Real historic spankings

[Burke Tolliver]

This is a translation of part of the HISTORIA CALAMITATUM -- THE STORY OF MY MISFORTUNES -- the autobiography by Peter Abélard (1079-1149). Abélard was a noted teacher who seduced the beautiful daughter of a Canon while acting as a live-in tutor; the affair -- and not unlikely the initial seduction -- was carried out with the aid of much "punishment" of the variety normally applied by teachers to students. At this period of time, according to historical woodcuts, such punishments were normally carried out by the application of birch switches to the bare bottom while the subject was either bent over or across the knees. It is probable that the girl's uncle applied the same sort of punishment to her himself; certainly someone examined the "marks" Abélard left behind for that purpose, and the whole household obviously knew (by hearing or, possibly, seeing on occasion) that such discipline was taking place. Some of you may enjoy reading this first-hand account, particularly if you allow your imagination to translate the formal, dated English version of what is actually going on. Please, feel free to comment.


Now there dwelt in that same city of Paris a certain young girl
named Héloïse, the niece of a canon who was called Fulbert. Her
uncle's love for her was equalled only by his desire that she
should have the best education which he could possibly procure for
her. Of no mean beauty, she stood out above all by reason of her
abundant knowledge of letters. Now this virtue is rare among women,
and for that very reason it doubly graced the maiden, and made her
the most worthy of renown in the entire kingdom. It was this young
girl whom I, after carefully considering all those qualities which
are wont to attract lovers, determined to unite with myself in the
bonds of love, and indeed the thing seemed to me very easy to be
done. So distinguished was my name, and I possessed such advantages
of youth and comeliness, that no matter what woman I might favour
with my love, I dreaded rejection of none. Then, too, I believed
that I could win the maiden's consent all the more easily by reason
of her knowledge of letters and her zeal therefor; so, even if we
were parted, we might yet be together in thought with the aid of
written messages. Perchance, too, we might be able to write more
boldly than we could speak, and thus at all times could we live in
joyous intimacy.

Thus, utterly aflame with my passion for this maiden, I sought to
discover means whereby I might have daily and familiar speech with
her, thereby the more easily to win her consent. For this purpose I
persuaded the girl's uncle, with the aid of some of his friends, to
take me into his household--for he dwelt hard by my school--in
return for the payment of a small sum. My pretext for this was that
the care of my own household was a serious handicap to my studies,
and likewise burdened me with an expense far greater than I could
afford. Now, he was a man keen in avarice, and likewise he was most
desirous for his niece that her study of letters should ever go
forward, so, for these two reasons, I easily won his consent to the
fulfillment of my wish, for he was fairly agape for my money, and
at the same time believed that his niece would vastly benefit by my
teaching. More even than this, by his own earnest entreaties he
fell in with my desires beyond anything I had dared to hope,
opening the way for my love; for he entrusted her wholly to my
guidance, begging me to give her instruction whensoever I might be
free from the duties of my school, no matter whether by day or by
night, and to punish her sternly if ever I should find her
negligent of her tasks. In all this the man's simplicity was
nothing short of astounding to me; I should not have been more
smitten with wonder if he had entrusted a tender lamb to the care
of a ravenous wolf. When he had thus given her into my charge, not
alone to be taught but even to be disciplined, what had he done
save to give free scope to my desires, and to offer me every
opportunity, even if I had not sought it, to bend her to my will
with threats and blows if I failed to do so with caresses? There
were, however, two things which particularly served to allay any
foul suspicion: his own love for his niece, and my former
reputation for continence.

Why should I say more: We were united first in the dwelling that
sheltered our love, and then in the hearts that burned with it.
Under the pretext of study we spent our hours in the happiness of
love, and learning held out to us the secret opportunities that our
passion craved. Our speech was more of love than of the book which
lay open before us; our kisses far outnumbered our reasoned words.
Our hands sought less the book than each other's bosoms; love drew
our eyes together far more than the lesson drew them to the pages
of our text. In order that there might be no suspicion, there were,
indeed, sometimes blows, but love gave them, not anger; they were
the marks, not of wrath, but of a tenderness surpassing the most
fragrant balm in sweetness. What followed? No degree in love's
progress was left untried by our passion, and if love itself could
imagine any wonder as yet unknown, we discovered it. And our
inexperience of such delights made us all the more ardent in our
pursuit of them, so that our thirst for one another was still
unquenched.

[RobM]

It's VERY interesting and all that, but, I don't think this is quite the place for this. This is pretty much a FICTION site and people talking about spankings are usually strictly limited to their own experiances of it (As a spankee or consensual spanker) and we don't normally permit the talking about the giving of non-cons spankings.
At least, that was my understanding of it.

It's VERY interesting and all, but might be better suited on another site?

[lincoln]

Whether or not it is appropriate, it is still a lovely piece of writing

[Dr. Weird]

Originally Posted by RobM

It's VERY interesting and all that, but, I don't think this is quite the place for this. This is pretty much a FICTION site and people talking about spankings are usually strictly limited to their own experiances of it (As a spankee or consensual spanker) and we don't normally permit the talking about the giving of non-cons spankings.

I know, man! When Abelard finds out we've been talking about him behind the back, the dude is gonna to be pissed. I don't know about you, but I'm going to start wearing a steel helmet so that when zombie Abelard claws his way out of the grave he's been lying in for the past 859 years my brain will be nice and safe. Hopefully I can find something in Lincoln's past too, so I can get him to re-animate and run for President. You know, once he's done murdering us for our crimes. :P

Admittedly, the topic does run counter to the letter of the law, if not the spirit. I don't consider it worthy of removal, but I could support such a decision for consistency's sake if nothing else. After all, it's probably inevitable that someone's going to decide their childhood counts as "history."

In the meantime though, I'll add that Rousseau's Confessions contains a paean to the joys of being spanked by an older woman. I forgot everything else I read for that course as soon as I passed, but you can be sure I remembered that little bit of trivia.

[lincoln]

I assure you Dr W I am very much alive and have no presidential or murderous intentions - I leave those to Bush and Brown.

[cypher_7z]

Rousseau, Rousseau...where have i heard that name before (glances at sigy)

actually, i'm much more familiar with Rousseau, and somewhat more with Abelard, in the NON-spanking context. Contrat Social was magnificent.