[99] ... “_In ligno pedes ejus fortiter strinxit, gravibus eum
vinculis alligavit, verberibus duris afflixit, & tamdiù corpus ejus
piâ severitate perdomuit, donec ejus mentem ad salutis statum Deo
medente reduxit._”
[100] ... “_Eam ad musæum suum excivit, ibique spoliatam virgis
cæcidit, ac nudatum corpus vibicibus conscribillavit._”
[101] Here an opportunity occurs of giving a second specimen of the
Latin of the Abbé Boileau; the first was produced in p. 232.
... _Eandem flagello nodis asperato, ex funibus Ibericis compacto,
tamdiù diverberavit, totque vibicibus sulcos sanguinolentos in
femoribus, clunibus, ac scapulis diduxit, ut non solùm suffuso vi
pudoris, verum etiam effuso vi doloris, sanguine, fugaverit._
[102] ... _Eâ causâ impensiùs mulier amavit sanctum virum, itemque
maritus cjus, ubi comperit rem ab es gestam._
The accounts of the advances Ladies have made to the above holy
personages, must certainly give pleasure to the judicious and
sensible Reader. Considering the opinion entertained by a number of
persons, that Rakes, Coxcombs, and in general the most worthless part
of the male sex, are commonly the most welcome to the favours of the
Ladies, I think it reflects much honour upon them all, that several
have gone the greatest lengths in favour of Saints, and have set
aside, out of love for them, those rules of reserve and decency which
Ladies are otherwise so naturally inclined to respect.
In regard to the manner in which the Saints themselves used the
Ladies, it is certainly somewhat singular: however, I must postpone
giving my opinion about it, till a few remarks are made, on what more
precisely constitutes the subject of the foregoing Chapters, which
is the great merit and dignity of flagellations. In fact, we find
that Great Men, Conquerors, and Kings, have publicly submitted to
receiving them; and they have moreover occasionally inflicted them
with their own hands. The Reader may remember the method mentioned
at pag. 54 of this Work, which was adopted by the Grecian Heroes,
for conveying to their vanquished Opponents, a proper sense of
their superiority and indignation. And the same magnanimous kind of
admonition was also commonly made use of by the Romans, in regard to
those Kings or Generals whom they had taken in war.
Caligula, a Roman Emperor, did not disdain, as we read in Suetonius,
to use the same kind of correction, for silencing those who happened
to make a noise near him in the Theatre, and thereby prevented him
from attending to the play, and especially to his favourite Actor:
the culprit was instantly stripped; and the Emperor himself did the
rest[103].
Another Emperor we may name here, viz. Peter the First, of Russia. He
frequently condescended to bestow, with his own imperial hands, that
kind of Russian flagellation, the _Knout_: at other times, when he
could not attend to the business, he trusted the care of it to his
Buffoon Witaski; who was moreover invested with an unlimited power of
cudgelling those who came to pay their court to his Czarian Majesty.
The instances of flagellations above produced, have however been
confined to actions of Kings, Conquerors, Emperors, and Saints, or
to cases of great emergency, in which whole Nations were concerned,
such as the confutations of heresies, and the acquisition of
Sovereignties and Kingdoms; but if we descend into the different
spheres of private life, we shall find their advantages to have also
been very extensive.
Thus, flagellations have been useful to several persons, to make
their fortunes. Not to mention here the common story about those
who have been flagellated, when Boys, in the room of the Heir to
the Crown, we find that the two abovementioned Gentlemen, Messrs.
D’Ossat and Du Perron, who had had the honour to be disciplined at
Rome, on the account of their Royal Master, were afterwards, through
his interest, promoted to the high dignity of Cardinals, besides
obtaining considerable emoluments.
Others, though they have not gained such substantial advantages as
places and pensions, have acquired, which in the opinion of many
judicious persons is not less valuable, extensive reputations.
Some have acquired such reputations, by the flagellations they
have inflicted,--among these are to be ranked Cornelius Adriansen,
Zachary Crofton, and the Lady mentioned by Brantôme; and others,
by the flagellations they have undergone; such was Titus Oates, so
well known in the History of this Country; Bishop Burnet expressly
observing, that _this treatment did rather raise Oates’s reputation,
than sink it_. (A. 1685.)
In the intercourse of private life, though among persons
distinguished from the vulgar, flagellations, being employed as
corrections, have also proved of very great service.
Thus _bon-mots_, at the expence of other persons, satires, lampoons,
have, on numberless occasions, been confuted by flagellations. The
Reader surely has not forgotten the case of Miss de Limeuil, which
has been recited in a former place; nor that of the Court Buffoon
which is introduced in the same Chapter: and to these instances might
be added that of the Poet Clopinel, the Continuator of that old and
celebrated Romance, the _Roman de la Rose_, who was once very near
being flagellated by the Ladies of the Court of France, for his
having tried his wit at the expence of the Sex in general, as will be
related in another place.
Indeed, to discuss the subject of the usefulness of flagellations in
a manner adequate to its importance and extensiveness, would lead
us into narratives without end: I will therefore, for the sake of
shortness, content myself with adding a few facts to those before
recited; as, besides supplying interesting consequences, they are
sufficiently authenticated.
The first, which is very useful to prove that _the secrets of Ladies
ought never to be betrayed_, is that of the flagellation which was
inflicted on a certain Surgeon, who gave a loose to his tongue, at
the expence of a great Lady to whom his assistance had been useful.
The Lady I mean, was Wife to the Prince who became afterwards King
of France, under the name of Henry IV: she was herself much more
nearly allied to the Crown than the Prince her Husband, and would
have mounted the Throne in her own right, if it had not been for the
Salic Law. The Princess in question was learned, witty, handsome;
and she had, in particular, such a fine arm, that it was commonly
reported that the Marquis of Canillac, under whose guard she lived
for a while as state prisoner, fell in love with her on the sight of
it. With these qualifications she united gay, amorous dispositions,
having even been suspected to love the great Duke of Guise, who
afterwards nearly possessed himself of the Crown; and she had besides
a turn for political intrigues. During the celebrated civil wars
of the _League_, being in the City of Agen, she attempted to make
herself mistress of the place; but the opposite party having found
means to raise an insurrection against her, she was obliged to fly,
accompanied by a body of about 80 _Gentlemen_ and 40 soldiers: her
flight was even so precipitate, that she was obliged to get on
horseback without having time to procure a pillion, and in that
situation she rode a great number of miles, behind a gentleman, being
continually exposed to the greatest danger, for she passed through
a body of a thousand _Harquebusiers_, who killed several of her
followers: having at last reached a place of safety, she borrowed a
dry shift from a servant maid, and thence pursued her journey to the
next Town, named _Usson_, in _Auvergne_, where she recovered from
her fears. However, the great fatigue she had undergone, threw her
into a fever that lasted several days; and moreover, the want of that
comfortable accommodation which has been just mentioned, a pillion,
during her long precipitate flight, had caused that part of her body
on which she sat, to be in a sad condition. A Surgeon was therefore
applied to, to procure her relief; and such was the epulotick,
sarcotick, cicatrizive, incarnative, healing, consolidant, sanative,
nature of the salves he employed, that she was cured in a short time;
and thus far the Surgeon certainly deserved her thanks: but as he
afterwards indulged himself in idle stories concerning the cure he
had performed, the Princess, who heard of it, grew much incensed
against him, and caused him to be served with that kind of correction
which is the subject of the present dissertation; that is to say, she
caused him, as Scaliger assures, to be served with a flagellation
(_elle-lui fit donner les étrivieres_.)
Nobody certainly will think that the revenge taken by the above
Princess was improper; on the contrary, all persons will agree that
it was a very becoming satisfaction, and which she owed to herself.
It is true, every body looks with detestation upon the action of
the Princess of _Gonzaga_, commonly called _the fair Juliet_, who
caused a Gentleman to be assassinated, who had assisted her in
making her escape from the Town of Fondi, which the celebrated
Corsair Barbarossa had surprised during the night, with a view, as
it is said, to seize upon her person, in order to make a present
of her to the Grand-Signior,--being incensed at the remembrance of
the Gentleman having seen her run in her shift, across the fields,
by moon-light. But without making any remark on the difference of
the treatment the above Ladies had recourse to, it will suffice to
observe that no comparison can be made between the case of the above
Gentleman, and that of the Surgeon: the latter had been guilty of an
indiscretion of the blackest kind, and which none but a talkative
Frenchman could have committed; a thing with which we are not told
the Gentleman in question had been charged;--and when we reflect
on the enormity of his fault, instead of judging that he was too
severely used, we find he was treated with excessive mildness.
Indeed, the more we consider the circumstances of the whole affair,
the more we are affected by the treacherous conduct of that miserable
Surgeon. A wretch whom the Princess had distinguished in so
flattering a manner from all the other persons of the same profession
to whom she might have equally applied,--a scoundrel, a rascal, a
fellow, whom she had with so much affability acquainted with the
disagreeable situation in which she found herself, and to whom she
had, no doubt, afterwards given such a bountiful and magnificent
reward, for such a man to betray the secret of the Princess, and give
a loose to his prating tongue at her expence! He certainly richly
deserved the flagellation that was bestowed upon him, and, I hope
those whose duty it was to serve him with it, were animated with the
same sense of his guilt with which this article is written. To this
I shall add nothing, except that it is very likely that, conformably
to what has been observed in a former Chapter, the flagellation
inflicted on the above Surgeon, or Barber, was inflicted in the
Kitchen.
Flagellations have also been of service for punishing iniquitous
Judges. I could wish to have many instances of that kind to relate:
however, I will produce the following one. The story made its
appearance in a news-paper, some years ago, at the time of the
great paper-war that was waged about the American affairs, before
the beginning of actual hostilities. The Writer who sent it to the
_Gazetteer_, had adopted the signature of _A Boston Saint_; and as
it made the whole of his first Essay, he had meant it, it seems,
as a sort of specimen to introduce himself by, to the notice of the
Public: he continued to write under that signature; and proved equal,
at least, to any of those who drew their pens on the occasion, and
even was decisively superior in point of local knowledge of the
Colonies. The Story, which will be inserted in that Writer’s own
words, gives a curious insight into the puritanical manners that
prevailed in the New-England Provinces. Now, that they have the
seat of their Government among them, these manners will undergo an
alteration: they cannot be much longer the leading fashion of the
Country.
“About forty years ago, many of the Chief Saints, at Boston, met with
a sad mortification: yea, a mortification in the flesh.
“Captain St. Loe, Commander of a ship of War, then in Boston Harbour,
being ashore, on a Sunday, was apprehended by the Constables, for
walking on the Lord’s day. On Monday he was carried before a Justice
of the peace: he was fined; refused to pay it; and for his contumacy
and contempt of authority, was sentenced to sit in the Stocks, one
hour, during the time of Change. This sentence was put in execution,
without the least mitigation.
“While the Captain sat in durance, grave Magistrates admonished
him to respect in future the wholesome laws of the Province; and
Reverend Divines exhorted him ever after to reverence and keep holy
the Sabbath-day. At length the hour expired; and the Captain’s legs
were set at liberty.
“As soon as he was freed, he, with great seeming earnestness, thanked
the Magistrates for their correction, and the Clergy for their
spiritual advice and consolation; declaring that he was ashamed of
his past life; that he was resolved to put off the old Man of Sin,
and to put on the new Man of Righteousness; that he should ever pray
for them as instruments in the hands of God, of saving his sinful
soul.
“This sudden conversion rejoiced the Saints. After clasping their
hands, and casting up their eyes to heaven, they embraced their new
Convert, and returned thanks for being made the humble means of
snatching a soul from perdition. Proud of their success, they fell
to exhorting him afresh; and the most zealous invited him to dinner,
that they might have full time to complete their work.
“The Captain sucked in the milk of exhortation, as a new-born babe
does the milk of the breast. He was as ready to listen as they were
to exhort. Never was a Convert more assiduous, while his station
in Boston Harbour lasted: he attended every Sabbath-day their most
sanctified Meeting-house; never missed a weekly lecture; at every
private Conventicle, he was most fervent and loudest in prayer. He
flattered, and made presents to the Wives and Daughters of the Godly.
In short, all the time he could spare from the duties of his station,
was spent in entertaining them on board his Ship, or in visiting and
praying at their houses.
“The Saints were delighted with him beyond measure. They compared
their wooden Stocks to the voice of Heaven, and their Sea-convert to
St. Paul; who, from their enemy, was become their Doctor.
“Amidst their mutual happiness, the mournful time of parting arrived.
The Captain received his recall. On this he went round among the
Godly, and wept and prayed, assuring them he would return, and end
his days among his friends in the Lord.
“Till the day of his departure, the time was spent in regrets,
professions, entertainments, and prayer. On that day, about a dozen
of the principal Magistrates, including the Select-men, accompanied
the Captain to Nantasket Road, where the Ship lay, with every thing
ready for sailing.
“An elegant dinner was provided for them on board; after which many
bowls and bottles were drained. As the blood of the Saints waxed
warm, the crust of their hypocrisy melted away: their moral see-saws;
and Scripture-texts, gave place to double-entendres, and wanton
songs: the Captain encouraged their gaiety; and the whole Ship
resounded with the roar of their merriment.
“Just at that time, into the Cabin burst a body of Sailors, who, to
the inexpressible horror and amazement of the Saints, pinioned them
fast. Heedless of cries and intreaties, they dragged them upon deck,
where they were tied up, stripped to the buff, and their breeches
let down; and the Boatswain with his Assistants, armed with dreadful
cat-o’-nine-tails provided for the occasion, administered unto them
the law of Moses in the most energetic manner. Vain were all their
prayers, roarings, stampings, and curses: the Captain in the mean
time assuring them, that it was consonant to their own doctrine and
to Scripture, that the mortification of the flesh tended towards the
saving of the Soul, and therefore it would be criminal in him to
abate them a single lash.
“When they had suffered the whole of their discipline, which had
flayed them from the nape of the neck to the hams, the Captain took
a polite leave, earnestly begging them to remember him in their
prayers. They were then let down into the boat that was waiting
for them: the Crew saluted them with three cheers; and Captain St.
Loe made sail. The Boston Select-men, to this day, when they hear
of the above, grin like infernal Dæmons, out of sympathy to their
predecessors[104].”
Another use that has been made of flagellations among polite people,
and distinguished from the vulgar, has been to repress the aspiring
views of rivals who pretended (unjustly, as the others thought) to an
equality in point of birth, wit, beauty, or other accomplishments.
On this occasion we might relate the treatment that was inflicted by
two Ladies of noble family, near the Town of Saumur, in France, on
the daughter of a wealthy Farmer, whose beauty had caused her to be
invited to an entertainment that was given in a neighbouring Castle,
or Manor: an affair which attracted the notice of the Public, at the
time (A. 1730) as we may judge from the account of it being contained
in the collection of _Celebrated Causes_ decided in the French
Courts of Law. But our attention is called off by another much more
interesting instance of the same kind, which happened in the reign of
Lewis the Fourteenth, and made a very great noise. I mean to speak of
the flagellation that was served by the Marchioness of Tresnel, on
the _Dame_, or Lady, of Liancourt: a fact which by all means deserves
a place in this Chapter, as being in itself an extremely illustrious
instance of flagellation. Indeed, one advantage the Author is proud
of, which is, that he has inserted nothing vulgar in this Book,
nothing but what is worthy the attention of persons of taste and
sentiment.
The Story is as follows. The Lady of Liancourt was originally born
of Parents in middling circumstances. Having had the good luck to
marry a rich Merchant, she had address enough to prevail upon him
to leave her, at his death, which happened a few years after their
marriage, the bulk of his fortune; and, being now a rich, handsome
Widow, she married the _Sieur_, or Lord, of Liancourt; a man of
birth, whose fortune was somewhat impaired by his former expensive
way of living. The Lady of Liancourt used to reside, during the
summer, at the Castle, or Estate, of her Husband, near the town of
Chaumont: and in the same neighbourhood was situated the Estate
of the Marquis of Tresnel. The manner of living of the Lady of
Liancourt, together with the reputation of her wit and beauty,
excited the jealousy of the Marchioness of Tresnel, who, on account
of her birth, considered herself as being greatly superior to the
other: and a strong competition soon took place between the two
Ladies, which became manifested in several places in a remarkable
manner, especially at Church, where the Marchioness went once so
far as violently to push the other Lady from her seat: the Lady of
Liancourt, on the other hand, was said to have written a copy of
verses against the Marchioness; and in short, matters were carried
to such lengths between them, that the Marchioness resolved to damp
at once the pretensions of her rival, and for that purpose applied
to that effectual mode of correction which, as hath been seen in
the course of this Book, so many great and celebrated personages
have undergone, namely, a flagellation. Having well laid her scheme
in that respect, and resolved that her rival should undergo the
correction, not by proxy, like King Henry the Fourth, but in her
own person, the Marchioness, one day she knew the Lady of Liancourt
was to visit at a Castle a few miles distant from her own, got into
her coach and six, accompanied by four Men behind, and three armed
Servants on horseback; and care had been previously taken to lay in a
stock of good disciplines, which were placed in the coach-box. Having
arrived too late at the place on the highway at which she proposed
to meet her antagonist, the Marchioness alighted at the house of the
Curate of the Parish, in order to wait for her return, and staid
there, under some pretence, several hours, till at last a Servant who
had been left on the watch, came in haste, and brought tidings that
the Lady Liancourt’s coach was in sight: the Marchioness thereupon
got into her coach with the utmost speed, and arrived just in time
to throw herself across the way, and stop the other Lady; when the
Servants, who had been properly directed beforehand, without loss
of time took the latter out of her coach, immediately proceeding
to execute the orders they had received: and, from the complaint
afterwards preferred by the suffering Lady, it really seems that
they endeavoured to discharge their duty in such a manner as might
convince their Mistress of their zeal in serving her.
The affair soon made a great noise, and the King, who heard of it,
immediately sent express orders to the Husbands of the Ladies to
take no share in the quarrel. The Lady of Liancourt applied to the
ordinary course of law, and brought a criminal action against the
Marchioness, before the Parliament of Paris; the consequence of which
was, that the latter was condemned to ask her pardon in open Court
upon her knees, and to pay her about two thousand pounds damages,
besides being banished from the whole extent of the jurisdiction of
the Parliament. The Servants, who are generally very severely dealt
with in France, when they suffer themselves to become the instruments
of the violence of their Masters, were sent to the Gallies. And Miss
De Villemartin, who had been co-spectatress of the flagellation, in
the same coach with the Marchioness, and had shared her triumph, was
summoned to appear personally in Court, there to be _admonished_,
and condemned to pay a fine of twenty livres, ‘for the bread of the
prisoners[105].’
* * * * *
That part of the bodies of their enemies, to which Captain St.
Loe, and the above-named Marchioness, directed the corrections and
insults by which they proposed to humble them, naturally leads us to
remark the opposite lights in which that part has been considered by
Mankind, and to notice the fantastical and contradictory disposition
of the human mind.
The part we mention, which, to follow the common definition that is
given of it, is that part on which Man sits, is, of itself, extremely
deserving of our esteem. It is, in the first place, a characteristic
part and appendage of Mankind: it is formed by the expansion of
muscles which, as Anatomists inform us, exist in no other animal, and
are intirely proper to the human species.
Nor does that part confer upon Man a distinction from animals, that
is of an honorific kind merely, like the faculty of walking in an
erect situation, which, as Ovid remarks, enables him to behold the
Sun or the Stars, as he goes forward: but, by allowing him to sit,
it enables him to calculate the motions, whether real or apparent,
of those same Stars, to ascertain their revolutions, and foreknow
their periodical returns. It puts him in a condition to promote the
liberal Arts and Sciences, Music, Painting, Algebra, Geometry, &c.
not to mention the whole tribe of mechanic Arts and manufactures.
It even is, by that power of _assiduity_ (or of being _seated_) it
confers upon Man, so useful to the study of the Law, that it has been
looked upon as being no less conducive to it than the head itself,
with which it has, in that respect, been expressly put upon a par;
and it is a common saying in the Universities abroad, that, in order
to succeed in that study, a Man must have an _iron head_, and _leaden
posteriors_; to which they add, a _golden purse_, to buy books
with:--_caput ferreum, aurea crumena, nates plumbeæ_.
Nor does the part of the human body we mention, only serve to make
Man a learned and industrious animal; but it moreover contributes
much to the beauty of the species, being itself capable of a great
degree of beauty.
Without mentioning the opinion of different savage Nations on that
account, who take great pains to paint and adorn that part, we see
that the Greeks, who certainly were a well-cultivated and polite
People, entertained high notions of its beautifulness. They even
seem to have thought that it had the advantage, in that respect,
of all the other parts of the human body; for, though we do not
find that they ever erected altars to fine arms, fine legs, fine
eyes, or even to a handsome face, yet, they had done that honour to
the part we mention, and had expressly erected a Temple to Venus,
under the appellation of Venus _with fair posteriors_ (Ἀφροδίτη
Καλλίπυγη): the above Temple was built, as some say, on occasion of
a quarrel that arose between two Sisters, who contended which of
the two was most elegantly shaped in the part we mention; a quarrel
that happened to make a great noise. To this we may add, by the by,
that so little did the Greeks in general think that the part we
allude to, was undeserving of attention, that they sometimes drew
from it indications of the different tempers of people; and they,
for instance, gave the appellation of a _Man with white posteriors_
(Πύγαργος) to a Man whom they meant to charge with having too much
softness and nicety.
The Latins entertained the same notions with the Greeks, as to the
beauty of that part, or those parts, on which Man sits. Horace more
than once bestows upon them the appellation of _fair_ (_pulchræ_):
he even in one place expressly declares it as his opinion, that, for
a Mistress to be defective in those parts (_depygis_) is one of the
greatest blemishes she can have,--is a defect equal to that of being
with a flat nose (_nasuta_) or a long foot, and is in short capable
of spoiling, where it exists, all other bodily accomplishments.
(_Hor. Sat. 2. Lib. I._)
Among the Moderns, notions of the same kind have prevailed. Rabelais,
a well-known Writer, places one of his best stories to the account
of a certain Nun, whom he calls _Sister_, or _Sœur Fessue_; which he
would not certainly have done, if he had not been of opinion that the
size and exact shape of those parts of the Nun’s body from which he
denominated her, were in the number of her greatest perfections.
In times posterior to Rabelais, other Writers among the French, have
expressed opinions exactly alike. La Fontaine, if I mistake not,
speaking in one of his Tales, of a certain Beauty whose charms he
means to extoll, exclaims, ‘Breasts, Heaven knows, and a rump fit for
a Canon!’
_Tetins, Dieu fait, & croupe de Chanoine!_
And the celebrated Poet Rousseau, happening, in one of his Epigrams,
to speak of the abovementioned Temple which the Greeks had erected to
Venus, declares that it would have been that Temple of Greece which
he would have frequented with the greatest devotion.
Nay, other persons have thought, that, besides the above advantages,
the part we mention was moreover capable of dignity, and partaking
of the importance of its owners. This is an opinion which the Poet
Scarron (to continue to draw our examples from French Authors)
clearly expressed, in a copy of verses he wrote to a certain Lady,
whose Husband having lately been made a Duke, she had thereby
acquired a right to be seated in the Queen’s Assembly, or, as they
express it, had been given the _Tabouret_ (a stool.) ‘To the no small
pleasure of all (said Scarron, who, we may observe, had assumed a
right to say every thing he pleased) and of your own legs, your
Backside, which is without doubt one of the handsomest Backsides in
France, like a Backside of importance, has at last, at the Queen’s,
received the _Tabouret_.’
_Au grand plaisir de tous & de vôtre jarret,
Vôtre cû, qui doit être un des beaux cûs de France,
Comme un cû d’importance,
A recu chez la Reine enfin le tabouret._
Favourable sentiments of the kind just mentioned, seem also to
have been entertained by the celebrated Lord Bolingbroke, whose
distinguished character as a Statesman, a Politician, and a
Philosopher, render him extremely fit to be quoted in this place:
it was on that part of his Mistress’s body we are alluding to, his
Lordship, then a Secretary of State, chose to write, and to sign, one
of the most important dispatches of his Ministry, and on which the
repose of Europe depended at that time[106].
In fine, others have carried their notions still farther, and have
thought that the part in question was capable, not only of beauty
and dignity, but even of splendor. Thus, Mons. Pavillon, a French
_Bel Esprit_ under the reign of Lewis XIV. who filled the office of
King’s General Advocate at Metz, who was one of the forty Members
of the French Academy, and Nephew to a Bishop, wrote a copy of
verses that is inserted in the Collection of his _Works_, which he
intitled, _Métamorphose du Cû d’Iris en Astre_. ‘The Metamorphose of
Iris’s Bum, into a Star.’ By a Star of that kind, the Duke of York,
afterwards King James II., was dazzled, when he became enamoured with
Miss Arabella Churchill, a Maid of Honour to the Duchess, at the time
that Lady had a fall from her horse, in a party of hunting: and to
his Royal Highness being so dazzled, the first advancement of the
great Duke of Marlborough, then Mr. Churchill, the Lady’s Brother,
became owing; together with the capital advantages that accrued to
this Nation, from his getting afterwards into great employments.
Yet, on the other hand, we find that that same part, which has
been thought by some to possess so many accomplishments, and has
accordingly become the subject of their respect and their admiration,
has been made by others, the object of their scoffs, and expressly
chosen as a mark to direct their insults to.
The facts that have been recited a few pages before this, might be
produced as confirmations of this remark. The prevailing vulgar
practice, in cases of provocation, of threatening, or even serving,
the part in question with kicks, might also be mentioned on this
occasion. But it will be better to observe in general, that, among
all Nations, the part we are speaking of, has been deemed a most
proper place for beatings, lashings, and slappings.
That this notion prevailed among the Romans, we are informed by the
passages of Plautus, and of St. Jerom, that are recited in the sixth
Chapter of this Book (p. 94, 95.) The same practice was also adopted
by the Greeks, as may be proved by the instance of the Philosopher
Peregrinus, which has been mentioned in the same Chapter. And under
the reign of the Emperors, when the two Nations (the Greek and Roman)
had, as it were, coalesced into one, the same notions concerning
the fitness of the same part, to bear verberations and insults,
continued to prevail. Of this we have a singular instance in the
manner in which the statue of the Emperor Constantine was treated,
at the time of the revolt of the Town of Edessa: the inhabitants,
not satisfied with pulling that statue down, in order to aggravate
the insult flagellated it on the part we mention. Libanius the
_Rhetor_ informs, us of this fact, in the Harangue he addressed
to the Emperor Theodosius, after the great revolt of the City of
Antioch; in which he mentions the pardon granted by Constantine for
the above indignity, as an argument to induce the Emperor to forgive
the inhabitants of the last-mentioned City: a request, however, which
Libanius was not so happy as to obtain.
Among the French, notions of the same kind likewise prevail. Of this,
not to confine ourselves to particular facts, we may derive proofs
from their language itself; in which the verb that is derived from
the word by which the part here alluded to, is expressed, signifies
of itself, and without the addition of any other word, to beat or
verberate it: thus, Mons. de Voltaire supposes his Princess Cunegonde
to say to Candide,--_Tandis qu’on vous fessoit, mon cher Candid_;
by which, however, that Author does not mean expressly to say that
Candide was flagellated upon the part we speak of, by order of the
Inquisition; he only uses the above word to render his story more
jocular. From the above French word _fesser_, has been again derived
the noun _fessade_, signifying a verberation on the same part; the
same as the word _claque_ (or _clack_, as they pronounce it) which
originally meant a flap in general, but, by a kind of _antonomatia_
(a particular figure of speech) is now come expressly to signify a
slap on the part in question. Among the Italians, the practice of
verberating the same part, also obtains, if we are to trust to proofs
likewise derived from their language; and from the word _chiappa_,
they have made that of _chiappata_, the meaning of which is the same
with that of the French word _claque_.
If we turn our eyes to remote Nations, we find they entertain notions
of the same sort. Among the Turks, a verberation on the part we
speak of, is the common punishment that is inflicted either on the
Janissaries, or Spahis; I do not remember which of the two. Among
the Persians, punishments of the same kind are also established; and
we find in Chardin, an instance of a Captain of the outward gate of
the King’s Seraglio, who was served with it, for having suffered
a stranger to stop before that gate, and look through it. And the
Chinese also use a like method of chastisement, and inflict it, as
Travellers inform us, with a wooden instrument, shaped like a large
solid rounded spoon.
Among the Arabians, the part here alluded to, is likewise considered
as a fit mark for blows and slaps. We find an instance of this, in
one of the Arabian Tales, called _The one thousand and one Nights_:
an original Book, and which contains true pictures of the manners
of that Nation. The story I mean, which is well worth reminding the
reader of, is that of a certain Cobler, whose name, if I mistake not,
was Shak-Abak. This Cobler having fallen in love with a beautiful
Lady belonging to some wealthy Man, or Man of power, of whom he had
had a glance through the window of her house, would afterwards keep
for whole hours every day, staring at that window. The Lady, who
proposed to make game of him, one day sent one of her female slaves
to introduce him to her, and then gave him to understand, that if he
could overtake her, by running after her through the apartments of
her house, he would have the enjoyment of her favours: he was besides
told, that in order to run more nimbly, he must strip to his shirt.
To all this Shak-Abak agreed; and after a number of turns, up and
down the house, he was at last enticed into a long, dark, and narrow
passage, at the farthest extremity of which an open door was to be
perceived; he made to it as fast as he could, and when he had reached
it, rushed headlong through it; when, to his no small astonishment,
the door instantly shut upon him, and he found himself in the
middle of a public street of Bagdat, which was chiefly inhabited
by shoemakers. A number of these latter, struck at the sudden
and strange appearance of the unfortunate Shak-Abak, who, besides
stripping to his shirt, had suffered his eye-brows to be shaved, laid
hold of him, and, as the Arabian Author relates, soundly lashed his
posteriors with their straps.
If we turn again to European Nations, we shall meet with farther
instances of the same kind of correction. It was certainly adopted in
Denmark, and even in the Court of that Country, towards the latter
end of the last Century, as we are informed by Lord Molesworth, in
his _Account of Denmark_. It was the custom, his Lordship says,
at the end of every hunting-match at Court, that, in order to
conclude the entertainment with as much festivity as it had begun, a
proclamation was made,--if any could inform against any person who
had infringed the known laws of hunting, let him stand forth and
accuse. As soon as the contravention was ascertained, the culprit
was made to kneel down between the horns of the stag that had been
hunted; two of the Gentlemen removed the skirts of his coat; when the
King, taking a small long wand in his hand, laid a certain number
of blows, which was proportioned to the greatness of the offence,
on the culprit’s breech; whilst, in the mean time (the Noble Author
adds) the Huntsmen with their brass horns, and the dogs with their
loud openings, proclaimed the King’s Justice, and the Criminal’s
punishment: the scene affording diversion to the Queen, and the whole
Court, who stood in a circle about the place of execution[107].
Among the Dutch, verberations on the posteriors are equally in use;
and a serious flagellation on that part, is the punishment which
is established at the Cape of Good Hope, one of their Colonies, as
Kolben informs us in his _Description_ of it, for those who are found
smoaking tobacco in the streets: a practice which has frequently been
there the cause of houses being set in fire.
In Poland, a _lower_ discipline is the penance constantly inflicted
upon fornicators, in Convents, previously to tying them together by
the bond of matrimony; or sometimes afterwards.
In England, castigations of the same kind, not to quote other
instances, are adopted among that respectable part of the Nation,
the Seamen, as we find in Falconer’s Marine Dictionary; and a
_Cobbing-board_ is looked upon as a necessary part of the rigging of
his Majesty’s ships.
Among the Spaniards, they so generally consider the part of the
human body of which we are treating here, as the properest to bear
ill usage and mortification, that in every place there is commonly
some good Friar who makes his posteriors answerable for the sins
of the whole Parish; and who, according as he has been fee’d for
that purpose, flogs himself, or at least tells his Customers he
has done so: hence the common Spanish saying, which is mentioned
in the History of Friar Gerundio de Campazas, _Yo soi el culo del
Frayle_;--‘I am as badly off as the Friar’s backside;’ which is
said by persons who think that they are made to pay, or suffer, for
advantages they are not admitted to share.
Nor is the above method of self-correction confined to Spanish
friars only: it is likewise adopted by a number of religious Orders
of Men, established in the other Countries of Europe. It is also by
correlations directed to the same part, that is to say, by Cornelian
disciplines, that numbers of pious Confessors, zealous for the
purity of the morals of their female penitents, endeavour to procure
their improvement. Nay, it is upon the same part we speak of, upon
that part to which the Greeks had erected a Temple, that the whole
tribe of Nuns and female Devotees constantly choose to practice
those mortifications and _lower disciplines_ by which they seek to
atone for their sins; and several among them really treat that part,
by which they perhaps have the best chance to create themselves
admirers, with wonderful severity.
The above Dissertation, which, before I engaged in it, I did not
think would prove so long, or so interesting, has till now kept
me from delivering my opinion concerning those flagellations with
which certain holy Men have served those Ladies who ventured to
make amorous applications to them: a satisfaction which, before I
conclude, I must give the Reader, as having pledged my word for it.
Now, to fulfill my engagement in that respect, I declare that I
totally disapprove such flagellations; and I am firmly of opinion
that this kind of treatment ought to be ranked among those actions of
Saints, which, as hath been observed in a former place, are not fit
for all persons to imitate.
In fact, we find that several Authors, among those who best knew the
world, and were excellent Judges of propriety, who had occasion to
describe situations like those in which the above Saints were placed,
have made their personages act in quite a different manner from that
in which the Saints behaved; and on this occasion we may mention the
conduct of Parson Adams, one of the Heroes of _Fielding_, in that
celebrated night he spent at Lady Booby’s. If, in the first instance,
he, as must be confessed, gave Mrs. Slipslop that remembrance in her
guts mentioned by the Author, it was not till she had herself given
him a dreadful cuff on his chops; besides that he did not know yet
her sex, nor what she meant. But when he afterwards found himself
in the same bed with Fanny, which, as he thought, was his own bed,
he shrunk, as it were, and retired to the farthest extremity of it,
where he lay quiet, and above all manifested no thought whatever of
flagellating her; which if he had done, Joseph would not certainly
have thanked him for it.
Don Quixote, in _Cervantes_, when the lovely Maritornes came
during the night to his bed, and threw herself into his arms, had
no thought of employing either whips or straps for dismissing the
amorous Fair-one; and certainly if he had applied to an expedient
of this kind, he would have had no right to complain of the boxes
and kicks with which the Muleteer presently after belaboured him in
the dark. But, like a gallant and exceedingly well-bred Knight, he
excused himself from the nature of the anterior engagements he was
under, and above all did not forget to pay proper compliments to
the Lady’s beauty and great perfections. Indeed, the speech which
the Knight addressed to the fair Maritornes, may be proposed as a
pattern of compliment for occasions of the kind. ‘Oh! thou most
lovely temptation! Oh that I now might but pay a warm acknowledgment
for the mighty blessing which your great goodness would lavish on
me! Yes, most beautiful Charmer, I would give an empire to purchase
your more desirable embraces; but Fate has put to it an invincible
obstacle; I mean my plighted faith to Dulcinea _del Toboso_, the sole
mistress of my wishes, and absolute sovereign of my heart. Oh! did
not this oppose my present happiness, I could never be so insensible
a Knight as to lose the benefit of this extraordinary favour you now
condescend to offer me.’
Nor ought the Gentleman, after delivering the above speech, or
some other equally respectful, to stop there; it would be moreover
extremely proper for him to desire the Lady to do him the honour to
sit upon his bed, and then enter into a fuller explanation of his
conduct, and of the nature of those prior engagements by which he is
so fatally tied.
This done, and the Lady being perfectly convinced of the propriety of
his conduct, he should rise from his bed, and offer to attend her,
I do not say to the bottom of the stairs, and so far as the street
door, for that might be the means of discovering the secret of the
affair to other persons and endangering the Lady’s reputation, but to
the remotest door of his own apartment. I would moreover have him, in
his passage to that door, keep the Lady’s hand tenderly squeezed in
his own, and all the while manifest, by the nature of his gestures
and exclamations, the grief under which he labours. And lastly, when
he had reached the furthest place to which he may safely conduct her,
he ought to take leave of her by a low and most respectful bow, in
order completely to convince her, that the kindness she had ventured
to shew him, has not, in the least, lowered her in his esteem.
Such, dear Reader, is the manner in which, for my own part, I have
always acted on those delicate occasions we are speaking of. However,
I do not pretend to dictate to others the manner in which they
ought to behave, nor insist upon any of the above circumstances in
particular. All I intreat of you, is, by all means to forbear to use
those sudden and harsh flagellations that were recurred to, by St.
Edmund, St. Bernardin of Sienna, and Brother Mathew. Such a treatment
savours too much of ingratitude: nay, to have recourse to it, is
cruel in the extreme; it is heaping distress upon the distressed.
Nor are you to expect that the Lady will love you the better for it
afterwards, as was the case with St. Bernardin of Sienna; on the
contrary, such a proceeding on your part, if it were once known,
would irreparably destroy your reputation with the whole Sex, and
you may depend, no proposal or application of the like kind would
be made to you ever after. Now, though you may be ever so firmly
determined to reject all proposals like these; yet, as every Lady
will tell you, it is no unpleasing thing to have them made to you:
besides that you do not know but you may afterwards alter your
resolution.
[103] He punished differently, on a certain occasion, a Roman Knight
who had been guilty of the abovementioned fault. He sent him, without
delay, to carry a letter to Africa; without allowing the time to call
at his house, and take leave of his family.
[104] _Gazetteer_--_Tuesday_, Dec. 20, 1774. The main circumstances
of the same fact are also to be found in Dr. Burnaby’s _Travels
through the middle Settlements of North America_, published in the
year 1775.
[105] _Causes célèbres_, Vol. IV.
[106] Miss Gumley.--She became a few years afterwards, Countess of
Bath. His Lordship, no doubt, boasted of the fact, as it seems to
have made some noise at the time.
[107] See Lord Molesworth’s _Account of Denmark_, IVth Edit. p. 108,
109.