Background:
In the past there have been some interesting proponents of Polygamy. Some were quiet people who firmly believed in it, and chose a martyr's death over renouncing their beliefs or repudiating their wives. Other's were, well, loud-mouths. Perhaps the most colorful of these was Johan Lester, a celibate, who lived during the 1600s in Europe. He wrote a number of books and tracts and traveled all over Western Europe preaching the social gospel of Polygamy as the solution to society's ills. Naturally, he met a good deal of resistance including having stocks of his books seized and burned. At one point, he proposed raising a tombstone to Monogamy and inscribing upon it the following epitaph.
Monogamy's Epitaph
Stay, wayfarer, your step, a few words with you I pray.
Do you ask who lies here buried? Monogamy.
Do you ask who her father was? Phantasy.
Her mother? The Lady Know-Nothing.
Bred by what nurse? Folly.
By which attendants guarded? The brothers Ignorance and Pettycoatgoverned.
What has she done in the world? Nothing.
She giggled, she coquetted, she painted on gourds,
Yet she did bring forth I know not what an unspeakable brood,
Infanticide, wifemurder, adulterers, onanism, sodomy and other monstrosities of that breed.
At last worn out, and to a nothing reduced, and here lies buried.
If nothing is what you find here, dear reader, be not astounded,
For here is buried MONOGAMY.
-- Johan Lester
Credits:
This translation from the Latin is found in "John Milton Among the Polygamophiles", Loewenthal, Pg. 83. The rest of Johan Lester's story can be found in the same book.
In the past there have been some interesting proponents of Polygamy. Some were quiet people who firmly believed in it, and chose a martyr's death over renouncing their beliefs or repudiating their wives. Other's were, well, loud-mouths. Perhaps the most colorful of these was Johan Lester, a celibate, who lived during the 1600s in Europe. He wrote a number of books and tracts and traveled all over Western Europe preaching the social gospel of Polygamy as the solution to society's ills. Naturally, he met a good deal of resistance including having stocks of his books seized and burned. At one point, he proposed raising a tombstone to Monogamy and inscribing upon it the following epitaph.
Monogamy's Epitaph
Stay, wayfarer, your step, a few words with you I pray.
Do you ask who lies here buried? Monogamy.
Do you ask who her father was? Phantasy.
Her mother? The Lady Know-Nothing.
Bred by what nurse? Folly.
By which attendants guarded? The brothers Ignorance and Pettycoatgoverned.
What has she done in the world? Nothing.
She giggled, she coquetted, she painted on gourds,
Yet she did bring forth I know not what an unspeakable brood,
Infanticide, wifemurder, adulterers, onanism, sodomy and other monstrosities of that breed.
At last worn out, and to a nothing reduced, and here lies buried.
If nothing is what you find here, dear reader, be not astounded,
For here is buried MONOGAMY.
-- Johan Lester
Credits:
This translation from the Latin is found in "John Milton Among the Polygamophiles", Loewenthal, Pg. 83. The rest of Johan Lester's story can be found in the same book.
