No one has so
acutely described this symbolism as Herrick, often an admirable
psychologist in matters of sexual attractiveness. Especially instructive
in this respect are his poems, "Delight in Disorder," "Upon Julia's
Clothes," and notably "Julia's Petticoat." "A sweet disorder in the
dress," he tells us, "kindles in clothes a wantonness;" it is not on the
garment itself, but on the character of its movement that he insists; on
the "erring lace," the "winning wave" of the "tempestuous petticoat;" he
speaks of the "liquefaction" of clothes, their "brave vibration each way
free," and of Julia's petticoat he remarks with a more specific symbolism
still,
"Sometimes 'twould pant and sigh and heave,
As if to stir it scarce had leave;
But having got it, thereupon,
'Twould make a brave expansion."
In the play of the beloved woman's garment, he sees the whole process of
the central act of sex, with its repressions and expansions, and at the
sight is himself ready to "fall into a swoon."
FOOTNOTES:
[13] G. Stanley Hall, _Adolescence_, vol. ii, p. 113. It will be noted
that the hand does not appear among the parts of the body which are
normally of supreme interest. An interest in the hand is by no means
uncommon (it may be noted, for instance, in the course of History XII in
Appendix B to vol.
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