[26] Frenolle is the word in the text—probably a fantastic term, since Pierre’s “instrument” is not known by that name in Haut Bretagne. Farmer, in his monumental work Slang and its Analogues, (Privately Printed, 1890-1904) and Landes (Glossaire Érotique de la Langue française—Brussels, 1861) do not include the word in their comprehensive lists of French erotic synonyms for penis. Nor can we find mention of it in Vocabula Amatoria (London, 1896). Littré, even, does not give the word.
[27] Kruptadia: Heilbronn: 1883: Henninger Frères: vol. 1: Secret Stories from the Russian.
[28] Lui donne le mot. “Put him wise” would be the exact modern equivalent.
[29] C.f. Excursus to The Tale of Kamar al-Zaman, where the subject is discussed at length.
[30] In The Night of Power we have the story of a man who, believing that three prayers would be granted to him, consults his wife as to what he shall ask. She advises him to ask Allah to “greaten and magnify his yard.” He does so, whereupon his yard “became as big as a column, and he could neither sit nor stand nor move about nor even stir from his stead; and when he would have carnally known his wife, she fled before him from place to place.” In distress the husband asks, as his second wish, to be delivered of this burden, and “immediately his prickle disappeared altogether and he became clean smooth. When his wife saw this, she said: ‘I have no occasion for thee now thou art become pegless as an eunuch, shaven and shorn.... Pray Allah the most High to restore thee thy yard as it was.’ So he prayed to his Lord and his prickle was restored to its first estate. Thus the man lost his three wishes by the ill counsel and lack of wit in the woman.” Our brief summary is taken from Sir Richard F. Burton’s translation of The Thousand Nights and a Night.
[31] Memoirs of Jacques Casanova: For the first time translated into English and Privately Printed, 1894: 12 vols.: 1000 copies only. Also Mémoires de J. Casanova de Seingalt: Garnier Frères, Paris, N.D. Our text is a blend of the two versions.
[32] i.e., naked.
[33] Capote Anglaise: in slang terms, a French letter or condom. The French talk about an “English” letter; we say the reverse.
[34] “Fleece,” of course, is an accepted erotic term for pubic hair (Farmer: Slang and its Analogues); c.f. also the French term toison. Helène’s hirsute adornment is in keeping with psychological precept—that hairiness and sensuality go hand in hand. Havelock Ellis, in his Studies, quotes numerous authorities who are strongly of this opinion, (vol. 5: Erotic Symbolism). Lombroso, he adds, found that prostitutes generally tend to be hairy. In another volume of his Studies, Havelock Ellis relates the history of a man for whom a hirsute mons veneris always had a peculiar attraction. “When accosted by prostitutes,” says the subject of this history, “I would never go with them unless assured that the mons veneris was very hirsute.” That genial old soldier Brantôme (Lives of Fair and Gallant Ladies: Translated by A. R. Allinson: Paris, Charles Carrington, 1901) says: “I have heard speak of a certain great lady, and I have known her myself and do know her still, who is all shaggy and hairy over the chest, stomach, shoulders and all down the spine, and on her bottom, like a savage.... The proverb hath it, no person thus hairy is ever rich or wanton; but verily in this case the lady is both the one and the other, I can assure you....” Brantôme also speaks of women who “have hair in that part not curly at all, but so long and drooping, you would say they were the moustachios of a Saracen’s head. Nathless they do never remove this fleece, but prefer to have it so, seeing there is a saying: ‘A grassgrown path and a hairy coynte are both good roads to ride.’ ... I have heard speak of another fair and honourable lady which did have the hair of this part so long she would entwine the same with strings or ribbons of silk, crimson and other colours, and have them curled like the curls of a wig, and attached to her thighs. And in such guise would she show her motte to her husband or lover. Or else she would unwind the ribbons and cords, so that the hair did remain after in curl, and looking prettier so than it would otherwise have done.” Elsewhere Brantôme tells of a gentleman of his acquaintance who, while sleeping with a very beautiful lady, “and one of good condition, and doing his devoir with her, did find in that part sundry hairs so sharp and prickly that ‘twas with all the difficulty in the world he could finish, so sharply did these prick and pierce him....” Abnormal growth of pubic hair is by no means confined to conte and fable. Jahn, says Havelock Ellis in his Studies, delivered a woman whose pubic hair was longer than that of her head, reaching below her knees. Paulini also knew a woman “whose pubic hair nearly reached her knees and was sold to make wigs. Bartholin mentions a soldier’s wife who plaited her pubic hair behind her back.” (Erotic Symbolism). We have no actual evidence that Helène’s growth was of these abnormal dimensions, but it was obviously out of the ordinary to provoke comment from a man of Casanova’s experience.
[35] Pietro Aretino, author of The Ragionamenti, is generally supposed to have enumerated a variety of postures in which the venereal act might be performed. To the many he is known solely as “the man of the postures.” This particular claim to distinction is, to say the least, a matter much in dispute, but we will reserve discussion of the question for Vol. 2 of Anthologica Rarissima, where lavish excerpts from Aretino’s works will be given.