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.

    80/700 (page 50)
    CHAPTER II MARRIAGE According to Taine women in England are more womanly and men more manly than elsewhere. Each of the two natures reach their extreme development; the one, that of courage, resistance and initiative; the other, that of gentleness and self-sacrifice; the one is great in contentious- ness, determination and dominance, the other inexhaustible in patience and self-effacement. Hence the happiness and permanence of married life in England. In France marriage is the union merely of two comrades on very much the same footing: hence the perpetual crossness and irritation. In contrast to the woman in Southern countries, the woman in England yields herself up entirely, without care for herself: she seeks her happiness in obedience, in generosity, in service. She preserves one wish only, to live day by day ever more fully in the life of the husband she has chosen freely and for ever. Witness a long procession of characters in German and English literature. This old Germanic instinct is portrayed by Beaumont and Fletcher (in the characters of Bianca, Ordella, Arethusa, Juliana, Euphrasia, Amoret), Webster (Duchess of Main, Isabella), Ford and Greene (Penthea, Dorothea), etc. All these and many other women display a wonderful power of sacrifice and generosity in the midst of the sorest trials and the strongest temptations. Their soul is at once primitive and grave. Here women remain loyal longer than elsewhere. Their love does not consist in [50]