Masculine Plural: Queer Classics, Sex, and Education

Description

The Classics were core to the curriculum and ethos of the intensely homosocial Victorian and Edwardian public schools, yet ancient homosexuality and erotic pedagogy were problematic to the educational establishment, which expurgated classical texts with sexual content. This volume analyses the intimate and uncomfortable nexus between the Classics, sex, and education primarily through the figure of the schoolmaster Philip Gillespie Bainbrigge (1890-1918), whose clandestine writings not only explore homoerotic desires but also offer insightful comments on Classical education. Now a marginalized figure, Bainbrigge's surviving works - a verse drama entitled Achilles in Scyros featuring a cross-dressing Achilles and a Chorus of lesbian schoolgirls, and a Latin dialogue between schoolboys - vividly demonstrate the queer potential of Classics and are marked by a celebration of the pleasures of sex and a refusal to apologize for homoerotic desire. Reprinted here in their entirety, they are accompanied by chapters setting them in their social and literary context, including their parallels with the writings of Bainbrigge's contemporaries and near contemporaries, such as John Addington Symonds, E. M. Forster, and A. E. Housman. What emerges is a provocative new perspective on the history of sexuality and the place of the Classics within that history, which demonstrates that a highly queer version of Classics was possible in private contexts. Cover Masculine Plural: Queer Classics, Sex, and Education Copyright Dedication Acknowledgements Contents Introduction I. Beethoven, Botticelli, Beer, and Boys II. Pages Passed from Hand to Hand III. The Classics and Sexuality in Victorian and Edwardian Education IV. . . . and Boys: ‘Uranian’ Bainbrigge? DIALOGVS: JOCVNDVS : ROBERTVS Note on the Text and Translation Errata 1: In Decent Latin: Dialogus. Jocundus: Robertus I. The Decent Obscurity of a Learned Tongue II. All Greek to Me III. Tales out of School IV. Classics and the Schoolroom 2: Sex, Latin, and Scholarship: A. E. Housman’s Praefanda I. A Poet and a Scholar II. Things That Require an Apology III. Words to Play with IV. Pleasure in Parentheses V. Praeteritio VI. Knowingness VII. Conclusion ACHILLES IN SCYROS Note on the Text Achilles in Scyros: A Classical Comedy PREFACE DRAMATIS PERSONAE Achilles in Scyros 3: Here Aphrodite Is Not: Achilles in Scyros I. Parodies and Burlesques: Models for the Play II. Masculine Plural: Bainbrigge’s Audience and the Homoerotic Literary Tradition III. Give a Girl a Girl to Greet her: Bainbrigge’s Sapphistries IV. Perhaps There’s a Man in the Case V. A Change of Sex Would Never Do: Gender Fluidity and Sexuality VI. Conclusion: All Legitimate Delight Conclusion: Queer Classics Appendix Roman Rhymes Sonnets Bibliography Index