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MANUAL
OF
Classical Erotology
(De figuris Veneris)
BY
FRED. CHAS. FORBERG
-------
LITERAL ENGLISH VERSION.
[Illustration: Decoration]
MANCHESTER
One Hundred Copies
PRIVATELY PRINTED FOR VISCOUNT
JULIAN SMITHSON M. A., AND FRIENDS
1884
------------------------------------------------------------------------
NOTE
One Hundred Copies only of this volume have been printed (all on the
same paper and the type distributed) for Viscount Julian Smithson M. A.,
the Translator, and his Friends. None of these Copies are for Sale.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Foreword
It is perhaps well to state at once that the “Manual of Classical
Erotology” is intended only for Students of the Classics, Lawyers,
Psychologists and Medical Men. Those persons, we think, who may peruse
it as a means of awakening voluptuous sensations will be severely
disappointed. Never did a work more serious issue from the press. Here
we have no curious erotic story born of a diseased mind, but a cold,
relentless analysis of those human passions which it is ever the object
of Science to wrestle with and overthrow.
As a basis also for the correct interpretation of the drama of the
ancient world, Forberg’s studies are most valuable. Apart from that
extraordinary book, Rosenbaum’s _History of the Esoteric Habits, Beliefs
and Customs of Antiquity_, we know of no other compilation which casts
so intense a search-light upon those Crimes, Follies and Perversions of
the “Sixth Sense” which transformed the olden glory of Greece and Rome
into a by-word and a reproach amongst the nations.
The present English translation now offered to Scholars is entirely new
and strictly exact. No liberties have been taken with the text. It was
felt that any attempt to add more colour, or to increase the
effect,—involving a departure from the lines of stern simplicity laid
down by Forberg,—would have detracted from the scientific value and
character of the work.
The late Isidore Liseux issued in 1882 a French version with Latin text
_imprimé à cent exemplaires_ “for himself and friends.” This work is now
very seldom to be met with because the whole edition was privately
subscribed by Scholars and Bibliophiles before its appearance. The
thieving copyists went of course immediately to work and some wretched
penny-a-liner, utterly ignorant of both Latin and Greek, produced an
English transcript full of faults, based only on the French text.
There is no need to add that such a book as this is of no value to the
Student as a work of reference, for the faulty and forceless renderings
often to be met with in Liseux’ version are reproduced with charming
exactness, while the absence of the original text makes it all the more
perilous to accept the work as a guide. Having said this much concerning
the only two translations known to us, we proceed to give some account
of good master Forberg and what is known of the inception and building
up of his chef-d’œuvre.
The eminent Author of this book never became famous. His name is
mentioned occasionally in connexion with the “Hermaphroditus” of Antonio
Beccadelli, known by the surname of Panormitanus, which he edited.
Brunet, Charles Nodier, and the _Bibliographie des Ouvrages relatifs aux
Femmes, à l’Amour et au Mariage_, speak of him in this connexion; while
a list of his works appears moreover in the _Index Locupletissimus
Librorum_ or _Bücher-Lexicon_ (Bibliographical Lexicon) of Christian
Gottlob Kayser, Leipzig, 1834. But with the exception of the _Allgemeine
Deutsche Biographie_, the publication of which was commenced in 1878 by
the Historical Commission of the Munich Academy, and which has devoted a
short notice to him, all Dictionaries and Collections whether of Ancient
or of Modern Biography are mute with respect to him. The
_Conversations-Lexicon_ and the vast Encyclopaedia of Ersch and Gruber
do not contain a single line about him, while Michaud, Didot, Bachelet
and Dezobry, Bouillet, Vapereau, utterly ignore his existence. For all
that he well deserves a word or two.
Friedrich Karl Forberg was born in the year 1770 at Meuselwitz, in the
Duchy of Saxe-Altenburg, and died in 1848 at Hildburghausen. He was a
philosopher and a collaborator with Fichte, while he devoted a part of
his attention to religious exegesis: but above all he was a philologian,
and a humanist,—at once learned and inquisitive. He followed first the
career of a University-teacher; _Privat-docent_ in 1792, Assistant
Professor in the Faculty of Philosophy at Jena (1793), he was installed
in 1796 as Co-Rector at Saalfeld. His inaugural thesis: “Dissertatio
inauguralis de aesthetica transcendentali”, is dated 1792 (Jena, 8vo.);
this was followed by a “Treatise on the Original Conditions and Formal
Limitations of Free Will” in German and an “Extract from my Occasional
Writings” also in German (1795). From 1796 to 1800 he wrote extensively
in defence of the teachings of Fichte in Journals, Reviews, particularly
in the Philosophical Magazine of Schmidt, and in sundry publications
emanating from Fichte himself. He published moreover: “Animadversiones
in loca selecta Novi Testamenti” (Saalfeld, 1798, 4to.), “an Apology for
his pretended Atheism”, in German (Gotha, 1799, 8vo.). “Obligations of
Learned Men”, in German (Gotha, 1801, 8vo.), etc.
The second part of his life seems to have been devoted entirely to
Literature. In 1807 he was appointed as Conservator of the Aulic Library
at Coburg, and having had enough of philosophy, he turned his whole
attention to the study of Latin and Greek antiquity. Previously to this
his tastes had already been revealed by the publication of several
pretty editions of the minor Latin erotic poets; these form a collection
of six or eight volumes in 16mo., with red margin-lines, and are now
very difficult to procure. The discovery he made in the Coburg library
of a manuscript of the “Hermaphroditus” of Panormitanus, offering
important new readings and variants from the received text, suggested
the idea to him of producing a definitive edition of the work, with
copious commentaries.
The said “Hermaphroditus” so called, “because”, says La Monnoye, “all
the filth in connection with both sexes forms the theme of the volume”,
is a collection of Latin Epigrams filled out with a patchwork of
quotations from Virgil, Ovid and Martial, in which memory has a much
larger share than imagination, and which has never appeared to us to
possess any great literary value. But the mishaps the book has had to
encounter, its having been publicly burnt in manuscript in the market
places of Bologna, Ferrara and Milan, the anathemas hurled against it by
some savants, and the favour with which it was received by others, who
were glad to awaken by its perusal old reminiscences, have given it a
kind of reputation. The Abbé Mercier de Saint-Léger was the first to
publish it in Paris, together with the works of four other poets of the
same sort: Ramusius de Rimini, Pacificus Maximus, Jovianus Pontanus, and
Joannes Secundus[1]. But Forberg, whilst fully appreciating the work and
particularly the courage of the learned Frenchman, found much to find
fault with; the Epigrams of Panormitanus were not numbered, which made
citations from them troublesome, a great number of readings were faulty,
and, thanks to his manuscript, he could correct them; lastly, Mercier de
Saint-Léger had omitted to give any running commentary on his author, to
explain his text by means of notes and the comparison of parallel
passages, whereas, according to Forberg a book of this character
required notes by tens and hundreds, each verse, each hemistich, each
word, offering matter for philosophical reflections and highly
interesting comparisons. He therefore took the book in hand and began to
collect with inquisitive care everything the Ancients had written upon
the delicate subjects treated in the “Hermaphroditus.”
But having come to the end of his task, he found that his commentary
would drown the book, that hardly would he be able to get in a verse of
it every two or three pages, all the remainder of the book being taken
up by his notes, and that the result would be chaos. Dividing his work
into two parts, he left the smaller one in the shape of annotations,
reduced to the merest indispensable explanations, to the
“Hermaphroditus”, while of the second and more copious harvest of his
erudite researches he composed a special treatise, which he had printed
as a supplement under the title, “Apophoreta”, or “Second Course”; this
treatise being in his eyes only a kind of dessert, following upon the
substantial repast furnished by the Latin Poet of the XVIth. century.
The whole forms a volume much sought after by amateurs: “Antonii
Panormitae _Hermaphroditus;_ primus in Germania edidit et Aphoreta
adjecit Frider. Carol. Forbergius. Coburgi, sumtibus Meuseliorum, 1824,
8vo.”[2].
Forberg, good, simple man, was mistaken, owing to his too great modesty;
the true feast, at once substantial, nourishing and savoury, is his own
work, the work which he elaborated from his own resources, from his
inexhaustible memory and from his astonishing knowledge of the Greek and
Latin authors down to their minutest details. On reprinting this
excellent work, which undoubtedly deserved to be translated, we have
given it a new title, one that is much more suitable than the old, “The
Manual of Classical Erotology.” In virtue of the charm, the abundance,
the variety of the citations, it is a priceless erotic Anthology; in
virtue of the methodical classification of the contents Forberg has
adopted, it is a didactic work,—a veritable Manual. He began with
collecting from the Greek and Latin writers the largest number possible
of scattered notices, which might serve for points of comparison with
the Epigrams of Beccadelli; having possessed himself of a large
accumulation of these, it occurred to him to set them out in order,
arranging them in conformity with the similarity of their contents,
deciding finally upon a division into eight chapters, corresponding with
the same number of special manifestations of the amorous fancy and its
depravities:
I. —Of Copulation.
II. —Of Pedication.
III. —Of Irrumation.
IV. —Of Masturbation.
V. —Of Cunnilingues.
VI. —Of Tribads.
VII. —Of Intercourse with Animals.
VIII. —Of Spintrian Postures.
He found that he had to make subdivisions in each class according to the
nature of the subject, to note particularities, individualities; and the
contrast between this scientific apparatus, and the facetious matters
subjected to the rigorous laws of deduction and demonstration is not the
least amusing feature of the book. Probably no one but a German savant
could have conceived the idea of thus classifying by categories, groups,
genera, variations, species and sub-species all known forms of natural
and unnatural lusts, according to the most trustworthy authors. But
Forberg pursued another aim besides. In the course of his researches he
had noticed how reticent the annotators and expounders generally are in
clearing up matters which would seem to require it the most, some in
consequence of a false reserve, others for fear of appearing too
knowing, and others again from ignorance; also how many mistakes and
gross blunders they have fallen into, by reason of their not
understanding the language of erotics and failing to grasp its infinite
shades of meaning.
It is precisely on those obscure and difficult passages of the Ancient
poets, on those expressions purposely chosen for their ambiguity, which
have been the torment of the critics and the puzzle of the most erudite
commentators, that our learned Humanist has concentrated his most
convincing observations.
The number of authors, Greek, Latin, French, German, English, Dutch,
whom he has laid under contribution in order to formulate his exact and
judicious classifications, mounts up to a formidable total. There are to
be found in the _Manual of Erotology_ something like five hundred
passages, culled from more than one hundred and fifty works, all
classified, explained, commented upon, and in most cases, enveloped in
darkness as they had been, made plain as light itself by the mere fact
of juxtaposition. With Forberg for a guide no one need henceforth fear
to go astray,—to believe, for instance, like M. Leconte de Lisle, that
the woman of whom Horace says that she changes neither dress nor place,
“_peccatve superne_” “has not erred beyond measure”; what a mistake!—or
with M. Nisard to translate Suetonius expression, “_illudere caput
alicuius_” “to attempt some ones life”[3]!
Forberg, a philosopher, has treated these delicate subjects like a
philosopher, namely, in a purely speculative manner, as a man quite
above and beyond terrestrial matters, and particularly so with respect
to the lubricities which he has made it his task to examine so closely.
He declares he knows nothing of them personally, has never thought of
making experimental investigations on them, but derives all his
knowledge, from books. His candour is beyond suspicion. He has not
escaped censure; but having a reply ready for every objection and
authorities to quote on every point, he found an answer to his
detractors ready made in the phrase of Justus Lipsius, who had been
reproached with taking pleasure in the abominations of Petronius: “The
wines you set upon the table excite the drunkard and leave the sober man
perfectly calm; in the same way, these kinds of reading _may_ very
likely inflame an imagination already depraved, but they make no
impression upon a mind that is chaste and disciplined.”
FOOTNOTES - FORWARD
-----
Footnote 1:
_Quinque illustrium Poetarum, Antonii Panormitae; Ramusii Ariminensis;
Pacifici Maximi Asculani; Io. Joviani Pontani; Io. Secundi Hagiensis,
Lusus in Venerem, partim ex codicibus manuscriptis, nunc primum editi
Parisiis, prostat ad Pristrinum, in Vico suavi_, (_at Paris, at
Molini’s, Rue Mignon_), 1791, 8vo.
Footnote 2:
To certain copies are added some thirty engravings representing the
principal erotic postures; these engravings are taken from the
_Monuments de la Vie Privée des douze Césars_, and from the _Monuments
du Culte Secret des Dames Romaines_, two works, now becoming every day
rarer.
Footnote 3:
See below pp. ?? and ??? respectively.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE
Metamorphoses of Venus
WE propose to pass in review the different metamorphoses of
Venus,—though truly not all of them. For how is it possible to specify
the thousand modes[4], the thousand forms of Love, on which the
inventive satiety of pleasure ventures? But at any rate such as fall
into distinct and definite kinds admit of being easily and methodically
classified. Do not, inquisitive reader, hope for more than this. We are
not of those who seek after a petty personal glory by unveiling the
results of their own experience or by describing novel _tours de force_
in the wrestling-school; we are not so much as raw recruits at this
game. Nor yet is it our intention to reveal things we have seen or heard
in this connexion. If we _would_, we could not,—to your satisfaction,
for books are our only authorities. We are solely and entirely bookmen,
and scarce frequent our fellow creatures at all.
These trifles engaged our attention first as a mere pastime. We were led
to them accidentally, as we roamed from subject to subject for
Philosophy, the garden we had hoped to set up our tent in for life, lies
desolate. How _can_ Philosophy flourish in times like ours, when almost
every new day sees new systems sprout forth, to die down again tomorrow;
when there are as many philosophers as philosophies, when schools have
ceased to exist, when instead of groups only individuals are to be met
with? Our second motive was to provide some satisfaction, however
little, to the claims of those readers who very often find themselves
disconcerted by the unconventional raciness of Ancient authors and their
out-spoken witticisms, and justly complain of the prudish brevity or
entire silence of the Commentators who leave their difficulties
unexplained. Of course these latter wrote for the young; and no one can
blame them under the circumstances for not having dwelt carefully and
curiously on shameful secrets.
If we have fallen into any mistakes, lay the fault, we beg, first on our
insufficient intellectual furniture, secondly on our ignorance as to the
more uncommon forms of lust, an ignorance prevalent in small towns, and
lastly, if you please, put it down to the honest simplicity of our
Coburg citizens’ _members_.
We only follow others’ example. We have predecessors in Astyanassa, who
according to Suidas[5] first wrote “of Erotic Postures”; and in
Philaenis of Samos[6], or rather, to deprive no one of his due,
Polycrates, an Athenian sophist, who brought out under the name of an
honourable matron a book “On the various Postures of Love.” Then there
was Elephantis[7] or Elephantiné, a Greek girl, whose licentious
writings Tiberius is said to have furnished his sleeping-room with; also
Paxamus[8] who composed the _Dodecatechnon_ on lascivious postures; and
Sotades[9] of Maroneia, surnamed the Cinaedologue, from whose name a
whole class of literature, remarkable for its excessive lubricity, is
known as the Sotadic; and Sabellus, of whom Martial speaks: “Copious
verses, only too copious, on scandalous subjects you have read me, O
Sabellus, such as neither the maids of Didymus[10] know, nor yet the
wanton treatises of Elephantis. Therein are new postures of Love that
the desperate fornicator tries, and what debauchees use, but never tell
of,—how grouped in a series five copulate at once, how a greater number
still can make a chain. It was hardly worth the pains to be erudite.”
* * * * *
Moreover amongst our predecessors was the famous Pietro Aretino[11], a
man of an almost divine genius, whom ill-natured report represents as
having illustrated sixteen plates painted by Julio Romano and engraved
on copper by Marc-Antonio with verses indecent beyond all expression;
Lorenzo Veniero again[12], a Venetian nobleman, author of a little work
in Italian, bearing the title _La Puttana Errante_ (The Wandering
Whore), in which he has undertaken to specify no less than thirty-five
modes of loving. Lastly there was Nicolas Chorier, a French lawyer, who
under the name of Aloysia Sigaea, a young Spanish lady, has given us the
_Satirae Sotadicae de arcanis Amoris et Veneris_ (Sotadic Satires on the
Secret Rites of Love and Venus); though the book also appears under the
name of Joannes Meursius with the title _Elegantiae Latini Sermonis_
(Graces of Latin Prose). In this book you do not know which to admire
most, the style at once elegant, correct and careful, yet free from
pedantry, the wit equally gay and graceful, the brilliant sparks of
Latin erudition that glitter everywhere, the rich and copious eloquence
graced as with jewels by polished and luminous words and phrases of a
pleasant antique flavour, or lastly the pre-eminent skill displayed in
varying with such manifold versatility one simple theme. The others we
need not mention further.
Our predecessors, whether the more modern, or those of Antiquity whom we
have cited, and all whose works alas! envious time has robbed us of, did
not lack severe critics, nor yet studious readers. And our own treatise
will no doubt in its turn meet with both these classes. It is a man’s
book; we have written it, fearless of censure, for men,—not for such as
are wont with growning brow “to pitchfork nature out of doors”, but
rather for such as have once for all dared to live their lives, who
neither wish to lurk in darkness nor yet to defy the open day with
effrontery, in one word for those who think that in Love as in all else
the golden mean is the course to choose. Let others go their way, and
arrogate to themselves the title of sages!
* * * * *
THE work of Venus may be accomplished with or without the help of the
_mentula_ (virile member). If with the mentula, the friction of this
organ, in which friction the whole pleasure consists, can be effected
either in the _vulva_ (female organ), in the _anus_ (arse-hole), in the
mouth, by the hand or in any cavity of the body. If without the mentula,
the vulva may be worked either with the tongue, with the clitoris, or
with any object resembling the virile organ.
FOOTNOTES - THE Metamorphoses Of Venus
-----
Footnote 4:
Ovid, _Art of Love_, I., 435, 36: “To fully expose the ungodly wiles
of harlots, ten mouths, and as many tongues to boot would not
suffice.”
Aloysia Sigaea: “The body in sacrificing to Venus can take as many
postures as there are ways in which it can bend and curve. It is
equally impossible to enumerate all these, as it is to say which is
best fitted to give pleasure. Each acts in this respect according to
his own caprice, according to place, time, and so on, choosing the one
he prefers. Love is not identical for each and all.” (Dialogue VI.)
Footnote 5:
Suidas under _Astyanassa_: “Astyanassa, maid of Helen the wife of
Menelaus, who was the first to invent the different positions in the
act of love. She wrote “Of Erotic Postures”; and was followed and
imitated by Philaenis and Elephantine, who carried further the series
of suchlike obscenities.”
Footnote 6:
_Priapeia_, LXIII: “To her a certain girl (I very nearly gave her
name) is wont to come with her paramour; and if she fails to discover
as many postures as Philaenis describes, she goes away again still
itching with desire.”
Philaenis has found a champion of her good name in Aeschrion, who
wrote an epitaph for her that is still extant in _Athenaeus_, bk.
VIII. ch. 13: The last lines read: “I was not lustful for men nor a
gad-about; but Polycrates, by race an Athenian, a mill clapper of
talk, a foul-tongued sophist, wrote—what he wrote; I know nought of it
all.”
Her works were familiar to Timarchus in Lucian (_Apophras_, p.
158,—vol. VII., of Works of Lucian, edit. J. P. Schmid): “Tell me
where you find these words and expressions,—in what books? is it in
the volumes of Philaenis, that are always in your hands?”
Footnote 7:
Suetonius, _Tiberius_, ch. 43: “He decorated his various and variously
arranged sleeping-chambers with pictures and bas-reliefs of the most
licentious character, and furnished them with the works of Philaenis,
that no one in performing should want a model of the posture
required.”
_Priapeia_, III: “Taking pictures from the licentious treatises of
Elephantis, Lalagé presents them an offering to the stiff-standing
god, and begs you prove if she performs agreeably to the pictured
postures.”
It would seem then that artists depicted the postures described by
Elephantis, she herself possibly setting the example. Paintings of the
sort Lalagé dedicates to Priapus, and asks her lover to have her and
see if she is a docile pupil in faithfully imitating all the modes of
connection depicted in them. No doubt such representations of
licentious postures, taken from the works of Elephantis or Philaenis
or elsewhere stimulated the ingenuity of Artists to work out in
emulation these enticing _motifs_ to the highest degree of finish.
_Ovid_ alludes to such works of art in his _Art of Love_, II., 680:
“They unite in Love in a thousand postures; no picture could suggest
any fresh ones ...”; as also the author of an ancient Epigram quoted
by _Joseph Scaliger_ in his Commentary on the _Priapeia_, III.; “And
when she has thrown herself into every posture in imitation of the
seductive pictures, she may go: but let the picture be left hanging
over my bed.” Nothing was commoner with the Romans than to decorate
the wall and partitions of rooms with licentious paintings, as may be
gathered from Propertius II., vi, 27 sqq.: “The hand that first
painted filthy pictures, and exposed foul sights in an honest home,
corrupted the pure eyes of young maids, and chose to make them
accomplices of his own lubricity. In old days our walls were not
daubed with fancies of this vile sort, when never a partition was
adorned with a vicious subject.”
Footnote 8:
_Suidas_: “Paxamus wrote the _Dodecatechnon_; the subject is the
obscene postures.” But I think he has no good reason to connect with
this the epithet _Dodecamechanos_ given to a certain Cyrené. The said
wanton damsel seems to have practised rather than described the twelve
postures of Venus. _Suidas_ under _Dodecamechanon_: “There was a
famous _hetaera_, Cyrené by name, further known as _Dodecamechanos_,
because she practised twelve different postures in making love.”
_Aristophanes_ says in the _Frogs_, 1361-63: “Do you dare to criticize
my songs, you that modulate your cadences on the twelve-fold postures
of Cyrené?” Her name occurs also in the _Thesmophoriazusae_ (104), but
merely her name. (Our invariable rule is to quote from Burmann’s
edition of Aristophanes.) I am doubtful as to whether Musaeus should
be counted among writers on the Erotic postures. Martial, XII., 97
recommends Instantius Rufus to read his (Musaeus’) books, as being of
the most advanced lasciviousness, vying with those of the Sybarites in
obscenity and full of the most suggestive and spicy wit; warning him
at the same time to have his girl ready to hand, if he did not want
his hands to perform the wedding-march and consummate the marriage
without a woman at all.
Footnote 9:
_Athenaeus_, XIV., 13: “Also the Ionic dialect has to show the poems
of Sotades and the “Ionic” poems preceding his, those of Alexander the
Aetolian, and Pyres of Miletus, and Alexis, and others of the same
class. The last mentioned is known as the Cinaedologue. But in this
_genre_ the most eminent writer is Sotades, of Maroneia, as is stated
by Carystius of Pergamus in his work on Sotades, and by Apollonius,
Sotades’ son, who also wrote a work on his father’s poems. “His end
was a miserable one. Having assailed Ptolemy Philadelphus, king of
Egypt, with witticisms too independent for the sensitive ears of
princes, the king caused him to be enclosed in a leaden casket, and
thrown into the sea.”
Footnote 10:
Who were these “maids of Didymus.” Nobody knows. Failing any more
plausible supposition, it may very well be conjectured that among the
four thousand works written according to Seneca (Letter LXXX.-VIII.)
by the Grammarian Didymus, there was one on the postures of lascivious
girls, worthy to be named side by side with the treatises of
Elephantis. Undoubtedly a man who devoted himself to such subtile
questions as whether Anacreon was more libertine than drunkard,
whether Sappho was a public woman or not, was quite likely to discuss
the Erotic postures.
Footnote 11:
See _Bayle’s_ Dictionary, article: _Pierre Arétin_; also Murr’s
_Journal zur Kunstgeschichte_ (Year-Book of the History of Art), vol.
XIV., pp. 1-72.
Footnote 12:
_Pierre Bayle_, in his Dictionary, under _Pierre Arétin_: “There is a
_Dialogue between Maddalena and Giulia_, entitled _La Puttana Errante_
(The wandering whore), in which are exhaustively treated _i diversi
congiungimenti_ (the different modes of intercourse), to the number of
thirty-five. Aretino, though the book has always been printed under
his name, disowns it, declaring it to be the work of one of his pupils
named Veniero.” _Brunet_, Manual du Libraire (Book dealer’s Handbook).
“The _Puttana errante_, a little book, very rare, quite worthy of
Aretino in view of the obscenities it contains, but which has been
erroneously attributed to him. Lorenzo Veniero, a Venetian nobleman,
is the real author. He published it to avenge himself on a Venetian
courtesan named Angela, whom he designates under the insulting name of
Zaffetta, that is to say, in the Venetian dialect, daughter of a
police-spy.”
[_Bayle_, _Forberg_ and many other writers have confused the _Puttana
errante_, a poem by Lorenzo Veniero and a burlesque parody of the
Romances of chivalry, with the _Dialogue between Maddalena and
Giulia_, a prose work to which the Elzevirs gave the title properly
belonging to the poem. Neither one nor the other is the work of Pietro
Aretino. See note at end of vol. VI. of the _Dialogues du divin Pietro
Aretino_ (Dialogues of the divine Pietro Aretino), Paris, Liseux,
1879, 3 vols. 18°, and London, 1880, 3 vols. 18°. [Note of French
Translation of Forberg, _Manuel d’Erotologie classique_, Paris,
Liseux, 1882.]]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER I
OF COPULATION
AND first of all let us consider what is accomplished by means of the
mentula introduced into the vulva. This is, properly speaking, to effect
copulation; but there are various ways of doing it. As a matter of fact
copulation can be effected:—the man face downwards with the woman on her
back, the man on his back with the woman face down, the man on his back
with the woman turning her back to him; the man sitting with the woman
turning her face towards him, sitting with the woman turning her back to
him; the man standing or kneeling with the woman turning her face
towards him, standing or kneeling with the woman turning her back to
him. Let us examine each of these methods separately.
Coition with the man face down on the woman who lies on her back is the
ordinary method, and the most natural.
Aloysia Sigaea says:
“For my own part I like the usual custom and the ordinary method
best: the man should lie upon the woman, who is on her back, breast
to breast, stomach to stomach, pubis to pubis, piercing her tender
cleft with his rigid spear. Indeed what can be imagined sweeter than
for the woman to lie extended on her back, bearing the welcome
weight of her lovers’ body, and exciting him to the tender
transports of a restless but delicious voluptuousness? What more
pleasant than to feast on her lovers’ face, his kisses, his sighs,
and the fire of his wanton eyes? What better than to press the loved
one in her arms and so awake new fires of desire, to participate in
amorous sensations unblunted by any taint of age or infirmity? What
more favorable to the delight and enjoyment of both than such
lascivious movements given and received? What more opportune at the
instant of dying a voluptuous death than to recover again under the
revivifying vigour of burning kisses? He who plies Venus on the
reverse side, satisfies but one of his senses, he who does the same
face to face satisfied them all.” (Dialogue VI.)
Ovid, the Master of Loves’ Mysteries, invites pretty women to take this
posture by preference:
“See you reckon up each of your charms, and take your posture
according to your beauty. One and the same mode does not become
every woman. You are especially attractive of face; then lie on your
back.” (_Art of Love_, III., 771-773.)
This posture is by no means limited to one mode. The woman lying on her
back, the rider may clasp her between his legs, or she may receive him
between hers. Yet another position may be adopted, according as the
woman lie back with legs stretched wide apart or with the knees raised.
It is this position,—lying on her back with legs wide apart, that
Caviceo asks Olympia to assume for making Love:
“I do not wish you”, he says, “to work your buttocks, or to respond
with corresponding movements to my efforts. Neither do I wish you to
lift your legs up, whether both at once, or one after the other,
when I have mounted you. What I do wish you to do is this: First
stretch your thighs as far apart, open them as wide as a woman well
can. Offer your vulva to the member which is going to pierce it, and
without altering this position, let _me_ complete the work.... Count
my thrusts one by one, and see you make no mistake in the total”
(Aloysia Sigaea, Dialogue V.).
Would you see a representation of this? Take the tale _Félicia ou mes
fredaines_, part II., ch. xxv, and look at the plate facing the text.
The other position, in which the woman is lying with her knees raised,
is the one which Callias makes Tullia take:
“After I am lying upon your dear body”, he says, “press me fast in
your arms, and hold me thus embraced. Draw your legs back as far as
you can, so that your pretty feet touch your buttocks, smooth as
marble” (Aloysia Sigaea, Dialogue VI.).
If you would enter the woman lying on her back with her legs in the air,
it may be done in yet another way than Tullia’s mode, and one perhaps
still more delicious, by placing your mistress so that she rests her
legs crossed over the loins of her rider. A representation of this very
pleasant posture, which would rouse the numbed tool of a Hippolytus, is
to be found in part IV. of the _Félicia_ mentioned above. There is
another similar plate in ch. xxi, not without charm. Doris, in the
epigram of Sosipator, vol. I. of the _Analecta_ of Brunck (p. 584),
seems also to have made a trial of this figure:
“When I stretched Doris with the rosy buttocks on the bed, I felt
immortal in my youthful vigour; for she clipped me round the middle
with her strong legs, and unswervingly rode out the long-course of
Love.”
Doris did not bestride him; the expression, “When I stretched” shows
this; she was lying on her back, and with her feet lifted up clasped her
rider.
But again the feet of the woman lying on her back may also be held up by
others. In this way Aloysio enjoyed Tullia with the help of Fabrizio, in
the VI. Dialogue of Aloysia Sigaea, where Tullia expresses herself as
follows:
“Aloysio and Fabrizio come running towards me. “Lift up your legs”,
says Aloysio to me, threatening me with his cutlass. I lifted them
up. Then down he lies on my bosom, and plunges his cutlass in my
ever open wound. Fabrizio raised my two legs in the air, and
slipping a hand under each of my hams, moves my loins for me without
any trouble on my part. What a singular and pleasant mode of making
you move! I declared I was on fire, but before I could end my
sentence, the overflowing foam of Venus quenched the fire”[13].
So too was it with feet in air, whether of her own accord or seconded by
another, that Leda gave herself, with her husband’s consent, to the
doctors who had been called in, as Martial describes the scene:
“To her old spouse Leda had declared herself to be hysterical, and
complains she must needs be f...cked; yet with tears and groans
avers she will not buy health at such a price, and swears she had
rather die. The husband beseeches her to live, not to die in her
youth and beauty; and permits others to do what he cannot effect
himself. Straightway the doctors arrive, the matrons retire; and up
go the wife’s legs in air; oh! medicine grave and stern!” (XI., 72.)
Face downwards to her the man may do the woman’s business, while she is
half reclining, either obliquely in bed, or on a chair, or lying
sideways.
The latter position is recommended by Ovid to the woman with rounded
thighs and faultless figure:
“She that has young rounded thigh and flawless bosom, should ever
lie reclined sideways on the couch”[14] (_Art of Love_, II., v. 781,
782).
Copulation face to face with the woman sitting obliquely is described by
Aloysia Sigaea with her usual elegance and vivacity:
“Caviceo came on, blithe and joyous” (it is Olympia speaking). “He
despoils me of my chemise, and his libertine hand touches my parts.
He tells me to sit down again as I was seated before, and places a
chair under either foot in a way that my legs were lifted high in
air, and the gate of my garden was wide open to the assaults I was
expecting. He then slides his right hand under my buttocks and draws
me a little closer to him. With his left he supported the weight of
his spear. Then he laid himself down on me ... put his battering-ram
to my gate, inserted the head of his member into the outermost
fissure, opening the lips of it with his fingers. But there he
stopped, and for awhile made no further attack. “Octavia sweetest”,
he says, “clasp me tightly, raise your right thigh and rest it on my
side.”—“I do not know what you want”, I said. Hearing this he lifted
my thigh with his own hand, and guided it round his loin, as he
wished; finally he forced his arrow into the target of Venus. In the
beginning he pushes in with gentle blows, then quicker, and at last
with such force I could not doubt that I was in great danger. His
member was hard as horn, and he forced it in so cruelly, that I
cried out, “You will tear me to pieces.” He stopped a moment from
his work. “I implore you to be quiet, my dear”, he said, “it can
only be done this way; endure it without flinching.” Again his hand
slid under my buttocks, drawing me nearer, for I had made a feint to
draw back, and without more delay plied me with such fast and
furious blows that I was near fainting away. With a violent effort
he forced his spear right in, and the point fixed itself in the
depths of the wound. I cry out.... Caviceo spirted out his venerean
exudation, and I felt irrigated by a burning rain.... Just as
Caviceo slackened, I experienced a sort of voluptuous itch as though
I were making water; involuntarily I draw my buttocks back a little,
and in an instant I felt with supreme pleasure something flowing
from me which tickled me deliciously. My eyes failed me, my breath
came thick, my face was on fire, and I felt my whole body melting.
“Ah! ah! ah! my Caviceo, I shall faint away”, I cried; “hold my
soul—it is escaping from my body” (Dialogue V.).
Finally the conjunction with the woman lying on her side, particularly
on her right side, is deemed by Ovid the most simple, calling for the
least effort:
“A thousand modes of Love are there; the simplest and least
laborious of all is when the woman lies reclined on her right side”
(_Art of Love_, III., 787, 88).
Above all this position is the most convenient for tall women:
“Let her press the bed with her knees, with the neck slightly bowed,
she whose chief beauty is her long shapely flank” (_Art of Love_,
III., v. 779, 80).
It seems that the Phyllis of Martial allowed herself to be done in that
way:
“Two arrived in the morning, who wanted to lie with Phyllis, and
each was fain to be first to hold her naked body in his arms;
Phyllis promised to satisfy them both together, and she did it; one
lifted her leg, the other her tunic” (X., 81).
She was lying on her side; the f... lifted her leg; the pederast her
tunic.
We now come to the manner, in which the man lying on his back has
connection with the woman face downwards. The parts are interchanged;
the woman plays the rider and the man the horse. This figure was called
the horse of Hector.
Martial says:
“Behind the doors the Phrygian slaves would be masturbating, every
time Andromaché mounted her Hector horse fashion” (XI., 105).
Ovid, however, with much sagacity denies that this posture could have
pleased Andromaché; her figure was too tall, for this to have been
agreeable or even possible for her. It is for little women, that it is
pleasant to be thus placed:
“A little woman may very well get astride on her horse; but tall and
majestic as she was, the Theban bride never mounted the Hectorean
horse” (_Art of Love_, III., v. 777, 778).
It is no business of ours to decide the question.
At any rate Sempronia takes this posture with Crisogono.
“He could wait no longer: “Are you undressed”, said Crisogono. “Now,
my Sempronia, take the position, which gives me so much pleasure,
you know which.” He stretches himself down on his back, she gets
upon him astride, with her face towards him, and with her own hand
guides his burning arrow between her thighs” (Aloysia Sigaea, Dial.
VII).
This is the same attitude, which in Horace is imposed by the slave upon
the little harlot, who:
“... naked in the light of the lantern, plied with wanton wiles and
moving buttocks the horse beneath her” (Sat. II. vii, v. 50).
As to the matron spoken of v. 64 of the same satire as “never having
sinned _above_”, no doubt this posture did not suit her. Women have not
all the same taste.
Evidently, it was as little to the taste of the girl whom Xanthias in
Aristophanes’ _Wasps_ (v. 499) asked to ride him; for she asks him
indignantly, and playing on the double meaning of the word (Hippias and
——, a horse), if he was for re-establishing Hippias’ tyranny: “Irritated
she asked me if I wanted to revive the tyranny of Hippias.”
Again in his _Lysistrata_ (v. 678) this master of wanton wit points to
the same thing, declaring the female sex to be very good at riding and
fond of driving: “Woman loves to get on horseback and to stick there.”
Aristophanes mocks similarly those, of whom he says, in verse 60 of the
same play, that “They are aboard their barks.” “They are mounted on
their chargers.” For —— signifies both a ship and a horse. Plango in
Asclepiades, Brunck’s _Analecta_, vol. I., 217, affects the same figure.
“When she in horsemanship vanquished the ardent Philaenis, whilst
her Hesperian coursers foamed under her reins.”
Yet more expert in this kind of amorous riding than Philaenis herself,
this ardent votary of pleasure thanks Venus in this epigram, that she
has been able so to exhaust certain Hesperian gallants, whom she had
mounted, that they had left her with wanton members all drooping, and
feeling no desire left in them. To bestride men was also the favourite
pastime of Lysidicé, who was never tired in the service of Venus, of
whom the following epigram of Asclepiades treats:
“Many a horse has she ridden beneath her, yet never galled her thigh
with all her nimble movements.”
Courtesans consecrated to Venus a whip, a bit, a spur, in order to
signify, that with their clients they like best to pose themselves in
that way, and that they preferred riding themselves to being
ridden,—nothing more.
It is the same when in Apuleius, Fotis satiated her Lucius with the
pleasures of the undulating Venus:
“Saying this she leaped upon the couch and, seated upon me
backwards, plying her hips, vibrating her lithe spine lasciviously,
she satiated me with the delights of the undulating Venus, till both
of us exhausted, powerless and with useless limbs, sunk down,
exhaling our souls in mutual embraces” (_Metamorph._, II., ch. II).
The next figure,—the man lying supine and the woman turning her back to
him, is executed by Rangoni with Ottavia, under the direction of Tullia:
RANGONI: Look how stiff I stand! But I want to try the bliss in a
new way.
TULLIA: In a new way? No! I swear by my wanton soul you shall not.
You shall not take a new way.
RANGONI: It was a slip of the tongue; I meant to say a new posture.
TULLIA: And what sort of one? I have an idea ... what they call the
horse of Hector. Lie down on your back, Rangoni; let your puissant
spear stand firm to the enemy, who is to be pierced, Well done!
OTTAVIA: What must I do, Tullia?
TULLIA: Clip Rangoni between your thighs, mounting him a-straddle.
His cutlass as he lies should meet your sheath poised over it. Why!
you’ve taken the position admirably. Excellent!
RANGONI: Oh! what a back, worthy of Venus! Oh! the ivory sides! Oh!
the inviting buttocks!
TULLIA: No naughty words! He who praises the buttocks, slanders the
vulva! You know better, Ottavia! Her greedy vulva has swallowed your
bristling member whole, Rangoni.
OTTAVIA: Quick, Rangoni, it is coming!... quick, quick, help me!
RANGONI: I am coming, Ottavia,—I am come! Are you?—Are you, darling!
TULLIA: How now? Are you so quickly done up, you two? (Aloysia
Sigaea, Dial. VI).
The pygiacic[15] mysteries, to which Eumolpus in Petronius (Satires, ch.
cxl), invites a young girl, refer to the posture practised by the man
lying on his back, with the woman upon him, her back turned towards him.
“Eumolpus did not hesitate to invite the young girl to the pygiacic
mysteries, but begged of her to seat herself upon the goodness known
to her (that being himself, to whose goodness the mother had
recommended her daughter), and ordered Corax to get on his stomach
under the bed on which he was, so that with his hands pressed
against the floor, he might assist with his movements those of his
master. Corax obeyed, beginning with slow undulations responding to
those of the young girl. When the crisis was approaching, Eumolpus
exhorted Corax with a loud voice to quicken up his movements. Thus
placed between his servant and his mistress, the old man took his
pleasure as in a swing.”
Would it be surprising, if in these posterior mysteries, Eumolpus’
member had perchance gone wrong, and taken by mistake one orifice for
the other?
You will find this figure represented in a copper-plate engraving in the
very elegant book of d’Hancarville, _Monuments du culte secret des dames
romaines_, ch. xxv, and you will be glad to know the note, with which
the learned annotator accompanies the same.
“This attitude is to the taste of many men, and even the ladies find
an increase of pleasure in practising it. It is supposed, that
Priapus penetrates farther in, and that the fair one by her
movements procures for herself a more voluptuous delight, and a more
abundant libation.”
Is it possible for the man, conveniently, to manage the business while
turning his back to the woman lying on her back? Experts must decide.
Aloysia Sigaea says with good common sense:
“There are many postures it is impossible to execute, even supposing
the joints and loins of the candidates for the sacred joys of Venus
more flexible than can be believed. By dint of pondering and
reflection more ideas occur to the fancy than it is practicable to
realize: Nothing is inconceivable to the longings of an unbridled
will; nothing difficult to a furious and unregulated imagination.
Love will find out a way; and an ardent fancy level mountains. Only
the body is unable to comply with everything the mind, good or bad,
suggests.”
In another work of d’Hancarville’s, _Monuments de la vie privée des
douze Césars_, plate XXVII., you find represented men seated and
copulating with women, who are facing them; plate XV., in the same book
presents to your curiosity a man sitting and working a woman, who turns
her back on him. Augustus is seated: he is attacking backwards, with
true imperial audacity, Terentia[16], the wife of Maecenas, after
drawing her onto his lap; Maecenas is present, asleep—asleep of course
only for the Emperor. You may see a similar posture in the _Contes et
Nouvelles en vers_ by Jean de la Fontaine: it is on the plate appended
to the tale, called _Le Tableau_, p. 223, vol. II., Amsterdam, 1762.
Nothing is more frequent than conjunction whilst standing, the woman
with her back to the man; it is indeed very easy to do it that way in
any place, as you have only to lift up the fair one’s petticoats, and
out with your weapon; it is, therefore, the best manner for those who
have to make instantaneous use of an opportunity, when it is important
to be sharp about it, as may happen, when you take your pleasure in
secret. Thus Priapus complains of the wives and daughters of his
neighbors, who came incessantly to him burning with ticklish desires.
“Cut off my genital member, which every night and all night long my
neighbours’ wives and daughters, for ever and for ever in heat, more
wanton than sparrows in springtide, tire to death,—or I shall
burst!...” (_Priapeia_, XXV).
I remember a medical man of our time, one of the most celebrated
professors, (I had nearly uttered his name), who to emphasize this,
called his daughter, and pointing to the blushing girl, while his
hearers could not help smiling said: “This girl I fabricated standing.”
A representation of this position is to be found in the _Monuments de la
vie privée de douze Césars_, pl. XLVI., and another in the _Monuments du
culte secrets des dames romaines_, pl. XIII.
But further, a man may join himself to a woman standing face to face by
supporting her in such a way, that her whole body is lifted up, her
thighs resting on the man’s hips, or else by lifting up the lower part
of her body, whilst the upper part is resting on a couch. Will you feast
your eyes with a representation of this not ungraceful position? If so
you will not omit to look at plate XXIV of the _Monuments du culte
secret des dames romaines_, and plate XL of the _Monuments de la vie
privée des douze Césars_; Ovid, if I am not mistaken, had his eyes on
one or the other of these figures:
“Milanion was supporting Atalanta’s legs on his shoulders; if they
are fine legs this is how they should be held” (_Art of Love_, III.,
vv. 775, 776). The former of these modes is no doubt that described
by Aloysia Sigaea, Past Mistress of these naughtinesses, and with a
vivacity, a grace, and elegance that leaves nothing to be desired:
“La Tour came forward instantly.... I had thrown myself on the foot
of the bed”—(Tullia is speaking)—“I was naked; his member was erect.
Without more ado he grasps in either hand one of my breasts, and
brandishing his hard and inflamed lance between my thighs, exclaims
“Look Madam, how this weapon is darting at you, not to kill you, but
to give you the greatest possible pleasure. Pray, guide this blind
applicant into the dark recess, so that it may not miss its
destination; I will not remove my hands from where they are, I would
not deprive them of the bliss they enjoy.” I do as he wishes, I
introduce myself the flaming dart into the burning centre; he feels
it, drives in, pushes home.... After one or two strokes I felt
myself melting away with incredible titillation, and my knees all
but gave way. “Stop”, I cried—“stop my soul, it is escaping!” “I
know”, he replied, laughing, “from where. No doubt your soul wants
to escape through this lower orifice, of which I have possession;
but I keep it well stoppered.” Whilst speaking he endeavoured, by
holding his breath, still further to increase the already enormous
size of his swollen member. “I am going to thrust back your escaping
soul”, he added, poking me more and more violently. His sword
pierced yet deeper into the quick. Redoubling his delicious blows,
he filled me with transports of pleasure,—working so forcefully
that, albeit he could not get his whole body into me, he impregnated
me with all his passion, all his lascivious desires, his very
thoughts, his whole delirious soul by his voluptuous embraces. At
last feeling the approach of the ecstasy and the boiling over of the
liquid, he slips his hands under my buttocks, and lifts me up
bodily. I do my part; I twine my arms closely round his form, my
thighs and legs being at the same time inter-twisted and entangled
with his, so that I found myself suspended on his neck in the air,
lifted clean off the ground; I was thus hanging, as it were, fixed
on a peg. I had not the patience to wait for him, as he was going
on, and again I swooned with pleasure. In the most violent raptures
I could not help crying out—“I feel all ... I feel all the delights
of Juno lying with Jupiter. I am in heaven.” At this moment La Tour,
pushed by Venus and Cupido to the acmé of voluptuousness, poured a
plenteous flood of his well into the genial hold, burning like fire.
The creeper does not cling more closely round the walnut tree than I
hold fast to La Tour with my arms and legs” (Dial. VI).
As to the last manner by means of which copulation may be achieved, the
man standing with the woman half lifted up, Conrad practises it with
slight modifications.
(TULLIA speaking): “He opened my thighs—I do not dislike Conrad,
though I am not particularly partial to him. I neither consented,
nor refused. As to him, he fancied a novel posture, and not at all a
bad one. I was lying on my back; he raised my right thigh on his
shoulder, and in this position he transfixed me, while I was
awaiting the event, without greatly desiring it. He had at the same
time extended my left thigh along his right thigh. His tool plunged
into the root, he began to push and poke, quicker and quicker. What
need to say more? Picture the conclusion for yourself” (Dial. VI).
Last of all, a man can get into a woman turning her back to him after
the manner of the quadrupeds, who can have no connection with their
females otherwise than by mounting upon them from behind[17]. Some
authorities have held that a woman conceives easier while on all fours.
Lucretius says:
“... Women are said to conceive more readily when down after the
manner of beasts, as the organs can absorb the seed best so, when
the bosom is depressed and the loins lifted” (_Of the Nature of
Things_, IV., vv. 1259-1262).
Also Aloysia Sigaea:
“Some people pretend that the fashion to make love indicated by
Nature is that one where the woman offers herself for copulation
after the manner of the animals, bent down with the hips raised; the
virile ploughshare penetrates thus more conveniently into the female
furrow, and the seminal flow waters the field of love.... The
doctors, however, are against this posture; they say it is
incompatible with the conformation of the parts destined for
generation.” (Dial. VI.)
However this may be, it happens frequently, that women cannot be managed
in any other way. Given an obese man and a woman likewise obese or with
child, how are they to do the thing otherwise? This is the reason why,
so they say, Augustus having married Livia Drusilla, divorced wife of
Tiberius Nero and already six months gone in pregnancy, had connection
with her after the manner of animals. Plate VII of the _Monuments de la
vie privée des douze Césars_ will give you an idea of the posture
assumed by both of them. But why should we not give you the annotations
whereby the learned editor has elucidated the plate? Here they are:
“This Drusilla was the famous Livia, the wife of Tiberius Nero, who
had been one of Anthony’s friends. Augustus fell violently in love
with her, and Tiberius gave her up to him, although she was at the
time six months with child. A good many jokes were made about the
eagerness of the Emperor, and one day, while they were all at table,
and Livia was reclining by Augustus, one of those naked children,
whom matrons used to educate for their pleasures, going up to Livia
said: “What are you doing here? yonder is your husband”, pointing to
Nero, “there he is”[18]. Soon afterwards Livia was confined, and the
Romans said openly, that lucky people get children three months
after being married, which passed into a proverb. One historian says
that Augustus was obliged to caress his wife “after the manner of
beasts” on account of her pregnancy, and it was to this luxurious
attitude that the cameo of Apollonius, the celebrated gem-cutter of
the time of Augustus, makes allusion. True that the state in which
Livia was may have made this posture necessary: but it seems that it
was at all times to the taste of the Ancients, either because they
considered this attitude favorable for procreation, as Lucretius
maintains, or because they found it to be a refinement of
voluptuousness. The most extraordinary and least natural postures
have always appeared to rakes as enhancing the pleasure of the
conjunction. But it must be admitted that imagination still outruns
actual possibilities.”
A singular reason for the necessity of encountering a woman backwards is
given by Aloysia Sigaea, with her usual sagacity:
“For pleasure, one likes a vulva which is not placed too far back,
so as to be entirely hidden by the thighs; it should not be more
than nine or ten inches from the navel. With the greater number of
girls the pubis goes so far down, that it may easily be taken as the
other way of pleasure. With such coition is difficult. Theodora
Aspilqueta could not be deflowered, till she placed herself prone on
her stomach, with her knees drawn up to her sides. Vainly had her
husband tried to manage her, while lying on her back, he only lost
his oil” (Dialogue VII).
Ovid recommends this way with women who begin to be wrinkled:
“Likewise you, whose stomach Lucina has marked with wrinkles, mount
from behind, like the flying Parthian with his steed” (_Art of
Love_, III., v. 785, 86).
The same advice also seems to be given by him a little before:
“Let them be seen from behind whose backs are sightly” (v. 774).
But besides necessity, it is a fact that women are worked in this way
out of mere caprice, variety offering the greatest pleasure. It is
simply for this reason that Tullia suffers Fabrizio to do her that way,
in Aloysia Sigaea:
“As Aloysio got up” (Tullia speaks) “Fabrizio makes ready for
another attack. His member is swollen up, red and threatening. “I
beg of you “Madam”, he says, “turn over on your face.” I did as he
wished. When he saw my buttocks, whiter than ivory and snow, “How
beautiful you are!” he cried. “But raise yourself on your knees and
bend your head down.” I bow my head and bosom, and lift my buttocks.
He thrust his swift-moving and fiery dart to the bottom of my vulva,
and took one of my nipples in either hand. Then he began to work in
and out, and soon sent a sweet rivulet into the cavity of Venus. I
also felt unspeakable delight, and had nearly fainted with lust. A
surprising quantity of seed secreted by Fabrizio’s loins filled and
delighted me; a similar flow of my own exhausted my forces. In that
single assault I lost more vigour than in the three preceding ones”
(Dialogue VI.)[19].
This copulation from the back is practicable in another very pleasant
fashion, an excellent reproduction of which can be seen in the _Monument
du culte secret des dames romaines_, plate XXVIII. A woman is
represented with her hands placed on the ground, while the lower part of
the body is lifted up and suspended by cords; she is turning her back to
the man who stands. This seems to be much the same position as was taken
up by the wife of the artisan Apuleius speaks of in his _Metamorphoses_
(book IX), whom “bending over her, the lover planed with his adze, while
she leant forward over a cask.” An engraving showing this ingenious
attitude is appended to the story of _The Tub_ in the _Contes et
Nouvelles en vers_ of Jean de La Fontaine, vol. II., p. 215.
FOOTNOTES - OF COPULATION
-----
Footnote 13:
This method was not unknown at the time of Aristophanes, as we see
from the following passage of the _Peace_:
“So that you may straightway, lifting up the girl’s legs,
accomplish high in air the mysteries” (v. 889, 890).
And in the _Birds_ he says:
“For this girl, your first messenger, why! I will lift up her legs
and will in between her thighs” (v. 1254, 55).
Footnote 14:
Readers will find another figure given in some of the books: “The man
should be standing, while the woman reclines sideways on the bed.”
Footnote 15:
From —— buttock.
Footnote 16:
Dio Cassius, LIV., 19: “He was so fond of her, that one day he matched
her against Livia, as to which of them was the most beautiful.” It was
no bad idea to engage them in such a match, but think you he suffered
them to fight this out in any costume but that in which the Goddesses
three presented themselves before the dazed eyes of Paris?
Footnote 17:
Pliny has treated this at great length in his _Natural History_ (Book
X., ch. 63).
Footnote 18:
Compare Dio Cassius, bk. XLVIII., ch. 44.
Footnote 19:
The thing itself is very old; Aristophanes alludes to it in the
_Peace_:
“To wrestle on the ground, to stand on all fours” (v. 896).
And in the _Lysistrata_:
“I will not squat down like a lioness carved on a knife-handle”
(v. 231).
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