The Rodiad Explained

The Rodiad is a pornographic poem on the subject of flagellation published by John Camden Hotten in 1871, although falsely dated to 1810. It was falsely ascribed when printed to George Colman the Younger.^[1] Its author was Richard Monckton Milnes.^{[2] [3] [4]} Henderson places it in The Library Illustrative of Social Progress published around 1872 (falsely dated 1777)^[5] but it is not in the list of Henry Spencer Ashbee.^[6]

The Betuliad, a manuscript in the British Library from Ashbee's bequest,^[7] is identical to The Rodiad.^[8] It was known under this title to Sir Richard Burton^[4] who wrote to Milne on 22 January 1860 praising it.^{[9] [10]}

The Canadian author John Glassco repeated the false attribution to Colman and augmented it with an equally fictitious attribution of his own poem Squire Hardman printed in 1967.^[11]

References

• Book: Ashbee, Henry Spencer [Pisanus Fraxi] . Centuria Librorum Absconditorum . privately printed . 1879 . London . 471–4.
• Book: Nelson, James G. . Publisher to the Decadents: Leonard Smithers in the Careers of Beardsley, Wilde, Dowson . Pennsylvania State University Press . 2000 . 0-271-01974-3 .

Notes and References

1. Book: Knight, George Wilson . Neglected powers: essays on nineteenth and twentieth century literature . registration . Routledge . 1971 . 0-7100-6681-3 . 129 .
2. Book: Whyte, Christopher . Gendering the nation: studies in modern Scottish literature . Edinburgh University Press . 1995 . 0-7486-0619-X . 216 .
3. News: Erotic heaven . Andrew . Lycett . 12 March 2001 . .
4. Nelson (2000) p.10
5. Book: Henderson, Andrea K. . Romanticism and the painful pleasures of modern life . 75 . Cambridge studies in Romanticism . . 2008 . 978-0-521-88402-0 . 220 .
6. Book: Ashbee, Henry Spencer . Pisanus Fraxi

   . Index Librorum Prohibitorum: being Notes Bio- Biblio- Icono- graphical and Critical, on Curious and Uncommon Books . London . privately printed . 1877 . Pisanus Fraxi . 241 .

7. British Library, Add MS 38807.
8. 'The Rodiad': Authorship and date . The Book Collector . William White . 29 . 1980 . The Collector Ltd. . 429–430 .
9. Nelson (2000) p.354
10. Book: Godsall, Jon R. . The Tangled Web: A Life of Sir Richard Burton . Troubador Publishing Ltd . 2008 . 978-1-906510-42-8 . 193 .
11. Book: Hammill, Faye . Canada exposed . 20 . Canadian Studies . Pierre . Anctil . Andre . Loiselle . Christopher . Rolfe . Peter Lang . 2009 . 978-90-5201-548-4 . John Glassco, Canadian erotica and the 'Lying Chronicle' . 286 .