Sex life in England / Iwan Bloch.

  • Iwan Bloch
Date:
1934
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Sex life in England / Iwan Bloch. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    26/368 page 22
    1111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111 SEX LIFE IN ENGLAND ! I ! I I I I I I I I I I 1 I I 1 I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I 1 I I I I I I I I I I I I I anything to compare with them, and the loose, discursive materials do not swamp or sully him who controls them as a master. The society of the Restoration is the creation of King Charles II alone. It stands and falls with him. Never did any king, not even Louis XV, so stamp his personality upon his environment, immediate and distant. Let it not be said that it is always the energetic characters which exercise the greatest influence upon their contemporaries. Inertia too can become infectious, especially when it occurs in such a virtuoso of pleasure as King Charles was. Add to this the general attitude of the people who saw in this king, returning from exile, the liberator from the oppressive bonds of Puritanism and dated the beginning of a new and merry way of life from his return. No English king was ever as popular as he; and Macaulay with his thoroughly English feeling has given a very excellent summary of the reasons for this. His merriment and joviality were mani- fested not only in the narrow court circle but also in the wider reaches of the people, as the king permitted every gentleman access to his palace. This affability was combined with a soft, mild, tender and lazy disposi- tion. If sloth is the beginning of all sin, this is especially true of Charles II. In a very old edition of the works of Rochester and Dorset, we learn that Charles was more negligent than passionate, and, like many female libertines of his time, permitted himself to be drawn into excesses more for the purpose of making others happy than for his own pleasure. Par- ticularly in the last years of his life, it was much more sloth than love that accounted for all the hours he spent among his mistresses who only served the purpose of filling his seraglio. His real pleasure was derived from gaming and dawdling. In the psychology of the voluptuary one must not overlook the fact that it is not always passion that creates idle- ness; frequently enough the converse of the vicious circle holds true— that idleness is the mother of vice. Just so Charles was a lover of idleness and frivolous pleasures. Even though this monarch, without principles, character or energy, was of a sensual nature and had established a veritable harem of mis- tresses, nevertheless, love was for him more of a diversion than a deep passion.
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3