Other related topics at:
Families
Virtue and Vice
The words below are shocking, and sound like a double standard to many. Reactions aren't uniform, however. In A Neutral Being Between The Sexes: Samuel Johnson's Sexual Politics (pages 34-35), Kathleen Nulton Kemmerer reminds us that Boswell emphasized that "Johnson discriminated between civil and ecclesiastical law." Johnson clearly has problems with the behavior of both adulterous men and women. Kemmerer also reminds us that some Johnsonians (such as Donald Greene) think the incident where Johnson labels Lady Beauclerk a whore, below, is fabricated.
76. Adultery; Marriage
He talked of the heinousness of the
crime of adultery, by which
the peace of families was destroyed. He said, "Confusion of
progeny constitutes the essence of the crime; and therefore a
woman who breaks her marriage vows is much more criminal than a
man who does it. A man, to be sure, is criminal in the sight of
God; but he does not do his wife a very material injury, if he
does not insult her; if for instance, from mere wantonness of
appetite, he steals privately to her chambermaid. Sir, a wife
ought not to greatly resent this. I would not receive home a
daughter who had run away from her husband on that account. A
wife should study to reclaim her husband by more attention to
please him. Sir, a man will not, once in a hundred instances,
leave his wife and go to a harlot, if his wife has not been
negligent of pleasing."
Boswell: Life
Link
205. Adultery; Marriage
I repeated to him an argument of a lady of my acquaintance, who
maintained, that her husband's having been guilty of numberless
infidelities, released her from conjugal obligations, because
they were reciprocal. Johnson: "This is miserable stuff,
Sir. To the contract of marriage, besides the man and wife,
there is a third party -- Society; and, if it be considered as a
vow -- GOD: and, therefore, it cannot be dissolved by their
consent alone. Laws are not made for particular cases, but for
men in general. A woman may be unhappy with her husband; but
she cannot be freed from him without the approbation of the civil
and ecclesiastical power. A man may be unhappy, because he is
not so rich as another; but he is not to seize upon another's
property with his own hand." Boswell: "But, Sir, this
lady does not want that the contract should be dissolved; she
only argues that she may indulge herself in gallantries with
equal freedom as her husband does, provided she takes care not to
introduce a spurious issue into his family. You know, Sir, what
Macrobius has told us of Julia." Johnson: "This lady of
yours, Sir, I think, is very fit for a brothel."
Boswell: Life
Link
