Maggie's Farm

Of course the Victorians were both Victorian-repressives and libertines. When you have a society which prohibits mention of such normal pieces of equipment as legs, and shrouds all of its tables in cloths reaching to the floor so that sensitive folks won't have to look at them [legs, I mean], you encourage the rebellion against such silly behaviors and libertinism naturally results. People have to bust out of straitlaced behavior somehow.

And good for them. "I have been faithful to thee, Cynara, in my fashion," as the poem goes.

And you get disillusion: "From too much love of living, from hope and fear set free, I thank with brief thanksgiving, Whatever gods there be, That no life lives forever, That dead men rise up never, That even the weariest river, Winds somewhere safe to sea." Swinburne.

Gloomy, but graceful.

Marianne