Before Pornography: Erotic Writing in Early Modern England

282 Pages·2000·18.837 MB·English

by  Ian Frederick Moulton

Before Pornography
Studies in the History of Sexuality
Guido Ruggiero, General Editor
IMMODEST ACTS
The Life of a Lesbian Nun in Renaissance Italy
Judith Brown
THE EVOLUTION OF WOMEN'S ASYLUMS SINCE 1500
From Refuges for Ex-Prostitutes to Shelters for Battered Women
Sherriil Cohen
AUTHORITY AND SEXUALITY IN EARLY MODERN
BURGUNDY (1500-1730)
James R. Farr
SEXUALITY IN THE CONFESSIONAL
A Sacrament Profaned
Stephen Haliczer
COMMON WOMEN
Prostitution and Sexuality in Medieval England
Ruth Mazo Karras
HOMOSEXUALITY IN MODERN FRANCE
edited by Jeffrey Merrick and Bryant T. Ragan, Jr.
THE IMAGE OF MAN
The Creation of Modern Masculinity
George L. Mosse
BEFORE PORNOGRAPHY
Erotic Writing in Early Modern England
Ian Frederick Moulton
MASCULINITY AND MALE CODES OF HONOR IN MODERN FRANCE
Robert A. Nye
FORBIDDEN FRIENDSHIPS
Homosexuality and Male Culture in Renaissance Florence
Michael Rocke
THE BOUNDARIES OF EROS
Sex Crime and Sexuality in Renaissance Venice
Guido Ruggiero
THE MYSTERIOUS DEATH OF MARY ROGERS
Sex and Culture in Nineteenth-Century New York
Amy Gilman Srebnick
Further volumes are in preparation
Erotic Writing in
Early Modern England
Ian Frederick Moulton
OXFORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
2OOO
OXTORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
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Copyright © 2000 by Ian Frederick Moulton
Published by Oxford University Press, Inc.
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Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Moulton, Ian Frederick, 1964-
Before pornography : erotic writing in early modern England / Ian Frederick Moulton.
p. cm.—(Studies in the history of sexuality)
Includes bibliogtaphical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 0-19-513709-4; O-I9-5I/982-X (pbk.)
1. English literature—Early modern, 1500-1700—History and criticism.
2. Sex in literature. 3. Erotic literature, English—History and criticism
4. Sex customs—England—History—i6th century. 5. Sex customs—England—
History—I7th century. 6. Sex customs in literature. I. Title. II. Series.
PR428.S48 M68 2001
8'o9O3i—dc2i 99-044061
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 42
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
To Alice and Edward Moulton
Acknowledgments
This book was written over a period of almost ten years, in a bewildering variety
of places, from condos in Phoenix to flats in London; from a studio in Venice
Beach to an apartment in Park Slope; from a hotel room in downtown Chicago
to a Folger guest room on Capitol Hill; from a student apartment at Columbia
overlooking Harlem to a room overlooking Sherlock Court at St. Catharine's
College, Cambridge. It was begun on a computer that didn't even have a hard
drive, and is being finished on an IMac G3.
In all this time, and all these places, I have received an inordinate amount
of encouragement and incurred a predictable number of debts—academic, in-
tellectual, and otherwise. Sitting down to enumerate them is a surprisingly pleas-
ant experience; it's nice to have a chance to thank and remember the people who
have helped to shape this project in so many ways—and of course anyone who
doesn't want to read this bit can just skip it, unlike those interminable speeches
at the Academy Awards.
The project began as a dissertation at Columbia University, directed by Jean
E. Howard and David Kastan. I could not have wished for better advisors. Any
scrap of professionalism I have acquired I owe to Jean in particular. Scruffy first
drafts of many sections of the book were beaten into shape at meetings of the
Columbia dissertation seminar. I owe a debt to all the members of that seminar,
faculty and students alike, but especially to Mario DiGangi, Heidi Brayman-
Hackel, Jim Berg, Jill Smith, and Douglas Brooks.
Many people, including James Mirollo, Margaret Ferguson, Peter Stallybrass,
and Anne Lake Prescott have read the manuscript in whole or in part at various
stages over the years, and offered countless suggestions on how it could be im-
proved. As goes without saying in such situations, their advice was all wonder-
ful—and if I didn't always follow it, it's my own fault. The book has also profited
immeasurably from the from the frank and detailed comments by four anony-
mous readers at Oxford University Press, and from the assistance of my Oxford
editors, Guido Ruggiero, Thomas LeBien, and Susan Ferber.
I have presented portions of the manuscript at several academic meetings,
including the Modern Language Association and the Shakespeare Association of
America. Among the many people with whom I've shared panels and exchanged
viii Acknowledgments
ideas, I'd especially like to thank Mary Gallucci and Margaret Gallucci, Lynda
Boose, and Bruce Smith.
Portions of the book have been previously published. An earlier version of
chapter 4's discussion of Nashe's "Choice of Valentines" appeared in English
Literary Renaissance 27(1) (Winter 1997); and chapter i's analysis of Marlowe's
Ovid appeared in Marlowe, History, and Sexuality: New Critical Essays on Chris-
topher Marlowe, edited by Paul White (New York: AMS Press, 1998). The passage
on Antonio Vignali's La Cazzaria in chapter 3 provides the basis for a chapter in
Peter Herman's collection Opening the Borders: Inclusivity and Early Modern Stud-
ies, Essays in Honor of James V. Mirollo. (Newark: University of Delaware Press,
1999). And chapter 3'5 analysis of The Crafty Whore appears in more detail in a
special issue of Critical Survey edited by Sasha Roberts (vol. 12(2] [Spring 2000]).
Arizona State University was generous enough to give me two consecutive
summer research grants, which were crucial to the project's success. At an early
stage of the project I also received a summer grant from the Mellon Foundation,
as well as a dissertation support grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities
Research Council of Canada.
I would also like to thank the staffs of the following libraries, who gave
invaluable information and assistance: the Bodleian Library, Oxford; the British
Library, especially the old North Library and the Department of Western Manu-
scripts; the Inner Temple Library, London, which kindly gave permission to
examine the Petyt manuscript of Nashe's "Choice of Valentines"; the National
Art Library at the Victoria and Albert Museum; the Rosenbach Foundation,
Philadelphia; the Library of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, especially Chris-
tine Butler; the New York Public Library; the Newberry Library, Chicago; the
Folger Shakespeare Library; the Huntington Library, San Marino, California;
Butler Library at Columbia University; and last but by no means least, the su-
perlative staff of Fletcher Library, Arizona State University (ASU) West, espe-
cially Dennis Isbell.
I thank Vic Cowie and George Toles for inspiring me to be a scholar and
for teaching me how to be a teacher. I thank Elizabeth Harvey for encouraging
me to apply to the best schools in the world. I thank Joseph Dane for the use of
his apartment in Venice Beach—and for always knowing where to find the best
Chinese food. I thank Larry and Susan Green for their hospitality. I thank Peter
Blayney—as everyone does—for taking the time to talk to me. I thank both
William Sherman and Marty Craig for their companionship and conversation
when far from home. I thank Susan O'Malley for her bluff integrity (and for
employing me to do some editing when I was a starving student living in a base-
ment in Brooklyn).
At Arizona State University, it has been my good fortune to be part of two
stimulating and energetic academic communities: first the College of Arts and
Sciences at ASU West, where I have taught since 1995, and second the Arizona
Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies. At ASU West I have been par-
ticularly fortunate to work with both Dottie Broaddus and Eric Wertheimer, good
friends and even better colleagues, who have made the task of building an English
Acknowledgments ix
program in the deserts of West Phoenix a pleasure rather than an ordeal. Besides
Dottie and Eric, I would especially like to thank Cat Nilan for her friendship
and enthusiasm, for her wry, critical intelligence, for sharing innumerable cups
of coffee—and most of all, for the conversations we had walking across the desert
to get to the coffee shop. At ASU West I must also thank Amy Davis, who spent
months transcribing my scribbled notes and learned more than she ever wanted
to about Elizabethan spelling.
The best friends are the ones you can talk to seriously for days on end without
ever getting bored. I thank Christine Hutchins for all those breakfast meetings at
Henny's Diner in Brooklyn, in die course of which this project slowly began to
take shape. I tliank Pam Brown for her passionate intellect and her sharp wit. I
thank Goran Stanivukovic for the walks we've shared from Washington, D.C., to
Oak Creek Canyon, Arizona. I thank Sasha Roberts, dearest and most generous of
friends, for her unfailing good humor and clear, straightforward intelligence. I thank
all four for their honesty and friendship over a period of many years.
Most of all, I thank my parents, Ed and Alice Moulton, for their love and
support; my sister Celia for being her wonderful self; and Wendy Williams for
being a constant source of joy and inspiration and for being the only person I've
ever met who is more fascinated with Aretino than I am.
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