London Labour and the London Poor, Vol. 4

by Henry Mayhew

It seems that the condition as well as the morality of the sex has improved since the laws of the country have become more polished by civilization. The code we have described belonged to a period several years back. Since then a new constitution has been established; the nation has become more free; the penal laws, especially, have been very considerably modified; the relations of the sexes have lost some of the rudeness which characterized them before; and though civilization still remains at a low ebb, public manners have certainly undergone great improvement.

The prostitutes of Copenhagen live, some in a kind of hotel, where they take part in mixed entertainments, to which the dissolute persons of the city congregate; some in a sort of boarding-houses; others in private dwellings of their own; or they lodge in small rooms, and go with their companions to houses where temporary accommodation may be had at various charges. Their numbers would appear to be considerable; and their habits do not differ in any peculiar manner from those of the same class in other cities of the Continent, which afford materials for a more complete description[89].

OF PROSTITUTION IN CIVILIZED STATES.

Introduction.

We have inquired into the history of the female sex under the social laws of antiquity, under the rude codes of barbarian races, and under the Mohammedan and Hindu systems. It will now be interesting to trace it through the dusky period of modern civilization from the rise of Christianity to the middle ages. Many writers afford the materials for a view of the prostitute systems of Europe during that era, and M. Rabuteaux especially has combined their researches in one wide and broad view.

The Christian Emperors of Rome endeavoured to suppress prostitution, but with little success. Constantine, Constantius, Theodosius the Younger, Valentian, and Justinian took up the task by turns, denounced penalties against offenders—those who debauched others, and those who prostituted themselves; but though the world changed its aspect, it did not change its vices. Among the northern barbarians, indeed, austere principles ruled over the people, and women occupied a higher place than is accorded them now. They were companions of the men, not toys for their pleasure, or bagatelles for their amusement. Called, at a later age, to the functions of maternity, they previously learned the use of reason, and succeeded from a virtuous maidenhood to the dignity of matron. The chastity which Tacitus describes among the barbarians of Germany continued long to be their characteristic; but their penal customs became milder as they received better maxims of social policy. A woman who debauched herself was expelled from the city—a sufficient punishment. She had no more any family. Even the ties of paternity were broken. Gradually, however, the barbarian conquerors of Europe bent to the attractions of a corrupted society, and though the laws of the Visigoths forbade prostitution, men were found to encourage and females to pursue this infamous occupation.

The free woman who prostituted herself was, for the first offence, punished with 300 strokes, and for the second reduced to slavery, given to some poor man, and prohibited from entering a town. Parents who connived at the vice of their children were flogged. If the offender was already in bonds, she was whipped, shorn of her hair, and returned to her master. Should he himself be the accomplice of her sin, he lost her, and suffered an equal penalty of the rod. Prostitutes who walked the streets and fields were flung into prison, scourged, and fined. A decree of Theodoric, king of the Goths, declared death against all who gave an asylum or any encouragement to infamous persons.

The epithet of “lost woman” applied to one of honest character was an insult punishable by law—generally by fines. A maiden or a widow was especially protected against such imputation. In France the female who accused another of infamous habits was condemned to pay five sous, or to walk in penance, only clothed in a light shift, while a matron followed, and thrust a fine-pointed instrument above her thighs, more as a humiliation than an injury. The Spanish code also recognised this offence, as well as that of general defamation.

The church was the universal censor of public manners in the middle ages. No sin was more severely denounced by the Christian law than that of licentiousness; yet it inculcated no savage persecution of the fallen. Good men could never forget, that a courtezan had washed the feet of Christ, and accordingly a humanizing spirit presided over the social code of the early fathers. They received into their communion any woman who renounced her evil life, married, and was faithful to her husband, or remained single without prostituting herself again.

Everywhere, indeed, Christianity tolerated prostitution. It was impossible to eradicate vice, and it was better one class should make a profession of it than that all should follow it as a secret occupation. Suppress courtezans, said St. Augustine, and you confuse all society by the caprice of the passions. Nevertheless, efforts were made to check the evil, though the principal rules of this “police of manners” were applied to confine the prostitutes of every town in a separate quarter, and to force on them an uniform apparel, that their shame might not be concealed, and that other women might be safe from the address of brutal libertines.