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

[jessie_lansdel]

Thank you so much for all your replies. You have been such a help in this. It is so important to get even these little details ! right. I did wonder about Love as a term but wasn't too sure but I shall certainly look up the books you've all recommended and dig out my Shakespear's sonnets which has not seen the light of day since university.

Thank you.

[majolika]

[jayb111]

The problem with 'chuck' is that it's used nowadays in and around Manchester and using it in dialogue will make the character sound as if he or she has escaped from Coronation Street, and not at all like an Essex boy.

[littlered2]

I don't know; in my head the connotations are pretty evenly split between "Elizabethan/Jacobean" and "Coronation Street". In an Elizabethan setting, I wouldn't find it weird.

[syntinen_laulu]

You could try Marlowe, too. He was he rampantly gay, and there's plenty of gay canoodling in his works; try the bit in Hero and Leander where the sea-god is trying to seduce Leander, and of course his Edward II. And Marlowe was a Kentish lad who'd studied in Cambridge, so - unlike Shakespeare who kept putting in bits of Warwickshire dialect even when writing for a London audience - it's all genuine south-eastern English.

[elaiel]

I have a friend who has been (professionally) reenacting this era for years and she suggests:
"Terms of endearment, check out Newtons letters to Fatio. I know it is 17thC but many of them remained in current usage, due to the fact one had to be incredibly careful in those times about openly being even slightly gay. However if you look closely at plays and fiction works at that time they are actually littered with the terms. And when you know what to look for.... it becomes a little more obvious! -"I am your humble and obediant servant, and with all my heart I am commited to your service." *waggles eyebrows*"