La Jouissance

This night, vigorous desire in full measure,

Algarotti wallowed in a sea of pleasure.

A body not even a Praxiteles fashions

Redoubled his senses and imbued his passions

Everything that speaks to eyes and touches hearts,

Was found in the fond object that enflamed his parts.

Transported by love and trembling with excitement

In Cloris’ arms he yields himself to contentment

The love that unites them heated their embraces

And tied bodies and arms as tightly as laces.

Divine sensual pleasure! To the world a king!

Mother of their delights, an untouchable spring,

Speak through my verses, lend me your voice and tenses

Tell of their fire, acts, the ecstasy of their senses!

Our fortunate lovers, transported high above

Know only themselves in the fury of love:

Kissing, enjoying, feeling, sighing and dying

Reviving, kissing, then back to pleasure flying.

And in Knidos’ grove, breathless and worn out

But all joy is finite; in the morning ends the bout.

Fortunate the man whose mind was never the prey

To luxury, or grand airs, one who knows how to say

A moment of climax for a fortunate lover

Is worth so many eons of star-spangled honour.

This poem was written sometime in the 1740's by King Frederick the Great of Prussia. This poem besides, Frederick was certainly homosexual. He was known for many liaisons with male courtiers, and even during his lifetime it was widely known in Europe.

Frederick wrote this poem in response to one of his courtiers, Venetian philosopher Francesco Algarotti, challenging (or perhaps teasing) him that North Europeans lacked passion. The title, La Jouissance, means "The Passion" in French. In particular, "Jouissance" relates to sexual passion, especially an orgasm.

In the poem, Frederick describes a sexual encounter between Algarotti and a woman named "Cloris" (Cloris being a forest nymph from Ancient Greek Mythology. Cloris' femininity is not discussed. Algarotti's masculinity definitely is.

Frederick's relationship with Algarotti (Who was known to be bisexual) was possibly romantic/sexual, and certainly very close. Algarotti became one of Frederick's most loyal and dependable courtiers. When Algarotti died in 1764, Frederick funded a monument for him in Pisa.

Frederick seemed to revel in his sexuality, in particular trolling the rest of Europe about it. An example is that he constructed a "Temple of Friendship", which depicted homoerotic art pieces (this was in addition to the large amounts of homoerotic art he had already collected). When defeated at the Battle of Kolin, Frederick wrote the following of his enemy, Empress Maria Theresa of Austria:

"La fortune m'a tourné le dos... Elle est femme, et je ne suis pas galant."

This can be translated as "I am fortunate... She is a woman, and I am not inclined that way."

The fact that such an obviously gay monarch was dubbed "the Great" in the 18th Century is very telling of the time being the first "gay movement", i.e., the first time in Christian Europe that, if not among the peasantry, then among the nobility that being gay, if not bad, could be overlooked.

Happy Pride Month,

Gaius Julius Caesar