Search Results

Why do we use animals to talk about our own human sexuality? Sexual desires, thoughts, and actions are said to reflect our “animal nature”, revealing strongly held cultural ideas about humans, animals, and the nature of civilization. This cultural cognitive divide between “humans” and “animals” is expressed in our language, folk speech, popular culture, mythology, and even the law. The topic of sexuality is an interesting nexus on this human-animal binary in Western discourse, revealing ideas of mind versus body, spirit and flesh, and wild versus domestic.

This chapter explores how, in early 1643, the rival polemicists shifted their attention from the prince to his dog. First, it shows how a series of disparate events – including a meteor shower near Cirencester – helped to inspire the publication of a pamphlet entitled Observations on Prince Rupert's White Dog, a pamphlet which assured its readers that the prince's canine companion was in fact, a beautiful woman from Lapland who had transformed herself into the shape of a dog through occult art. Second it will demonstrate that it was the anonymous author of this manipulative masterpiece – the anonymous author who is here tentatively identified as the uber-Royalist poet, John Cleveland - who was the true begetter of the Boy myth. Finally, it will investigate the wave of excitement which the appearance of the Observations provoked and the stream of copy-cat publications which swiftly followed. [143 words]

This chapter argues that the anxieties and apprehensions which had been aroused as a result of the propaganda storm which had raged around the figures of Rupert and Boy continued to possess a powerful resonance long after ‘the four legged cavalier’ himself had been removed from the scene. It demonstrates that, after 1644, the conviction that the Royalist cause was diabolically inspired became ever more firmly entrenched in the Parliamentarian camp, and suggests that a number of significant – and hitherto overlooked – connections existed between ‘the Black Legend of Prince Rupert's Dog’ and the great English Witch Hunt of 1645-47. It also discusses the part which the ‘Boy Myth’ may have played in paving the way for the notorious massacre of the king's female camp- followers which was carried out by Parliamentarian soldiers in the wake of the Battle of Naseby in 1645. [145 words]

Chapter 4 constitutes a pioneering study of the practice and prosecution of bestiality in twentieth-century Scotland. In turn, it examines the social status, background, lifestyle and possible motive of offenders, the nature and location of the crime committed, and the process by which it was brought to the attention of the law. The variety of roles undertaken by the police in investigating complaints and preparing evidence for the Procurators Fiscal is detailed. In addition, the significant contribution of forensic and veterinary medicine to building the prosecution case is illustrated, as is the limited use of psychiatric evidence after the First World War. The chapter also discusses the impact of the social taboo surrounding bestiality on the reluctance of Procurators Fiscal at times to initiate prosecutions and the secretive nature of many trial proceedings. Finally, sentencing practices in the period 1900−30 are examined and the degree of continuity and change in medico-legal perceptions of the offence identified..