LITMIR.BIZ

      The libertine environment of the Age of Enlightenment thus had many predecessors. In France, the creation of a true court society under Ludwig XIV, which was subject to specific and mandatory rules, meant only that the orgiastic tendencies which continued were smothered with hypocrisy. During the Rococo period, sexual licentiousness took on forms which are almost incomprehensible to today’s sensitivities. “Not only,” writes Paul Englisch in his The History of European Morals, “did women change their lovers on a regular basis, but men also bestowed their favours on the ladies from the ballet and the opera. Demanding freedom for themselves and granting it to their spouses, couples finally formed entire love associations in order to escape the businesslike ambience of the brothels and thus to drain the cup of lust down to the last drop. Such societies or associations were regulated with specific statutes and articles and often persevered for many years. The best-known ones were the Order of Bliss, The Society of Aphrodites, whose statutes and articles were the primary subjects of a comprehensive pornographic novel by Nerciat, as well as the Société du Moment, the Secte Anandryne, and others. These pornographic clubs not only cultivated heterosexual love, bisexuality as well as homosexuality came into their own. It would be safe to say that [Marquis] de Sade in his awful novels did indeed stick to nature, when he depicts not only young boys and girls, men and women, but also animals that serve to satisfy every single lecherous lust and desire in his club, the Association for the Friends of Crime. Vices have been incorporated into a system, but one wants nothing more than to be profligate, only to find the bliss of crime in these vices.”

      Outside France, the lords and ladies of Europe also participated in this orgiastic fashion. For example, in Dresden in 1750, young aristocrats metamorphosed into nude dancers; jokesters imitated them during traditional balls held by the common people in the small towns and in the countryside.

      London during the Age of Enlightenment was a veritable hub of organised promiscuity. William Hogarth has depicted this in his splendidly described tavern scenes from around 1733. Here, the bourgeois artist condemns the decadent vices of the aristocracy as the ruler over destruction and violence.

      The Russian aristocracy, parroting the West in everything, displayed its orgiastic tastes without shame. Among many details about the love life of the court, Englisch’s proof consists of the transvestite balls, which were organised in Moscow by the Czarina Elisabeth in 1744. All men wore women’s clothing and vice versa without anybody ever hiding behind a mask.