Thomas Cannon

Thomas Cannon of Gray's Inn (* 1720 ) was a British author and clergyman. He is the author of Ancient And Modern Pederasty Investigated and Exemplify'd , an essay published in 1749 that is believed to be the first English language defense of homosexuality .

Life

Cannon was the son of Robert Cannon (1663-1722), Dean of Lincoln, and Elizabeth Moore, daughter of the scholar John Moore , Bishop of Ely . Little is known about the author's early life. The family seems to have gotten into precarious circumstances after the death of the father as the king granted the widow an annual grant of £ 120. In 1744, Cannon appeared as the author of a poem entitled Apollo .

It gained its historical significance through the publication of a book entitled Ancient And Modern Pederasty Investigated and Exemplify'd , which was considered lost until a few years ago. Until then, the font was known only through a notice in the April 1749 issue of The Gentleman's Magazine and through two other references. One comes from a letter written by John Cleland , who was then in prison and the author of the erotic epistolary novel Fanny Hill , which also appeared in 1748/49 , to Lovel Stanhope, the court assistant to Thomas Pelham-Holles , Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and then Minister in the cabinet of Robert Walpole . In it he compared his case with that of "a certain son of a dean and grandson of a bishop who was insane and depraved enough to publish a pamphlet in defense of sodomy ". State authorities seem to have swiftly followed the veiled reference to Cannon, as a letter from Newcastle to Attorney General Dudley Ryder instructed him to take action against the author and printer of the script.

The reason for Cleland's denunciation appeared to be a deep enmity between him and Cannon. It was at the instigation of Cannon that Cleland was sentenced to a year in Fleet Prison in February 1748 for owing Cannon the considerable sum of £ 800. Just before Cleland in February 1749 after the publication of the second volume of Fanny Hill , the Prison Fleet could leave, Cannon filed a lawsuit against him. Accordingly, Cleland insulted and slandered him from prison. To prove it, he produced a slip of paper which he had found pinned to the door of his room at the New Inn and which was written in the well-known handwriting of John Cleland:

“Here lives that execrable white-faced, rotten catamite, who joined with his own mother to consummate the murder of an unfortunate gentleman who had saved his life, and whom, in return, he poisoned five times with common arsenic, which, it is probable, he will never recover the bloody effects of. Inquire for further particulars of his Mother in Delahaye Street. His name is Molly Cannon. "

“Here lives the hideous, pale boy who conspired with his mother to kill an unhappy gentleman who had saved his life and whom he poisoned five times with arsenic as a thank you, from which he will probably never recover. For more information about his mother, visit Delahaye Street. His name is Molly Cannon. "

When Molly was called at that time in slang homosexuals. It is hardly understandable that Cannon, who had recently published a work that in a barely concealed manner extolled homosexuality, which at the time was still threatened with the death penalty, considered it appropriate to draw the attention of the authorities to his person through a relevant complaint. In any case, in March 1749 he had commissioned a certain John Purser with the printing of the font, assuring him on his honor:

“… That the whole Pamphlet throughout was so far from encouraging the Vice, that it was Design'd to explode the Crime and make it hatefull to all Mankind; and that it was wrote in such a manner, that it could not offend the nicest Ear; and that he would justifie every Tittle it contain'd before any Court in England ”

“... that the pamphlet is far from promoting vice in every respect, that it aims to expose the crime to contempt and make all humanity hateful, and that it is written in such a way that not even the faintest ear will offend He could take advantage of the fact that he was also ready to justify every single section before any court in England. "

When he was tried on the denunciation of Cleland, who had meanwhile been in prison for the publication of Fanny Hill , Cannon did not let it be a matter of defending the innocence of his writing and himself in court. After he and Purser were questioned and set free on a guarantee of £ 400 each and the trial was due to take place in the spring of 1750, Cannon fled the country. Purser, on the other hand, was sentenced in the summer of 1751 to one month imprisonment in the notorious Marshalsea prison and subsequent exhibition in the pillory in Charing Cross and in front of the Royal Exchange . However, the sentence does not appear to have been carried out or only partly carried out.

Cannon, on the other hand, found himself forced to return home after 3 years of exile, where his mother intervened on his behalf in a traditional letter to the Duke of Newcastle from 1755, expressing how deeply he was filled with remorse for the abomination of his guilt and himself He wished to return not only because necessity compelled him to do so, but to find the opportunity "to make the only atonement he was capable of, namely by printing and publishing his revocation and renunciation". He did that, he was evidently merciful, and in the years that followed he published a number of pious writings, the titles of which indicate that, following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, he had become an apparently respectable clergyman of the Church of England , who the "false and hollow" freethinking deeply regretted his youth and comfort found in the reading of Milton and the night thoughts ( "night thoughts") of Edward Young .

Ancient And Modern Pederasty Investigated and Exemplify'd

In the passage from Cleland's denunciation cited above, it goes on to say about Cannon and his writing:

“… Mad and wicked enough to publish a pamphlet evidently in defense of Sodomy, advertised in all the papers. This was rather overlooked than tolerated - What was the consequence? Why, it is at this instant so thoroughly forgot that few I believe know that ever such a pamphlet existed. "

“... was crazy and rejected enough to publish a pamphlet in defense of sodomy and advertise it in all the newspapers. That was overlooked rather than tolerated - what was the result? Well, it is so thoroughly forgotten that I think few people today know that such a pamphlet ever existed. "

Cleland was all too right. It is unclear whether and to what extent Cannon's writing was ever sold by booksellers. In any case, not a single copy has survived and until 2003 only a few specialist scholars were aware of the existence of the font from scattered references. In the summer of that year, Hal Gladfelder, who was at the University of Rochester on the reissue of Cleland's Memoirs of a Coxcomb , decided to investigate the clues. He suspected that no trial had taken place against Cannon, but there had been a trial against the printer, Purser, and decided to search the King's Bench archives for records of such trial. In fact, he found what he was looking for beyond expectations, which was due to the then common procedure of extensively quoting incriminated writings in the case files. In a box with indictments from the spring of 1750, Gladfelder found a rolled-up sheet of parchment measuring approximately 90 × 150 cm , which has darkened, but whose faded writing is still legible. When Gladfelder published his find in 2007, it was presumably the first printed apology for homosexuality since antiquity to attract corresponding media attention and, of course, was also widely received in the LGBT community.

In the surviving text, the wording of the indictment follows, namely that the author and printer did it:

“Debauch Poison and Infect the Minds of all the Youth of this Kingdom and to Raise Excite and Create in the Minds of all the said Youth most Shocking and Abominable Ideas and Sentiments beneath the Dignity of Humane Nature and thereby to bring them into a State of Wickedness Lewdness and Brutality and more Especially into the Love and Practice of that unnatural detestable and odious crime of Sodomy ”

“To spray poison and infect the souls of the youth of the kingdom, arouse excitement and create in the minds of these youth extremely repulsive and hideous thoughts and feelings of an unworthy of human nature, thus bringing them, and especially them, into a state of malice, lust and meanness to incline and turn to the unnatural, disgusting and hateful crime of sodomy. "

The indictment is followed by a series of longer passages from Cannon's essay. According to Cannon, pederasty once resembled "a crystal wide lake that invited all mankind to plunge into inexpressibly powerful joys"

But, since Christianity had completely overcome this perversion of the ancients in its time, one can finally examine these unsavory things in a completely impartial manner:

“That celebrated Passion, Seal'd by Sensualists, espoused by Philosophers, enshrin'd by Kings, is now exploded with one Accord and Disown'd by the meanest Beggar. Wherefore since Fashion discountenances, Law punishes, God forbids, the Detested Love, we may sure discuss it with Freedom, and the most philosophical Exactness […] free from Apprehension of exciting in any Breast so preposterous, and Severe-treated an Inclination. "

“This celebrated passion, lived by connoisseurs, praised by philosophers and valued by kings, is now unanimously exposed and despised even by the meanest of beggars. Now, since hideous love is rejected by fashion, punished by law and forbidden by God, we are allowed to discuss it freely and with the greatest philosophical thoroughness [...] without having to worry about such a perverse and severely pursued tendency in anyone's mind kindle. "

But the manner of presentation and, above all, the language that he uses in the following sections clearly indicates that, firstly, the author is inclined to forbidden passion and, secondly, is doing his best to have a similar inclination in the mind of the reader. kindle ". Superficially moralizing and rejecting, the examples from ancient mythology and literature are so lovingly reproduced that the reader can leave no doubt about the author's actual point of view. He also makes it clear that he also aims to amuse and entertain the reader by confessing that he has freely paraphrased the sources of his examples for this purpose.

Cannon appears to have quoted several longer pertinent pieces from ancient writers. In the transmitted text is found as a first example a translated Cannon dialogue Lucian between Jupiter and the shepherd Ganymede , whom he has just kidnapped, as the following passage from Lucian gods talks that an argument between Jupiter and Juno , which is by the beautiful shepherd sees her claim to the husband's affection deceived. Cannon takes further examples from the Satyricon of Petronius Arbiter . In addition, the indictment quotes some anecdotes, remarks and a short, allegedly authentic story about a contemporary named Amorio in the text , who at a ball meets a lovely lady who has allegedly been seduced by a nobleman and has fallen into misfortune, who then becomes a woman A youth named Hyacinth turns out, but this does not prevent Amorio from enjoying the manly, but “beyond imagination delicious body”, which Cannon describes with delicate marine metaphors as follows:

"He [Amorio] is quickly piloted into a Streight, whose potent Cling draws all the Man in clammy Streams away."

"He [Amorio] quickly finds himself drawn into a tightness that pulls the whole man clasped around the whole man by the current."

The morning after you have breakfast and go to the billiards game.

The text handed down in the indictment seems fragmentary. How large the traditional portion is cannot be said, nor can one guess about the arrangement and structure.

Fonts

• Apollo: a poem: or the Origin of the world assign'd. With reflections upon human nature. London 1744
• Ancient And Modern Pederasty Investigated and Exemplify'd. 1749
• A treatise on charity. To which is prefix'd, the author's retraction. London 1753
• A close view of death and it's subsequent immortalities giving a large account of the primitive Christians, who conducted their lives by those views. With a previous discourse, briefly, but fully, demonstrating the truth of Christianity, and, in consequence of that, urging most earnestly to solemn Consideration. The whole with vigor inforced by an awful frontispiece, exhibiting one of our deplorable bodies putrefying in the vault. London 1760
• The family library, being the substance of a funeral sermon, preached at the City chapel, Grub-Street, London, July 17, 1791, on the death of the late Countess dowager of Huntingdon, by the Rev. T. Cannon, to which is added A copy of a letter, written by the Countess in the year 1785 ... together with the manner in which the college is to be carried on, and by whom. London 1791
• Select psalms and hymns for the use of St. John's Chapel, West-Lane, Walworth, and the City Chapel, London. 2. corr. London 1793 edition
• Divine astronomy or, The signs of the times, being a singular sermon, preached at the city chapel, July 12th, 1795. London 1795

literature

• Faramerz Dabhoiwala: Lust and Freedom. The story of the first sexual revolution. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2014, ISBN 978-3-608-94772-4 , pp. 155–157, 159.
• Hal Gladfelder: In search of lost texts: Thomas Cannon's Ancient and modern pederasty investigated and exemplify'd. In: Eighteenth-century life. Vol. 31 No. 1 (2007), pp. 22-38.
• Hal Gladfelder: The indictment of John Purser, containing Thomas Cannon's Ancient and modern pederasty investigated and exemplify'd. In: Eighteenth-century life. Vol. 31 No. 1 (2007), pp. 39-61, text on Wikisource .
• Hugh Stevens: The Cambridge Companion to Gay and Lesbian Writing. Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge 2011, ISBN 978-0-521-88844-8 , pp. 20f.

Web links

Wikisource: Ancient and Modern Pederasty Investigated and Exemplify'd  - Sources and full texts (English)

• Found: 'first' English paean to gay love , article by David Ward in The Guardian online, April 27, 2007, accessed June 14, 2014

Individual evidence

1. ↑ “… the Son of a Dean and Grandson of a Bishop [who] was mad and wicked enough to Publish a Pamphlet evidently in defense of Sodomy”, quoted in: Gladfelder: In search of lost texts In: Eighteenth-century life. Vol. 31 No. 1 (2007), p. 23.
2. ↑ Elizabeth Cannon lived on Delahaye Street in Westminster .
3. ↑ Gladfelder: In search of lost texts In: Eighteenth-century life. Vol. 31 No. 1 (2007), p. 25
4. ^ Stevens: The Cambridge Companion to Gay and Lesbian Writing. Cambridge 2011, p. 21.
5. ↑ Gladfelder: In search of lost texts In: Eighteenth-century life. Vol. 31 No. 1 (2007), p. 26
6. ↑ Dabhoiwala: Lust and Freedom. Stuttgart 2014, p. 466, note 142
7. ↑ Quoted in: John Cleland: Memoirs of a Coxcomb. Ed. by Hal Gladfelder. Broadview, Peterborough, Ont. 2005, ISBN 1-55111-568-9 , p. 11
8. ↑ Gladfelder: In search of lost texts In: Eighteenth-century life. Vol. 31 No. 1 (2007), p. 28f.
9. ^ Eighteenth century writings of first gay activist discovered , University of Manchester press release , April 25, 2007
10. ^ Gladfelder: The indictment of John Purser. In: Eighteenth-century life. Vol. 31 No. 1 (2007), p. 39f.
11. ↑ ... like a crystal expanded lake drew all Mankind to bathe entranc'd in Joys, too mighty every one for our poor Utterance. Gladfelder: The indictment of John Purser. In: Eighteenth-century life. Vol. 31 No. 1 (2007), p. 40.
12. ^ Gladfelder: The indictment of John Purser. In: Eighteenth-century life. Vol. 31 No. 1 (2007), p. 40.
13. ^ Gladfelder: The indictment of John Purser. In: Eighteenth-century life. Vol. 31 No. 1 (2007), p. 41.
14. ^ Lukian talks with the gods 4-5
15. ↑ Petronius Satyricon 85-87, 114
16. ^ Gladfelder: The indictment of John Purser. In: Eighteenth-century life. Vol. 31 No. 1 (2007), pp. 47-50 and 55 f.