ABSTRACT
From Tennyson’s In Memoriam of 1850 to Edward Carpenter’s Towards Democracy of 1905, there is a language for love between men which appears in the form of intense, emotional friendship that can fulfil the individual. It is often mysterious, spiritual, almost always non-sexual, but often with strong elements of muscular sensualism, a celebration of the physical presence of the beloved object, whether a hiking companion or a goalkeeper. These works are most seemingly straightforward where they name the object of the love as ‘friend’ or ‘Friend’, an entirely legitimate relationship being implied by that label, which has no overtones of anything untoward. The slightly more hearty ‘comrade’ (or ‘Comrade’), with its overtones of socialistic labouring-together, permits an element of physical camaraderie, since it is used literally or by association in relation to work and sport. Thus comrades are men doing manly things with other men, and no reference need be made to absent women. Friends are honourable, loyal, thoroughly English, engaged in non-domestic endeavour and extra-domestic duties. An interesting exception to the non-appearance of heterosexuality in these texts is the very late friendship poem ‘Alec’, where the relationship between the men will be ended with their inevitable marriages, a thing to be mourned.
