{"id":106230,"date":"2016-12-29T15:00:22","date_gmt":"2016-12-29T20:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=106230"},"modified":"2016-12-27T11:20:52","modified_gmt":"2016-12-27T16:20:52","slug":"the-hard-on-on-trial-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/12\/29\/the-hard-on-on-trial-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The Hard-on on Trial"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>We\u2019re away until January 3, but we\u2019re reposting some of our favorite pieces from 2016. Enjoy your holiday!<\/em><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_98311\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/davidcrop.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-98311\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-98311\" class=\"wp-image-98311\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/davidcrop.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"476\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/davidcrop.jpg 2592w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/davidcrop-300x238.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/davidcrop-768x609.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/davidcrop-1024x812.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 62.5em) 67vw, 100vw\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-98311\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Grace under pressure. Photo: J\u00f6rg Bittner Unna.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><em>Erectile dysfunction and divorce in prerevolutionary France.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>At face value, Ren\u00e9 de Cordouan was a lucky man: born into French nobility as the Marquis de Langey, rich without effort, pleasant to look at. By generic, century-spanning sort of standards he was a catch, as endearing to unwed Catholics of the early 1600s (those seeking a deep-pocketed partner with bucolic property to share) as to manicured women with manicured nails browsing EliteSingles.com. The actual minutiae of the Marquis de Langey\u2019s appearance remains a mystery\u2014the size of his feet, the straightness of teeth, the presence or absence of dimples\u2014but one part of his anatomy was so meticulously discussed it secured him a minor place in European history. Inside the nobleman\u2019s underpants, between his upper thighs, was an intromittent organ that would be leered at and prodded before a court of law. To put it plainly, in 1657 the Marquis\u2019s penis was subject to public trial.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/05\/18\/the-hard-on-on-trial\/\">Read More &gt;&gt;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Erectile dysfunction and divorce in prerevolutionary France.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":984,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26379],"tags":[12894,22420,865,22413,17022,22414,22419,13353,22416,22415,657,22418,22417],"class_list":["post-106230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-best-of-2016","tag-divorce","tag-erectile-dysfunction","tag-france","tag-french-impotence-trials","tag-french-revolution","tag-impotence","tag-laws","tag-lawyers","tag-madame-de-langey","tag-marquis-de-langey","tag-marriage","tag-sexual-experience","tag-trial-by-congress"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.4 (Yoast SEO v25.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Come Now: The Impotence Trials of Pre-Revolutionary France<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Could you get it up for a jury? Laura Bannister looks at one of the most invasive and bizarre legal exercises in French history.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/12\/29\/the-hard-on-on-trial-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Hard-on on Trial by Laura Bannister\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"December 29, 2016 \u2013 Erectile dysfunction and divorce in prerevolutionary France.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/12\/29\/the-hard-on-on-trial-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-12-29T20:00:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/davidcrop-1024x812.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"812\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Laura Bannister\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Laura Bannister\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/12\/29\/the-hard-on-on-trial-2\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/12\/29\/the-hard-on-on-trial-2\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Laura Bannister\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/85f9a70a7e142eb8c567d9f730069acd\"},\"headline\":\"The Hard-on on Trial\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-12-29T20:00:22+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/12\/29\/the-hard-on-on-trial-2\/\"},\"wordCount\":200,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/12\/29\/the-hard-on-on-trial-2\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/davidcrop.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"divorce\",\"erectile dysfunction\",\"France\",\"French Impotence Trials\",\"French revolution\",\"impotence\",\"laws\",\"lawyers\",\"Madame de Langey\",\"Marquis de Langey\",\"marriage\",\"sexual experience\",\"Trial by Congress\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Best of 2016\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/12\/29\/the-hard-on-on-trial-2\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/12\/29\/the-hard-on-on-trial-2\/\",\"name\":\"Come Now: The Impotence Trials of Pre-Revolutionary France\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/12\/29\/the-hard-on-on-trial-2\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/12\/29\/the-hard-on-on-trial-2\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/davidcrop.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-12-29T20:00:22+00:00\",\"description\":\"Could you get it up for a jury? 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