Homosexuality in Renaissance England

Between Men-Between Women: Lesbian and Gay Studies

by Alan Bray

The book is a scholarly analysis of what homosexuality meant in England at the end of the Middle Ages to the middle of the 17th century, d the English Renaissance. He sees the book as a continuation of the research of Henry Weeks and Michel Foucault. Chapter 1 attempts to see the past on its own terms. "To grasp where homosexuality was placed in the mental universe of the people who lived in that long past society, its place in their world of myth and symbol. Chapter 2 is an analysis of its place in that society. Chapter 3 "attempts to explain the disparity between those two viewpoints. " [This] is the heart of this book. Chapter 4 compares this with what will emerge later in the late 17th and early 18th centuries.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, LGBT, Queer, Gay, Renaissance, Queer Studies

156 pages, Hardcover

First published December 31, 1988

Reviews

[George Ilsley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Written in a dry, academic style, this book is a hard slog. It is ambitious, in its attempt to peer back in time to find something that was hidden, secret and frequently unnamed.

Not sure about all of Bray's conclusions for those reasons: just because there is no record does not mean something did not exist. But what exactly was that "something" and what form did it take? That is indeed a fascinating question, one that provokes much speculation.

[Richard Derus · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got my copy of this in London in the earlyish 1980s; I've managed to hold onto it for sneaking up on forty years! There is a Columbia University Press edition of the book in paperback...it's hugely expensive no matter whose prices you pay, but it is absolutely worth the money.

There is an entire series of romance novels, of varying levels of steam, in these dry pages. It is fascinating as history and supercalafragilisticexpialadocious as inspiration. Strongly recommended!

[Joshua · Rating 4 out of 5]

So, this book was...good. But also really, really, REALLY academic and rambly. Still I found the material fascinating. Alan Bray seems at times like he's not entirely sure how he will be able to support the argument he's making, or whether or not an argument can even be made, but once the reader pushes past this uncertainty they'll arrive at a passage where he explores the presence and existence of homosexuality in Renaissance England and the often tragic existence such men faced. I say men because consistently nobody ever bothered tp write down anything about lesbianism, which I think is uncool.

Moving on.

Homosexuality in Renaissance England is an important book for being one of the earliest attempts at exploring the topic of homosexuality in history as a legitimate topic. For this reason, the book deserves plenty of street-cred. Still, it's also a book which has a lot of structural issue and bounces between what it wants and what it can actually give. Any reader who approaches this book can expect a fair amount of thick and academic discourse, but also plenty of insightful passages about homosexuality in the culture of the Renaissance.

It's a flawed book, but it ain't bad book y'all.

[Rowan MacBean · Rating 3 out of 5]

Essentially, this is more of a long scholarly essay than it is a book. Despite the brevity, it took me forever to read because the footnotes were stuffed into an appendix at the end of the book so I had to constantly flip around instead of just glancing down at the bottom of the page to see if there were interesting tidbits or if it was just a bibliographical note.

Anyway, it was interesting and informative, if not riveting. (Sadly, most non-fiction isn't written to be riveting though it should be because then maybe more people would take an interest in learning.) Though I have to say that the fourth chapter, which is about molly houses, is extremely interesting. It's given me some ideas for original writing and I'm very glad I bought this book because now I've got it as a reference point whenever I may need it.

All in all, an interesting read if you have a mind for scholarly writing and are interested in the topic. But it's not the sort of thing you'll want to toss into your bag for beach reading this summer, most likely.

[Nick]

This was pretty interesting , particularly regarding post-1650 as a new and distinct break from the past: wheras sodomy was previously a background feature of society, it now emerged as a distinct culture, as evidenced by the appearance of mollyhouses and in the increasing arrests of 'mollies' en masse. With no changes to the actual level of hatred society directed towards sodomites (a claim nonetheless disputed by those like Lawrence Stone), the author concludes that these societies represent something new in gay culture and are a signal for the immense changes that were to sweep Western Europe at large in the ensuing decades.

However, I am unconvinced by his argument that changing philosophies and ideas are the main reasons for this. I don't doubt that ideas began to emphase the /particular/ over the /general/ or the allegorical compared to Elizabethan and Jacobean times, but it is difficult to see a clear causal chain here. This is especially true given that the proof is mostly illustrated through the ideas of Locke et al which weren't exactly representative of their time. It seems to me more likely that altered material circumstances and patterns of life, be they the rise of capitalism, the breakdown of traditional bonds of duties and rights, increasing urbanism, and the chaos of the civil wars may have had more to do with these novelties. I'm certainly not enough of an expert to back up these claims, though.

Of interest: apparently this is an enduring classic owing to it being one of the first historical explorations of the topic of homosexuality in this period, and so it is owed a lot for what it opened for others.

Also, it was fascinating to read about a short account of a raid of a mollyhouse that seems to parallel the fabled Stonewall riot some 230 years later. The more things change the more they stay the same:
"When a molly house in Covent Garden was broken up in 1725, the crowded household, many of them in drag, met the raid with determined and violent resistance."

[Mary L · Rating 4 out of 5]

Homosexuality in Renaissance England briefly discusses recorded homosexual relationships, and how people perceived homosexuality in the Elizabethan, Jacobean, Caroline, and Georgian eras in England.

In the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras, homosexuality was seen as an act, akin to bestiality or incest, not as an identity or sexuality. People viewed homosexuality as a sin because they perceived it to be outside of god’s established order, even locating it outside of hell. For their extremely hierarchical society, homosexuality was a problem because it innately disrupted the social order.

Although homosexuality in the public eye wasn’t tolerated, it was somewhat tolerated institutionally. In households and schools, the masters or teachers would often sleep with other male servants or students. That is to say that homosexuality was tolerated as long as it remained in (or was weaponized by) the patriarchal hierarchy.

Homosexual prostitution has been a thing for a long time, but in the Georgian era, people began to become more aware of and persecute homosexual brothels and taverns, termed molly houses. Because of this awareness, homosexuality became associated with a type of person, not just an action that people did—a step toward homosexuality becoming an identity and sexuality.

Overall, Homosexuality in Renaissance England is a fascinating book. My only criticism is that I wish the book could have mentioned homosexual female relationships of the period, but it’s ultimately a stellar work.

[Ronnie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Homosexuality in Renaissance England is a somewhat dry, very academic look at... Well, homosexuality in Renaissance England. The title is pretty much what you get (though the last chapter -- out of four -- is about the early 18th century and the birth of Molly houses).

Examining trial records and literature from the time, Bray argues that there wasn't some secret, gay-tolerant society hidden under the laws that would hang a man if he was found engaging in homosexual acts like some people claim. It wasn't something that people just quietly did while winking and nudging one another, everyone in on this funny joke that ostensibly gave the death penalty to gay men while secretly allowing them to continue. But he does claim that homosexuality was, nevertheless, something that existed and eventually found a network of communities in the 18th century that resisted the persecution and vitriol that was leveled at it.

Like I said, it's fairly dry, but it's short (I finished it, cover-to-cover) in a single evening and it's very interesting.

[Maxwell DeMay · Rating 3 out of 5]

1 / 4 : If your kind of thing, read

[From "buggers" and "sodomites," to the clubbing "mollies."]

Anachronism is the word to be avoided at all cost in Bray's scholarship. Homosexuality was not conceived of as a fixed state back then, so that is not how it should be understood historically now.

Towards the end, he raises the question, the most interesting question, as to why did the gays start to conglomerate into their own little units towards the end of the 17th century? The answer is unknowable to Bray because, as the book emphasizes, sexuality does not have a linear history.

[Paperandyarn · Rating 3 out of 5]

So many words to say so little

[Myeonhua · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alan Bray the icon you are

[Annabel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have used this critical work several times as a point of reference in literature analysis and research into Renaissance England. Bray's ideas are not particularly innovative or inspiring, but they are sound and his writing remains academic and strong.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quite a dry book, but full of solid information. Scholar of the period will find this text to be of particular use.

[Julie Bozza]

From my sis. :-) It's a merry Christmas, all right!