"Gay" in 1713

[Laurence Horn]

At 10:55 AM -0400 7/8/10, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>This is presumably a looong stretch, but ---
>
>>From The Tatler and Guardian, 1713 April 3 (no. 20), page 32, col. 2
>{GB full view]:
>
>All gallantry and fashion, one would imagine, should rise out of the
>religion and laws of that nation wherein they prevail; but alas! in
>this kingdom, gay characters, and those which lead in the pleasure
>and fascinations of the fashionable world, are such as are readiest
>to practise crimes the most abhorrent to nature, and contradictory to
>our faith.
>
>At that time, "crimes the most abhorrent to nature" were sexual acts
>which could not lead to conception, thus including sodomy,
>bestiality, and masturbation (as well as intercourse with a girl too
>young to conceive, defined in some laws as age 10).

There's a long history of "gay", through the 19th c., being used to
describe dissipation or prostitutes ("gay girl/woman") and their
life.  Or more broadly, as in Farmer & Henley (1890-1904):

GAY
(colloquial)
1.  dissipated; specifically, given to venery

cites back to Chaucer "Some gay girl...Hath brought you thus upon the
very trot"

1754 Adventurer, No. 124  The old gentleman, whose character I cannot
better express than in the fashionable phrase which has been
contrived to palliate false principles and dissolute manners, had
been a gay man, and was well acquainted with the town.

[also GAYING INSTRUMENT = 'the penis']

No direct antecedent of 'homosexual' meaning, except sub specie of
"unacceptable lifestyle choices"...

LH

>Is this some kind of antecedent to "gay" = 'homosexual"?  (In the
>above, "characters" means "persons".)  On the other hand, the OED cautions me:
>
>"A number of quotations have been suggested as early attestations of
>this sense (see a sample below). It is likely that, although there
>may be innuendo in some cases, these have been interpreted
>anachronistically in the light either of the context (for example the
>disguise as a homosexual of the protagonist of quot. 1941[1]), or of
>knowledge about an author's sexuality."
>
>Joel
>
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