Carl Otto Czeschka
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
|
Related e |
|
Featured: |
- "In what I say of women, I do speak of some, not of all; and of these, I do use only false names and garbled descriptions. I do keep their identity so carefully hid, none may discover it, and never a breath of scandal can come on them but by mere conjecture and vague suspicion, never by certain inference."
Brantôme (c. 1540–1614) 's posthumously published mémoirs, best-known as Les Vies des Dames Galantes are biographical sketches of the "gallant" men and women of the European courts. Its best known volume is Les Vies des Dames Galantes was quoted by Freud in The Psychopathology of Everyday Life and illustrated by Paul-Emile Bécat and Robert Gibbings. Brantôme left distinct orders that his manuscript should be printed; a first edition appeared late (1665-1666) and not very complete.
Online editions
Alexandrian Society, London, 1922, [1]
The Lives of Fair and Gallant Ladies
includes "modifications based upon good taste and not on any fearful prudery."
The document remarks that a "few of Brantome's examples that illustrate his points belong more in a treatise on abnormal pathology than in a book of literary or historical interest and value, so nothing of any value is lost by omitting them. The rare charm, shrewd wisdom, amusing anecdote, literary merit and historical and social information will be appreciated by intelligent readers.
The cover design used on this book was made by C. O. Czeschka.
The book is divided into seven discourses:
- Of Ladies Which Do Make Love, and Their Husbands Cuckolds
- On the Question Which Doth Give the More Content in Love, Whether Touching, Seeing, or Speaking
- Concerning the Beauty of a Fine Leg, and the Virtue the Same Doth Possess
- Concerning Old Dames as Fond to Practise Love as Ever the Young Ones Be
- Telling How Fair and Honourable Ladies Do Love Brave and Valiant Men, and Brave Men Courageous Women
- Of How We Should Never Speak Ill of Ladies, and of the Consequences of So Doing
- Concerning Married Women, Widows and Maids: to Wit, Which of These Same Be Better Than the Other to Love.
Les Sept Discours Touchant Les Dames Galantes Du Sieur de Brantome
Les Sept Discours Touchant Les Dames Galantes Du Sieur de Brantome is the title of a 1882 edition of Brantome's memoirs Les vies des dames galantes published by BnF curator Henri Bouchot, with drawings by Edouard de Beaumont, engraved by E. Boilvin. The imprint was Librairie des bibliophiles (Paris).
- Premier Discours : « Sur les dames qui font l’amour et leurs maris cocus »
- Deuxième Discours : « Sur le sujet qui contente le plus en amour : le toucher, la vue ou la parole »
- Troisième Discours : « Sur la beauté de la belle jambe et la vertu qu’elle a »
- Quatrième Discours : « Sur l'amour des dames vieilles, et comme certaines l'aiment autant que les jeunes »
- Cinquième Discours : « Les belles et honnêtes dames aiment les hommes vaillants et les hommes braves aiment les femmes courageuses »
- Sixième Discours : « Il ne faut jamais parler mal des dames, et la conséquence qui en vient »
- Septième Discours : « Sur les femmes mariées, les veuves et les filles, à savoir lesquelles sont le plus chaudes à l’amour ».
Gossipy
Brantôme can hardly be regarded as a historian proper, and his Memoirs cannot be accepted as a very trustworthy source of information. But he writes in a quaint conversational way, pouring forth his thoughts, observations or facts without order or system, and with the greatest frankness and naiveté. His works certainly gave an admirable picture of the general court-life of the time, with its unblushing and undisguised profligacy. There is not a homme illustre or a dame galante in all his gallery of portraits who hasn't engaged in what Medieval Christian prescriptions as well as the Victorian society would regard as sexual immorality; and yet the whole is narrated with the most complete unconsciousness that there is anything objectionable in their conduct. Besides the general promiscuity of the characters, some parts of the work depict in a more or less detailed fashion the practices of homosexuality (almost exclusively lesbianism), cunnilingus, and, marginally, sadomasochism (although the persons engaging in these activities usually aren't identified by name). It also contains a rather long and explicit description of the female intimate parts in general, focusing on their diversity.
