ABSTRACT
Sexual behaviour had a function in the construction of pre-modem sex and gender identity which was different to that of modem Western societies. Today, sexuality (itself a nineteenth-century concept) is construed to be a significant and reflexive part of selfhood which is ‘owned’ by the individual.1 By contrast, moralists in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries paid little attention to sexual pleasure as distinct from procreation, except to prohibit what was called fornication (which included sex for pleasure alone, even within marriage) and adultery.2 The modem creation of a ‘plastic sexuality’ which is released from reproductive consequences in particular makes little sense in a late seventeenth-century context where heterosexual activity was inextricably linked to conception.3 Recognizing the gulf that separates contemporary attitudes today from the moral environment in which sexual relations were conducted three hundred years ago is, however, only the first step in reconstructing attitudes towards sexual behaviour in the past. If we seek deeper insights, the sources often prove silent on this most private of subjects. Beyond the moral injunctions of the righteous, and some fragmentary allusions in personal records, the meaning and range of sexual dilemmas and experiences of early modem men and women often remains elusive. It is therefore in the realm of sexual conduct that Dunton’s periodicals especially hold the promise of new revelations; they boasted a frank handling of the subject of sex that did not disappoint the curious contemporary reader, nor, for that matter, the posthumous interest of later generations.
