Terms of affection/endearment between 16th cent' male lovers.

[jessie_lansdel]

I am writing a M/M historical romance set in 16th century Essex, UK. I want to know what terms of affection/endearment they would most likely use to each other

Comments

[steepholm]

I don't suppose they're typical, but there are surviving letters between James VI and I, and his lover Buckingham ("Steenie"). Steenie begins one letter to the king, "Dere Dad and Gossope" and signs off "Your most humble slave and servant and dog Steenie." More generally, you might check out this book.

[syntinen_laulu]

You could try pigsnie, which may not be Essex but certainly was current in the Elizabethan period as a term of endearment.

[jayb111]

Have you tried Shakespeare? He usually has a word or phrase for all occasions. Some of his sonnets were addressed to a young man.

[helle_d]

Try Shakespeare's Sonnets - most of those are to a young man who, as far as I remember, he flatters elaborately and occasionally calls "love" and once or twice things like "O thou, my lovely boy" and "Lord of my love". "Sweet love" is used regularly, and variations on "dear friend" "fair friend" "my sweetest friend". Another thing is that 'thou' could be used between close friends or lovers to signal intimacy, as well as addressing people of lower social status. The sonnets contain lots of anxieties about class difference and social status and such.

One thing that you may or may not know that I recently found interesting - the word "lover" in Shakespeare's time meant 'someone who loves me' and so could be used for any close friend. Brutus in Julius Caesar refers to Caesar as "my best lover" and other characters at different points mention "my lovers and friends".

[zydee]

In Cellini's autobiography, he and a young man I'm pretty sure he was sexually involved with call each other "Gossip" and "Whisper." Gossip seems to have been a pretty common term of endearment at the time. Elizabeth used similar pet names for her favorite courtiers, if I remember right ("Eyes", "Spirit"), though she probably wasn't banging them. You might check out collections of contemporary writings, like Pritchard's Shakespeare's England. Good luck!