 3/- net). Also “Liebling-minne und Freundesliebe in der
Welt-literatur,” von Elisar von Kupffer (Adolf Brand, Berlin, 1900).
[25] As in the case, for instance, of Tennyson’s “In Memoriam,” for which
the poet was soundly rated by the _Times_ at the time of its publication.
[26] Jowett’s “Plato,” 2nd ed., vol. ii., p. 30.
[27] Jowett, vol. ii., p. 130.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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