Spreading Carnal Knowledge or Selling Dirt Cheap? Nicolas Venette's Tableau de l'Amour Conjugal in Eighteenth Century England

Important recent writings include M. Foucault , The History of Sexuality, i: Introcduction (Harmondsworth, 1978); J. Weeks , Sex, Politics and Society (London, 1981 ); V. Bullough , Sex, Society and History ( New York, 1976); idem, and J. Brundage , Sexual Practices and the Medieval Church (Buffalo, N.Y., 1982); J.L. Flandrin , Le Sexe et l'Occident ( Paris, 1981); J. Hagstrum , Sex and Sensibility (London, 1980). The entirety of vol. xii of Dix-Huitième Siècle is given over to this subject ("Représentations de la vie sexuelle"). P. Gay , The Bourgeoisie, i: The Education of the Senses (New Haven, 1984), contains an Important historiographical assessment and bibliography.

For the emerging assumptions of sexology see P. Rubmson , The Modernization of Sex (New York, 1976).

L. Stone , The Family, Sex and Marriage in England, 1500-1800 (London , 1977); E. Shorter , The Making of the Modern Family (London, 1976); R. Trumbach , The Rise of the Egalitartan Family (New York, 1978).

For accounts of Romantic love see I. Bloch , Sexual Life in England Past and Present (London, 1958); M.M. Hunt , The Natural Hrstory of Love (London, 1960); N.C. Epton , Love and the English (London, 1960); G. Rattray Taylor , Sex in History (London. 1959); D. Loth , The Frotic in Literature (London, 1962 ); D. de Rougemont , Passion and Society (London , 1940); idem, Love in the Western World, expanded edn (Princeton, 1983).

For the stereotype see, for example, A. Lloyd , The Wickedest Age: The Life and Times of George III (Newton Abbot, 1971).

For some revisions and modulations, see P.G. Bouce , "Aspects of Sexual Tolerance and Intolerance in Eighteenth Century England", British, Journal for Eighteenth Century Studies iii, ( 1980), 173-89

; P. G. Boucé (ed.), Sexyality in Eighteenth Century Britain (Manchester, 1982), especially the essays by the editor, "Some Sexual Beliefs and Myths in Eighteenth Century Britain" (pp. 28-46) and by Roy Porter , "Mixed Feelings: The Enlightenment and Sexuality in Eighteenth Century Britain" (pp. 1-27).

For the rise of repression' see E.J. Bristow , Vice and Vigilance ( Dublin, 1977); F.K. Brown , Fathers of the Victorians (Cambridge, 1961); M. Quinlan , Victorian Prelude (New York, 1941); M. Jaeger , Before Victoria (London, 1956); P. Fryer , Mrs. Grundy Studies in Finglish Prudery (London, 1963); E. Trudgill , Madonnas and Magdalens ( London, 1966); C.J. Barker-Benfield , The Horrors of the Half-Known Life (New York, 1976).

G. Rattray Taylor , The Angel Makers (London, 1958).

Foucault , op. cit. (ref. 1).

For accounts of popular literature in the eighteenth century see I. Rivers (ed.), Books and their Readers in Eighteenth Century England (Leicester, 1982); In reet Société dans la France du XVIIIe Siècle (Paris, 1965), 11 (Paris, 1970); R. Damton , The Business of Enlightenment (Cambridge, Mass., 1979); idem , The Literary Underground of the Old Regime (Cambridge, Mass., 1982); E. Eisenstein , The Printing Press as an Agent of Change (2 vols, Cambridge, 1979); J. Meadows (ed.), Development of Science Publishing in Europe (Amsterdam , 1980); M. Spufford , Small Books and Pleasant Histories (London, 1981); Ginnie Smith , "Prescribing the Rules of Health: Self Helf and Advice in the Late Eighteenth Century", in Roy Porter (ed.), Health, Healing and the People (Cambridge, 1985). For a sexually opportunistic publisher see R. Straus , The Unspeakable Curll (New York, 1970).

J. Armstrong , The Economy of Love (London, 1736). Cf. lines 181-91: Recline your Cheek, with eager Kisses press/Her balmy Lips, and drinking from her Eyes/Resistless Love, the tender Flame confess,/Ineffable but by the murmuring Voice/Of genuine Joy; then hug and kiss again/Stretch'd on the flo'ry turf, while joyful glows/Thy manly Pride, and throbbing with Desire/Pants earnest, felt thro' all the obstacles/That intervene: but Love, whose fervid Course/Mountains nor Seas oppose, can soon remove/Barriers so Slight....

For the boom in midwifery texts at this time see A. Eccles , Obstetrics and Gynaecology in Tudor and Stuart England (London, 1982); J. Donnison , Midwives and Medical Men A Hrstory of Inter-Professional Rizalries and Women's Rights (London, 1977); E. Shorter , A History of Women's Bodies ( Harmondsworth, 1983); B. This , La Requête des Enfants à Naître (Paris, 1982). 12. For the panorama of sex on view see L. Bloch , op. cit. (ref. 4).

Cf. P. Wagner , "The Pornographer in the Courtroom. Trial Reports about Cases of Sexual Crimes and Delinquencies as a Genre of Eighteenth Century Erotica", in P. G. Boucé (ed.), Sexuality in Eighteenth Century Britain (Manchester, 1982), 120-40. The whole of this volume is relevant to the issues addressed here.

L. Sterne , The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, ed. by C. Ricks (Harmondsworth, 1970), 121.

M. Thale (ed.), The Autobiography of Francis Place (Cambridge, 1972), 45.

For debates about the effect of education and reading upon the behaviour of the lower orders see H. C. Payne, The Philosophes and the People ( New Haven, 1976).

For some of the general problems about the relations between oral and Written culture in this period see U.P. Burke , Popular Culture in Early Modern Europe (London, 1978).

For pulp fiction see J.M.S. Tomkins. The Popular Novel in England, 1700-1800 (London, 1932).

S. Heath , The Sexual Fix (London, 1982).

Cf. C.C. Mish , "Early Eighteenth Century Best Sellers in English Prose Fiction", Proceedings of the Bibliographical Society of America, lxxv (1981), 413-18; R. Myers and M. Harris (eds), Sale and Distribution of Books from 1700 (Oxford, 1982).

R. Latham and W. Matthews (eds), The Diary of Samuel Pepys, ix (London, 1976), 21-22: Thence away to the Strand to my bookseller's, and there stayed an hour and bought that idle, rougish book, L 'Escholle des Filles; which I have bought in plain binding (avoiding the buying of it better bound) because I resolve, as soon as I have read it, to burn it, that it may not stand in the list of books, not among them, to disgrace them if it should be found.

For instance, an unpublished diary of this period, that of the Somerset apprelitice, John Cannon, is surprisingly revealing about group masturbation (Taunton Record Office).

D'Arcy Power , The Foundations of Medical History (Baltimore, Maryland , 1931), Lecture VI, "Aristotle's Masterpiece "; J. Blackman , "Popular Theories of Generation: The Evolution of A ristotle's Works. The Study of an Anachronism", in J. Woodward and D. Richards (eds), Health Care and Popular Medicine in Nineteenth Century England (London, 1977), 56-86

; O.T. Beall , Jr, "Aristotle's Masterpiece in America: A Landmark in the Folklore of Medicine", William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd ser., xx (1963), 207-22.

See also the discussion in A. McLaren , "The Pleasures of Procreation", to appear in W. F. Bynum and Roy Porter (eds), William Hunter and the Eighteenth Century Medical World (Cambridge, 1985 ).

For Venette and his publications, see François de Vaux de Foletier , La Rochelle d'Autrefois et d'a Présent (La Rochelle, 1923); J. Torlais , "Un Médecin Rochelais au XVIIe Siècle, Precurseur de l'Eugénisme : Nicholas Venette", journal de Médecine de Bordeaux, nos 47-48 (1940), 610-23; J. Torlais , Médecine du Passé en Anis et Saintonge (La Rochelle, 1931), 51-72; and the admirable recent contribution by André Pecker , "Nicholas Venette (1633-1698): Est-il le Fils de Guy Patin?", Bulletin des Sciences Médicales, XVI (1983), 167-74.

For the Dutch publishing history see H.F. Wijnman , "Venus Minsiel Gasthurs" in Herbert Lewandow ski and P.,J. Van Dronen , Beschaungsen zedrgescbiedenisvan van Nederland (Amsterdam, 1983), 280-4. This valuable article must be used with some caution, however, as it too readily reinforces the myth that popularization means corruption. E.g., "... after which an enterprising publisher bought the remaining copies and replaced the old title page with a new: The Minsiel Hospital of the Goddess of Love, or the Practices and Natural Properties of the Man and the Woman in the State of Marriage and the Gentle Sensation of the Embrace (Alkmaar, 1797) 8°. So the completely outdated book met an infamous end in this country; printed on low quality paper and fallen into the hands of dubious publisher, nothing but unsavoury pornography remained" (p. 282). I am extremely grateful to Dr A. Huussen of the Department of History at the State University of Groningen for having drawn my attention to this article and translated parts of it into English.

Cf. L. Stone , op. cit. (ref. 3), 494-6; T. Zeldin , France, 1848-1945: Ambitin, Love, Politics (Oxford, 1973 ), i, 296. Zeldin suggests that the circulation of Venette's text may have been salutary, in reminding men "that women had sexual demands that needed to be met".

For contemporary physiology and embryology, see E. Gasking , Investigations into Generation (London, 1967); S. Roe , Matter, Life and Generation (Cambridge, 1981); J. Roger , Les Sciences de la Vie dans la Pensée Française du XVIIIe Siècle (Paris, 1963); E. Guyenot , Les Sciences de la Vie aux XVIIe et XVIIIe Siècles (Paris , 1941 )

; P.J. Bowler , "Preformation and Pro-existence in the Seventeenth Century: A Brief Analysis ", Journal of the History of Biology, iv (1971), 221-44; J. Rostand , La Formation de L 'Etre. Histore des Idées sur la Génération (Paris, 1930).

N. Venette , The Mysteries of Conjugal Love Reveal'd (London, 1710), 204.

R. Thompson , Unfit for Modest Ears (London, 1980); N. Davis Society and Culture in Early Modern France (London, 1975); K.M. Rogers , The Troublesome Helpmate: A History of Missogyny in Literature (Seattle, 1966 ).

For background, see P. Darmon , Le Mythe de la Procréation à l'Âge Baroque (Paris, 1977); C. Lougée , Le Paradis des Femmes: Women, Salons and Socral Stratification in Seventeenth Century France (Princeton, 1976); A. de Payer , Le Feminisme au Temps du Fronde (Paris, 1922); G. Raynier , La Femme au XVIIIe Siècle: Ses Enemis et ses Defenseurs (Paris, 1929)

; P.M. Spacks , "Ev'ry Woman is at Heart a Rake", Erghteenth Century Studies, viii (1974-75), 27-46; M. LeGates , "The Cult of Womanhood in Eighteenth Century Thought", Eigbteenth Century Studies , x (1976), 21-40

; I. McLean , The Renaissance Notion of Woman (Cambridge, 1980).

See A. McLaren , "The Pleasures of Procreation", in Bynum and Porter (eds), op. cit. (ref. 23).

Here lies a problem of interpretation. No copy of the first edition of the translation has come to tight. Hence I must make the assumption that the 1710 ("third") edition was in fact rather similar to the first (1703) edition. The 1710 edition claimed to have corrected errors.

I have attempted that in my edition of Venette's Mysteries of Conjugal Love Revealed, 1710 edition, to be published by Junction Books.

Information on these matters is at present scanty. Thus a copy turns up in the sale catalogue of Edmond Halley's library and James Boswell was evidently familiar with it ( M. Barley (ed.), Boswell's Column (London, 1951), 212). Casual references to Venette may be found in eighteenth century English essayists and medical writers, e.g. [anon.], Anecdotes, Medical, Chemical and Chirurgical (London, 1816), 141-2: VENETTE, in his work on Man and Woman, says, that he saw in a village in Picardy, a spring surrounded by three trees, hung round with mysterious ligatures, composed of various materials. He was told, that these were so many spells imposed on lovers to cause impotence. He in vain endeavoured to induce some person to destroy these trees. He contented himself with obliterating all the insignia of the power which a certam shepherd of the canton pretended to possess over his companions. This bold step was admired but the belief in enchantment was not destroyed.

Though see the useful general remarks on these problems in R. Myers and M. Harris (eds), Author/Publisher Relations during the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries (Oxford, 1983).

Conjugal Love Reveal'd In the Nightly Pleasure of the Marriage Bed and the Advantages of that Happy State, in an Essay Concerning Humane Generation, done from the French of Monsieur Venette, by a Physician. Seventh Edition. Amor Omnibus Idem. London, Printed for the Author, and sold by Tho. Hinton, at the White Horse, in Water Lane, Blacktryars (tentatively dated c. 1720 by the British Library catalogue). This is approximately 4" X 3" in size, and runs to 202 pages. It contains an advertisement at the front: "Just Published. The Adventures of the Priests and Nuns, containing many delightful Stories."

The Pleasures of Conjugal Love Explained in an Essay Concerning Human Geneartion, done from the French by a Physician. Amor Omnibus Idem. London. Printed for P. Meighan at Gray's Inn Gate, in Holborn, T. Griffiths at Channg Cross, T. Lapworth at the Anodyne Necklace without Temple Bar. Price One Shilling.

See above, ref. 11.

On the preformationist controversy see above, ref. 27.

See K. Park and L. Daston , "Unnatural Conceptions: The Study of Monsters in Sixteenth Century France and England", Past and Present, xcii (1981), 20-54

; C.J.S. Thompson , The Mystery and Lore of Monsters (London, 1930); K. Thomas , Religion and the Decline of Magic ( London, 1971).

P. Darmon , Le Tribunal de l'Impurssance: Virilité et Défaillance Conjugales dans l'Ancienne France (Paris, 1979).

Conjugal Love, or the Pleasures of the Marriage Bed Considered in Several Lectures on Human Generation, from the French of Venette, twentieth edition, London, printed for the Booksellers. Pp. 187.

Conjugal Love, 38.

Ibid, 141.

Ibid., 38.

Porter , op. cit. (ref. 5).

For Graham see Roy Porter , "The Sexual Politics of James Graham", Britsh Journal for Eighteenth Century Studies, v (1982), 199-206.

Conjugal Love, 49. The suggestion is that sex and marriage, far from being great sources of pleasure, or even Johnsonian triumphs of hope over experience, are indulged only as part of the divine scheme of moral behaviour: p. 115, "a little reflecting on the attractives [sic] of matrimony are only desirable ... to keep us chaste and obedient unto God's commandments, who is desirous to fill heaven with blessed spirits" — a most un-Venettian sentiment !

Ibid., 48.

Ibid., 5.

Ibid., 149.

Ibid., 2.

Ibid., 64-65.

Ibid., 40.

Ibid., 39-40.

Ibid., 54.

Ibid., 54.

For sexual folklore see G.L. Symons , Sex and Superstition ( London, 1973); T. Coffin , A Proper Book of Sexual Folklore (New York, 1978). For the modern mind' confronting superstition see E. Shorter , The History of Women's Bodies (Harmondsworth, 1983); U.P. Burke , Popular Culture in Farly Modern Europe (London, 1978).

See for example S. Shapin , "The Social Uses of Science", in G. S. Rousseau and Roy Porter (eds), The Ferment of Knowledge ( Cambridge, 1980), 93-142

; idem , "History of Science and its Sociological Reconstruction,", History of Science, xx (1982), 157-211, for discussion and bibliography.

R.W. Malcolmson , Popular Recreations in English Society, 1700-1850 (Cambridge, 1973);

E.P. Thompson , "Patrician Society, Plebeian Culture", Journal of Social History, vii (1974), 382-405;

B. Bushaway , By Rite: Custom, Ceremony and Community in England 1700-1880 ( London, 1982).

On more general issues see H. C. Payne, "Elite versus Popular Mentality in the Eighteenth Century", Studies in Eighteenth Century Culture , VIII (1979), 3-32;

R. Darnton , B. Fabian and R. McK. Wiles , The Widening Circle (Philadelphia , 1976).

S. Pickenng , Jr, John Locke and Children's Books in Eighteenth Century England (Knoxville, 1981); V. Neuburg , Chapbooks (London, 1979); R. Elbourne , Music and Tradition in Early Industrial Lancashire (Woodbridge, 1980); H. Cunningham , Leisure in the Industrial Revolution (London, 1980); R.D. Altick , The English, Common Reader (London, 1957).

For the internal history of Grub Street, see Pat Rogers , Grub Street (London, 1972). There is no good modern socio-economic cultural history of the English publishing industry. Much valuable comparison will be found in Robert Darnton, The Business of Enlightenment (Cambridge, Mass., 1979). For analyses of the modification of ideas to adapt to changing cultural milieu,

see Paul Forman , "Weimar Culture, Causality, and Quantum Theory 1918-1927: Adaptation by German Physicists and Mathematicians to a Hostile Intellectual Environment ", Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences, in (1971), 1-115;

Theodore M. Brown , "The College of Physicians and the Acceptance of latromechanism in England 1665-1695", Bulletin of the History of Medicine, xliv (1970), 12-30;

idem , "The Rise of Baconianism in Seventeenth-Century England", Science and History: Studies in Honor of Edward Rosen (Studia Copernicana, xvi, 1978), 501-22.

Porter , op. cit. (ref. 47).

For Sibly see A.G. Debus , "Scientific Truth and the Occult Tradition: The Medical World of Ebenezer Sibly 1751-1799", Medical History , XXVI (1982), 259-78.

E. Sibly , The Medical Mirror (London, 1794), 144-5. For background, see also Hare, "Masturbatory Insanity: The History of an Idea", The Journal of Mental Science, cviii ( 1962), 1-25. For good recent discussions see R.H. MacDonald , "The Frightful Consequences of Onanism: Notes on the History of a Delusion", Journal of the History, of Ideas, xxviii (1967), 423-31; R.P. Neumann , "Masturbation, Madness and the Modern Concepts of Childhood and Adolescence", Journal of Interdisciplinary History, VIII (1977), 1-27; A. Comfort , The Anxiety Makers ( London, 1967), ch. iii, "The Rise and Fall of Self-Abuse".

J. Graham , Lecture on Generation (London, 1780), 20.

Sibly , op. cit. (ref. 65), 177.

A.F.M. Willich , Lectures on Diet and Regimen ( London, 1799), 539.

Ibid, 546.

Conjugal Love, 113. A parallel issue is the sexual nature of women. Conjugal Love still registers Venette's Hippocratic view that women are and should be sexually active. By contrast authors such as Sibly and Graham view women as much more passive, since the new physiology had taught them that the active ingredient in procreation was the sperm. See Barker-Benfield , op. cit. (ref. 6).