Hidden pornographic poems explain 'bestseller' success of C18 poetical volumes

4 February 2011

An Oxford University academic has explained the secret behind the success of two of the best selling volumes of poetic miscellanies in the 18th Century – a series of pornographic poems were hidden at the back of the book.

Dr Claudine van Hensbergen of the English Faculty came across ‘The Cabinet of Love’ in two volumes of The Works of the Earls of Rochester and Roscommon while cataloguing poetic miscellanies for Oxford University’s Digital Miscellanies Index project, funded by the Leverhulme Trust.

Although the existence of The Cabinet is already known about, Dr van Hensbergen is the first to attribute the success of The Works – which was reprinted more than 20 times in the 18th Century – to the dirty ditties, whose location would initially have been spread by word of mouth.

The finding suggests that what we think of as high art and low art was being packaged, sold and read together in the 18th Century – and raises questions about whether the popularity of other bestselling books might have different explanations.

Dr van Hensbergen said: ‘I had just finished entering details of poems typical of miscellanies of the period- satires, imitations and amatory verse, when at the end of the second volume a new title page announced the start of ‘The Cabinet of Love’.’

‘To my surprise, ‘The Cabinet’ turned out to be a collection of pornographic verse about dildos. The poems include ‘Dildoides’, a poem attributed to Samuel Butler about the public burning of French-imported dildos, ‘The Delights of Venus’, a poem in which a married woman gives her younger friend an explicit account of the joys of sex, and ‘The Discovery’, a poem about a man hiding in a woman’s room to watch her masturbate in bed. ‘The Discovery’ is accompanied by an engraving that was reprinted throughout the century.

‘In later years, a celebratory poem about condoms was added, as well as several obscene botanically themed verses attributed to ‘a Member of a Society of Gardeners’ in which male genitalia is described as the ‘tree of life’.’

One verse from The Cabinet reads: ‘Then from the Table she her Garment took/Where, in her Pocket, was a bawdy Book/Which she remov’d, and thence drew out a Tool/Much like to that with which Men Women rule/She it apply’d where I’m asham’d to tell/And acted what I could have done as well/Soon from her Womb a slimy Matter sprung’.

Dr van Hensbergen said: ‘I think the inclusion of ‘The Cabinet’ is key to understanding why this miscellany proved so popular for so long. Although its existence is not made clear on the title page of The Works, word of it must have spread as in the later decades of the century ‘The Cabinet’ was properly integrated into the volume, and was even bound at least twice at the opening of volume two. We know pornographic writing was printed and sold in the period but it’s difficult to establish a complete record. In many cases all we have to go on are references to the titles of pornographic works rather than the books themselves.

The notorious printer Edmund Curll first inserted ‘The Cabinet’ into a 1714 edition of The Works, and it was reprinted more than twenty times throughout the century.

Dr van Hensbergen said: ‘The Cabinet’ is unusual because it shows us that people read pornographic writing directly alongside the verse of major poets. This raises interesting questions about what counts as literature and where the boundaries between high and low culture lie. These ideas were much more fluid in the 18th century than they are today.’  Samuel Pepys provides a good example of how, in some cases, pornographic works were read and then destroyed: an entry in Pepys’s diary for January 1668 reveals how on browsing in a London bookshop he picked up a copy of the French work, ‘L’Ecole des Filles’, thinking it would be a good book for improving his wife’s language skills. When he realised it was a pornographic work he left the shop, only to return later to buy himself a copy. In his diary he records masturbating whilst reading it, before burning the book so that it wouldn’t be found in his library. Ironically, the survival of his diary has linked him to the work for posterity and serves as proof that this book found its way onto English shores.

Dr van Hensbergen is preparing an article on “The Cabinet’, thinking about how its circulation alongside the works of the Earl of Rochester helped to cement a cultural link between Rochester and pornography. The original English libertine, Rochester produced a significant body of poetry, impressive for its biting satirical wit and scope of enquiry. Rochester famously employed obscene language and imagery in his work, but he did so to reveal the dark and uninviting side of human nature and society. His poems stand in opposition to pornographic writing – like that found in ‘The Cabinet’ – which ultimately seeks to arouse sexual desire. ‘Rochester continues to occupy an assured but ambivalent position in the literary canon as we still find it difficult to separate his reputation from his work.’

Dr Abigail Williams, the principal investigator of the Digital Miscellanies Index project said: ‘Finding ‘The Cabinet of Love’ is another great example of why the Digital Miscellanies Index project is so important, as it’s giving us a fuller picture of the poems being read in the 18th century, and the often surprising ways in which they were collected together. Miscellanies are an often overlooked resource that can tell us a lot about poetic taste in the period’.

The team behind the Digital Miscellanies Index are working to create an online catalogue of the world’s largest collection of 18th century miscellanies, a body of works vital to understanding the diversity of 18th century literary culture. It is a three-year Research Project Grant funded by the Leverhulme Trust. The Works is held in Oxford University’s Bodleian Library, among other places.

Dr Claudine van Hensbergen is available all day for interviews and is contactable on 01865 274171, 07968 043349 or Claudine.vanhensbergen@ell.ox.ac.uk. For more information, contact Matt Pickles at the University of Oxford Press Office on 01865 270046 or matt.pickles@admin.ox.ac.uk

http://digitalmiscellaniesindex.org/
 
The Discovery
She naked stood, whilst I with Joy adore
The finest Shape I e’er had seen before;
Her little, pretty, panting Bubbies were
As white as Snow, and as the Chrystal clear.
I something saw, which was but thinly hair’d,
It not too bushy, nor too bald appear’d;
The Charms of which, I’ll from the Reader hide,
For ‘twas more lovely than I can describe.
The Sight of which set all my Blood on Fire,
Made ----- foam with over-much Desire,
And swelling, shew’d he wanted to be nigher.
Oh! there I thought I could for ever dwell,
Partaking Bliss beyond what Tongue can tell…
She turn’d her round, then sate upon the Bed;
Her Lilly Hands pull’d ope her Maidenhead.
She strove to view what I more plain could see.
Which rais’d my Passion to an Extasy.
The Sight alone soon made me shed my ----,
And spill that ---- of which she stood in need.
Then from the Table she her Garment took,
Where, in her Pocket, was a bawdy Book;
Which she remov’d, and thence drew out a Tool,
Much like to that with which Men Women rule;
She it apply’d where I’m asham’d to tell,
And acted what I could have done as well.
Soon from her Womb a slimy Matter sprung;
Poor ----- starts, and thinks he suffers Wrong;
And in Revenge, he now again lets fly,
And spewing, fell down in an Agony.
With Transport he some little Time lay dead,
But soon reviving, rais’d his Coral Head.
 
 
A Panegrick Upon Cundums
Cundum I sing -- by Cundum now I cure
Boldly the willing Maid, by Fear a while
Kept virtuous, owns thy Pow'r, and takes thy Joys
Tumultuous; Joys untasted but by them.
Unknown big Belly, and squawling Brat,
Best Guard of Modesty! She riots now
Thy Vo'try, in the Fulness of thy Bliss.
...
Happy the Man, who in his Pocket keeps,
Whether with green or scarlet Ribband bound,
A well made Cundum -- He, nor dreads the Ills
Of Shankers or Cordee, or Bubos dire!
...
With Cundum Shield, at Rummer best supply'd,
Or never-failing Rose; so you may thrum
Th' ecstatic Harlot, and each joyous Night
Crown with fresh Raptures; 'till at least unhurt,
And sated with the Banquet, you retire.
By me forwarn'd thus may you ever treat
Love's pleasing Paths in blest Security.