The following is a English summary, once more lifted from the redoutable Nina Epton:
[Jean-Baptiste Moët] wrote a Code for Cythera inspired, at least so he alleged, by Plautus. The antiquity of this source did not make it any more respectable. The establishment he had in mind was to have room for twelve hundred life members, called "Courtesan Girls" or "Love Favourites" who would be divided between four houses situated in different parts of the capital. The girls would be exempted from taxes.
Admission would be open to girls over fifteen years of age who presented themselves with a certificate signed by two matrons to the effect that they were no longer in possession of their virginity. A fund of 6,000 livres would be raised (the author does not specify how or by whom) for the building of these four establishments. their purpose would be revealed by a sign placed over the front door, representing a blindfolded god of love.
Cythera, the legendary island of pleasure - plate from “Jean Hervez” [aka Raoul Vèze], Les sociétés d'amour au xviiie siècle (1906). |
The inmates of the four establishments would be divided into three categories of a hundred Favourites each: "Young Favourites" (under twenty); "Joyous Cortesans" (between twenty and thirty years old) and "Mature Women".
Reality: Étienne Jeaurat, La Conduite des filles de joie à la Salpêtrière, Musée Carnavalet, 1755 http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%C3%89tienne_Jeaurat_001.jpg |
"The Controlling Sisters will receive every client who presents himself at the gates and asks for an amorous rendezvous with one of the inmates. The Sisters will inspect them and refuse entry to clients who are not in good health. Clients suffering from ill-health will be made to pay a fine of £10. The funds raised from these fines will be used for house repairs.
"The Mother Directresses will teach the Favourites the gestures, postures, pleasantries, stimulating exercises etc., destined to increase the delights of the senses. In the intervals between their work, the Favourites will be permitted to read, but care will be taken to avoid books capable of stimulating the already over-active desires of those who read them for this would be tantamount to pouring oil on the fire.
"The Favourites of the two senior categories will rub their faces every evening with a pommade of snails and cucumber to make their complexions soft and fresh. The use of paint is forbidden.
"It is expressly forbidden to use bed-warmers in the winter. Our Courtesans and Favourites must never undress themselves completely even in the midst of debauche. From the age of fifteen to thirty they will wear boned corsets.
"Our Courtesans must be gentle and affable with old gentlemen. Rigorous methods would only frighten them - perhaps even kill them. We therefore allow our Favourites to assist all gentlemen over the age of sixty so long as these forms of assistance are neither too fatiguing nor two humiliating.
"The Young Favourites will be allowed to see three gentlemen per day, but they may not keep them in their room for more than three hours at a time; the Joyous Courtesans may keep them for two hours only, whereas Mature Women may see four men a day but only for one hour at a time.
"On the days of lunar influence, our ladies will be replaced by aspirants. During these days of rest the Favourites may walk in the public gardens or go to the theatre provided they are not accompanied by one of their colleagues. They must not allow themselves to be accosted in the street.
"If the Favourites commit a grave fault, they will be sent to the Hospital of the Faubourg Saint-Martin. Each establishment will be provided with a pharmacy and an apothecary and there will be a medical visit twice a week. An armed company of twenty archers under a commandant will be responsible for the maintenance of law and order in the vicinity of our various establishments."
The Code ends with a carefully calculated estimate of expenses and receipts which prove that the author - a Monsieur Moët - had a good business sense.
References
Nina Epton, Love and the French (World Publishing,1959) p.260-2.
For anyone with the stamina, the original is available on Google Books:
Jean-Baptiste Moët, Code de Cythère, ou Lit de justice d'amour (1746)
http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Code_de_Cyth%C3%A8re_ou_Lit_de_justice_d_amo.html?id=BAM6AAAAcAAJ&redir_esc=y
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