Behn and Rochester
STIs
sexual health
disability
not aware of anatomy?: "But never did young shepherdess,/ Gathering of fern upon the plain,/ More nimbly draw her fingers back,/ Finding beneath the verdant leaves, a snake," (142)
"Silent as yielding maid's consent" (140)
gross
"While the o'er-ravished shephered lies/ Unable to perform the sacrifice"
-so unable to actually engage?
"But oh what envious gods conspire/ To snatch his power, yet leave him the desire1" (141)
"damned him to the hell of impotence" (142)
"Now all the brisk and active fire/ That should the nobler part inflame,/ Served to increase his rage and shame"
-humour talk
"Transported, thinks himself amidst his foes" (236)
-PTSD; war-induced perhaps
"So when my days of impotence approach,/ And I'm by pox and wine's unlucky chance" (236)
-pox refers to syphilis
so old age not only brings about physical aging but also sexual diseases bc no medical remedies
"My pains at least some respite shall afford" (236)
"Nor let the sight of honorourable scars,/ Which my too forward valour did procure,"
-so definitely war-related
"When I was strong,/ and able to bear arms" (236)
but also the conquering-aspect of war--basically you can have all the women you want from the lands you conquer. Which further leads to rise in STDs
"thunderbolt" is a great way to say dick (240)
"In liquid raptures I dissolve all o'er,/ Melt into sperm, and spend at every pore" (240)
-dude just busted without putting it in
heat talk: "Ev'n her fair hand, which might bid heat return/ To frozen age, and make cold hermits burn,/ Applied to my ded cinder, warms no more" (240)
"Thou treacherous, base, deserter of my flame,/ False to my passion, fatal to my fame" (241
jesus christ: "Worse part of me, and henceforth hated most,/ Through all the town, a common fucking post,/ On whom each whore relieves her tingling cunt,/ As hogs on gates do rub themselves and grunt" (241)
"May'st thou to ravenous chancres be a prey,/ Or in consuming weepings waste away. May strangury and stone thy days attend" (241)