Available now, if you have $65,040, is possible the “filthiest, piece of printed pornographic literature in the English language.”
Can’t hold back from purchasing it? Yea I know you’ve been searching google and a9 in hopes of finding the first couple pages online to read. Sorry chaps, this sucker is locked up tighter than the girls in this play… er it’s locked up tighter than the, um, tough cookies. Damn, too many sexual references.
Will we see it online after the auction? It’d be one helluva read that’s for sure.
Original Link
First Known Printed Pornography in English Language on Auction Block
By: Scott Ross
11-29-2004
LONDON – The oldest surviving copy of a play considered the first, and possibly filthiest, piece of printed pornographic literature in the English language is expected to fetch up to $65,040 when it is auctioned mid-December.
?Sodom, or The Gentleman Instructed,? billed as the “quintessence of debauchery” by auctioneer Sotheby’s, was written in the mid-1670?s and is commonly attributed to John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester.
The play is centered upon the King of Sodom, named Bolloxinian, who decrees that sodomy shall be “us’d thro’ all the land”. The rest of the play is reputed to be a series of copulation, buggery, masturbation, fellatio and bestiality enactments, leading to the logical climax of events ? everyone catches venereal diseases, leading to death and madness for all.
The copy being auctioned is believed to have been printed around 1720, although little is known of the printer ? he covered his tracks by claiming it was printed in the Hague and listing the date as 100000. The copy is believed to be the third printing of the book; the first two printings were completely destroyed for being obscene.
“We believe this is the first printed pornography in English literature, a unique copy of the quintessence of debauchery,? Peter Beal, Sotheby’s book specialist, said.
In 1689 publisher Benjamin Crayle had to pay a large fine for printing the play after a jury found it ?a shameful and lewd book.?
Though Wilmot never took credit for ?Sodom,? and one publisher was arrested for accrediting the play to Wilmot posthumously, many scholars believe he did.