Scotch Verdict by Lillian Faderman

Author:Lillian Faderman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: LIT004160, Literary Criticism/Gay and Lesbian, LIT013000, Literary Criticism/Drama
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Published: 2013-01-07T16:00:00+00:00

LORD JUSTICE-CLERK HOPE’S NOTES ON THE TESTIMONY OF MISS JANE CUMMING, MARCH 28, 1811

When I see invention at work in one quarter, I must be prepared to suspect it in another. Who invented the keyhole story? Was it Charlotte? It is likely that she would have observed that one could not look through a keyhole into the drawing room, since she must have had many occasions to call the mistresses from the drawing room. Would Miss Cumming have had occasion to scrutinize the drawing room door? That is less likely. Very possibly she would not have known that one could not look through a keyhole into the drawing room. I would venture to guess that she invented the story.

And there is evidence of another brilliant invention by her, the curious noise. How does she describe it? Not by any other noise she ever heard. To suit the occasion she invents a noise which she admits she never heard. There was no hesitation in her answer to the question, though she hesitated often and for very long periods in her answers to simpler questions. She at once said that the likest thing she could think of to the noise was putting her finger in a wet bottle. Is that not an absolute lie? “The likest thing”—it was implied in this that she had tried it. But if not, it was mere invention,—an effort of imagination. There is no difficulty to understand what she meant. It is most significant. I believe she is both more knowing and more ignorant than some of us had imagined. She has read or heard a good deal of the intercourse of the sexes. I believe she is ignorant in that she is innocent in her own person, but she has conceived a pretty accurate idea of the act of copulation, and has imagined that it was attended with a wet noise. The chief thing is that this shows invention,—a habit of imagining. She said she heard it even in the next bed. Miss Stirling never heard it; Miss Munro never heard it.

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