How beastly the bourgeois is
especially the male of the species.

Lawrence’s outburst targets what he saw as the smug, conformist moralism of the bourgeoisie—especially as embodied in men who benefit most from its social and sexual codes. The phrasing is deliberately visceral (“beastly”), reversing the bourgeois self-image of refinement and respectability. Read in the context of Lawrence’s broader work, the line expresses his recurring antagonism toward middle-class propriety, mechanized modern life, and the emotional deadening he believed they produced. The gendered sting (“male of the species”) suggests a critique of patriarchal authority and the ways bourgeois masculinity polices desire, art, and spontaneity.