Glossary

What they said.

How they said it.

under heavy construction

"Let the listless, orris-scented æsthete in love with a shadow, scourge me after this for the burning, maddening passion which his virile beauty excited in my breast." — Anonymous, Teleny (1883), p141.

"I have seen something in the prints about dudes. Those vulgar newspaper men [...] find nothing better to do than to poke fun at gentlemen." —John T. Wheelwright, "Cure for Dudes" (1888), p29.

"But there had always been a fine streak of æstheticism in his complex composition" — E. W. Hornung, The Amateur Cracksman (1899)

"The Lady Nancyish, rich young men of higher or lower society; twaddling æsthetic sophistries; stinking with perfume like cocottes!" — Edward Prime-Stevenson, Imre: A Memorandum (1906) p116.

"In my university course in aesthetics, the professor lamented that art tends to make its devotees immoral. He probably had in mind the notorious frequency of homosexuality among aesthetes." — Jennie June, The Female-Impersonators (1922) p17.

A follower of Aestheticism. Aesthetes are commonly disliked in both the heterosexual and queer community for their stereotype as feminine, sensitive, vain, and obnoxiously artistic. The word is often made an equivalent to the dandy, who is a man more concerned with appearance—in fashion and public image—than other pursuits. Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly championed early Victorian dandyism; Oscar Wilde embodied the late Victorian dandy and aesthete. They are also known more rarely as dudes.

Label

Aesthete

"'Cyrpian dear,' mimicking the affected tone in which this had been said, and adding, in his own voice, 'of course it must be Cyprian Brome" — Marc-Andre Raffalovich, A Willing Exile (1890), Volume 1, p133.

"[He] displayed certain graceful, slightly affected movements of the kind which may cause a person to be credited—or taxed—with possessing the 'artistic temperament.'" — Henry B. Fuller, Bertram Cope's Year (1919), p202.

"[...] a young man whose cadaverous appearance, pallor and affected mannerisms proclaimed his eccentricates." — Andre Tellier, Twilight Men (1931), p215.

Related to dramatics and femininity. An "affected" male character often acts with more passion than masculinity traditionally permits.

Reference

Affected

"They [androgynes] are neither man nor woman: a mixture of both; with secondary psychic and physical characteristics of one as well as the other sex." — Krafft Ebing quoted by Jennie June, The Female-Impersonators (1922), pp15-16.

—

Label

Androgyne

Art Theory

—

Romanticism laid an anti-industrialist foundation with a focus on nostalgia, the idealized natural world, emotion, sensation, and imagination, and myth and history. Key figures include John Keats, Lord Byron, and Percy & Mary Shelley.

Romanticism

"If you walk down Piccadilly with a poppy or a lily in your medieval hand" — W. S. Gilbert & Arthur Sullivan, Patience (1881), p11.

"I found reproductions of such works as "Love and Death" and "The Blessed Damozel," in dusty frames and different parallels." — E. W. Hornung, The Amateur Cracksman (1899)

The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood sought inspiration from Romantic ideals and early Renaissance art. Their art combined Romantic Theory with distinct, atypical style typified in idealized medievalism, the voluminous hair of Jane Morris, and the colorful textiles of her husband, William Morris. The group evolved into the Arts and Craft Movement. Key figures include Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Everett Millais, and Willian Holman Hunt.

Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood

—

Symbolist works are not meant to depict distinct symbols, concepts, or allegories but to evoke inexpressible, feeling-based responses: for example, an image is not simply death but the atmosphere of despair. They rebelled against established structure, form, and trope by tending towards free verse, vagueness, and affectation. Key figures include Stéphane Mallarmé, Paul Verlaine, and Arthur Rimbaud.

Symbolist

"What book is it? 'Poems and Ballads?' And so suspiciously like the copy Mr. Swinburne gave me." — E. F. Benson, Dodo's Daughter (1914), p83.

The Decadents shared much with the Symbolists, who they developed from. A core separation is in the adoption of many Aesthetic beliefs: art's lack of morality, life's lack of meaning deeper than sensation, and beauty detached from truth and reality. Key figures include Joris-Karl Huysmans, Algernon Charles Swinburne, and Max Beerbohm.

The Decadents

"[...] for art comes to you professing frankly to give nothing but the highest quality to your moments as they pass, and simply for those moments' sake." — Walter H. Pater, Studies in the History of the Renaissance (1873), p 213.

"It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors. [...] All art is quite useless." — Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891) preface.

"Art for art's sake is a vile catchword, but I confess it appeals to me." — E. W. Hornung, The Amateur Cracksman (1899)

The slogan "Arts for Art's Sake" summarized Aestheticism's core: that art is valued for its beauty and innate amorality rather than its ascribed social or political meaning. Aestheticism rejected industrial callousness and ugliness, Victorian moralism, and conventional productive values. A follower of Aestheticism, called an aesthete or commonly a dandy or dude, was someone who lived for art, aesthetic, and sensation to the sometimes complete rejection of societal norms—shunning productive work, marriage, gender norms, and responsibility to prioritize artistic experience. Key figures include Oscar Wilde, Arthur Symons, and Walter Pater.

Aestheticism

"Such a judge of blue-and-white and other kinds of pottery" — W. S. Gilbert & Arthur Sullivan, Patience (1881), p17.

Orientalism and exoticism exploded in the late Victorian period when Japan's trade and tourism businesses became more accessible. Kimono, ukiyo-e, accessories, and furniture became typical accents of Aesthetic design alongside blue-and-white pottery from China.

Japonism

"Have no fear—though the artistic-temperament allows a man to fear." — Edward Prime-Stevenson, A Matter of Temperament (1896), p178.

It is, however, among artists, at that time and later, that homosexuality may most notably be traced. — Havelock Ellis, Sexual Inversion (1915), p32.

"Oh, Denny likes different things to what we do [...] / "How wonderful the artistic temperament is!" — A. T. Fitzroy, Despised & Rejected (1918), p189.

Related to aestheticism, femininity, and otherness. Artists have different values and perceptions, and, in particular, different social quirks.

Reference

Artistic Temperament

"But the individual androgyne or gynander remains, down to death, to a greater or less degree bisexual. [...] an androgyne or gynander is part man and part woman." — Jennie June, The Female Impersonators (1922), p15.

"Don, he's bi-sexual, if you know what I mean. Plays two ways" — Andre Tellier, Twilight Men (1931), p156.

Depending on context and era, can mean loving both male and female people or being both male and female.

Label

Bisexual

"I have a letter written already. [...] If you don't help me, I will send it. You know what the result will be." — Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890), p91.

"That man has been a forger and a blackmailer. He leads a regular double life that you don’t know any thing about." — Edward Prime-Stevenson, Left to Themselves (1891), p284. Also see: pp114-115, pp281-282.

"This horrible, infamous, anonymous threat" — Anonymous, Teleny (1893), p73.

"Blackmail, I suppose; an honest man paying through the nose for some of the capers of his youth." — Robert Louis Stevenson, Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (1886), pp9-10.

"'I was but threatening—' / '—for blackmail.'" — E. M. Forster, Maurice (1971) p225.

"Once a blackmailer to whom I would not hand out the three dollars demanded made good his threat to turn me over to a policeman, who took my red tie as conclusive evidence that I was a fairie" — Jennie June, Autobiography of an Androgyne (1919), p 122.

It was fairly common for men to be blackmailed by sex workers or others, and it was involved heavily in the public sodomy trials of Oscar Wilde and Jacques d'Adelswärd-Fersen.

Reference

Blackmail

"[...] under Fred's directions I assumed a charming female costume. He acted as lady's maid, fitted my bust with a pair of false bubbies, frizzed my hair with curling irons, and fixed me up by adding a profusion of false plaits behind." — Jack Saul, Sins of the Cities of the Plain (1881), pp90-91.

"Whatever the sex of this strange being was, he or she had on a tight-fitting dress of a changing colour—gold in the light, dark green in the shade—silk gloves and stockings of the same tint as the satin of the dress, fitting so tightly on the rounded arms and most beautifully-shaped legs that these limbs looked as even and as hard as those of a bronze statue.

'And that other one there, with black ringlets, accroche-cœurs, in a dark blue velvet tea-gown, with bare arms and shoulders, is that lovely woman a man, too?'

'Yes, he is an Italian and a Marquis [...]'" — Anonymous, Teleny (1893), pp100-101.

"Endeavors toward [cross-dressing] are most enjoyable—or least offensive—when they show frank and patent inadequacy. It was Arthur Lemoyne's fortune—or misfortune—to do his work all too well." — Henry Blake Fuller, Bertram Cope's Year (1919), p201.

"That morning, however, I did my best with a very fair razor which the colonel had left behind in my room; then I turned out the lady's wardrobe and the cardboard boxes, and took my choice. I have fair hair, and at the time it was rather long. With a pair of Mrs. Crutchley's tongs and a discarded hair-net, I was able to produce an almost immodest fringe. A big black hat with a wintry feather completed a headdress as unseasonable as my skating skirt and feather boa; [...] I was not sorry to hear Raffles return as I was busy adding a layer of powder to my heated countenance." — E. W. Hornung, A Thief in the Night (1905), "The Rest Cure."

"Almost all the men go in women's clothes, or drag, as it is called. They wear magnificent gowns and take along a boy-friend to dance with." — Andre Tellier, Twilight Men (1931) p149.

+novel of an invert

A punishable social taboo, though common in queer communities and the sex trade.

Reference

Cross-Dressing

"Or was he sexually entirely normal and Dionian?" — Edward Prime-Stevenson, Imre: A Memorandum (1906), p66.

Heterosexual.

Label

Dionian

"[...] you look like the dream-friend I was once bound unto, soul and body" — Edward Prime-Stevenson, "When Art Was Young" (1883), p387.

I created in my childish day-dreams an ideal companion [...] my 'dream friend' [...] that 'other boy'" — Siegfried Sassoon, Memoirs of a Fox-hunting Man (1927), p11.

"If only this dream-friendship could materialize into an actual human bond" — Reginald Underwood, Bachelor's Hall (1934), p91.

"He could die for such a friend [in his dream] [...] neither death nor distance nor crossness could part them" — E. M. Forster, Maurice (1971), p22.

A common manifestation of queer companionship.

Reference

Dream Friend

"I’m Forrester at home; Fisher in the country." — F. C. Burnand, The Colonel (1881)

"That man has been a forger and a blackmailer. He leads a regular double life that you don’t know any thing about." — Edward Prime-Stevenson, Left to Themselves (1891), p284.

"You have invented a very useful younger brother called Ernest, in order that you may be able to come up to town as often as you like. I have invented an invaluable permanent invalid called Bunbury, in order that I may be able to go down into the country whenever I choose." — Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)

"[...] I told him so without reserve; [...] doggedly, defiantly, through my teeth, as one who had tried to live honestly and failed. [...] I gave him chapter and verse of my hopeless struggle, my inevitable defeat; for hopeless and inevitable they were to a man with my record, even though that record was written only in one's own soul. — E. W. Hornung, The Amateur Cracksman (1899)

Also see:

Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886) by Robert Louis Stevenson.
The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890) by Oscar Wilde.

It's an apt and common allegory: a person who hosts a secret second life with completely separate lines of friends, values, and so on, that they fiercely defend against discovery.

Reference

Double Life

Also see:

John Gambril Nicholson's collection of queer poems, Love in Earnest (1892).
Oscar Wilde's play of double lives, The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)

Uncommon, but can mean homosexual especially when phrased as "is he earnest?" The most likely correlation is the French word for Uranian/Urning, Uraniste, which is pronounced like "earnest."

Label

Earnest

"The 'fairie' is a youthful androgyne or other passive invert [...] whom natural predestination or other circumstances led to adopt the profession of the fille de joie.— Jenny June, Autobiography of an Androgyne (1918), p7.

"They're only fairies." — Evelyn Waugh, Brideshead Revisited (1944), p115.

Spelling varies. A queer person, and especially a gay man. Jennie June identifies fairies as specifically androgynous and passive sex workers, primarily those assigned male at birth.

Label

Fairy

"[...] I saw you in enthusiastic conversation with some long-haired creatures — a perfect crowd of the Intense School — and I couldn’t get near you." — F. C. Burnand, The Colonel (1881)

"I see his indolent, athletic figure; his pale, sharp, clean-shaven features; his curly black hair; his strong, unscrupulous mouth." — E. W. Hornung, The Amateur Cracksman (1899)

"His face was smooth-shaven, his eyes large and melancholy, his whimsical, sensitive mouth was upcurved at the corners, his waving chestnut hair was longer than was the fashion" — John T. Wheelwright, "The Roman Bath" (1920), pp316-317 in The Best Short Stories of 1920 (1921).

Certain characteristics of appearance were associated with aesthetes and homosexuality. In particular, a clean-shaven face, long hair, aesthetic clothing with breeches and flowing garments, and so on.

Label

Fashion

Flowers

"A man is unnatural if he never falls in love with a woman" — Robert Hichens, The Green Carnation (1891), 125p.

"Unnatural minds are far more common [...] more natural than people choose to suppose." Robert Hichens, The Green Carnation (1891), 127p.

Associated with Oscar Wilde and his followers, who often wore them. A play on how the flower appears "unnatural" despite being so.

Green Carnation

"A languid love of lilies does not blight me!" — W. S. Gilbert & Arthur Sullivan, Patience (1881), p10.

"[...] I have brought with me my work, as you call it; a quaint design in sunflower and apple blossoms" — John T. Wheelhouse, "A Sewing 'School For Scandal'" (1888), p74.

Also see:

James Hadley aesthete teapots (1882)
Edward Linley Sambourne's "Punch’s Fancy Portraits. — No. 37” (25 June 1881) of Wilde, and many other Wildean caricatures.

Flowers championed by the aesthetic movement and largely associated with Wilde.

Sunflower & Calla Lily

"Love's deepest poppy for my soul's dear guest" — Marc-Andre Raffalovich, Tuberose & Meadowsweet (1885), p43, but also Cyril & Lionel (1884), p29.

"If you walk down Piccadilly with a poppy or a lily in your medieval hand" — W. S. Gilbert & Arthur Sullivan, Patience (1881), p11.

Opium from poppies was associated with several Decadent artists. In addition, when Euryalus, the lover of Nisus in Virgil's Aeneid, dies, he is compared to a poppy hanging its head.

Poppy

"'If I am anything to you, Joseph, now is the time when my presence should be some slight comfort. We need not speak, but we will keep together.' / Joseph clung the closer to his friend's arm" — Bernard Taylor, Joseph and His Friend (1870), p271.

"On that day Engel gave me his badge with the number that was used instead of a name and that each inmate wore on his sleeve. This simple number, 598, spoke volumes to me and was precious to me because my friend had touched it every day." — Arthur W., Secret Confessions of a Parisian (1874) in Queer Lives (2007), p72.

"I answered: Friend most fair, / Do you now hear these footsteps on the stair? / Love comes and whistles, whistles as he comes / He pauses by the sweet geraniums...." — Marc-Andre Raffalovich, In Fancy Dress (1886), p58, also p16, p17, p78.

My friend grew so used to me that he couldn't do without me, no less than I could do without him. He had never been so loved, and he had never experienced as much pleasure as I offered him." — Anonymous, The Novel of an Invert (1889, 1896) in Queer Lives (2007), p199.

"[...] Oh! friend, my heart doth yearn for thee. And now his lovely image never left my eyes, the touch of his soft hand was still on mine, I even felt his scented breath upon my lips" — Anonymous, Teleny (1893), pp56-7.

"Your eyes see choirs of saints attend / With you upon your altar Friend." — Edward Perry Warren, Itamos (1903), p96.

"'Oh, my brother, Oh, my friend!' exclaimed Imre softly, putting his arm about me and holding me to his heart. [...] I love thee, as thou lovest me." — Edward Prime-Stevenson, Imre: A Memorandum (1906), pp204-5.

"As he alighted his name had been called out of dreams. The violence went out of his heart, and a purity that he had never imagined dwelt there instead. His friend had called him." — E. M. Forster, Maurice (1971), p66.

"Then Alan smiled up at his friend. 'Good-night, Dennis....' / 'Good-night, boy....' He tightened the pressure of his hand round Alan's arm." — A. T. Fitzroy, Despised and Rejected (1918), p290.

An equivalent to the word "lover" in some cases. "Special friendships" and "passionate friendships" are often but not exclusively used to describe juvenile queer relationships.

Label

Friend

"There is a game / Be men called love or shame / Where two must play yet both or one can win" — Marc-Andre Raffalovich, Tuberose and Meadowsweet (1885), p83.

"Now I was to take part in the game." — E. W. Hornung, The Amateur Cracksman (1899)

"I'm hooked on the game" as "Je suis piqué au jeu" — Jacques d' Adelswärd-Fersen, Messes noires: Lord Lyllian (1905), p3.

"Don, he's bi-sexual, if you know what I mean. Plays two ways" — Andre Tellier, Twilight Men (1931) p156.

Primarily phrased as 'the game' or "playing the game." Likely lifted from the equivalent heterosexual concept, it refers to the act of pursing a romantic or sexual relationship.

Reference

Game

"Great beauty in Greek marble bound" — Marc-Andre Raffalovich, Tuberose and Meadowsweet (1885), p5., but also see "Hellenic" and "Grecian" in In Fancy Dress (1886), p95.

"I believe that if one man were to live out his life fully and completely [...] we would forget all the maladies of mediaevalism, and return to the Hellenic ideal" — Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891)

"Love can revive the old Hellenic day" — Edward Perry Warren, Itamos (1903), p20, but also p47, p76, p84.

"His head [...] with its close-cut golden hair, carried out his Hellenic exterior." — Edward Prime-Stevenson, Imre: A Memorandum (1907), p43.

A point of historical validation of queerness for many authors. Greece and its derivative words, such as Grecian and Hellenic, are often used to strictly refer to Greece's queer culture rather than the full country.

Reference

Greece

Greek Figures

"When I call Hyacinth or Helen fair, / And Paris-like I love, or like Apollo / O do not think me false, or my words hollow" — Marc-Andre Raffalovich, Tuberose and Meadowsweet (1885), p56, but also Apollo on p10 and p58. Also in Cyril and Lionel (1884) p91 and 101.

"I know Hyacinthus, whom Apollo loved so madly, was you in Greek days" (Wilde to Bosie, Jan 1983)

Hyacinthus was the young lover of Apollo. The flower hyacinth was said to have grown from his blood when slain.

Apollo & Hyacinthus

"'Achilles sulking in his bunk!'" E. W. Hornung, The Amateur Cracksman (1899)

Greek soldiers and lovers popularized by Homer's Illiad. Achilles, considered the greatest warrior in Greece, refused to return to the Trojan war. Patroclus dons Achilles' armor and takes his place on the battlefield, where he is killed by Hector. Achilles avenges him violently and is later killed by Paris.

Achilles & Patroclus

"I am a very Narcissus!" — W. S. Gilbert & Arthur Sullivan, Patience (1881), p30.

"And love, could young Narcissus see thy face / [...] His heart would surely practise like my one / Soul's worship in the temple of the flesh." — Marc-Andre Raffalovich, Tuberose and Meadowsweet (1885), p22, also p26.

The man who rejected all romantic advances and punished fall in unrequited love with his own reflection. The flower of the same name also carries a queer weight when referenced. Dandies were often compared to him for their personal fastidious, self-absorption, and disinterest in marriage or courting.

Narcissus

"An attachment a la Plato for a bashful young potato" — W. S. Gilbert & Arthur Sullivan, Patience (1881).

"Berts is a stale old man, who can't make up his mind whether he wants to marry Esther or not. I am even worse. I am interested in Plato" — E. F. Benson, Dodo's Daughter (1914), p89.

—

Plato

"And hyacinths narcissus-like mean pain. / Such flowers should never fade for Ganymede," — Marc-Andre Raffalovich, In Fancy Dress (1886), p95, but also p.23 as Rosalind.

Ganymede was the young lover of Zeus, abducted when Zeus was in the form of an eagle. Shakespeare's Rosalind in As You Like It takes Ganymede's name; her name can also occasionally be used as a veiled equivalent.

Zeus & Ganymede

"Somebody was 'it.' I would never for a moment imagined it could be...you." — Andre Tellier, Twilight Men (1931) p114.

"It seems to be getting mildly sentimental." — John T. Wheelwright, "A Cure for Dudes" in George Riddle's Readings (1888), p46.

Usually phrased "is he it?" Also used as a derogatory pronoun.

Label

It

Military

"I was saying how common sodomy is in the Army. Our old major was the first to introduce me to it." — Jack Saul, Sins of the Cities of the Plain (1881), p84.

"He was a former captain in the Piedmont cavalry, having served in all the Italian wars" — Anonymous, The Novel of an Invert (1889) in Queer Lives, p202. Anonymous "loved dearly" (p207) this man as well as the sergeant that he "ended up loving [...] more than anyone else in the world'" (p197).

"That gentleman used to be a captain in our regiment. He was asked to leave the service. [...] On account of [...] his little love-affair with a.... cadet. You understand? [...] You know, or perhaps you do not know, how specially sensitive... indeed implacable.. the Service is on that topic." — Edward Prime-Stevenson, Imre: A Memorandum (1906), p70-71.

—

"Some men like soldiers, others sailors; some are fond of tightrope dancers, others of dandies." — Anonymous, Teleny (1893), p93.

"But how different sailors are!" — E. M. Forster, "The Obelisk" in The Life to Come and Other Stories (1987), p126.

Also see:

A main character of Gentlemen, I Address You Privately (1933) by Kay Boyle is Ayton, a bisexual sailor.

In addition to being another homosocial environment, the navy and other nautical institutions are known for their sexual tolerance and promiscuity to a much greater degree than other military branches.

Navy

Locations

"[...] he had sat, as Tiberius, in a garden at Capri, reading the shameful books of Elephantis" — Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891).

"[...] we were bound for Capri, which was clearly the island of the Lotos-eaters, that we would bask there together, 'and for a while forget.'" — E. W. Hornung, The Amateur Cracksman (1899).

"[...] a woman with a tailored suit and a heavy walking stick asked Jeanne if she should be at all interested in a week-end on Capri." — Andre Tellier, A Magnificent Sin (1930).

"[...] then we went to Capri where we had a vacation-time together." — Kay Boyle, Gentlemen, I Address You Privately (1933), p22.

Also see:

Capri is setting of:
Vestal Fire (1927) by Compton Mackenzie (as Sirene).
Extraordinary Women (1928) by Compton Mackenzie (as Sirene).
Ein Junger Platos: Aus dem Leben eines Entgleisten (1913) by Konradin.
Prinz Kuckuck: Lehen, Taten, Meinungen und Hollenfahrt eines Wollustlings (1907) by Otto Julius Bierbaum.

An island known for its tolerance of homosexuality. Several queer artists lived or visited it, including John Singer Sargent, Jacques d'Adelswärd-Fersen, Compton Mackenzie, Oscar Wilde, E. W. Hornung, and Maugham.

Capri

"In Harlem I found courage and joy and tolerance" — Blair Niles, Strange Brother(1931).

A portion of Northern Manhattan with a large Black and queer community. A key location of the Harlem Renaissance.

Harlem

"Scene: the library of a house in Piccadilly" — Oscar Wilde, The Critic as Artist (1891).

"If you walk down Piccadilly with a poppy or a lily in your medieval hand" —W. S. Gilbert & Arthur Sullivan, Patience (1881), p11.

"London, the way of Piccadilly" — Marc-Andre Raffalovich, Tuberose & Meadowsweet (1885), p18.

"[...] we went downstairs forthwith, and so to the Albany arm-in-arm." — E. W. Hornung, The Amateur Cracksman (1899). The Albany is on Piccadilly.

A fashionable street in London known to be walked by rent boys.

Piccadilly

"The Lady Nancyish, rich young men of higher or lower society" — Edward Prime-Stevenson, Imre: A Memorandum (1906), p116.

Similar to the "auntie" sterotype.

Label

Lady Nancy

Occupations

See Aesthete and Artistic Temperament.

Artist

—

Florist

"Must every man and woman be in love with the pianist?" — Anonymous, Teleny (1893), p73.

Also see:

Jacques Soran — Henri d'Argis, Sodome (1888).
Gilbert — Oscar Wilde, "The Critic as Artist" (1891).
Dorian Gray — Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891).
Rene Teleny — Anonymous, Teleny (1893).
Dennis Blackwood & Crispin Burgess — A. T. Fitzroy, Despised and Rejected (1918).
Arthur Lemoyne — Henry B. Fuller, Bertram Cope's Year (1919).
Armand Bironge & Pedro Mercardi — Andre Tellier, Twilight Men (1931).
Munday — Kay Boyle, Gentlemen, I Address You Privately (1933).
Adrian — Reginald Underwood, Bachelor's Hall (1934).
A piano takes a metaphorical role in Maurice (1972) by E. M. Forster.

At this point I don't think it can be a coincidence that queer literature is filled with gay pianists tbh. Bonus points for Chopin references (Twilight Men (p16, p107), The Critic as Artist).

Pianist

"I shall never let out that queer secret of theirs" — Edward Prime-Stevenson, "Aquae Multae Non—" (1883).

"I met her at a queer party in New York, where they had artists, and authors, and musicians, and that lot." — John T. Wheelwright, "A Cure for Dudes" in George Riddle's Readings (1888), p32.

"He had other acceptable qualities, you see; so I didn't allow myself to be too much stirred up by... that remarkably queer one." — Edward Prime-Stevenson, Imre: A Memorandum (1906), p73.

He's got a queer strain of the maternal in him. It's obvious [...] in the way he looks upon that boy.... It's a woman's passion as well as a man's that he feels for Alan" — A. T. Fitzroy, Despised and Rejected (1918) p347.

"I want you to know [...] that I'm what the world considers queer. Do you understand that, or must I elucidate?" — Andre Tellier, Twilight Men (1931) p119.

Almost exclusively used as an adjective, not a noun. Appears most often in its original meaning, 'strange,' but also can imply homosexuality.

Label

Queer

See Affected.

Label

Sensitive

Sex Work Terms

—

An obliging people-pleaser and a term attributed to the passive male since the early 1800's.

Complaisant

"I was destined always to play the woman’s role—the role of the mignon—that distinct and
separate type among all men with similar passions." — The Countess, Secret Confessions of a Parisian (1874), p22 in Queer Lives.

"Cute."

Mignon

"The tapette has an affected manner of expressing himself, as ornate and bizarre as his extraordinary life." — The Countess, Secret Confessions of a Parisian (1874), p52 in Queer Lives.

A flamboyant homosexual, although simply "chatterbox" when applied to a woman.

Tapette

—

"Girl." Frequently refers to female sex workers, but the Countess uses it for males.

Fille

—

"Little." 1800's street slang for young male prostitutes.

Petit

—

"Aunt." Effeminate men, particularly gay men. Originally for passive male inmates.

Tante

"Why are we here to-day? O hide your shame / Mine shall be silent too." — Marc-Andre Raffalovich, Tuberose and Meadowsweet (1885), p77, but also p83, p119, Cyril and Lionel (1884) p86 and p93, In Fancy Dress (1886) p2 and p54.

"Uranistic love—the fittest names for which so often should be written Torment, Shame, and Despair!" — Edward Prime-Stevenson, Imre: A Memorandum (1906), p77.

"Of all sweet passions Shame is the loveliest." — Lord Alfred Douglas, "In Praise of Shame," but also see "Two Loves."

A stand-in word for love, and specifically gay love.

Reference

Shame

"OLIVE. He is subtle. / COL. He is so." — F. C. Burnand, The Colonel (1881)

A euphemism for homosexuality most often phrased, "Is he so?"

Label

So

"A world this very day burning, / One of the cities of the plain!" — Marc-Andre Raffalovich, In Fancy Dress (1886), p99.

""The scene then changed, and shifted into the gorgeous towns of Sodom and Gomorrah, weird, beautiful and grand; to me the pianist's notes just then seemed murmuring in my ear with the panting of an eager lust, the sound of thrilling kisses." — Anonymous, Teleny (1893), p22, but also p29 and p139.

aka The Cities of the Plain. A pair of cities destroyed by God for their immorality.

Reference

Sodom & Gomorrah

"strange as lovers ever" — Marc-Andre Raffalovich, Cyril and Lionel (1884), p70.

"And we are not less strange than you" — Edward Perry Warren, Itamos (1903), p95.

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Reference

Strange

"But what did I care if some tribades suspected us of sharing their own frailties." — Anonymous, Teleny (1883), p131.

"These women usually came in pairs and were charming priestesses of that enormous cult that worshiped at Sappho’s altar. They belonged to that strange sect, that incomprehensible love, from which men are excluded. They were the most important tribades in Paris." — i think this was confessions of a parisian? p44.

Lesbian

Reference

Tribades

Affected

Aestheticism

Artistic Temperament

Aesthete