ABSTRACT
To a modern eye it is unbelievable that much of the personal abuse that was poured out during the Affair should have been allowed in the public domain. One of the best examples is the suggestion that Picquart was homosexual; his handsome and slightly effeminate appearance, and the fact that he appreciated good music, could be the basis of a libel which, from every evidence the people have, was almost certainly untrue. In the case of a major libel against Drumont there appears to have been little evidence at all. Most of the personalised invective the people have seen was for public consumption. The violence of Catholic polemists against the persons they believed to represent their enemies was, however, merely one aspect of the personalised invective which, in the late nineteenth century, served all areas of controversy - and especially politics.
