Jump to content

John Saul (prostitute)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Engleham (talk | contribs) at 14:55, 28 January 2016 (→‎Bibliography). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

  • Comment: Perhaps still not enough in-depth third-party coverage sources overall to suggest solid notability. SwisterTwister talk 04:26, 27 January 2016 (UTC)

John Saul (1852?–?), possibly also known as Jack Saul, and by the nickname Dublin Jack, was an prostitute of the Victorian era who featured in two major homosexual scandals, and as a character in two works of pornographic literature of the period. Considered "notorious in Dublin and London" and "made infamous by the sensational testimony he gave in the Cleveland Street scandal"[1], which was published globally in newspapers, in recent times he has been the subject of considerable scholarly analysis and speculation, as there is little information on the lives and outlook of individual male prostitutes of the period. Saul has also drawn attention as a defiant individual in a society that sought to repress him: "a figure of abjection who refuses his status".[2]

Early Life

Apart from the fact he was of Irish birth, nothing is known of Saul's early life. In 1875 he was charged with committing an indecent offence. Giving testimony in the later Cleveland Street Scandal, he called himself "a professional Mary-ann" – a period euphemism for rentboy, and stated: "I have lost my character and cannot get on otherwise. I occasionally do odd-jobs for different gay people." He sent money home to his mother.[2]

Sins of the Cities

The alleged memoirs of Saul were published in an anonymously-authored and clandestinely published 1881 erotic book The Sins of the Cities of the Plain or Recollections of a Mary-Ann, With Short Essays on Sodomy and Tribadism. It is more likely to be an early form of the non-fiction novel,[3] although Saul may have contributed. In the words of one scholar: "Although some of the details of Sins...are exaggerated for effect, it is based upon fact[4]

Saul's is character is described as possessing "a fresh looking beardless face, with almost feminine features, auburn hair and sparkling blue eyes…and endowed by a very extraordinary development of the male appendage". Asked by a prospective customer to provide this name, his character replies:"Saul, Jack Saul, Sir, of Lisle Street, Leicester Square, and ready for a lark with a free gentleman at any time."[5]

In the book Saul is picked up on the street by a 'Mr Chambon' who, charmed by his looks and story, pays him five pounds a week to write his memoirs. Chambon lives "in the Cornwall Mansions close to Baker Street Station". A friend of William Lazenby the publisher, did live at Cornwall Residences, a now-demolished block of nondescript Victorian flats near the Station,[6] from about 1877 until his death in 1889. Potter was the 'compiler' of another anonymous piece of the erotica A Letter from the East (1877) as well as Letters from India during HRH the Prince of Wales' Visit in 1875/6 (1876) [7] Mr Chambon could be based on Potter, who was also a friend of Henry Spencer Ashbee, and it is possible Potter may have been the connection to the real Saul.

It has been suggested that the book was largely written by James Campbell Reddie and the painter Simeon Solomon,[8][9] who had been convicted of public indecency in 1873 and disgraced.[10]

Saul's cross-dressing persona 'Evelina' appears in the 1883 sequel Letters from Laura and Eveline, Giving an Account of Their Mock-Marriage, Wedding Trip, etc. Published as an Appendix to Sins of the Cities.

Dublin Castle Affair

In 1884, Irish nationalists alleged homosexual orgies among the staff at Dublin Castle.[11] Saul was interviewed by the police and was to be a Crown witness, but was never called to give testimony – a matter which is still cause for speculation. One newspaper of the time claimed that it was not used because "the story was too old...It is not true that he was told that his evidence would not be received on oath because of his disreputable character."[12] Saul's record of interview was destroyed in the Irish Civil War.[13]

Cleveland Street Scandal

After living at a succession of addresses in London, in 1887 Saul moved into a male brothel at 19 Cleveland Street run by a fellow prostitute Charles Hammond whom he had previously lived with. Saul was one of several professionals working there, but telegraph boys were also recruited for part-time work. In 1889, when one of the boys was questioned at the General Post Office regarding how he obtained a sum of money in his possession, the Cleveland Street scandal broke, creating news stories around the globe. The first trial that resulted was a libel action by Lord Euston, heir to the Duke of Grafton, against Ernest Parke, editor of the North London Press. Parke had alleged Euston had been a visitor to the male brothel at the centre of the scandal, and Saul was called as a witness for the defence.

Saul delivered his testimony in a manner described in a newspaper report as "brazen effrontery" and detailed his sexual encounter with Euston in the brothel in explicit language that shocked the court.[14] He was also sharp, witty, and defiant.[15] The line of questioning and his responses included:

And were you hunted out by the police? – No, they have never interferred. They have always been kind to me.

Do you mean they have deliberately shut their eyes to your infamous practices? – They have had to shut their eyes to more than me.

In the assessment of one scholar "Saul refused to play the role assigned to him."[2] In his summing up, the judge asked the jury to assess whether they could possibly accept the word of a "loathsome object" against that of Lord Euston. Park was found guilty of libel and imprisoned. However Saul's testimony is likely to have been the truth, as Euston was well known in the homosexual underwood and was later subject to repeated blackmail.[15]

Despite Saul's blithe confession of prostitution on the witness stand, the Attorney General declined to prosecute him. The reason is unknown. Given Saul's revelations and manner as a mere witness – which had been considered shocking enough, and the unproven rumour then circulating in high society and police circles that Prince Albert Victor had visited the brothel, it may be that the authorities were concerned over what he would have said, or who he may have implicated, had he been placed in the position of having to defend himself.[15]

Legacy

A biography of Saul, The Sins of Jack Saul by Glenn Chandler will be published in March 2016.[16]

Saul has also featured prominently in a large number of academic studies and histories, including Neil McKenna's The Secret Life of Oscar Wilde and Fanny and Stella: The Young Men Who Shocked England, and three books on the Cleveland Street Scandal, including Theo Aronson's Prince Eddy and the Homosexual Underworld.

Saul also partially inspired Jonathan Kemp's novel London Triptych.[17]

He appears as an embittered older prostitute and narrator in the 2011 stage show Cleveland Street: The Musical by Glenn Chandler and Matt Devereaux[18][19]

References

  1. ^ Cohen, A. William Sex Scandal: The Private Parts of Victorian Fiction, Duke University Press, Durham and London, 1996, p123
  2. ^ a b c Kaplan, Morris Who's Afraid of John Saul? Urban Culture and the Politics of Desire in Late Victorian London, GLQ: Journal of Lesbian and Gay Quarterly 5:3, 1999, pp267-314 https://muse.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_lesbian_and_gay_studies/v005/5.3kaplan.html
  3. ^ Gunn, Drewey Wayne Gay Novels of Britain, Ireland and the Commonwealth 1881-1981: A Reader's Guide, McFarland and Company, North Carolina, 2014, pp5-7
  4. ^ Hyde, H. Montgomery The History of Pornography, p141.
  5. ^ Anon: Saul, Jack The Sins of the Cities of the Plain or the Recollections of a Mary-Anne, Vol I, 1882
  6. ^ Cornwall Mansions: The Rise and Fall of 7K and Its Neighbours, The Gissing Journal, Vol XLIV, No4, October, 2008
  7. ^ Cornwall Mansions: The Rise and Fall of 7K and Its Neighbours, in The Gissing Journal, Vol XLIV, No4, October, 2008
  8. ^ Cook (2003) p. 19.
  9. ^ Ditmore (2006) p. 443.
  10. ^ Peniston (2004) pp. 77–78.
  11. ^ O'Riordan, Tomás The Theft of the Irish Crown Jewels, History Ireland, Winter 2001 http://www.historyireland.com/20th-century-contemporary-history/the-theft-of-the-irish-crown-jewels-1907/
  12. ^ Kaplan, Morris (2005). Sodom on the Thames. Cornell University Press. p. 201.
  13. ^ Hyde, Harford Montgomery The Other Love, 1970
  14. ^ Hyde, H. Montgomery The Cleveland Street Scandal,p146-7
  15. ^ a b c Aronson, Theo Prince Eddy and the Homosexual Underworld, John Murray, London, 1994, pp154-61
  16. ^ http://www.jacksaul.co.uk
  17. ^ Kemp, Jonathan London Triptych, Myriad Editions, 2010 See: Afterforward
  18. ^ Cleveland Street The Musical, Exeunt Magazine, 20 April 2011, http://exeuntmagazine.com/reviews/cleveland-street-the-musical/
  19. ^ http://www.guidetomusicaltheatre.com/shows_c/ClevelandStreet.html

Bibliography

  • Aronson, Theo Prince Eddy and the Homosexual Underworld, Barnes and Noble, 1995
  • Cafferky, John; Hannafin, Kevin Scandal and Betrayal: Shackleton and the Irish Crown Jewels, The Collins Press, 2002
  • Cocks, H.G. Nameless offences: Homosexual desire in the 19th century, I.B. Tauris Publishers, London 2003
  • Coleman, J Rent: Same-Sex Prostitution in Modern Britain, 1885-1957, University of Kentucky, 2014
  • Cook, Matt London and the Culture of Homosexuality, Cambridge University Press, 2003
  • Delgado, A Scandals In Sodom: The Victorian City's Queer Streets, Studies in the Literary Imagination, 2007
  • Hyde, Montgomery The Cleveland Street Scandal, London 1976
  • Kaplan, Morris Sodom on the Thames: Sex, Love, and Scandal in Wilde Times, Cornell University Press, New York, 2005
  • Kaplan, Morris Who's Afraid of John Saul? Urban Culture and the Politics of Desire in Late Victorian London, Journal of Lesbian and Gay Quarterly 5:3, 1999, pp267-314 https://muse.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_lesbian_and_gay_studies/v005/5.3kaplan.html
  • McKenna, Neil The Secret Life of Oscar Wilde, Century, 2003
  • McKenna, Neil Fanny and Stella: The Young Men Who Shocked England, Faber & Faber, 2013
  • Reay, B Writing the modern histories of homosexual England, The Historical Journal, Cambridge University Press, 2009
  • Simpson, Colin; Chester, ‎Lewis; Leitch, David The Cleveland Street Affair, 1977
  • The Sins Of Jack Saul

[1]


Category:Articles created via the Article Wizard

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=John_Saul_(prostitute)&oldid=702113835"