y in
men. Among the Greeks, indeed, homosexuality in women seldom receives
literary consecration, and in the revival of the classical spirit at the
Renaissance it was still chiefly in male adolescents, as we see, for
instance, in Marino's _Adone_, that the homosexual ideal found expression.
After that date male inversion was for a long period rarely touched in
literature, save briefly and satirically, while inversion in women
becomes a subject which might be treated in detail and even with
complacence. Many poets and novelists, especially in France, might be
cited in evidence.

Ariosto, it has been pointed out, has described the homosexual
attractions of women. Diderot's famous novel, _La Religieuse_,
which, when first published, was thought to have been actually
written by a nun, deals with the torture to which a nun was put
by the perverse lubricity of her abbess, for whom, it is said,
Diderot found a model in the Abbess of Chelles, a daughter of the
Regent and thus a member of a family which for several
generations showed a marked tendency to inversion. Diderot's
narrative has been described as a faithful description of the
homosexual phenomena liable to occur in convents. Feminine
homosexuality, especially in convents, was often touched on less
seriously in the eighteenth century. Thus we find a homosexual
scene in _Les Plaisirs du Cloitre_, a play written in 1773 (_Le
Theatre d'Amour an XVIIIe Siecle_, 1910.) Balzac, who treated so
many psychological aspects of love in a more or less veiled
manner, has touched on this in _La Fille aux Yeux d'Or_, in a
vague and extravagantly romantic fashion. Gautier made the
adventures of a woman who was predisposed to homosexuality, and
slowly realizes the fact, the central motive of his wonderful
romance, _Mademoiselle de Maupin_ (1835). He approached the
subject purely as an artist and poet, but his handling of it
shows remarkable insight. Gautier based his romance to some
extent on the life of Madame Maupin or, as she preferred to call
herself, Mademoiselle Maupin, who was born in 1673 (her father's
name being d'Aubigny), dressed as a man, and became famous as a
teacher of fencing, afterward as an opera singer. She was
apparently of bisexual temperament, and her devotion to women led
her into various adventures. She ultimately entered a convent,
and died, at th