A history of English sexual morals / by Ivan Bloch ; translated by William H. Forstern.

  • Iwan Bloch
Date:
1936
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: A history of English sexual morals / by Ivan Bloch ; translated by William H. Forstern. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    67/700 (page 37)
    Why are the virtues, every one, Pictur'd as women be, If not to show that they in them Do more excel than we? Since women are so full of worth, Let them all praised be— For commendations they deserve, In ampler wise than we1. This self-assurance of women first found expression in the famous assemblies known as Blue Stocking Clubs. Where did the remarkable name Blue Stocking originate? It began by having no trace of the slighting significance with which it is now used. The real origin of the name is still unknown. I must confine myself to giving various theories upon it. John Timbs finds the oldest mention of a Blue Stocking or ' Bas Bleu ' in the Greek comedy which bears the title of The Banquet of Plutarch, where the name is applied to a woman with a strong liking for the business of literature. Mills, in his History of Chivalry, found the same designation in use in the * Societa de la Calza', founded in Venice in 1400, in which the members at their literary discussions differen- tiated themselves by the colour of their stockings, following the customary usage of Italian Academies in the Middle Ages to employ distinguishing marks. The colours were at first fantastically varied, but one colour, blue, eventually predominated; and this society lasted till 1590. Then the name Blue Stocking reached Paris, where it branded feminine pedantry. From France it was imported into England, where it was used to describe the pettiness of literary effort in feminine coteries. According to Timbs, however, the Blue Stocking of the eighteenth century is a home growth. Boswell noted in his Life of Dr. Johnson, under the date 1781: £ About 1 Doings in London, p. 259. [37]