[92] We are quoting from the English translator’s “Notice of Nicolas Chorier” in the Liseux edition already mentioned.
[93] The Sotadical Satire is so-called after Sotades, who lived three centuries before Christ, and whose erotic poems are unfortunately lost.—English Translator’s note. According to a note in Priapeia (Cosmopoli, 1890, Privately Printed), Sotades, the Mantinean poet, was the first to treat of Greek love, or dishonest and unnatural love. He wrote in the Ionian dialect, and according to Suidas he was the author of a poem entitled Cinædica (Martial, 2. 86). The title would leave us in no doubt as to the trend of the work. (Cinædus = he who indulges in unnatural lust; Cinædicus = pertaining to one who is unchaste.—Smith’s Latin English Dictionary.) C.f. also Sir Richard Burton’s “Sotadic Zone” in the Terminal Essay to The Thousand Nights and a Night (op. cit. sup.).
[94] The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio: Englished by John Payne: Villon Society, 1886. This is the fourth story of the fifth day, the actual title being: “Ricciardo Manardi, being found by Messer Lizio da Valbona with his daughter, espouseth her and abideth with her father in peace.”
[95] Kruptadia: Heilbronn: Henninger Frères, 1883: vol. 1: Secret Stories from the Russian.
[96] The text says: ce cher petit, which may be interpreted as referring to the wife’s pudendum. C.f. Le petit je ne sais quoi (“My~little~what’s~its~name”), a common erotic term for the parts concerned. (Farmer: Slang and its Analogues; Landes: Glossaire Érotique; and Le petit Citateur: Notes Érotiques et Pornographiques.) The last authority considers that the word trou (hole) would be understood in the text. Trou, of course, is a common French erotic term for the feminine pudendum. On the other hand, the word jeu (game) may be understood, which would be equally applicable. C.f. Farmer (Slang, etc., vol. 3, p. 110): “The first game ever played,” i.e., copulation. Also Landes (Gloss. Érot.): “Game: employed in an obscene sense to denote the sexual act.”
[97] Alène is the word in the text. Not an erotic term for penis in French and English slang, though we have the verb “to bore.” C.f. Farmer: Slang and its Analogues, for his amazing list of synonyms denoting the sexual act under the heading “Ride.” Blondeau, in his Dictionnaire Érotique (Isidore Liseux: Paris, 1885), gives no word in his collection of Latin terms for penis which approximates exactly to the sense of awl. Landes, Delvau (Dictionnaire Érotique), and Le petit Citateur (op. cit. supra) make no mention of the word. In our story Danilka, in his very primitive fashion, has used an expression which explains in the simplest way his actions in the sleigh.
[98] Memoirs of Jacques Casanova: Privately Printed, 1894. Also Mémoires de J. Casanova de Seingalt: Garnier Frères: Paris, n.d. Our text is a blend of the two versions.
[99] Badinage in the French text; i.e., playfulness, frolic, sport, etc., which is hardly in keeping with the context.
[100] Literally, according to French text: “Her caresses quench a fire which would kill me did I not weaken its force by this make-belief.”
[101] i.e., to the grating.