SYMONDS, JOHN ADDINGTON + played the role of McCarthy, accusing the BIBLIOGRAPHY. Bent Hansen, Nozdisk authorities of being corrupted by "homo- bibliografi: Homoseksualiteit, Copen- sexual leagues." The campaign was in hagen: Pan, 1984. Fredrik Silverstolpe practice an attack on all homosexuals (and on homosexuality as such). But the RFSL succeeded in strengthening itself in the SYMONDS,JOHN ADDING- struggle, and in presenting its goals and TON (1840-1893) aims in the press during a difficult period. English scholar. John Addington The sixties were politically a si- Symonds was born into a prosperous Lon- lent era for the homosexual movement. don family; his father was a renowned But they also meant a ~~~~olidationof physician and the young Syrnonds was RFSL and the new indoor subculture: the educated at H~~~~ and at Oxford. cafes and small dance halls that had Symonds realized that he was emerged during the fifties. homosexual at a very early age. Even as a Whenga~liberationswe~tinfrom child, he had vivid dreams of being in a the West at the beginning of the seventies, room surrounded by naked sailors: odd gay life in Sweden was vitalized and radi- dreams, since he had not seen a nude adult calked. At the end of the seventies, the much less a nude sailor. According first sizable gay demonstrations in Stock- to his ~~~~i~~,the central theme of holm were held, organized by RFSL. They Symonds' life was his ongoing attempt to &Few from 400 people in 1977 to several deal with what he felt to be an inborn thousand in the eighties- The !St~~kholm propensity to love the male sex. His innate Gay Liberation Week held in August every timidity and romanticism caused him to Year during the eighties bexme one of the be disgusted by the abundant homosexual biggest social and political gay events in activity available to students at Harrow. Europe. This puzzling rejection (of what he was One the achievements in the later to value most highly) culminated in gay struggleduringthis~eriodwassetting his first adult action on the scene of the the same age of consent, 15 years, as for wide world: he accused the Harrow head- heterosexual relations (1978). This f01- master, Dr. vaughan, of loving one of his lowed on a statement from the Swedish pupils, and with the cooperation of his Parliament in 1973 that "cohabitation father, procured vaughants removal from between two parties of the same sex is the headmastership and subsequent exile from the standpoint of society a totally to obscurity. This malicious act caused acceptable form of relationship." several of his closest friends to cut him off In passed two for the rest of his life, and he was deeply historic laws. The first forbids discrimina- troubled by the remembrance of it. what, tion against homosexuals by authorities after all, was the difference between him and private enterprises. The second grants and D~.Vaughan, except for Symonds' homosexuals many of the same economic vague feeling of spiritual superiority? and legal privileges (and obligations) that He had already, by this time, read unmarried heterosexual couples living plat0 and become enthusiastic about the together have in ~weden.Thus for the first ideals of Greek ; he was, indeed, thea positive homosexual status, homo- in love with an English choirboy named sexuellsambo("homosexualcohabitant"), willie D~~~,with whom he twice ex- has been introduced into the Swedish changed kisses which he would remember language and Swedish society, after a to the end of his days. This passionate struggle of more than a century. friendship was terminated on the advice of his father, who pointed out that Symonds 9 SYMONDS, JOHN ADDINGTON might be accused of the same "crime" as ics [1883], published in an edition of 10 his recent victim, Dr. Vaughan. copies. As he grew older and read the In his twenties, again at the ad- works of such pioneers as Krafft-Ebing, he vice of his father, Symonds married, and realized that he was not alone and wrote eventually fathered four daughters. He the larger essay A Problem in Modem never had any passion for his wife. Fortu- Ethics (1891],issued in 50 copies. He also nately, she loathed sex and pregnancy, and began a collaboration with , soon they were living in separate parts of which resulted in the publication of Sex- the house, while Symonds continued to ual Inversion after Symonds' death. (The pursue young men as soul mates. family made trouble about the book, and Serious illness made Symonds demanded that Symonds' name and life incapable of any real career, so he turned to history be removed from the English edi- literature as an avocation. He pursued tion.] another schoolboy named Norman Moor Symonds also committed his in an ardent Platonic fashion, which even- memoirs to a distant posterity. The sealed tually culminated in their spending six memoirs were handed to his literary ex- nights in bed together, nude and kissing, ecutor, H. F. Brown, and were willed to the but without doing anything which would London Library by Brown on his demise in offend the laws of the time. 1926, with instructions to withhold them Severalthings happened in a short from publication for fifty years. They fi- space of time, which decisively altered nally appeared in 1984. Symonds' life. His father died, hemoved to As Symonds' respectable Victo- for the sake of his health, he rian persona retires into obscurity (he is had his first "base" homosexual interac- mostly remembered for his enormous tion with a nineteen-year-old soldier, his Renaissancein Italy], his fame as a homo- literary output increased substantially, sexual theorist and apologist takes up the and his health improved. This would per- failingtorch and secures for him a new and haps indicate that the beloved father was perhaps more lasting reputation. He has in fact an obstacle to Syrnonds' self-actu- certainly been a major influence in the alization. cause of social and legal reform, and, with In any case, he quickly got the the sad exception of Dr. Vaughan, a valu- knack of making close and passionate able ally for homosexual men everywhere. friends among the Swiss peasants and Ital- ian gondoliers, and discovered that it was BIBLIOGRAPHY. Phyllis Grosskurth, The Woeful Victorian: A Biography of quite possible for two men to share their john Addington Symonds, New York: sexuality, in moderation, without being Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1964. immediately damned and thrown into jail. Geoff Puterbaugh Symonds became one of the fore- most men of letters of his time, famed for his reviews, essays, books of art history, SYMPOSIA and expositions of poetry. He became a In ancient Greece, symposiawere cultural arbiter for the Victorian era, and convivial meetings for drinking, con- also published several volumes of bad versation, and intellectual entertain- poetry. ment; they were all-male, upper-class Unknown to most of his contem- drinking parties that beginning ca. 600 B.C. poraries, however, Symonds was pursuing were held following the evening meal. a second career. As he grew more accus- After pouring libations to thegods, tomed to his own homosexuality and dis- the guests-usually ten or twelve-began covered , he produced the to drink wine diluted with various pioneering essay A Problem in Greek Eth- amounts of water. Often garlanded and