[Capriole]

Illbay, part of what you say is true. For instance, normal heterosexual expressions of affection between Victorian-era men today strike our oversensitive ears as being effeminate. I quite agree with you about the absurdity of attributing homosexual relations to David and Jonathan or other great male friendships through history; this seems to be the sport of gays, to try to achieve normalcy by persuading the gullible that all the great figures of history were fudge-packers.

But before you assume that what appears in Shakespeare's sonnets is merely healthy male affection, you should reread them tonight. The recipient of the sonnets is a very young man, much younger than the author. There are puns about the lovely boy's penis, and the author writes that he is "Frantic-mad with desire," calls the boy "master mistress of my passion," "Lord of my love," and so forth. Taken together they create a clear picture, and one does not have to be sex-obsessed to see it. Rather, denial of the obvious does nto contribute to our body of knowledge about Elizabethan literature.

And if the notion that Shakespeare may have been gay offends you, remember that we don't have any proof the sonnets were written by Shakespeare at all.

[Illbay]

Were the Sonnets published during Shakespeare's lifetime?