1601 (Mark Twain)
[Date: 1601.] Conversation, as it was the Social Fireside, in the Time of the Tudors. or simply 1601 is the title of a humorous work by Mark Twain, first published anonymously in 1880, and finally claimed by Twain in 1906.Written as an extract from the diary of one of Queen Elizabeth's servants, 1601 was, according to Edward Wagenknecht, "the most famous piece of pornography in American literature." It was more ribaldry than pornography, however; its content being more irreverent and vulgar comedic shock, than "obscene" erotica. Nevertheless, in the United States, prior to the court decisions (1959-1966) that legalized the publication of Lady Chatterley's Lover, Tropic of Cancer, and Fanny Hill, the book continued to be considered unprintable, and circulated clandestinely in privately-printed, limited editions. Its characterization as "pornography" would be satirized in 1939 by Franklin J. Meine in the introduction to an edition of the work.
Excerpt
According to the diarist,
The Queen inquires as to the source, and receives various replies. Lady Alice says
From there, the talk proceeds to jokes about "maidenheddes," cod-pieces, bollocks, arses, "tools," and includes three of George Carlin's "Seven Words You Can Never Say On Television."