Hic, ubi vir non est, ut sit adulterium,
(“a strange thing,” that is, “that where no man is, yet is adultery done.”)
I knew once a courtesan of Rome, old and wily if ever there was one, that was named Isabella de Luna,[100*] a Spanish woman, which did take in this sort of friendship another courtesan named Pandora. This latter was eventually married to a butler in the Cardinal d’Armaignac’s household, but without abandoning her first calling. Now this same Isabella did keep her, and extravagant and ill-ordered as she was in speech, I have oft times heard her say how that she did cause her to give her husbands more horns than all the wild fellows she had ever had. I know not in what sense she did intend this, unless she did follow the meaning of the Epigram of Martial just referred to.
’Tis said how that Sappho the Lesbian was a very high mistress in this art, and that in after times the Lesbian dames have copied her therein, and continued the practice to the present day. So Lucian saith: such is the character of the Lesbian women, which will not suffer men at all. Now such women as love this practice will not suffer men, but devote themselves to other women and are called tribads, a Greek word derived, as I have learned of the Greeks, from τρίδω, τρίδειν, that is to say fricare. These tribads are called in Latin fricatrices, and in French the same, that is women who do the way of donne con donne, as it is still found at the present day.
Juvenal again speaks of these women, when he saith:[101*]
... frictum Grissantis adorat
talking of such a tribad, who adored and loved the embraces of one Grissas.
The excellent and diverting Lucian hath a chapter on this subject, and saith therein how that women do come mutually together. Moreover this name of tribad, which doth elsewhere occur but rarely as applied to these women, is freely employed by him throughout, and he saith that the female sex must needs be like the notorious Philaenis, who was used to parody the actions of manly love. At the same time he doth add, ’tis better far for a woman to be given up to a lustful affection for playing the male, than it is for a man to be womanish; so utterly lacking in all courage and nobility of character doth such an one show himself. Thus the woman, according to this, which doth counterfeit the man, may well be reputed to be more valorous and courageous than another, as in truth I have known some such to be, as well in body as in spirit.
En un autre endroit, Lucien introduit deux dames devisantes de cet amour; et une demande à l’autre si une telle avait été amoureuse d’elle, et si elle avait couché avec elle, et ce qu’elle lui avait fait. L’autre répondit librement: “Premièrement, elle me baisa ainsi que font les hommes, non pas seulement en joignant les lèvres, mais en ouvrant aussi la bouche, cela s’entend en pigeonne, la langue en bouche; et, encore qu’elle n’eût point le membre viril et qu’elle fût semblable à nous autres, si est-ce qu’elle disait avoir de coeur, l’affection et tout le reste viril; et puis je l’embrassai comme un homme, et elle me le faisait, me baisait et allentait (je n’entends point bien ce mot), et me semblait qu’elle y prit plaisir outre mesure, et cohabita d’une certain Jaçon beaucoup plus agréable que d’un homme.” Voila ce qu’en dit Lucien.