Few details of Shakespeare's sexuality are known. At 18, he married 26-year-old Anne Hathaway, who was pregnant. Susanna, the first of their three children, was born six months later on 26 May 1583. Over the centuries, some readers have posited that Shakespeare's sonnets are autobiographical, and point to them as evidence of his love for a young man. Others read the same passages as the expression of intense friendship rather than romantic love. The 26 so-called "Dark Lady" sonnets, addressed to a married woman, are taken as evidence of heterosexual liaisons.
Sexuality
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare | Sexuality
Has evidence of heterosexual liaisons, expression of intense friendship rather than romantic love. Readers have posited that his sonnets are evidence of his love for a young man, "Dark Lady" sonnets, however, are taken as evidence of heterosexual liaisons Few details of Shakespeare's sexuality are known. At 18, he married 26-year-old Anne Hathaway, who was pregnant. Susanna, the first of their three children, was born six months later on 26 May 1583. Over the centuries, some readers have posited that Shakespeare's sonnets are autobiographical, and point to them as evidence of his love for a young man. Few details are known - some readers point to Shakespeare's sonnets as evidence of his love for a young man, others say they are expression of intense friendship; the 26 so-called "Dark Lady" sonnets, addressed to a married woman, are taken as evidence of heterosexual liaisons.
how old was william shakespeare when he wrote hamlet
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Between 1589 and 1613 at the age of 49.
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who is he?
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He was an English playwright, poet, and actor.
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name a few of his poems?
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"Venus and Adonis", "The Rape of Lucrece", "Metamorphoses", "A Lover's Complaint".
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what is the third poem about?
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It is the history of the world from its creation to the deification of Julius Caesar within a loose mythico-historical framework.
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what are its themes?
user
Mutability, love, violence, artistry, and power are just some of the unifying themes.
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what is metamorphosis in it?
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It is the transformation is a unifying theme amongst the episodes.
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describe the writing style of the author of the poem?
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It is conventional style extended, sometimes elaborate metaphors and conceits, and the language is often rhetorical in written.
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did he influence how plays are classified?
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It is classified as comedies, histories, and tragedies.
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what was his sexual orientation?
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The sexuality of William Shakespeare has been the subject of recurring debate. It is known from public records that he married Anne Hathaway and that they had three children; scholars have analysed their relationship through these documents, and particularly through the bequests to her in Shakespeare's will. Some have speculated Shakespeare had affairs with other women, based on contemporaries' written anecdotes of such affairs and sometimes on the "Dark Lady" figure in his sonnets. Some scholars have argued he was bisexual, based on analysis of the sonnets: many, including Sonnet 18 "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day", are love poems addressed to a man, the "Fair Youth", and contain puns relating to homosexuality.
Sexuality of William Shakespeare | Introduction
According to Matz, "contemporary categories of or judgments about sexual desire may not cohere with past ones. De Grazia usefully argues that the changing reception of the sonnets marks a shift from an early modern concern with sex as a social category to modern understanding of sex as a personal one". The notion of homosexuality versus heterosexuality is a modern development that simply did not exist in 16th century England. Readers may have disapproved of Shakespeare's same-sex love or male friendship before the mid-20th century but they would not have reacted to the text as Shakespeare presenting himself as a "homosexual".
Sonnet 54 | Sexuality
Indeed, its significance has been developed to affording Shakespeare a preference for "promiscuous women of little beauty and no breeding" in his honest acknowledgement that well-born women are beyond his reach.
Sexuality of William Shakespeare | Possible affairs with women
"Shakespeare's heart is still to us a 'a closet never pierc'd with crystal eyes,' as he calls it in one of the sonnets. We shall never know the true secret of the passion of his life." C.B. Cox writes, "In Elizabethan times the crime of buggery was punishable by death. Today this legal term for homosexual intercourse offends our ears, but its use draws attention to the abhorrence with which many Christians of the time (and since) regarded physical intimacies between men. In these circumstances it's difficult to believe that Shakespeare would not only participate in an active homosexual relation with a handsome young man, but broadcast this affair to the world in sexually explicit sonnets pass round among his friends." The competing view of a bisexual Shakespeare conflicts with Wilde's view.
Sonnet 144 | Homoeroticism
Shakespeare's sonnets are cited as evidence of his bisexuality. The poems were initially published, perhaps without his approval, in 1609. 126 of them appear to be love poems addressed to a young man known as the 'Fair Lord' or 'Fair Youth'; this is often assumed to be the same person as the 'Mr W.H.' to whom the sonnets are dedicated. The identity of this figure (if he is indeed based on a real person) is unclear; the most popular candidates are Shakespeare's patrons, Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton and William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke, both of whom were considered handsome in their youth.
Sexuality of William Shakespeare | Possible attraction to men
Few details of Shakespeare's sexuality are known. At 18, he married 26-year-old Anne Hathaway, who was pregnant. Susanna, the first of their three children, was born six months later on 26 May 1583. Over the centuries, some readers have posited that Shakespeare's sonnets are autobiographical, and point to them as evidence of his love for a young man. Others read the same passages as the expression of intense friendship rather than romantic love. The 26 so-called "Dark Lady" sonnets, addressed to a married woman, are taken as evidence of heterosexual liaisons.
William Shakespeare | Sexuality
Then, message being brought that Richard the Third was at the door, Shakespeare caused return to be made that William the Conqueror was before Richard the Third. The Burbage referred to is Richard Burbage, the star of Shakespeare's company, who is known to have played the title role in "Richard III". While this is one of the few surviving contemporary anecdotes about Shakespeare—it was made in March 1602, a month after Manningham had seen the play—some scholars are sceptical of its validity. Still, the anecdote suggests that at least one of Shakespeare's contemporaries (Manningham) believed that Shakespeare was attracted to women, even if he was not 'averse to an occasional infidelity to his marriage vows'.
Sexuality of William Shakespeare | Possible affairs with women
The modern reader may read sonnet 20 and question whether or not Shakespeare's sexuality is reflected in this sonnet. When looking at the sexual connotations in this sonnet it is important to reflect on what homoerotism meant during the time that Shakespeare was writing. Casey Charles discusses the idea that there was no official identity for a gay person at this time. There were words that identified what we would consider to be homosexual behaviour, but the idea of a "gay culture" or "gay identity" did not exist. Charles goes on to say that early modern laws against sodomy had very few transgressors, which means that either people did not engage in homosexual behavior or these acts were more socially acceptable than the modern reader would think.
Sonnet 20 | Sexuality
While in London, Shakespeare may have had affairs with different women. One anecdote along these lines is provided by a lawyer named John Manningham, who wrote in his diary that Shakespeare had a brief affair with a woman during a performance of "Richard III." Upon a time when Burbage played Richard the Third there was a citizen grew so far in liking with him, that before she went from the play she appointed him to come that night unto her by the name of Richard the Third. Shakespeare, overhearing their conclusion, went before, was entertained and at his game ere Burbage came.
Sexuality of William Shakespeare | Possible affairs with women
Keeping the language ambiguous enabled multiple interpretations of the writings without the danger of being branded as homosexual. What is more, the words we would use to describe homosexual behavior is either anachronistic to the time period or it carried different meanings. For example, there is no seventeenth-century equivalent word for homosexual. Additionally, "sodomy" and "sodomite" in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries have a radically different meaning than modern perceptions. It is not clear if sodomy even had any specific representation of sexual behavior between men. It could be used for sexual activity between men, women, or either sex and an animal.
Sonnet 35 | Homosexuality in Shakespeare's Sonnet 35
In Sonnet 20, the narrator tells the youth to sleep with women, but to love only him: "mine be thy love and thy love's use their treasure". In some sonnets addressed to the youth, such as Sonnet 52, the erotic punning is particularly intense: "So is the time that keeps you as my chest, / Or as the wardrobe which the robe doth hide, / To make some special instant special blest, / By new unfolding his imprisoned pride." In Elizabethan bawdy, 'pride' is a euphemism for penis, especially an erect one.
Sexuality of William Shakespeare | Possible attraction to men
Stephen Greenblatt argues that Shakespeare probably initially loved Hathaway, supporting this by referring to the theory that a passage in one of his sonnets (Sonnet 145) plays off Anne Hathaway's name, saying she saved his life (writing "I hate from hate away she threw/And saved my life, saying 'not you.'"). Nevertheless, after only three years of marriage Shakespeare left his family and moved to London. Greenblatt suggests that this may imply that he felt trapped by Hathaway. Other evidence to support this belief is that he and Anne were buried in separate (but adjoining) graves and, as has often been noted, Shakespeare's will makes no specific bequest to his wife aside from "the second best bed with the furniture".
Sexuality of William Shakespeare | Marriage
The only explicit references to sexual acts or physical lust occur in the Dark Lady sonnets, which unambiguously state that the poet and the Lady are lovers. Nevertheless, there are numerous passages in the sonnets addressed to the Fair Lord that have been read as expressing desire for a younger man. In Sonnet 13, he is called "dear my love", and Sonnet 15 announces that the poet is at "war with Time for love of you." Sonnet 18 asks "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? / Thou art more lovely and more temperate", and in Sonnet 20 the narrator calls the younger man the "master-mistress of my passion".
Sexuality of William Shakespeare | Possible attraction to men
Shakespeare's awareness of the possible homoeroticism in Sonnet 20 does not necessarily illuminate whether or not he himself was actually practicing homosexual behavior. One of the most famous accounts to raise the issue of homoeroticism in this sonnet is Oscar Wilde's short story "The Portrait of Mr. W.H.", in which Wilde, or rather the story's narrator, describes the puns on "will" and "hues" throughout the sonnets, and particularly in the line in Sonnet 20, "A man in hue all hues in his controlling," as referring to a seductive young actor named Willie Hughes who played female roles in Shakespeare's plays.
Sonnet 20 | Sexuality
Martin Green supports this hypothesis with the evidence that Shakespeare never wrote dedications in of his works to any person besides Wriothesley. Shakespeare's relationship with this young man as interpreted from this group of sonnets is not entirely clear; his words of love and affection could be a bid for more favor, or as Judith Kegan Gardiner maintains, a true love that surprised and startled Shakespeare. Even if Shakespeare's sonnets are accepted as an expression of genuine love, there is still no consensus in academia whether this love was sexual in nature. Many critics argue that Shakespeare was homosexual, while others maintain that he was heterosexual, including the noteworthy Shakespeare analyst A.
Sonnet 109 | Context
The law at the time also stated that the widow of a man was automatically entitled to a third of his estate, so Shakespeare did not need to mention specific bequests in the will.
Sexuality of William Shakespeare | Marriage
W.H., such as William Herbert and Henry Wriothesley. Critics have also wondered about the woman who came between Shakespeare and the boy: "And of course there is the dark lady, identified alternatively as a nameless aristocrat, a commoner, Queen Elizabeth, her maid of honor Mary Fitton, the London prostitute Lucy Negro, the poet Aemilia Lanyer, and so on." The identities of these two characters are still in question but modern scholars tend to focus more on the sexual eroticism and implication of homosexuality in the Sonnets: "The reality of the poet's purported bisexual identity now figuring more prominently than any speculation about real figures with whom Shakespeare might have actually been involved, amorously or otherwise." On the other hand, there are critics who view Shakespeare's relationship with the young boy as a friendship rather than romantic love.
Sonnet 144 | Homoeroticism
The poems refer to sleepless nights, anguish and jealousy caused by the youth. In addition, there is considerable emphasis on the young man's beauty: in Sonnet 20, the narrator theorises that the youth was originally a woman with whom Mother Nature had fallen in love and, to resolve the dilemma of lesbianism, added a penis ("pricked thee out for women's pleasure"), an addition the narrator describes as "to my purpose nothing". The line can be read literally as a denial of sexual interest. However, given the homoerotic tone of the rest of the sonnet, it could also be meant to appear disingenuous, mimicking the common sentiment of would-be seducers: 'it's "you" I want, not your body’.
Sexuality of William Shakespeare | Possible attraction to men
Paget's outrageous and flamboyant lifestyle, his taste for cross-dressing, and the breakdown of his marriage, have led many to assume that he was gay. Writing in 1970, the homosexual reformer H. Montgomery Hyde characterised him as "[t]he most notorious aristocratic homosexual at this period". One journalist wrote, “I am driven to the conclusion from much that I have seen that there are men who ought to have been born women, and women who ought to have been born men … Bearing the form of a man, he yet had all the tastes, something even of the appearance, of not only a woman, but, if the phrase be permissible, a very effeminate woman.” Norena Shopland wrote that "there is little doubt that Henry must be included in the history of gender identity." There is no evidence for or against his having had any lovers of either sex: performance historian Viv Gardner believes rather that he was "a classic narcissist: the only person he could love and make love to was himself, because, for whatever reason, he was 'unlovable'".
Henry Paget, 5th Marquess of Anglesey | Sexuality
At the age of 18, Shakespeare married the 26-year-old Anne Hathaway. The consistory court of the Diocese of Worcester issued a marriage licence on 27 November 1582. Two of Hathaway's neighbours posted bonds the next day as surety that there were no impediments to the marriage. The couple may have arranged the ceremony in some haste, since the Worcester chancellor allowed the marriage banns to be read once instead of the usual three times. Hathaway's pregnancy could have been the reason for this. Six months after the marriage, she gave birth to a daughter, Susanna. Twins, son Hamnet and daughter Judith, followed almost two years later.
Sexuality of William Shakespeare | Marriage
J. B. Steane remarked that he considered there to be "no evidence for Marlowe's homosexuality at all". Other scholars point to homosexual themes in Marlowe's writing: in "Hero and Leander", Marlowe writes of the male youth Leander: "in his looks were all that men desire..." "Edward the Second" contains the following passage enumerating homosexual relationships: Marlowe wrote the only play about the life of Edward II up to his time, taking the humanist literary discussion of male sexuality much further than his contemporaries. The play was extremely bold, dealing with a star-crossed love story between Edward II and Piers Gaveston.
Christopher Marlowe | Sexuality
L. Rowse, who has claimed "Shakespeare is the bawdiest of the Elizabethan dramatists, with the natural bawdy of the highly sexed normal heterosexual".
Sonnet 109 | Context
In his essay "Preposterous Pleasures: Queer Theories and "A Midsummer Night's Dream"," Douglas E. Green explores possible interpretations of alternative sexuality that he finds within the text of the play, in juxtaposition to the proscribed social mores of the culture at the time the play was written. He writes that his essay "does not (seek to) rewrite "A Midsummer Night's Dream" as a gay play but rather explores some of its 'homoerotic significations' ... moments of 'queer' disruption and eruption in this Shakespearean comedy." Green does not consider Shakespeare to have been a "sexual radical", but that the play represented a "topsy-turvy world" or "temporary holiday" that mediates or negotiates the "discontents of civilisation", which while resolved neatly in the story's conclusion, do not resolve so neatly in real life.
A Midsummer Night's Dream | Ambiguous sexuality
Cox bases his argument on the verb "to have." He argues that why must the verb usage of "to have" mean sexually possess? Elizabethan people had trouble believing "had" meant to have sexually when it came to the young man, but Cox writes, "It's difficult to refute Pequiney's contention that in these three examples (Sonnet 52, Sonnet 75, and Sonnet 87) there is a sexual innuendo in "had," particularly when in Sonnet 129, which concerns heterosexual love for the Dark Lady, everyone agrees that there is such an implication. Elizabethan society feared homosexual desire, but embraced heterosexual conquests. Cox writes, "The poems may be based on personal experience but still that doesn't actually prove that Shakespeare 'had' the youth.
Sonnet 144 | Homoeroticism
Wagner, the author of "Voices of Shakespeare's England", seems to back up Nelles's claim, stating that the time in which Shakespeare was writing was one in which writers no longer had to follow strict guidelines of what was considered "proper" writing, and could write on subjects which "interested themselves and their audiences". This could suggest that, with further research on the topic of gender in Sonnet 136 and the other Dark Lady Sonnets, the lover's gender could be determined, or it could be decided by scholars that the gender truly is ambiguous; perhaps, even, the reason behind the ambiguous gender could be decoded.
Sonnet 136 | Gender
Sonnet 35 deals with the speaker being angry with the young man for an apparent betrayal through infidelity. The apparent homoeroticism between the speaker and the young man has spurred debates about the sexuality of the speaker and consequently Shakespeare himself. There are 3 main points to discuss with this issue: the problem of ambiguity in the writing, the possibility of applying an anachronistic view of love and consequently mistaking these sonnets homoerotic, and finally the implications of Shakespeare's life and homosexual tendencies. Paul Hammond argues the difficulty in pinning down the sexual language lies in the intentional ambiguity. First, one must keep in mind that in the early modern period the death penalty was still in effect for sodomy, so it was extremely important that writers remain vague to protect their own lives.
Sonnet 35 | Homosexuality in Shakespeare's Sonnet 35
The religious views of William Shakespeare are the subject of an ongoing scholarly debate dating back more than 150 years. The general assumption about William Shakespeare's religious affiliation is that he was a conforming member of the established Church of England. However, many scholars have speculated about his personal religious beliefs, based on analysis of the historical record and of his published work, with claims that Shakespeare's family may have had Catholic sympathies and that he himself was a secret Catholic.
Religious views of William Shakespeare | Introduction
Some suggest this theory is invalid, saying the poet views the Fair Youth as a son rather than a lover. Majority tend to lean towards the idea of a homosexual relationship due to choice of wording in some sonnets (see Sonnet 20). During the era in which Shakespeare's sonnets were written, any "sexual acts that do not result in reproduction" were condemned. In David Hawkes's article, 'Sodomy, Usury, and the Narrative of Shakespeare's Sonnets', he "argues that by using the language of 'unnatural' usury to expound the merits of 'natural' marriage and procreation, Shakespeare is ironically undermining the assumption that, because homosexual sex is non-reproductive, homoerotic desire is 'unnatural'."
Sonnet 8 | Exegesis
There is a curfew on that night because the authorities are afraid that there will be riots. William Shakespeare is a supporting character in the play, writing down lines and exchanges between the characters that appear in his later plays, but not interacting much otherwise. One of the play's central themes is challenging notions of gender, as each of the two protagonists has a problematic relationship with the way they enact their gender, and the ways they pretend to be a different gender. In one of the play's central lines, Elizabeth says to the actor, "if you will teach me how to be a woman, I will teach you how to be a man."
Elizabeth Rex | Plot
In the 15th and 16th centuries, French and English depictions of relationships between women ("Lives of Gallant Ladies" by Brantôme in 1665, John Cleland's 1749 erotica "Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure", "L'Espion Anglais" by various authors in 1778), writers' attitudes spanned from amused tolerance to arousal, whereupon a male character would participate to complete the act. Physical relationships between women were often encouraged; men felt no threat as they viewed sexual acts between women to be accepted when men were not available, and not comparable to fulfillment that could be achieved by sexual acts between men and women. At worst, if a woman became enamored of another woman, she became a tragic figure.
Lesbian | Literature
The content of Shakespeare's works has raised the question of whether he may have been bisexual. Although twenty-six of Shakespeare's sonnets are love poems addressed to a married woman (the "Dark Lady"), one hundred and twenty-six are addressed to an adolescent boy (known as the "Fair Youth"). The amorous tone of the latter group, which focuses on the boy's beauty, has been interpreted as evidence for Shakespeare's bisexuality, although others interpret them as referring to intense friendship or fatherly affection, not sexual love. Among those of the latter interpretation, in the preface to his 1961 Pelican edition, Douglas Bush writes: Bush cites Montaigne, who distinguished male friendships from "that other, licentious Greek love", as evidence of a platonic interpretation.
Romantic friendship | Shakespeare and Fair Youth
Green writes that the "sodomitical elements", "homoeroticism", "lesbianism", and even "compulsory heterosexuality"—the first hint of which may be Oberon's obsession with Titania's changeling ward—in the story must be considered in the context of the "culture of early modern England" as a commentary on the "aesthetic rigidities of comic form and political ideologies of the prevailing order". Aspects of ambiguous sexuality and gender conflict in the story are also addressed in essays by Shirley Garner and William W.E. Slights albeit all the characters are played by males.
A Midsummer Night's Dream | Ambiguous sexuality
Thoreau never married and was childless. He strove to portray himself as an ascetic puritan. However, his sexuality has long been the subject of speculation, including by his contemporaries. Critics have called him heterosexual, homosexual, or asexual. There is no evidence to suggest he had physical relations with anyone, man or woman. Some scholars have suggested that homoerotic sentiments run through his writings and concluded that he was homosexual. The elegy "Sympathy" was inspired by the eleven-year-old Edmund Sewell, with whom he hiked for five days in 1839. One scholar has suggested that he wrote the poem to Edmund because he could not bring himself to write it to Edmund's sister, and another that Thoreau's "emotional experiences with women are memorialized under a camouflage of masculine pronouns", but other scholars dismiss this.
Henry David Thoreau | Sexuality
In an analysis of Margreta de Grazia's essay about Shakespeare's sonnets, Robert Matz, mentions the subject of Shakespeare's sonnets (such as Sonnet 54) being written to a man. Drawing on a Foucauldian history of sexuality, De Grazia and Matz argue that while this notion appears scandalous in modernity, in Shakespeare's time this was not the same kind of issue. Sonnets written to a woman could have been considered more improper in Shakespeare's era because of the possible class difference and the idea of a woman's presumed promiscuity (originating in the idea of Eve causing the fall of man by enticing Adam to eat the forbidden fruit).
Sonnet 54 | Sexuality
For Giles MacDonogh, Algarotti's partner in the poem is Frederick himself; MacDonogh, whose 1999 biography of Frederick is ambiguous as to the king's sexual orientation, was convinced by the poem that Frederick was gay. It is known that other homoerotic poems were written by the king, but none, including "La Jouissance", unequivocally exposes the king as being involved in such affairs.
Frederick the Great | Sexual orientation
During the decade 1672–82, sex comedy such as "The Country Wife" (1675) flourished as part of the revival of theatre in England resulting from the Restoration. Forerunners of the craze were John Dryden's "An Evening's Love" (1668) and Thomas Betterton's "The Amorous Widow" (ca. 1670). Sexual content was favored by the presence of female performers, in contrast to the drag performances of the Elizabethan stage. The main character was often a self-important rake or libertine, posturing heroically. Adultery was a major theme, and the couple is sometimes found "in flagrante delicto", represented by the stage direction "in disorder." The plays are often characterized by sexually charged banter, "swaggering masculine energy," and a superficially innocent heroine who is nonetheless alluring.
Sex comedy | Restoration sex comedy
This sonnet is featured in Derek Jarman's film "The Angelic Conversation", which discusses homosexuality. It is the first poem shown in the film, the only one not read aloud, and one of only two partially and not wholly portrayed (the last two lines of Sonnet 57 are also omitted). Only the first two lines of the poem are seen on screen. Jarman is attempting to challenge the idea that Shakespeare was solely heterosexual. In the context of his film, the opening two lines seem to communicate that conscience and ethics come from sexual attraction.
Sonnet 151 | In film
In "Twelfth Night", Viola is shipwrecked and dresses herself as Caesario whereas Rosalind in "As You Like It" adopts the male persona Ganymede and hides in the forest of Arden. Rosalind falls in love with Orlando in her disguise and Olivia falls in love with Caesario. However, hetero-normative conventions prevail in each text. Even though cross dressing is common in the period, it raises interesting theories regarding female sexuality. The homosexual relationship between Gallathea and Phillida is often regarded as asexual; their attraction is genuine but there are no physical displays of affection. The lack of sexuality disregards same sex attraction and stresses the importance of heterosexual relationships.
Gallathea | Criticism, analysis and interpretation
There's an element of playfulness in the sexual innuendoes, a delight in wit as if Shakespeare is enjoying his own virtuosity and may not have expected to be taken literally... In his poems to the youth he may be using sexual innuendo as a kind of joke, a playful but at times almost serious hint that his affection may even extend to physical desire."
Sonnet 144 | Homoeroticism
This story is doubted by Wolfgang Burgdorf, who is of the opinion that "Frederick had a physical disgust of women" and therefore "was unable to sleep with them." In 1739, Frederick met the Venetian philosopher Francesco Algarotti, and they were both infatuated. Frederick planned to make him a count. Challenged by Algarotti that northern Europeans lacked passion, Frederick penned for him an erotic poem, "La Jouissance", which imagined Algarotti in the throes of sexual intercourse with another partner, a female named Chloris. Not all Frederick scholars have interpreted the poem in such a way; some have read it as describing a tryst between two men.
Frederick the Great | Sexual orientation
In eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Europe, same-sex sexual behavior and cross-dressing were widely considered to be socially unacceptable, and were serious crimes under sodomy and sumptuary laws. There were, however, some exceptions. For example, in the 17th century cross dressing was common in plays, as evident in the content of many of William Shakespeare's plays and by the actors in actual performance (since female roles in Elizabethan theater were always performed by males, usually prepubescent boys). Thomas Cannon wrote what may be the earliest published defense of homosexuality in English, "Ancient and Modern Pederasty Investigated and Exemplify'd" (1749). Although only fragments of his work have survived, it was a humorous anthology of homosexual advocacy, written with an obvious enthusiasm for its subject.
LGBT social movements | Enlightenment era
With knowledge of his sexuality becoming more common beginning in the 1970s, some film historians and gay studies scholars have detected homosexual themes in Whale's work, particularly in "Bride of Frankenstein" in which a number of the creative people associated with the cast, including Ernest Thesiger and Colin Clive, were alleged to be gay or bisexual. Scholars have identified a gay sensibility suffused through the film, especially a camp sensibility, particularly embodied in the character of Pretorius (Thesiger) and his relationship with Henry Frankenstein (Clive). Gay film historian Vito Russo, in considering Pretorius, stops short of identifying the character as gay, instead referring to him as "sissified" ("sissy" itself being Hollywood code for "homosexual").
James Whale | Sexual orientation
The lives of many historical figures, including Socrates, Alexander the Great, Lord Byron, Edward II, Hadrian, Julius Caesar, Michelangelo, Donatello, Leonardo da Vinci, Oscar Wilde, Vita Sackville-West, Alfonsina Storni and Christopher Marlowe are believed to have included love and sexual relationships with people of their own sex. Terms such as "gay" or "bisexual" have often been applied to them; some, such as Michel Foucault, regard this as risking the anachronistic introduction of a contemporary construction of sexuality foreign to their times, though others challenge this.
Same-sex relationship | In history
Robert K. Martin called it "quite explicit in its adoption of a political stance toward homosexuality" and notes that the character Philip "argues for the 'rights' of those 'who cannot shape themselves according to the common-place pattern of society.'" Henry Blake Fuller's 1898 play, "At St. Judas's", and 1919 novel, "Bertram Cope's Year" are noted as among the earliest published American works in literature on the theme of homosexual relationships. The new "atmosphere of frankness" created by the Enlightenment sparked the production of pornography like John Cleland's infamous "Fanny Hill" (1749), which features a rare graphic scene of male homosexual sex.
Gay literature | 18th and 19th centuries
It is strengthened further by the moments in the book where he finds himself attracted to Julian, during each of which her gender is made ambiguous. The final of these is when he finally achieves sexual arousal, having previously been unable, when Julian has dressed herself as Hamlet. These themes are discussed by Francis, himself a homosexual, in the Post-Scripts. It is also notable that the two characters Bradley has achieved intimacy with, Julian and Christian, are not clearly female in characterisation or name. An attempted seduction by Rachel, a more traditionally feminine character, is described passionlessly by Bradley's narrative.
The Black Prince (novel) | Influences and themes
Montagu knew from an early stage of life that he was bisexual, and while attending Oxford was relieved to find others with similar feelings. In a 2000 interview he stated, "My attraction to both sexes neither changed nor diminished at university and it was comforting to find that I was not the only person faced with such a predicament. I agonised less than my contemporaries, for I was reconciled to my bisexuality, but I was still nervous about being exposed."
Edward Douglas-Scott-Montagu, 3rd Baron Montagu of Beaulieu | Sexuality
Most modern biographers agree that Frederick was primarily homosexual, and that his sexual orientation was central to his life. After a dispiriting defeat on the battlefield, Frederick wrote: "Fortune has it in for me; she is a woman, and I am not that way inclined." At age 16, Frederick seems to have embarked upon a youthful affair with Peter Karl Christoph von Keith, a 17-year-old page of his father. Rumors of the liaison spread in the court and the "intimacy" between the two boys provoked the condemnation of even his elder and favorite sister, Wilhelmine, who wrote, "Though I had noticed that he was on more familiar terms with this page than was proper in his position, I did not know how intimate the friendship was." Rumors finally reached King Frederick William, who cultivated an ideal of ultramasculinity in his court, and derided his son's "effeminate" tendencies.
Frederick the Great | Sexual orientation
Lines by Antonio such as "my person ... lie[s] all unlocked to your occasions" ("MoV" 1.1.146), seem to allude to a sexual dimension in Antonio's love for Bassanio. However, there is also evidence that the two shared a strictly fraternal, familial bond, as indicated by the line "Bassanio, your most noble kinsman" ("MoV" 1.1.60) Other scholars maintain that all attempts to read Shakespeare's characters as gay or normal in terms of the modern understanding of the word are culturally and historically flawed. Alan Bray's book "Homosexuality in Renaissance England" argues that in the time period of "The Merchant of Venice"s composition, "homosexuality" did not refer to an individual's sexual identity but only to specific sexual acts any individual might engage in.
Antonio (The Merchant of Venice) | Antonio's relationship with Bassanio
Contemporaries of William raised concerns about a court dominated by homosexuality and effeminacy, although this appears to have had more to do with their luxurious attire than with actual sexual practices. The historian Emma Mason has noted that while during his reign William himself was never openly accused of homosexuality, in the decades after his death numerous medieval writers spoke of this and a few began to describe him as a "sodomite". Modern historians cannot state with certainty whether William was homosexual or not; however, he never took a wife or a mistress, or fathered any children. As a bachelor king without an heir, William would have been pressed to take a wife and would have had numerous proposals for marriage.
William II of England | Sexuality
Yet when watered down, Pequigney argues that this simply states that Shakespeare is only acknowledging that he enjoyed knowing the young man. The use of romantic language masks the idea that this is purely a platonic love between the two males. In the sonnets addressed towards the young man, such as sonnet 87, there is a lack of explicit sexual imagery which is prominent in the sonnets addressed towards the dark lady. This, as Pequigney claims, is further proof "that nothing sexually amiss is to be found in the lyrics of that Shakespeare composed for the youth." A. L. Rowse, another Shakespearean critic, also rejects the existence of homoerotic suggestion in sonnet 87, arguing that the language of the time is simply so far from how we communicate today.
Sonnet 87 | Sexuality
The bishop then remitted the outstanding sum to Shakespeare's former parish "as a matter of convenience".
Religious views of William Shakespeare | Shakespeare's known religious affiliation
The play is known for its sexual explicitness, something of a trait of Stephen Fry's earlier writings. This type of writing is also seen in Fry's 1991 book "The Liar".
Latin! or Tobacco and Boys | Style
This may seem like a slight, but many historians contend that the second best bed was typically the marital bed, while the best bed was reserved for guests. The poem "Anne Hathaway" by Carol Ann Duffy endorses this view of the second best bed, having Anne say: "The bed we loved in was a spinning world of forests, castles, torchlight, clifftops, seas where we would dive for pearls." On the other hand, "In the other bed, the best, our guests dozed on, dribbling their prose". A bed missing from an inventory of Anne's brother's possessions (removed in contravention of their father's will) allows the explanation that the item was an heirloom from the Hathaway family that had to be returned.
Sexuality of William Shakespeare | Marriage
worshipers to, or about, saints". Harvey Stanborough claims that Shakespeare's Sonnet 144 discusses not a bisexual relationship between the author and "a man right fair" and "a woman coloured ill", but rather it reveals Shakespeare's internal conflict as an artist. He proposes "that it was actually addressed to a much broader, general audience and is an attempted explanation of his own artistic mind". To him, the two loves in the sonnet embody two passions which pull at Shakespeare's mind in opposing directions: "the speaker is explaining that he has two passions: a passion (desire) for comfort, and a passion (need) for despair".
Sonnet 144 | Autobiographical interpretations
Similarly, it is possible that Shakespeare meant Shylock's forced conversion to Christianity to be a "happy ending" for the character, as it 'redeems' Shylock both from his unbelief and his specific sin of wanting to kill Antonio. This reading of the play would certainly fit with the antisemitic trends present in Elizabethan England.
Shylock | Antisemitic reading
The bawdy tone of the play, notably different from Killigrew's earlier tragicomedies "The Prisoners" and "Claricilla" and "The Princess", may have been a reaction to the highly artificial cult of Platonic love favoured at the Caroline era court of Queen Henrietta Maria. [See: "The Shepherd's Paradise".] Biographers have also speculated that the play's dark outlook on sexuality and marriage may have been part of Killigrew's reaction to the 1638 death of his first wife, Celia Crofts. Many plays in English Renaissance drama exploit bawdy humour and risqué subject matter; but they normally maintain at least a formal commitment to the established morality of the social order.
The Parson's Wedding | Sexuality and religion
Shakespeare most likely wrote the sonnets that were meant for the young man over a four- or five-year period. There is speculation that the young man Shakespeare is addressing may be named William Hughs or Hews. While Butler raises the question of Shakespeare's homosexuality, other critics such as Wilde refute this claim and maintain Shakespeare had an innocent relationship with the boy. However, no reputable evidence for this theory has been found. Throughout his sonnets, Shakespeare addresses the young man's physical beauty as well as his internal beauty. In this particular sonnet, Shakespeare admits his love for the young man, but he states that he is not able to publicly acknowledge his love due to the shame that might result.
Sonnet 36 | Analysis of relationship between speaker and young man
Benedick and Beatrice quickly became the main interest of the play. They are considered the leading roles even though their relationship is given equal or lesser weight in the script than Claudio and Hero's situation. Charles II wrote 'Benedick and Beatrice' beside the title of the play in his copy of the Second Folio. The provocative treatment of gender is central and should be considered in its Renaissance context. This was reflected and emphasized in certain plays of the period, but was also challenged. Amussen notes that the undoing of traditional gender clichés seems to have inflamed anxieties about the erosion of social order.
Much Ado About Nothing | Gender roles
Chief amongst Iris Murdoch's influences for this novel is the Shakespeare play "Hamlet". It is openly referenced and discussed throughout, especially by Bradley. It is noted in the Post-Scripts that Bradley Pearson shares initials with the Black Prince, the title of Pearson's fictional as well as Murdoch's real work. Also present is the influence of Freud, especially through the frequent sexual imagery centred on recurrent references to the phallic Post Office Tower. Bradley's possible proxy admission of homosexuality is made possible through his seeming self-identification with Shakespeare throughout his narrative, and in his claiming both Hamlet and Shakespeare were homosexual.
The Black Prince (novel) | Influences and themes
Gender poses as one of the play's integral themes. While disguised as Ganymede, Rosalind also presents a calculated perception of affection that is "disruptive of [the] social norms" and "independent of conventional gender signs" that dictate women's behavior as irrational. In her book "As She Likes It: Shakespeare's Unruly Women", Penny Gay analyzes Rosalind's character in the framework of these gender conventions that ascribe femininity with qualities such as "graciousness, warmth ... [and] tenderness". However, Rosalind's demanding tone in her expression of emotions towards Orlando contradicts these conventions. Her disobedience to these features of femininity proves a "deconstruction of gender roles", since Rosalind believes that "the wiser [the woman is], the waywarder" she is.
As You Like It | Gender
By the end of the play he is mocked on the streets after his daughter elopes with a Christian. Shylock, then, compulsorily converts to Christianity as a part of a deal gone wrong. This has raised profound implications regarding Shakespeare and antisemitism.
Religious antisemitism | Medieval and Renaissance Europe
Alexander cites a speech of Orson Scott Card on his views of homosexuality: Homosexuals aren't born homosexual, and that there is often an underlying history of sexual abuse. As a counterpoint to the "abuse" theory, the review supposes that the story's Hamlet was himself gay, citing his affection for Horatio, his lack of affection for Ophelia, and his suicidal impulse from his "hell-bound condition." Numerous outlets began publishing reviews after the Rain Taxi article, including IO9, SF Site, and "The Guardian", all commenting on the book's link between homosexuality and pedophilia.
Hamlet's Father | Reception and controversy
"Love's Last Shift" can be seen as an early sign of Cibber's sensitivity to shifts of public opinion, which was to be useful to him in his later career as manager at Drury Lane (see Colley Cibber). In the 1690s, the economic and political power balance of the nation tilted from the aristocracy towards the middle class after the Glorious Revolution of 1688, and middle-class values of religion, morality, and gender roles became more dominant, not least in attitudes to the stage. "Love's Last Shift" is one of the first illustrations of a massive shift in audience taste, away from the analytic bent and sexual frankness of Restoration comedy and towards the conservative certainties and gender role backlash of exemplary or sentimental comedy.
The Relapse | Sexual ideology
In Jewish tradition, it is also suggested that Ham had anal sex with Noah or castrated him.
Christianity and sexual orientation | Biblical
Nor did he belong to the great minds of his time. He was too uneducated to achieve such a position, as it is known. The romantic ideas according to which Shakespeare was a great wit, a great historian or a great thinker, are nowadays completely rejected […]. Today, it is evident that Shakespeare was first of all a true dodger of his era. He used the various materials from history or from the contemporary circumstances in England in order to create attractive theatrical masterpieces. First of all, we have to understand that Shakespeare never thought of theatre as literature. The theatre was a dangerous and slightly indecent institution, which every respectful and truly honored member of the society would rather avoid.
Jože Javoršek | Personality
To W.H. is a play that examines the potential sexuality of William Shakespeare and the identity of "W.H." who has been referred to a number of times in Shakespeare's work. The play was written by Stuart Draper, directed by Anton Krause and first played in Hobgoblin Pub Theatre in London in spring 2006.
To W.H. | Introduction
Though biographers continue to debate Whitman's sexuality, he is usually described as either homosexual or bisexual in his feelings and attractions. Whitman's sexual orientation is generally assumed on the basis of his poetry, though this assumption has been disputed. His poetry depicts love and sexuality in a more earthy, individualistic way common in American culture before the medicalization of sexuality in the late 19th century. Though "Leaves of Grass" was often labeled pornographic or obscene, only one critic remarked on its author's presumed sexual activity: in a November 1855 review, Rufus Wilmot Griswold suggested Whitman was guilty of "that horrible sin not to be mentioned among Christians".
Walt Whitman | Sexuality
He maintains that the immorality of the homosexual acts are on par with the immorality of contemporary prostitution, and contrasts the pure version of Greek love with the later licentiousness found in Roman culture. Shelley cites Shakespeare's sonnets as an English expression of the same sentiments, and ultimately argues that they are chaste and platonic in nature.
Greek love | English Romanticism
The male-male relationship, some critics have offered, between the male audience and the boy actor performing the female sexuality of the play would have been less threatening than had the part been played by a woman. It is in this manner that the London stage cultivated in its audience a chaste and obedient female subject, while positioning male sexuality as dominant. Shakespeare critics argue that the metatheatrical references in "Antony and Cleopatra" seem to critique this trend and the presentation of Cleopatra as a sexually empowered individual supports their argument that Shakespeare seems to be questioning the oppression of female sexuality in London society.
Antony and Cleopatra | Critics' interpretations of boys portraying female characters
Vanbrugh planned "The Relapse" around particular actors at the Drury Lane Theatre, including Colley Cibber, who played Lord Foppington. A fop is also referred to as a "beau", as in the Restoration comedies "The Beaux' Stratagem" (1707) by George Farquhar, "The Beau Defeated" (1700) by Mary Pix, or the real-life Beau Nash, master of ceremonies at Bath, or Regency celebrity Beau Brummell. The sexual recklessness of "beau" may imply homosexuality. Shakespeare's "King Lear" contains the word, in the general sense of a fool, and before him Thomas Nashe, in "Summer's Last Will and Testament" (1592, printed 1600): "the Idiot, our Playmaker.
Fop | In literature and culture
Bartels pays close attention to the fact that Lightborn's murder of the king leaves no marks on his body. She concludes that "sodomical leanings...are not politically corrupt. Though largely unspoken, they are not unspeakable." Sodomy was not a clearly defined act in the early modern period. Jonathan Goldberg asserts that sodomy was "invisible so long as homosexual acts failed to connect with the much more visible signs of social disruption represented by unorthodox religious or social positions." David Stymeist reconciles two opposing critical approaches to "Edward II"—one that views the play as subversive towards sexual norms and one that upholds sexual norms—by paying attention to how the play presents alternative sexuality and how it punishes sexual transgressions.
Edward II (play) | Homoeroticism
During homosexual anal intercourse, he usually played the passive role, which Booth believed "appealed to his masochistic side". An underlying theme in many of his writings is that spiritual enlightenment arises through transgressing socio-sexual norms. Crowley advocated complete sexual freedom for both men and women. He argued that homosexual and bisexual people should not suppress their sexual orientation, commenting that a person "must not be ashamed or afraid of being homosexual if he happens to be so at heart; he must not attempt to violate his own true nature because of public opinion, or medieval morality, or religious prejudice which would wish he were otherwise." On other issues he adopted a more conservative attitude; he opposed abortion on moral grounds, believing that no woman following her True Will would ever desire one.
Aleister Crowley | Views on race and gender
"Norman, Is That You?" is notably the first play to have an entirely open and comedic treatment of the topic of homosexuality. In his review of the play, Clive Barnes of "The New York Times" wrote, "It is strange how tastes and standards change. It seems only yesterday that we had plays such as "The Green Bay Tree" or even "Tea and Sympathy" which handled the then vexed subject of homosexuality with silk gloves... Here for the first time was a homosexual play aimed at the theater-party set. It is called " Norman, Is That You?" and it seems that it is him.
Norman, Is That You? | Introduction
This is the view that K.D. Sethna holds: "The problem, of course, is the two main characters round whom Shakespeare's Sonnets exult and agonize with a passionate quixotism of friendship and a frantic fever of love- or, as G. Wilson Knight sums up in the current jargon, "homosexual idealism and heterosexual lust.'" John Berryman, on the other hand, understands the first line of Sonnet 144 to be Shakespeare's way of confessing his romantic relationship with the boy and the dark lady: "This is the sonnet of which the poet John Berryman remarked, in his comments on Lowell in The Freedom of the Poet, 'When Shakespeare wrote ["Two lovers I have"] reader, he was not kidding." Helen Vendler agrees with Berryman's analysis: "Sonnet 144 has an air of confession." If evaluated through queer hermeneutics, Sonnet 144 can appear to have homoerotic overtones.
Sonnet 144 | Homoeroticism
Joseph Pearce again offers the explanation of recusancy, rather than evidence of atheism. Herbert Thurston, writing in the 1912 edition of the "Catholic Encyclopedia", questioned not only Shakespeare's Catholicism, but pondered "whether Shakespeare was not infected with the atheism, which, as we know from the testimony of writers as opposite in spirit as Thomas Nashe and [Robert] Persons, was rampant in the more cultured society of the Elizabethan age." In a 1947 essay, George Orwell wrote that The morality of Shakespeare's later tragedies is not religious in the ordinary sense, and certainly is not Christian. Only two of them, "Hamlet" and "Othello", are supposedly occurring inside the Christian era, and even in those, apart from the antics of the ghost in "Hamlet", there is no indication of a ‘next world’ where everything is to be put right.
Religious views of William Shakespeare | Atheism
Sexual dreams were a common Renaissance topic and Booth suggests that Shakespeare is playing on this usage. He cites Spenser's "The Faerie Queene" 1.1.47-49, Jonson's The Dream, Herrick's The Vine, "Othello" 3.3.416-432, and Gascoigne's Supposes, 1.2.133 as contemporary works that contain sexual dreams. Booth also proposes that "matter" in the closing line has a sexual meaning in addition to meaning "real substance". Here he cites examples of matter being used in its sexual sense in "Hamlet" 3.2.111: "country matter" and "Julius Caesar" 1.1.23: "women matters". Richard Strier additionally notes the complexity of the word "flatter" not only within Sonnet 87 but within other Shakespeare sonnets as well.
Sonnet 87 | Couplet
"Westward Ho" and "Northward Ho", two early Jacobean comedies by Thomas Dekker and John Webster, and the city comedies of Thomas Middleton, provide good examples of this tendency, as do many other dramas of the era. In "The Parson's Wedding", Killigrew abandons even a lip-service acceptance of socially-approved morality; he is overtly and even gleefully cynical about the moral claims and sexual mores of society – especially in regard to marriage. The two characters in the play who come closest to representing the established order, Lady Loveall and the Parson, are the biggest hypocrites, and fare the worst. Without being heavy-handed, Killigrew expresses the hostility toward the Puritans that is typical of the drama of the age.
The Parson's Wedding | Sexuality and religion
Flori (1999) again argued in favour of Richard's homosexuality, based on Richard's two public confessions and penitences (in 1191 and 1195) which, according to Flori, "must have" referred to the sin of sodomy. Flori, however, concedes that contemporary accounts of Richard taking women by force exist, concluding that he probably had sexual relations with both men and women. Flori and Gillingham nevertheless agree that accounts of bed-sharing do not support the suggestion that Richard had a sexual relationship with King Philip II, as had been suggested by other modern authors.
Richard I of England | Character and sexuality
Through the medieval period, homosexuality was generally condemned and thought to be the moral of the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. Historians debate if there were any prominent homosexuals and bisexuals at this time, but it is argued that figures such as Edward II, Richard the Lionheart, Philip II Augustus, and William Rufus were engaged in same-sex relationships. Also, historian Allan A. Tulchin recently argued that a form of male same-sex marriage existed in Medieval France, and possibly other areas in Europe, as well. There was a legal category called "enbrotherment" (affrèrement) that allowed two men to share living quarters, pool their resources, and effectively live as a married couple.
History of homosexuality | The Middle Ages
Sexual politics plays an important role in "Nineteen Eighty-Four". In the novel, people's intimate relationships are strictly governed by the party's Junior Anti-Sex League, by opposing sexual relations and instead encouraging artificial insemination. Personally, Orwell disliked what he thought as misguided middle-class revolutionary emancipatory views, expressing disdain for "every fruit-juice drinker, nudist, sandal-wearer, sex-maniacs." Orwell was also openly against homosexuality, at a time when such prejudice was common. Speaking at the 2003 George Orwell Centenary Conference, Daphne Patai said: "Of course he was homophobic. That has nothing to do with his relations with his homosexual friends. Certainly, he had a negative attitude and a certain kind of anxiety, a denigrating attitude towards homosexuality.
George Orwell | Sexuality
Although Ovid includes mythological treatments of homoeroticism in the "Metamorphoses", he is unusual among Latin love poets, and indeed among Romans in general, for his aggressively heterosexual stance, though even he did not claim exclusive heterosexuality.
Sexuality in ancient Rome | Male–male sex
Marlowe is believed to have been homosexual. Some scholars argue that the identification of an Elizabethan as gay or homosexual in a modern sense is "anachronistic," claiming that for the Elizabethans the terms were more likely to have been applied to sexual acts rather than to what we understand to be exclusive sexual orientations and identities. Other scholars argue that the evidence is inconclusive and that the reports of Marlowe's homosexuality may be rumours produced after his death. Richard Baines reported Marlowe as saying: "all they that love not Tobacco & Boies were fools". David Bevington and Eric Rasmussen describe Baines's evidence as "unreliable testimony" and "These and other testimonials need to be discounted for their exaggeration and for their having been produced under legal circumstances we would regard as a witch-hunt".
Christopher Marlowe | Sexuality
It was acceptable for a man to be attracted to a beautiful young male, but the bodies of citizen youths were strictly off-limits. Acceptable male partners were slaves, male prostitutes, or others who lacked social standing (the "infames)". Same-sex relations among male citizens of equal status, including soldiers, were disparaged, and in some circumstances penalized harshly. In political rhetoric, a man might be attacked for effeminacy or playing the passive role in sex acts, but not for performing penetrative sex on a socially acceptable male partner. Threats of anal or oral rape against another man were forms of masculine braggadocio.
Societal attitudes toward homosexuality | Ancient Rome
So I lost the accent almost immediately, and if anyone asked me where I was from I would lie. If they asked where I went to school, I'd say Hampstead, which got me into all sorts of trouble because of course everyone else went to school in Hampstead and they wanted to know which one. Then there was my sexuality. The theatre was full of gay people, but none of them were out, and there was that ugly story about Gielgud being arrested for cottaging, so I thought I'd better hide that as well. Each of these things went into the closet until my entire identity was in the closet.
Antony Sher | Career
Judith is betrothed, and when she does not want to marry, her father beats her, then shames her into the marriage. While William establishes himself, Judith is trapped by what is expected of women. She runs away from home to London, is harassed and laughed at when she tries to become an actor, and is finally made pregnant by an actor-manager who said he would help her. She kills herself and "lies buried at some cross-roads where the omnibuses now stop outside the Elephant and Castle". William lives on and establishes his legacy.
A Room of One's Own | Judith Shakespeare
Berlin sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld published a scheme in 1896 that measured the strength of an individual's sexual desire on two independent 10-point scales, A (homosexual) and B (heterosexual). A heterosexual individual may be A0, B5; a homosexual individual may be A5, B0; an asexual would be A0, B0; and someone with an intense attraction to both sexes would be A9, B9.
Sexual orientation | Early classification schemes
Unlike other Shakespearean agents of onstage gender fluidity – Portia, Rosalind, Viola and Julia – Imogen is not afforded empowerment upon her transformation into Fidele. Instead, Imogen's power is inherited from her father and based upon the prospect of reproduction.
Cymbeline | Gender and sexuality
The most prominent example in the English language and in the Western canon is that of Sonnet 20 by William Shakespeare. Though some critics have made efforts to preserve Shakespeare's literary credibility by claiming his work to be non-erotic in nature, no critic has disputed that the majority of Shakespeare's sonnets concern explicitly male-male love poetry. The only other Renaissance artist writing in English to do this was the poet Richard Barnfield, who, in "The Affectionate Shepherd" and "Cynthia," wrote homoerotic poetry. Barnfield's poems, furthermore, are now widely accepted as a major influence upon Shakespeare's. In the twentieth century, W.
Homoerotic poetry | English poetry
In 1593 and 1594, when the theatres were closed because of plague, Shakespeare published two narrative poems on sexual themes, "Venus and Adonis" and "The Rape of Lucrece". He dedicated them to Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton. In "Venus and Adonis", an innocent Adonis rejects the sexual advances of Venus; while in "The Rape of Lucrece", the virtuous wife Lucrece is raped by the lustful Tarquin. Influenced by Ovid's "Metamorphoses", the poems show the guilt and moral confusion that result from uncontrolled lust. Both proved popular and were often reprinted during Shakespeare's lifetime. A third narrative poem, "A Lover's Complaint", in which a young woman laments her seduction by a persuasive suitor, was printed in the first edition of the "Sonnets" in 1609.
William Shakespeare | Poems
"What's Wrong with Angry?" was Wilde's first play. It was written in an era of British history when the age of consent for homosexuals was 5 years older than heterosexuals, and legislation called Section 28 prohibited schools and local authorities from depicting homosexual relationships as an acceptable view of family life. The central characters – Steven Carter and John Westhead – were both still at school, and Wilde has pointed out that it is "quite crucial" that Carter is 16, as he wanted to draw attention to the fact Carter was breaking the law, whereas his heterosexual peers at school were not.
What's Wrong with Angry? | History
Shakespeare’s Christianity is not universally accepted. William Birch of Oxford University was, in 1848, probably the first to suggest that Shakespeare could be an atheist, based on his interpretation of sentiments expressed in the works. His theory was not accepted by other scholars, however, and his contemporary H. H. Furness dismissed it as a "rare tissue of perverted ingenuity". Some evidence used to support this thesis was suggested by a notorious forger of historical documents, John Payne Collier, who examined the records of St Saviour's, Southwark, and found that Shakespeare, alone among his fellow Globe actors, was not shown as a churchgoer.
Religious views of William Shakespeare | Atheism
It may, however, also be a sign of Puritan sympathies; Susanna was, according to some statements, of a Puritanical bent.
Religious views of William Shakespeare | Shakespeare's family
John has identified as "gay" his entire life and has been in a relationship with his boyfriend "M" for the last 7 years, with whom he shares an apartment and a family life. After the couple decide to take a break, John meets a woman named "W" on his daily commute. He is surprised to find himself developing a physical attraction to her and decides to lose his heterosexual virginity and have sex with a woman for the first time. After identifying as a gay man for many years, John discovers that he enjoys sex with women. He now feels torn between his longtime boyfriend and his new female lover, as the newly discovered joys of vaginal sex cause his sexual identity as a gay man to be thrown into confusion.
Cock (play) | Plot
She claimed Wilde also demonstrated that he had no homosexual inclinations, but instead revealed his utter adoration of womankind, "My sensations were so varied with regard to your sex, dear lady, that you would find painted on my heart – that internal organ so often quoted by the vulgar – you would find every shade of desire there, and even more... Women were ever to me a cluster of stars. They contained for me all, and more than all, that God has created." Dowden also received a new play, entitled "Is it a Forgery?", from Wilde, which was written in the spirit world.
Hester Dowden | Oscar Wilde
The morality of the behavior depended on the social standing of the partner, not gender "per se". Both women and young men were considered normal objects of desire, but outside marriage a man was supposed to act on his desires with only slaves, prostitutes (who were often slaves), and the "infames". Gender did not determine whether a sexual partner was acceptable, as long as a man's enjoyment did not encroach on another man's integrity. It was immoral to have sex with another freeborn man's wife, his marriageable daughter, his underage son, or with the man himself; sexual use of another man's slave was subject to the owner's permission.
Homosexuality in ancient Rome | Overview
She weeps as she complains of her husband Peregrine that Barbara Blaze calls Martha's enforced married chastity "monstrous." Martha asks Barbara "How came you by your babies?" and wants to be shown the mechanics of sex. Martha says that "A wanton maid" once kissed and fondled her — a franker indication of lesbian activity than plays of English Renaissance theatre usually provide. [See "The Queen's Exchange" and "A Mad Couple Well-Match'd" for other Brome allusions to lesbianism.]
The Antipodes | Sexuality
Sexuality in the Middle Ages was male-centered and revolved around the idea that a man's penis was required to have fulfilling sexual activity. The lack of attention paid to lesbianism in the Middle Ages can stem from this belief, that as long as a dildo or other penis-shaped object was not used in lesbian relationships, then the relationship was not considered fully sexual.
Homosexuality in medieval Europe | Background
Shakespeare was born in the Elizabethan Era and would certainly have been influenced by culture of that time. According to Henry Threw Stephenson, this time was characterized by a "general freedom of manners". He also points out that people were much more coarse in their discourse during that time and even Queen Elizabeth "swore like a trooper". This could allow Shakespeare to be more crude in his allusions and not hesitate to bring up more indecent sexual imagery without being criticized. During that time in history the bubonic plague was raging throughout Europe, and this meant that many London theaters were frequently shut down, which could have influenced Shakespeare to write more poetic literature and less for a stage audience.
Sonnet 128 | Context
It seems that comic drama could be a means of calming such anxieties. Ironically, the play's popularity suggests that this only increased interest in such behavior. Benedick wittily gives voice to male anxieties about women's "sharp tongues and proneness to sexual lightness". In the patriarchal society of the play, the men's loyalties were governed by conventional codes of honour, camaraderie, and a sense of superiority over women. Assumptions that women are by nature prone to inconstancy are shown in the repeated jokes about cuckoldry, and partly explain Claudio's readiness to believe the slander against Hero. This stereotype is turned on its head in Balthazar's song "Sigh No More", which presents men as the deceitful and inconstant sex that women must suffer.
Much Ado About Nothing | Gender roles
The early plays were influenced by the works of other Elizabethan dramatists, especially Thomas Kyd and Christopher Marlowe, by the traditions of medieval drama, and by the plays of Seneca. "The Comedy of Errors" was also based on classical models, but no source for "The Taming of the Shrew" has been found, though it is related to a separate play of the same name and may have derived from a folk story. Like "The Two Gentlemen of Verona", in which two friends appear to approve of rape, the "Shrew's" story of the taming of a woman's independent spirit by a man sometimes troubles modern critics, directors, and audiences.
William Shakespeare | Plays