Homosexuality is writ large in
English Renaissance
literature, but its inscription is only rarely direct and
unambiguous.
Sir
Francis Bacon
Sir Francis Bacon
(1561-1626) condemned homosexuality in his more magisterial,
philosophical works, though he inserted homosexual innuendo elsewhere
in his writings, particularly in several essays.
The English
Renaissance poet
Richard
Barnfield (1574-1620?) wrote two volumes of homoerotic verse,
but appears to have stopped writing poetry after the age of 24.
John Donne (1572-1631) was
England's supreme poet of heterosexual love in the late Renaissance. He
also wrote a series of homoerotic verse letters to a young man and a
remarkable dramatic monologue in a lesbian voice.
Ben Jonson (1572-1637) is
one of the most important figures in English literature. Though he was
probably never involved in same-sex sexual relationships, he deserves
attention for his depictions of same-sex relationships in both dramatic
and nondramatic works.
Christopher Marlowe
(1564-1593) represents homoerotic situations and incidents in his plays
and poems more frequently and more variously than any other major
English Renaissance writer.
John Milton (1608-1674) may
be the greatest poet in the English language. While he accepted
the biblical condemnation of sodomy, some of his works suggest that his
attitude toward same-sex relations was enlightened for his age.
Katherine Philips
(1632-1664) was considered "The English Sappho" of her day. Two-thirds
of her poems concern erotic relationships among women.
William Shakespeare is
one of the key figures that western civilization has used to define
itself. He stands in a complicated, fiercely contested relationship to
homosexuality.
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