There persists a notion of ‘merrie England’ where all sexual and gender identities were broadly tolerated, with occasional repressive puritan
interludes. This section will explore the falsehoods and the ambiguities
in this conception, beginning with the early and still perpetuated critical horror at the idea of a gay Shakespeare. Other key works include eighteenth-century satirical and dismissive depictions of ‘Mollies,’ men whose
desires we might now class as transgender, and banned and still technically illegal copies of Don Leon, an autobiographical poem describing gay encounters and (erroneously) ascribed to Byron.