[86] See appendix to my edition of Marlowe in the Mermaid Series, first edition.  For a study of Marlowe’s “Gaveston,” regarded as “the hermaphrodite in soul,” see J.A.  Nicklin, Free Review, December, 1895.

[87] As Raffalovich acutely points out, the twentieth sonnet, with its reference to the “one thing to my purpose nothing,” is alone enough to show that Shakespeare was not a genuine invert, as then he would have found the virility of the loved object beautiful.  His sonnets may fairly be compared to the In Memoriam of Tennyson, whom it is impossible to describe as inverted, though in his youth he cherished an ardent friendship for another youth, such as was also felt in youth by Montaigne.

[88] A scene in Vanbrugh’s Relapse, and the chapter (ch. li) in Smollett’s Roderick Random describing Lord Strutwell, may also be mentioned as evidencing familiarity with inversion.  “In our country,” said Lord Strutwell to Rawdon, putting forward arguments familiar to modern champions of homosexuality, “it gains ground apace, and in all probability will become in a short time a more fashionable vice than simple fornication.”

[89] These observations on eighteenth century homosexuality in London are chiefly based on the volumes of Select Trials at the Old Bailey, published in 1734.

[90] Numa Praetorius (Jahrbuch fuer sexuelle Zwischenstufen, Bd. iv, p. 885), who has studied Byron from this point of view, considers that, though his biography has not yet been fully written on the sexual side, he was probably of bisexual temperament; Raffalovich (Uranisme et Unisexualite, p. 309) is of the same opinion.

[91] A youthful attraction of this kind in a poet is well illustrated by Dolben, who died at the age of nineteen.  In addition to a passion for Greek poetry he cherished a romantic friendship of extraordinary ardor, revealed in his poems, for a slightly older schoolfellow, who was never even aware of the idolatry he aroused.  Dolben’s life has been written, and his poems edited, by his friend the eminent poet, Robert Bridges (The Poems of D.M.  Dolben, edited with a Memoir by R. Bridges, 1911).

[92] A well-informed narrative of the Oscar Wilde trial is given by Raffalovich in his Uranisme et Unisexualite, pp. 241-281; the full report of the trial has been published by Mason.  The best life of Wilde is probably that of Arthur Ransome.  Andre Gide’s little volume of reminiscences, Oscar Wilde (also translated into English), is well worth reading.  Wilde has been discussed in relation to homosexuality by Numa Praetorius (Jahrbuch fuer sexuelle Zwischenstufen, vol. iii, 1901).  An instructive document, an unpublished portion of De Profundis, in which Wilde sought to lay the blame for his misfortune on a friend,—­his “ancient affection” for whom has, he declares, been turned to “loathing, bitterness, and contempt,”—­was published in the Times, 18th April, 1913; it clearly reveals an element of weakness of character.