Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 2 Sexual Inversion

[43] Chevalier (L'Inversion Sexuelle, pp. 85-106) brings forward a considerable amount of evidence regarding homosexuality at Rome under the emperors. See also Moll, Konträre Sexualempfindung, 1899, pp. 56-66, and Hirschfeld, Homosexualität, 1913, pp. 789-806. On the literary side, Petronius best reveals the homosexual aspect of Roman life about the time of Tiberius.

[46] The following note has been furnished to me: "Balzac, in Une Dernière Incarnation de Vautrin, describes the morals of the French bagnes. Dostoieffsky, in Prison-Life in Siberia, touches on the same subject. See his portrait of Sirotkin, p. 52 et seq., p. 120 (edition J. and R. Maxwell, London). We may compare Carlier, Les Deux Prostitutions, pp. 300-1, for an account of the violence of homosexual passions in French prisons. The initiated are familiar with the fact in English prisons. Bouchard, in his Confessions, Paris, Liseux, 1881, describes the convict station at Marseilles in 1630." Homosexuality among French recidivists at Saint-Jean-du-Maroni in French Guiana has been described by Dr. Cazanova, Arch. d'Anth. Crim., January, 1906, p. 44. See also Davitt's Leaves from a Prison Diary, and Berkman's Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist; also Rebierre, Joyeux et Demifous, 1909.

[50] Hirschfeld and others have pointed out, very truly, that inverts are less prone than normal persons to regard caste and social position. This innately democratic attitude renders it easier for them than for ordinary people to rise to what Cyples has called the "ecstasy of humanity," the emotional attitude, that is to say, of those rare souls of whom it may be said, in the same writer's words, that "beggars' rags to their unhesitating lips grew fit for kissing because humanity had touched the garb." Edward Carpenter (Intermediate Types among Primitive Folk, p. 83) remarks that great ethical leaders have often exhibited feminine traits, and adds: "It becomes easy to suppose of those early figures—who once probably were men—those Apollos, Buddhas, Dionysus, Osiris, and so forth—to suppose that they too were somewhat bisexual in temperament, and that it was really largely owing to that fact that they were endowed with far-reaching powers and became leaders of mankind."

[52] R. Horneffer, Der Priester, 2 vols., 1912. J. G. Frazer, in the volume entitled "Adonis, Attis, Osiris" (pp. 428-435) of the third edition of his Golden Bough, discusses priests dressed as women, and finds various reasons for the custom.

[62] See Parlagreco, Michelangelo Buonarotti, Naples, 1888; Ludwig von Scheffler, Michelangelo: Ein Renaissance Studie, 1892; Archivo di Psichiatria, vol. xv, fasc. i, ii, p. 129; J. A. Symonds, Life of Michelangelo, 1893; Dr. Jur. Numa Praetorius, "Michel Angelo's Urningtum," Jahrbuch für sexuelle Zwischenstufen, vol. ii, 1899, pp, 254-267.

[66] See the interesting account of Duquesnoy by Eekhoud (Jahrbuch für sexuelle Zwischenstufen, Bd. ii, 1899), an eminent Belgian novelist who has himself been subjected to prosecution on account of the pictures of homosexuality in his novels and stories, Escal-Vigor and Le Cycle Patibulaire (see Jahrbuch für sexuelle Zwischenstufen, Bd. iii, 1901).

[67] See Justi's Life of Winkelmann, and also Moll's Die Konträre Sexualempfindung, third edition, 1899, pp. 122-126. In this work, as well as in Raffalovich's Uranisme et Unisexualité, as also in Moll's Berühmte Homosexuelle (1910) and Hirschfeld's Die Homosexualität, p. 650 et seq., there will be found some account of many eminent men who are, on more or less reliable grounds, suspected of homosexuality. Other German writers brought forward as inverted are Platen, K. P. Moritz, and Iffland. Platen was clearly a congenital invert, who sought, however, the satisfaction of his impulses in Platonic friendship; his homosexual poems and the recently published unabridged edition of his diary render him an interesting object of study; see for a sympathetic account of him, Ludwig Frey, "Aus dem Seelenleben des Grafen Platen," Jahrbuch für sexuelle Zwischenstufen, vols. i and vi. Various kings and potentates have been mentioned in this connection, including the Sultan Baber; Henri III of France; Edward II, William II, James I, and William III of England, and perhaps Queen Anne and George III, Frederick the Great and his brother, Heinrich, Popes Paul II, Sixtus IV, and Julius II, Ludwig II of Bavaria, and others. Kings, indeed, seem peculiarly inclined to homosexuality.

[72] Thus she writes in 1701 (Correspondence, edited by Brunet, vol. i, p. 58): "Our heroes take as their models Hercules, Theseus, Alexander, and Cæsar, who all had their male favorites. Those who give themselves up to this vice, while believing in Holy Scripture, imagine that it was only a sin when there were few people in the world, and that now the earth is populated it may be regarded as a divertissement. Among the common people, indeed, accusations of this kind are, so far as possible, avoided; but among persons of quality it is publicly spoken of; it is considered a fine saying that since Sodom and Gomorrah, the Lord has punished no one for such offences."

[75] In early Teutonic days there was little or no trace of any punishment for homosexual practices in Germany. This, according to Hermann Michaëlis, only appeared after the Church had gained power among the West Goths; in the Breviarium of Alaric II (506), the sodomist was condemned to the stake, and later, in the seventh century, by an edict of King Chindasvinds, to castration. The Frankish capitularies of Charlemange's time adopted ecclesiastical penances. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries death by fire was ordained, and the punishments enacted by the German codes tended to become much more ferocious than that edicted by the Justinian code on which they were modelled.

[76] Raffalovich discusses German friendship, Uranisme et Unisexualité, pp. 157-9. See also Birnbaum, Jahrbuch für sexuelle Zwischenstufen, Bd. viii, p. 611; he especially illustrates this kind of friendship by the correspondence of the poets Gleim and Jacobi, who used to each other the language of lovers, which, indeed, they constantly called themselves.

[77] This letter may be found in Ernst Schur's Heinrich von Kleist in seinen Briefen, p. 295. Dr. J. Sadger has written a pathographic and psychological study of Kleist, emphasizing the homosexual strain, in the Grenzfragen des Nerven- und Seelenlebens series.

[78] Alexander's not less distinguished brother, Wilhelm von Humboldt, though not homosexual, possessed, a woman wrote to him, "the soul of a woman and the most tender feeling for womanliness I have ever found in your sex;" he himself admitted the feminine traits in his nature. Spranger (Wilhelm von Humboldt, p. 288) says of him that "he had that dual sexuality without which the moral summits of humanity cannot be reached."

[79] Krupp caused much scandal by his life at Capri, where he was constantly surrounded by the handsome youths of the place, mandolinists and street arabs, with whom he was on familiar terms, and on whom he lavished money. H. D. Davray, a reliable eyewitness, has written "Souvenirs sur M. Krupp à Capri," L'Européen, 29 November, 1902. It is not, however, definitely agreed that Krupp was of fully developed homosexual temperament (see, e.g., Jahrbuch f. sexuelle Zwischenstufen, Bd. v, p. 1303 et seq.) An account of his life at Capri was published in the Vorwärts, against which Krupp finally brought a libel action; but he died immediately afterward, it is widely believed, by his own hand, and the libel action was withdrawn.

[80] Madame, the mother of the Regent, in her letters of 12th October, 4th November, and 13th December, 1701, repeatedly makes this assertion, and implies that it was supported by the English who at that time came over to Paris with the English Ambassador, Lord Portland. The King was very indifferent to women.