and to inspire them to examine the more familiar works with new perspectives.
To that end, the work is essentially descriptive. The first chapter discusses the
backgrounds of gender ambiguities and same-sex behavior in the ancient world
through the Middle Ages. The second chapter discusses Renaissance sodomiti-
cal practices and transvestite theatre roughly from 1560 to 1603 when James
Stuart was crowned king of England. The third and fourth chapters deal with
manifestations of same-sex attraction in the Stuart court and on the Stuart
stage--the earlier dealing with female transvestitism between 1603 and 1625,
and the later dealing with Neoplatonism between 1625 and 1642. Because
English theatre was virtually shut down during the Protectorate, peripheral
discussions of theatre between 1642 and 1660 are included in chapters four and
five. The fifth chapter ( 1660-1688) deals essentially with bisexuality, both in
the Restoration court and on the Restoration stage and explores the new phe-
nomena of the effeminate "fop" and the "masculinized" transvestite actress.
The sixth chapter discusses the development of the character of the beau be-
tween 1688 and 1702, the emergence of a lesbian drama commensurate with
the bisexual drives of the queens of England, and the manifestation of same-sex
behavior in "pirate" drama. The seventh chapter examines the association be-
tween effeminacy and same-sex attraction in the character of the beau between
1702 and 1750, particularly in the genre of the ballad opera, and explores the
relationship between castration and a "homosexual" identity. The eighth chap-
ter discusses the development of the "pretty gentleman" trope, the rise of Eng-
lish homophobia, and the proliferation of lesbian relationships in England be-
tween 1745 and 1790. The ninth chapter examines the homophobic environ-
ment surrounding the romantic movement ( 1790-1835) and the plays of By-
ron, Coleridge, Shelley, and Wordsworth. The tenth chapter deals with same-
sex behavior in nineteenth-century melodrama ( 1790-1840) and the prolifera-
tion of the transvestite tradition. The eleventh chapter discusses the rebirth of
interest in Greek thought and its association with same-sex poetry, drama, and
pornography in the Victorian age ( 1840-1900).

The texts cited in this study are reproduced from the originals with little or
no modification, and all examples of verse dialogue preserve the format of the
original texts. Spelling is reproduced as in the original text without comment.
Although not every example is overtly homocrotic, I encourage readers to view
them with a coded perspective. As we will see, every generation had its own
ways of controlling and expressing unconventional behavior patterns. Words,
idiomatic expressions, and physical behavior all can conjure up a multiplicity of
meanings for a variety of different people, and, as Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick has
suggested, "no one can know in advance where the limits of a gay-centered
inquiry are to be drawn, or where gay theorizing of and through the hegemonic
high culture of the Euro-American tradition may need or be able to lead"
( Epistemology of the Closet53).

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