Around 1820, Barbu Paris Mumulean thus concluded one of his poems: "Hankering I will not fade / Cupid cometh but in aid / thus in luxury I may / crave until I wilt away." In actuality, these verses word the ideal of a generation that sets out to inventory, and answer for, a novel erotic ethic, at the turn of the century. Wars are shaking antiquated mind-sets, creating new horizons, fathering new options. From around 1780 until 1850 we become aware of a "transitional period", where every thing is to be uncovered, savored, imparted, experienced, where society attempts a restoration – without the knowledge of its course of action. This "wave of folly" first engulfed the boyars, then the city dwellers and a certain fraction of the peasantry. Love is one such experiment that can be found in everything: literature, dance, music, luxury, travel – in French, Russian, and Austrian officers and soldiers alike; in drawing rooms, in brothels or in the "hay stack behind the post office". An entire Romantic arsenal comes into play to reach a finality leading to the pleasure of the senses. Nonetheless, the phenomenon is unbalanced: though it is spectacular amidst nobility, where eroticism becomes a cardinal ingredient of chivalry, it is less spectacular amidst the folly, where seduction often limits itself to the sexual act. The aristocratic elite experiments with a sophisticated loving modality: the "theatrical" kind, staging it to the full: flowers and sweets, under-the-sill sighs against the sound of lute players, jewels and Persian shawls, perfumed stanzas and letters, veils and translucent bodies. "Speak, my poor soul, speak thee out / what a' grief has come about?" our great ban [highest boyar rank] Ienakitza Vacarescu scans, a true master in the art of love; he seduces by virtue of his prestige, of a wealth proudly displayed, by the pomp of his dancing balls, but first and foremost aided by the sensuality of the poetry he dedicates to beloved women. Prince Caragea, the son of king Ioan Caragea (1812-1818), flanked by a group of "youths" and lute players, serenades under the balconies of all pleasing women – whose husbands had been previously dispatched on to remote assignments in the all the corners of Wallachia. Grigorie Ghica (1822-1828) himself wades courteously with "lute players" through the Colentina slums "to console Pavel's wife" who they say was his concubine. Meanwhile, Costache Cretzulescu and Elena Balaceanu still their hearts' fire with inflammatory love letters and secret encounters in the mysterious, nightly voluptuousness. The two paramours hide from the eyes of the jealous spouse, Aga Matei Cantacuzino, in an uncomfortable carriage and in the seediness of outskirts where they lie together "until the clock strikes five." When the cold further impedes the outdoor get-togethers under the sweet vernal canopy, the dame decides to become a tenant, and havoc thus results. Their love nest in the Outer Market slum is abandoned after a mere three rendezvous, "on account of a gutter" that the coachman couldn't avert. As a consequence, the lady & Co., forced to stride, repeatedly reach their love-bed covered in mire, and forfeiting their appetite for poetry. From thence they proceed unto lady Duduca's herself, but the self-same clod gets the better of them; thereafter, spring finds them sealing their lips, at times, "on the grounds", at other times, "at the back of the garden", or "up the hill". Their passion ends prosaically in a notorious divorce suit, on February 12th, the Year of the Lord 1828.Eufrosin Poteca remains unparalleled in expressing the differences between Platonic love, passion, and the love of the flesh. Each of them offers the above mortal, pleasurable sensations that set the senses in motion and awaken him from the numbness imposed by his habit. Aware of his sickness induced by "maidens' fancy", in full acknowledgement and understanding that he cannot resist this infatuation, Eufrosin Poteca stays eternally enamored, ready at any time to feed on "Cupid's flame", to "lighten up" in the face of woman, to acquaint himself with the blaze of affliction, to suffer the bitter sweetness of biding his time, turning hours into minutes and minutes into hours, to sadden for crave. Thus the beloved becomes the "faerie" of his fancy. In his world, reality intermingles with illusion and deception, with the wish to love Love. Thus, a sex affair with an anonymous tart on the streets of Pest becomes to the monk a most beauteous love story. Albeit he be "a practician" of "bodily sin", it is only Kati that can offer the opportunity to know the pleasures of "love-making", a sensation that a nude act of intercourse cannot provide. On scores of pages he then "chants" his happiness: "at present, methinks I did not now what to do on account of my joy. Such joy! Such sweetness! To my mind this hath been the most magnificent pleasure and sweetness of all my past and present life." Love brings along elation and "spirit", a zest for reading and writing, bans affliction and pain from the body, enriches the soul. His amorous experience from between 1826-1827 brings him, nonetheless, great sadness, as well. As a consequence, he advises all those who cannot quench their heart's passion either to taste the benefits of wedlock (an option mainly to ensure the gratification of sexual needs), or not to fall into "the trap of moral love through the agency of the soul", as it does not confine itself to mere desire, but signifies "humility", "respect", and the rooting of one's entire being in the other's soul. The feelings experienced by Eufrosin Poteca emulate what we think of love in the 20th century.Nevertheless, not all contemporaries are as sensitive as Eufrosin Poteca. Country folk and people of the city alike measure their words and feelings with great heed. Family and fortune will continue to take prevalence in the forging of a new couple, whereas "love" is doomed to take refuge in the limited space of the extramarital world. The sexual act is equated with desire, pleasure – at times, love. But it mirrors, first and foremost, a great curiosity, an unrestrainable desire to take a glare at others, to monitor, to spy, to recount, to speak out: an excitement both of the soul and of the body. Judges, sword bearers, marshals, neighbors, husbands and wives, all narrate the history of sexuality, all are actively involved in decrypting each and every scene, each and every gesture. A lovers' solitude, the locked door, a stifled candle, an open shirt, the entwinement of the bodies, the breathing rhythm, the blushing of the cheek, the "bruising kisses" betray a criminal, illegitimate affair: bodily sin.The love of Father Zamfir for Merica, the widow of Herastrau alley, is accounted for by Mary, the priest's wife, dweller of the Merchants' slum by the potency of devilish spells. The "traps" and "contraptions" of the witch have twisted her husband's ways, have plucked him "from the state of one sound in mind", "plunged him in hell, thus resulting in a forfeit of his soul." An "unfortunate victim" of infatuation, priest Zamfir takes a back seat in the contention, as the main actors remain the two women who pursue and threaten each other; they argue, use foul language against each other, catfight on narrow slum streets within all neighbors' hearing range. Thus, behold that "Tuesday, on the 27th day this March 1815, pending the light of day", as a result of "spying acts", Mary learns that the reverend father finds himself again between his mistress' sheets. Therefore, she "leaves aught to itself", knots her head-kerchief up and makes for the Herastrau alley. As she comes nearer, her inner revolt amasses and breaks out the instant she finds "the yard gate locked". Thereupon she bellows "that no-one should impose on them abruptly." Her howling attracts the guttersnipes who watch her jump over the fence, close in on the lovers in her footsteps, whereupon they "storm" into the room, where the poor lovers hide their nakedness behind a fez too small for a shame that big.All these minute scenes pertain to a "lost world", but the love that was forged and lived at that time still gives food for thought nowadays. It has gained ground only gradually, capturing each social layer and triggering deep-seated crises at a mindset level; it is manifest in the divorce rate increase, the premarital loss of virginity, the children's revolt in the face of expressed paternal authority, in sexual freedom.Nevertheless, "what mystery love is, I cannot tell", and thus I leave you, my reader, to travel through the heart's labyrinth and uncover the answer sought by Eufrosin Poteca. from Dilema veche 59/4-10 March 2005
by Constanţa Vintilă-Ghiţulescu (b. 1969)
